Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Fields of Blood NZ Rankings Updated for 40k and KoW

The New Zealand Rankings for 40k and Kings of War have been updated for the first events of the new tournament year.

Conquest in Christchurch attracted 47 participant and saw visiting Wellingtonian, Dave Hodgetts continue his winning ways with his Imperial "Soup". Four of the top seven lists were based around Astra Militarum.

The 40k rankings are about to undergo a bit of a tidy up around army classification. At present the number of armies has blown out to around 50. This will be rationalised back to those armies that have their own codex (8th or 7th).

In KoW, Rumble in the Jungle was hosted by Mighty Ape. It was taken out by Chris Burnett using the bane of low De armies, Forces of the Abyss.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the tournament year shapes up over the coming months.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

40k - Let's Help Hugo Out

A couple of months ago I posted about Hugo, the son of local 40k gamer Aaron Twose.

Hugo has cerebal palsy and his family are raising money to give him the opportunity of life-changing surgery.


A fundraiser is being held next month where you can attend the new Star Wars movie and proceeds go to Hugo's surgery.

Dates are 17th and 19th December and details can be found here

It would be really great if the wargaming community could get behind this - because we are all going to see Stars Wars anyway, aren't we?

These would be a great one to take your kids to as I understand that there will be some special visitors from the Death Star.

Monday, November 27, 2017

40k - Masters' Lists - Welcome to the Shark Pool, Fluffy!

The 12 Masters competitors have submitted their lists. You can find them here

 

"He's not your friend Fluffy!"


The breakdown is:

  • Chaos x4
  • Astra Militarium x3
  • Eldar x2
  • Space Marine x1
  • Imperial Soup x1
  • Necron x1
Even in my soft, fluffy, non-competitive eyes there are at least two or three cuddly mammals who are in for a less than tranquil weekend.

The lists support the move to WDL as to win the even you'll have to do more than savage the baby mammals and swim slowly past the other predators.



There will be blood!



Sunday, November 26, 2017

40k - NZ Masters Mission Pack

Here are the missions being used for the 2017 NZ Masters Warhammer 40k event.


The missions have been based on selected cards available in GW's "Open War" pack with a few amendments.

At the Masters the scoring is 10 points for winning the mission, 1 point for drawing.....so wins are paramount while margin of victory is no. Also playing for a draw is not an option.

The tie breaker if people have the same points at end of the event will be combined First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.

Brutal? You betcha.


Monday, November 20, 2017

Adepticon 2018 - Courses Booked

On the weekend tickets for Adepticon 2018 went on sale.

I decided that rather than play in any events I would focus on the hobby seminars and take the opportunity to learn from the professionals. To that end I have booked a series of courses over the four days:

  • The Nurgle Effect
  • How to YouTube
  • Level Up Your Painting
  • Airbrushing 101
  • Blood, Pus, Guts & Gore
  • Hands on Weathering with an Airbrush
  • Liber Metallica
  • Art of Airbrushing - Getting Started
  • Realistic Weathered Stone and Dirt
  • NMM for Beginners
  • Photographing Miniatures
  • The Ultimate Army Speed Painting 101
  • Art of Airbrushing - Finishing Techniques
  • Art of Airbrushing - Large Figures
Most courses are around 2 hours with a few being four hour blocks.

We don't get a lot of hobby courses down here in New Zealand so I think this will be a great opportunity to learn some skills, correct some mistakes etc.

Weekly Hobby Update

Managed to get a bit of hobby done in the past week.

First I finished my sonic dread which I posted pictures on the blog. I've now started on some Daemonettes to summon in support of my EC. These are the Juan Diaz metal models and while a bitch to put together look really nice when painted. Aiming to have 25 painted by the end of the month.

On Wednesday night I had a game of KoW with my Varrangur against Higgins' Greenskins. We battled out a hard fought draw over 6 turns. A rematch is planned for this week.

Saturday saw a game down the club with my Emperor's Children vs. Thomas's Guard. When I say game I mean that I bitched about dice for 2.5 hours.....mine and Thomas's. I managed to pull a totally undeserved draw out of it but Thomas achieved First Blood when he vaporised my Cultists.  Really loving the new 40k game....at worst it gives me a chance to moan about dice rather than my own lack of prowess.

Ordered the trophies for the Masters and they should look very nice.

Yesterday I sat down and wrote up the Mission Pack for the 40k Masters. I've had them checked and they are all consistent so that is a good start. The system and missions are brutal in that it is true W-D-L so no hoping to sneak through on a mix of big wins and draws. The winner will be a true Champion.

Also started checking the lists. I have three in so far (two checked). After some initial probs with Battlescribe I'm starting to get my head around it.

So a busy week with another busy one on the horizon.

Monday, November 13, 2017

40k - Sonic the Dreadnaught

For over 12 years a half painted Emperor's Children Sonic Dread has sat in my cupboard. With new Warhammer, I am working to finish armies I have and "Sonic" now has his moment in the sun.

Originally he was a darker purple but with two GW Citadel Paint ranges since he was started he has now got a lighter hue.


These Dreads are quite hard to get hold of theses days. I was lucky in that I picked up a couple before they were discontinued. "Sonic" has a Blastmaster arm and the FW Chaos Dread CC weapon arm.


The Chaos FAQ gives rules for these vehicles whereby they count as having a twin linked Blastmaster. That gives them plenty of dakka on a mobile firing platform.


I've never been a big fan of Dreads - I had an experience when I lost a tournament game when a Nurgle dread chased off after a gretchin on the last turn of the game rather than sit on an objective - and as a result they were always the last item I painted.


The base is home made - a mix of bark, Vallejo texture and some barbed wire - and finished with some Army Builder tufts.

Nice to have it finished.

Monday, November 6, 2017

40k - A Hard Day's Knight

On Saturday I wandered down to the Warlords with my Emperor's Children warband to try out the "Open War" missions I am looking to use for the NZ Masters next month. I have created a cut down deck using Deployment, Objective and Twist cards to use for the event. The deck removes the asymmetric deployments, some of the objectives and those Twist cards that mess the fundamental underlying characteristics of an army.

I managed to key up John for a game and battle ensued. I had the first turn and by the end of my second turn John only had four models left - unfortunately three of them were Questor Knights! By the end of his second turn, I had lost both my characters, my Terminators, my CC Noise Marines and my Warp Talons. We called it there!


It was a really fun game and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to combat three Knights. I had a plan that on another may have worked. However I also made a lot of mistakes - both tactical and rules wise.

  • John was Imperium - Death to False Emperor applies
  • My CC Noise Marines also have Music of the Apocalypse so make an extra attack (in their case grenade) when they die.
  • Death Hex should be in my Psychic Power arsenal
  • Work on using the Cultists for screening
This was the first time I had ever played a Knight. I'm looking forward to testing my mettle against them again soon.