Earlybird Registration for Horned Rat VII

Earlybird registration for The Horned Rat VII closes on Thursday.

Any regos up to this time are $40 ($10 discount). Later registrations will be at the full price.

Adepticon Recap #8 - Pointhammered Team's Armies

Over the past couple of year's I had heard a lot about the quality of painting of Joe Rodgers and Johnny Hastings who host the Pointhammered Podcast.

Both had one numerous painting awards - e.g. Joe at 2013 SGCT and Johnny at the 2014 US Masters. So them teaming up for the teams event was a great opportunity to admire the quality of their work.

I wasn't disappointed.

 Joe's army is Daemons of Chaos but all the models have been converted into a Cthulhu theme with facial tentacles. Johnny's is a Beast-Ogre army - here they were being used as Ogres.

The quality of painting - especially the blending - on Johnny's army is absolutely staggering. The transitions are flawless. I'll happily say I have not seen another tournament army painted to the same standard as these Beastmen.

The colour palette used is very muted for the skin and furs but the army pops because of the use of the blue cloth on banners and what rags they where.

Joe's army is different again. All the models are converted but a large part of the eye appeal is the use of a pearlescent paint which gives the models a "shimmer". In the background here you can see the Beasts made from Rot Fly bodies. 

At first glance the bases look a bit "meh". But once you look closely you can see the sculpting and painting that has gone into them.

Johnny makes use of a range of models from different races and eras in his army.

The photo doesn't do justice to the subtle shimmer effect Joe has achieved with his army. You start to see the mix of colours on these multi-purpose core.

Simple basing complements Johnny's army. As I said the quality of blending on skin has to be seen to be believed. It is pretty much flawless.

This side-on view hopefully captures some of that.

Here is a side-on of the Daemons. You start to get an appreciation of the effect Joe has achieved.

Prior to the event I was keen to see these two armies and they certainly lived up to expectations. I was surprised they didn't win Best Painted.

Adepticon Recap #7 - The Teams Tournament

The Teams events are probably the highlight of Adepticon - wait for the 40k event pics - and I was looking forward to the armies that showed up.

It appeared that what turned up was a step down on last year but there were still some fantastic armies on show.

Empire & Bretonnians

Empire & Dwarfs

And to complete the set - Bretonnians & Dwarfs

Daemons & Dark Elves

Skaven & Daemons

Lizardmen & Skaven

Warriors & Lizardmen

Warriors & Daemons (Our 1st Round Opponents) 

More Daemons & Warriors

And more.....

For a change....Nah....It's Warriors & Daemons again

Empire & High Elves

I'm Stumped - I see Beasts, Trolls and Drones

Dual Vamps

Warriors & Orcs & Goblins (well Warmachines)

Dwarfs & Empire

And another shot

I've saved the best army (IMO) for a separate post. Check back later for those photos.

Mmmmm....Wood Elves?

On Page 33 of the White Dwarf Weekly #12 there is a teaser for the next issue, due 26 April.

"If you go down to the woods today....you'll be sure of a big surprise"

I'm guessing the rumours are true....watch the wires this week for any photos

"Unacceptable Terrain"

Spiky Bits doing his best impression of "Unacceptable Terrain" during the game between Tom and Sam today.

The Tomb Kings didn't seem to mind but it certainly threw the Daemons off their game.

All attempts to have Nurgle sit at the other end of the table to complete the pair of Sphinxii failed.

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