40K - Fields of Blood NZGT - Another Table

Into the home stretch re the FOB NZGT - it is on this weekend - and another table for the event is finished.

This one is an Imperial City in the final stages of destruction. The buildings are all the original Cityfight buildings on a Gamemat.eu battlemat.

Unfortunately I'm now running out of time to produce more tables. Ideally, I'd like to have three of four more done but there is insufficient time. In the end I will have 10 high quality tables with promises for the balance. I'm pretty sure that it will be the best looking 40k event that's been held in New Zealand and will make sure that I have the camera on hand to capture the action.

40k - Fields of Blood NZ Grand Tournament Trophies

Yesterday afternoon I picked up the trophies for the 2018 FOB NZGT.

One of the things the event has always done is invest in high quality trophies for the winners of the various categories at the event. This year continues that investment. For the major trophy winners, there are A4 sized plaques featuring metal plates on high quality wooden backgrounds. The plaques can be wall mounted or can sit on a table in either your hobby space (or more likely your living room wall!)

Only two weeks away now.

40K - ETC 2019, Novi-Sad Serbia - Expressions of Interest

Posting this to see whether there is anybody interested in being part of a New Zealand Warhammer 40k team to the ETC in 2019.

Next year it is being held in Novi-Sad (about an hour north of Belgrade) in Serbia.

The ETC is the world's biggest teams competition and it is contested between nations. Teams are comprised of 8 players, of which 4 must be from the country under whose flag they compete. that means to enter a team we must have four players either domiciled in New Zealand or who have NZ passport.

Novi-Sad ETC 2014 - Warhammer Fantasy

New Zealand has sent teams to the ETC before, however involvement has been limited to initially WHFB and now more lately, The Ninth Age and Flames of War.

I am interested in putting together a team to participate in the 2019 Warhammer 40k competition. In doing this I would like to assume the role of Non-Playing Captain. I captained and played in the 2014 WHFB team and I believe it is far better to separate playing from captaining.

So do you have any interest? The event occurs the first week of August and with travel, acclimatisation etc it requires at least 10 days out of New Zealand. It will also cost you approx $3000 for travel, accommodation, food and drink - Serbia is quite cheap to holiday.

The other thing to be aware of is regarding expectations. It is no good going thinking we are going to win. We won't. We'll do well to make the Top 20. What we can do is go, participate and be a great opponent. We can also form a base from which future teams can build. What you will get is a fantastic experience where you can participate in a worldwide event and meet and play against gamers from around the world.

So if you want to be a pioneer for NZ Warhammer 40k have a think about whether you'd like to be involved.

Drop me a line on pete@thefieldsofblood.com if you'd like to be involved.

40K - Fields of Blood NZ Grand Tournament Lists

Just over a fortnight until the FoB NZGT here in Wellington and players have submitted their lists.

I have received 61 of the 62 lists. These have been checked and can be found here

It is 1750 points, limited to two Detachments.

Battle makes up 40% of this hobby event while there is a selection score of up to 10%.

This 10% score can be termed "Crimes Against Pete" or "Whiskers on Kittens" depending on your point of view.

40k: The Long War "Massacre" - Results

The third of the Warlords' The Long War events was held on the weekend.

This was a three round 1750 point event that used the missions for the upcoming Fields of Blood NZ Grand Tournament.

Here are the results:

Rank	Player	Army	Total	Battle	Sports
1	Ryan Stuart	Tyranids	57	42	15
2	Sean Sullivan	Dark Eldar	55	40	15
3	Scott Paterson	Tau	54	39	15
4	Dave Hodgetts	Imperium	50	35	15
5	Hagen Kerr	Sister of Battle	46	31	15
6	Sam Nightingale	Imperium	45	30	15
7	Alastair Helm	Tau	40	25	15
7	Bruce Manning	Chaos Space Marines	40	25	15
9	Michael Price	Tau	39	24	15
10	Jordan Green	Death Guard	37	22	15
11	Paul Knieriem	Deathwatch	36	21	15
12	Simon Smith	Adeptus Mechanicus	29	14	15

Best Sport - Paul Knieriem

Best Army - Bruce Manning

Congrats to Ryan on his victory. This was a stunning turnaround from the second TLW event where he finished 12th out of 12.

It was great for me as I got to try out missions from FOB NZGT and iron out any quirks.

The final event of The Long War series will be held at the Warlords on 20 October.

40K - Abandoned Hive City

On the weekend I painted my Abandoned Hive City. This is a destroyed city which has been left to the encroaching jungle. Up until now the Citifight terrain had just been basecoated and drybrushed but I took the opportunity to paint the details and finish the pieces off.

When Sam bailed on our game Sunday - something about being scared of the nasty Dark Eldar - I got to spend the day painting. As well as the Citifight terrain I had some very old resin barricades GW made at the time of release of Citifight (circa 2005) so painted them up. They have the same Manufactorium, Administratum etc pieces incorporated into them.

I've purchased a Gamemat.eu "Swamp" battlemat which is jungle-themed.

The next table will be an urban ruin table.

40K - "Hammerhead Down" Table

As part of the prep for FOB NZGT I am working through my terrain collection and getting them ready for the event.

Each of my terrain sets has its own gamemat and comes in its own plastic storage crate. This means I can have a tailored table which has its own narrative. I'm trying to ensure a certain level of terrain coverage which includes LOS-blocking pieces in each set. The final set will be to add matching scatter terrain.

Here is my "Hammerhead Down" table which goes on Gamemat.eu's Sands of Time Mat. I've had these mdf building from CNC Workshop for 10+ years but decided to revamp them to give them more character. A few hours with the airbrush has achieved this.

40k - Blooding the Field Base

Blooded the Field Base today in a Maelstrom Mission down at the Warlords. My Dark Eldar took on Alastair's Tau in a rematch from Call to Arms.

The Tau went first and inflicted some damage on the DE forward units. However the DE were able to gain the initiative by focusing on the elimination of Fire Warrior units. The game went into Turn 7 and the Dark Eldar were able to score a lot of late game objectives for a clear victory.

However all did not go their way. The Black Heart #2 Archon was brought down in combat by a combination of Fire Warriors and Darkblade. Oh, the ignominy.

40k - ITC Field Base Terrain Finished

Finished another table of terrain for the Fields of Blood NZ Grand Tournament. This time it is the Frontline Gaming ITC terrain I built last week.

Here is a table set up - just needs some scatter terrain to break it up. It is sitting on a Gamemat.eu battlemat.

Pretty happy with the finished result - both attractive and functional.

Weekly Hobby Update

The weekend saw me working on getting the ITC Field Base tabletop-ready.

I use Rustoleum x2 Primer to seal and base coat my MDF buildings. The next stage was an airbrush session where I used one of my old "Master" airbrushes to detail the buildings. I was pretty happy with the colour modulation I achieved. Then yesterday it was onto brush work to do the detailing. I'm at the stage whereby I think I can finish the full set over the next two evenings.

The other thing I have been doing is watching video battle reports. "Tabletop Tactics" and "The Long War" are my two favourites and I'm a supporter of both these channels. I've also bought a subscription to "Deployment Zone" but have a backlog of videos to watch.

Over the next month terrain building will be a key task for me as I seek to get material ready for Fields of Blood NZGT. The key is to build on "a table basis" rather than piece by piece. This allows me to ensure that a table can be themed and that there is sufficient LOS blocking material on each battlefield.