Adepticon Recap #6 - WHFB 1000 Points Events

While the Horus Heresy event was going on Jeff and Monty were meant to be playing in the 1000 point event. Jeff bailed to look around the Con - and importantly stand in the FW line for my HH Collectors Edition - but Monty played and won the event. He subsequently taunted me all weekend but being the well adjusted individual I am, I never rose to the bait.

Here are some pics of the 1000 point armies that were on show:

Beastmen Horde (Note WarGamma Lava Pools in Display)

Skaven (Simple but Effective Paintjob)

Dark Elves (Note Spit Roast in Executioners)

High Elves (Clean, Effective Paintjob)

WoC (You can see the efforts people make on their display)

WoC (This is Rob Phaneuf from Ohiohammer's Army)

The US Loves Their Nurgle

Nice Lizardmen Terrain Pieces

High Elves

Orc & Goblin Army

Close Up of Savages

The underlying thing that you take away from Adepticon is the pride people take in their hobby. While in a lot of cases their panting might not be the greatest everyone makes a real effort to present their army in the best light.This means a nice display base and elevates the entire look of the army. There are some enormously creative people playing the game.

Adepticon Recap #5 - Horus Heresy Event

My only letdown at Adepticon was the Horus Heresy event. While it was great to see the various armies the actual structure of the event was disappointing.

I appreciate that it was a "fun" event and given my total lack of 30k experience and 40k play (in last five years) I had no expectations on doing well. However the scenarios that were chosen meant that for the first two of three games played the winner was decided by die roll for attacker/defender.

In the first game it was impossible for the Attacker to win unless four turns were played as objectives only scored for Defenders unless four turns completed. We played three. I'm willing to give my opponents the benefit of the doubt here that slow play wasn't deliberate

However in the second I'm not so sure. It was a kill point game where defender scored objective point for every unit in the zone 24 to 48" in (short board edge deployment). The attacker only got points for units in the defenders deployment zone and had to deploy at least 12" from defenders. So the shorter the game the better for the Defender

We had three player turns in the game. Defenders went first so we got one turn - total. I'm not sure how people can take over two hours to play two player turns but our opponents did.  Result - Crushing loss.

In the third game I just drove my Spartan into the middle of the board and jumped out. I just wanted to charge something :-)

Over the nine hours playing time my team got a total of 7 player turns.  So while we might have contributed something was broken in the setup

Still the goal for me was to finish my Death Guard and get them on the table. In that I "ACHIEVED". However it didn't make me want to rush out and play large amounts of 40k. I'm keen to play some 30k but hobby driven rather than game driven.

Adepticon Recap #4 - Horus Heresy Armies

On the Thursday we had the Horus Heresy Massacre event where you played in teams with either a 1000 point or 1850 point list. Due to the nature of the scenarios the event was a bit of a flop - asymmetric missions which required full six turns - but the fun was seeing all the cool armies.

My partner used a Night Lords army while I obviously had my Death Guard.

What was great was seeing how much love had been spent in the preparation of each of the armies participating. Here are some pictures of some of the armies on show.

Mechanicum

More Mechanicum

Mixed Legion

World Eaters

Alpha Legion

Salamanders

Night Lords

Death Guard

More Death Guard

Imperial Fists

Alpha Legion

Mechanicum

Ultramarines

Alpha Legion

Mechanicum

Imperial Fists

World Eaters

The Missing FAQs

As you are probably aware Games Workshop revamped their website last weekend. It certainly looks nicer and is easier to use than the previous iteration. However on the various forums and on Twitter a furore has erupted as the FAQs are missing.

All the Tin Hats are out explaining that this is all part of some GW masterplan to further subjugate the rules in favour of the models. In fact I've heard it is all open slather in events now as with the FAQs missing there is no point of reference re previous rulings. To believe some people my beloved Skaven have now lost all the errata they once had.

I suspect that the reality is somewhat difference. In the haste to get the new website "live", someone has forgotten to transfer the FAQs over. I'm sure that they will quietly reappear sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Remember the old adage - "Never ascribe to malice, what you can put down to incompetence."

Oh....and if you need them....I have a copy of the missing PDFs

EDIT: The Missing FAQs have resurfaced here  It is safe to remove tinfoil hat

Adepticon Recap #3 - Brandon Palmer's "Egg"

Each year Brandon Palmer from GMM Studios creates a spectacular display for Adepticon. Last year it was the Kraken attacking an Empire ship.

For this Adepticon Brandon transformed a 70's "Egg" chair into a Tyranid Pod and used it as the backdrop for a Scythes of the Emperor Space Marine army (40k History Lesson - the Scythes were a Successor Chapter that was all but wiped out by the first Tyranid incursion into the galaxy).

Brandon has sculpted the outside of the egg and painted the inside to represent the night sky.

He has then created a display piece evoking 40k imagery to display the army.

Here you can see some of the incredible internal painting he has done on egg.

To me this piece is simply awe-inspiring and encapsulates so much of the rich background that GW have created.

Runefang VII Lists - A Smorgasbord of Delights

Here are the Runefang VII lists.

The threshold was 11.0 and we have lists ranging between 11.1 and 18.4.

One list is missing - Wil Hoverd (Ogres) - as he is on holiday out of the country. Wil will send it through when he arrives back (and we can all trust him not to check out the opposition in the interim).

Dedicated Paint Night

Now that Adepticon is over and  I don't have to paint Death Guard, the pressure isn't on to paint. I have all the necessary rats I need for the ETC so the horizon is clear.

That comes with its own risks. There is a tendency to let the painting fall by the wayside and put the feet up. However that is not going to get things done - and the plastic/metal/resin mountain still exists. To address this I've decided to dedicate two evenings a week to painting.

My plan is to use Tuesday and Thursday evenings as set paint nights. I believe that if I do so I can ensure 6-8 hours painting a week. By having no deadlines I can mix up what I paint and hopefully fill out those armies I have the figures for that are currently unpainted. Hopefully over the course of the year this will diminish the outstanding dramatically. It also provides dedicated podcast time as currently I have a backlog building on my iDevice.

Should I get time over the other weeknight evenings I'm happy to use that to build models or - shock horror - remove mould lines.

So let's how this works out.

Swedish Thoughts

Over the weekend I got reacquainted with Swedish Comp. On Saturday I played Ryan's Warriors and then Mike's High Elves. I also checked the sixteen lists for Runefang (they'll be up tonight).

Originally I tried to play a variant of my ETC Skaven list but soon gave up. My list scores 3.4 and it was proving impossible to get it much above 6. So back to DoC.

Am I The Only One To Feel Like A Vegetable?

What did I get for my 11?

Lord of Change - Exalted Gift and Lesser Gift Level 4 Metal

Herald of Tzeentch - BSB, Level 2 Tzeentch

4x 10 Horrors - Muso & Std

2x 3 Screamers

5 Flesh Hounds - Ambush

3 Flamers

Skullcannon

Burning Chariot of Tzeentch

4 Plague Drones - Standard, Gleaming Pennant

And this is the major flaw with Swedish. This is a strong list but it get a largely unscathed ride with Swedish. Other races e.g. Empire similarly get a soft run. And don't start on Brets. I think it is largely impossible to score less than 13.

Yet try Skaven or Dark Elves and you're buggered. Not hard done by, but prison rape sodomised.

As far as I see all it does is shift goalposts, encouraging you to look for flaws.  My Aussie friends will say that is a skill.....yep just like tax avoidance. Thankfully I don't see accountancy as a leisure time activity.

Two Upcoming Events - SouthCon and Canopenner

Here are brief details on two upcoming Fantasy events being held over the next few months.

SouthCon

June 1st & 2nd in Dunedin.
2400 points
Umpire is Tim Joss (endles@xtra.co.nz)
Comp System TBA

Canopenner

Warhammer Fantasy     --         Warhammer 40K

        1000pts, 5 Games on the day.                           1000pts, 5 Missions, on the day.

Early registrations, $10 until the 20^th of April.

Don’t miss out on a great day of fun, to benefit charity.

register now!

wouster7@hotmail.com

http://aucklandcityguard.freeforums.org/canopener-2014-t704.html

This is the local Clubs annual charity event. So we can all help to fill the cupboards of the Auckland City Mission before the winter months. With association with the Auckland City Guard Club.

Adepticon Recap #2 - WHFB "The Big Brawl"

One of the things that is unique to Adepticon is the number of different competitions there is for each game. This year the Fantasy events kicked off with a 3000 point event "The Big Brawl".

Here are some pics of the armies competing:

Full Slaaneshi Army...Not Something You See Every Day

Absolutely "Filthy" Dark Elves - Yes Those Are Warlock Buses!

Xmas Daemons - I'm Pretty Sure He Won The Event

They Love Their Chaos Dwarfs in the USA - And Yes, Those Are K'Daii Fireborn

Ogres Were A Favourite At 3000 Points

Now That's An Army - From Memory He Won The Championships On The Weekend

Araknophillia?

Vampire Counts - Scream is a Theme!

More Ogres

My Favourite of the Armies - Lovely Chaos Dwarfs. 

Nice to see somebody finally paint lava well

Great Conversions and Great Overall Presence (oh and I bought nine of the lava pools from WarGamma.com)

More Chaos Dwarfs

I Don't Think He Got The Memo Re Bloodletters

That's A Lot of Beastmen

USA...USA....USA!

Another Nice Beastmen Army

Our Scream Friends Return

More Lovely Beastmen

You can see the pride the guys take in the presentation of the army. The use of Display Boards to present the theme is key. 

Certainly it makes for a great visual spectacle.