Nostalgia

So I’m an unashamed fan of the Warhammer universe and I do miss the Old World and ranked combat.

I still have 4 Warhammer armies and occasionally play games of 8th/End Times to whet my appetite for the old game.

This week I got the chance to take on a friend at Warhammer World with my son helping me out. We got lucky and were given a special table to play on looked amazing with all the painted models on show.

It was a daemon and tomb king alliance against some wood elves and although we only got 4 turns in due to a lunch break and much rules looking up, it was great to get back on the table!

Anyway, the result doesn’t matter, but look at all these lovely models!!Thanks for reading!

Solid foundation

Solid foundation


Another tournament blog this time, from a 12-man event held at the Wargamers Den in Gillingham, Kent, last weekend.

I dithered about whether to take Masons or Farmers for weeks - they are my only fully (well, nearly) painted teams - but opted for my Masons again purely because I have more games with them and did get a few practice matches in during the weeks before the event.

I travelled with three other London GB players this time, and all in there were 5 from our meta in the field. Could have made for an awkward car journey home!

My Masons 12 were: Hammer, Honour, Marbles, Brick, Chisel, Vet Chisel, Flint, Granite, Harmony, Vet Harmony, Mallet, Tower

I had wanted to field the new rookie Champ, but she wasn't painted in time so wasn't an option. This time Brick and Harmony made their way back into the 12, with mascot Wrecker and the no-longer allowed Union option of Snakeskin making way for them.

The field was very alchemist heavy - three teams - which is a bad matchup for Masons so I felt Mallet could play a role there with his smashed shins character play perhaps helping to protect against goals.

Round 1: vs Miners

I got the toughest of draws for round one, against multiple tournament winner Michael Coomber. Miners were very strong when they came out, got toned down a bit, but are very much making a resurgence at the moment. I got one practice game into them the week before, but felt this would be a very tough game.

Masons: Hammer, Marbles, Brick, Vet Chisel, Flint, Tower
Miners: Shaft, Digger, Fissure, Mule, Salvo, Spade


I lost the roll and had to kick off, using Flint to boot it. Michael was very smooth with his influence and placement going past in the blink of an eye and had passed the ball along the line before scoring with Spade to go up 4-0.

After kicking out I parked the ball on Flint and beat up Spade a little to set her up for the takeout at the top of turn 2. Going first, I played conservatively (so I thought) and went with Flint first to hit the knocked down Spade a bit and try and keep the Miners away from the ball.

Hammer did take out Spade, but Shaft's legendary allowed him to still get to Flint and score the second goal so the Miners were up 8-2.

This time the kick out scattered badly and went behind my deployment line, meaning I couldn't generate momentum. Tower could move towards it but not recover it, and a returning Spade in turn 3 might be able to score a third goal.

Mule was being a real pain here, knocking over Marbles and preventing his counter charge and generally being very difficult to deal with.

In turn 3 it emerged that Spade was just out of range of trying for the goal, but could recover the ball and kick it back into space hoping for Salvo to pick up. Tower intervened and booted it back towards the Miner lines, but it was still in reach of Salvo, and although I'd knocked down and damaged Shaft by my goal Mule could again knock down Marbles to prevent his counter charge and Salvo could score the third goal.

Final result: 2-12

Post-game thoughts: Bad scatter aside, I was scratching my head at what I could do to stop the Miners. As usual though, after the event I realised when I recovered the ball with Flint and hit the knocked down Spade I should have unsnapped the ball as Shaft could not then reach it. Things to ponder for future games!


Round 2: vs Blacksmiths

This time I was drawn against Ricardo Pequeno, who was one of the London boys in my car down! He had hoped to play Morticians, but forgot half his team and so rolled a dice and it came up Blacksmiths.

The smiths are my second most played team in season 4, so I was fairly comfortable with them and although I lost the roll off Ricky chose to kick so I had the ball at least.

Masons: Hammer, Marbles, Brick, Flint, Granite, Tower
Blacksmiths: Anvil, Sledge, Farris, Iron, Furnace, V Cinder

Furnace and Vet Cinder could be a problem with the searing strike character trait, and Sledge is still a beater extraordinaire despite losing his 2" melee. But with the ball, Hammer is a proper threat so I felt I could get stuck in to the Smiths.

Farris kicked off and I recovered the ball and passed it to Hammer. Eventually Farris was a little over-extended and Hammer passed the ball to Flint, and managed to take her out for 2-0 to the Masons. That gave me the momentum to go first in turn 2 and Hammer then took out Vet Cinder before she could activate for 4-0. Brick was causing a nuisance of himself by knocking down other Blacksmiths and using concussion to remove influence, while Flint hung about with the ball at the back.

In turn 3 Vet Cinder came back on and was promptly surfed by Hammer again for 6-0, and although Marbles was taken out by Sledge, Hammer took out Vet Cinder for a third time in turn 3 and Flint scored a goal to hand the win to the Masons.

Final result: 12-1

Post-game thoughts: Farris was just overextended and isolated in turn 1 which got me a takeout and the momentum and it really just snowballed from there. Granite was really good here as Ricky's apprentices were often TAC3 when attacking and just couldn't do the damage needed to give him momentum and easy takeouts.


Round 3: vs Ratcatchers

Jason Inglin and his Ratcatchers awaited me in the pair down game in round 3. This time I could use my favourite captain Honour, and again I was getting the ball as opponent chose to kick.

Masons: Honour, Marbles, Brick, Chisel, Flint, Granite
Ratcatchers: Piper, Squeak, Bonesaw, Vet Graves, Miasma, Scourge

My opponent kicked off with Piper and he was clearly hoping to nip in, steal the ball and score early. Flint recovered the ball for me and kicked it back to Marbles. I set up the counter charge threat and had the ball on Granite when Piper made his move attacking the monkey first and pushing him away.

I felt there would be an opportunity for Marbles in this game, and it came then as Jason declared Piper's Haunting Melody play (opponent chooses whether Piper makes a jog towards someone, or the other way around) and I chose the Ratcatchers captain to make the jog, which triggered Marbles' counter charge.

Jason wisely defensive stanced his captain, but I could still push him out of range of Granite and this left Piper stranded in front of my team. Honour had earlier given herself superior strategy and used her remaining influence to dodge Marbles back in to Piper and start the damage train.

The remaining ratcatcher team had moved up together, so at the start of turn 2 Honour took out Piper for 2-0 and Chisel was able to take out a fully-stacked Bonesaw before he could activate for 4-0.

It got worse for the ratcatchers as Brick got stuck in to Scourge and removed some of his influence. By turn 3 Piper came back on and was promptly taken out again by Chisel for 6-0, followed shortly after by Vet Graves being removed with full influence by Honour for 8-0.

Brick was taken out by Scourge in reply, but I was able to move Flint up with the ball in range of the goal and go first in turn 4 to secure the win.

Final result: 12-2

Post-game thoughts: A brutal game for the Ratcatchers in the end, I think I removed players with 10 influence on them and they were always on the back foot. Honour is boss, simples!


As it turned out it was only a three round event, due to the third player who was on 2-0 losing in round 3.

I finished in 5th place (I think) and was awarded best painted, but returned the prize as I didn't paint my Masons - apart from their goal token. A fun event, nice to get some tournament games in! Masons will be parked again, going to stick to Farmers and Navigators for a bit to learn them properly.

Thanks for reading.

Strategies and schemes

Hey folks.

So it appears I’ve picked up (yet) another new game thanks to the good folks at Welwyn Wargamers, in the fashion of Malifaux.

Now I’ve been interested in the game for a long time, but until recently I didn’t know anyone local who played it.

With the new third edition of the rules and several members of the club having a crew or several, now seemed a good time to try it out.

As usual with a new game I like to look at the various factions and the models specifically and decide what appeals to me most.

In the case of Malifaux, that was the Neverborn. I had no idea how the game was played, apart from that no dice were used and there seemed to be a vast model collection, so I put in a preorder a while back.

Wyrd who make the game seem to ha e been having lots of distribution problems and so it took me a while to get the stuff I’d preordered. I’m still waiting for the rulebook and my faction book, but still.

I do have a Marcus crew though now. Here they are in their grey plastic glory:

I played my first game a couple of weeks ago, losing 4-2 to a guild crew in a Turf War strategy game. It was pretty fun, albeit I had no idea what I was doing, but I did enjoy the strategy within the game as you pick your crew and the mini-missions you need to try and win.

In the meantime I’ve picked up a few more models to give me some options in future games - a Grootslang (snakey type critter), some Will O’ the Wisps (sneaky little dudes for grabbing objectives) and some Corrupted Hounds (more of the same). My crew is about mutations and speed, and the boss man Marcus sets all that up so hopefully as I play a few games I’ll start to learn some strategies etc.

This month I painted up another two of my Guild Ball Butchers - Tenderiser (my favourite model in the guild) and Brisket. Will hopefully have another 2 done at least this month, but we shall see.

Here there are. Pretty happy with how the team looks so far, but only 3 players finished.

Finally I've been working a bit more on my tyranids. No pictures yet but am part way through painting up three Hive Guard models and a Broodlord.

By the time they're done, I have one more model to build and paint to complete my initial 750pt list. Small steps, but the vast majority of the troop core is already done for bigger armies etc.

Thanks for reading!!

Path to Glory

It’s been a while since my last post, which doesn’t necessarily reflect my hobby progress, rather than a lack of completed projects.

Over @welwynwargamers I’m running an AoS Path to Glory campaign which has enticed 15 players to join. I’ve only played one game of AoS myself, and I’ve always wanted an orc army.

So I took the plunge with Bonesplitterz. So many models to paint...

Here they are so far! The starting force - a Wurrgog Prophet, 2 x 5 boar boys, 1 x 10 savage orruks and 1 x 10 savage orruk arrowboys are all done.

The clan will get their first run out tomorrow (2nd) which should be interesting.

The campaign itself has been going well, a decent mix of battle tomes and some entertaining scenarios. No idea how my boys will fare, but that’s not the point anyway!

In other hobby news I’ve been acquiring more Guild Ball guilds - Morticians, Engineers and ratcatchers. I’ve nearly got the lot, but then you knew that would happen 😀

I’ve also picked up Magore’s Fiends for Underworlds thanks to a prize voucher won by my halfings. That gives me three of the bands with associated decks which is plenty for me to be going on with.

That’s about it. Will try and post a bit more frequently, GB butchers and some Hive Guard next on the painting table!!

Thanks for reading 

UK Games Expo!

After a last minute decision, a trip to the UK Games Expo at the NEC was on the cards! It was a very much last minute thing, as we decided to go at around 5pm for the following morning.

My son Jamie was coming along, and good friend Wulfyn was also easily persuaded. An hour and a bit in the car and we were there with all the other nerds.

I hadn't been to the UKGE before, and it was pretty intense and busy. So many games that looked fun to play and so little time!

We bumped in to several Blood Bowl tournament friends, played a few games and spent plenty of money on new things. Really recommend it, but perhaps it's a 2 day thing as it did get a bit overwhelming for all of us at times.

I came back with a decent haul of goodies, look forward to playing some of these soon!

Hobby progress

Short update on what I've been up to during May. Not a lot it seems, despite best laid plans.

I did manage to finish another 12 termagants for my tyranid swarm. Now have 40 models done, and another 8 genestealers well on their way.

Next I finally finished off one of my Guild Ball Butchers team - Shank.

I've had these on the painting table for months and months to be honest. I finished their bases ages ago, but as they are really popular in the game at the moment I kind of lost motivation to get them done.

There's lots more of the guild to go, but I'm aiming to paint up Brisket and Tenderiser next.

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!