6th Annual NZ Masters Results

The 6th Annual NZ Masters were recently held in Hamilton and run by Rob Shirley.

This was the 4th time that Flames of War have been included while both 40k and Fantasy have been there since the inception.

Here are the 40k results:

Well done to Haydn Korach for winning his first Masters. He just edged Charlie St. Clair who would have secured a fourth crown.

In Flames of War the results were as follows:

Congratulations to Michael on his first Masters title. The tiebreaker between 2nd and 3rd was the result of their game, won by Paul. The event this year was run using Early War armies.

The 7th Annual NZ Masters will be held in Wellington the first weekend of December 2014, organised by myself.

Skaven at the Masters

This weekend I attended the NZ Masters in Hamilton. This was the sixth running of the event and my fourth appearance (I qualified for the first two but ended up umpiring the event). The field for this weekend’s event was the best ranked of any of the six tournaments so far – ten of the Top 12, last year’s winner and #15.

When I saw the field I tried to work out what the make up of race selection for the field would be. The only surprises (for me) were Locky (I didn't know what he’d take), James Brown (I thought he’d take Ogres) and Rory (I thought Vampires). I was pleasantly surprised when I got these incorrect (vampires being a hard match for the two armies I was considering).

My initial selection was the Daemons I've been using recently but I shelved them when I considered the potential for cannons and poison. That proved a good choice and so I fell back on Skaven, generally my army of choice.

The list I took was modified to reflect what I thought I would be facing and I likened it to a Swiss army Knife with a tool for every job.

Seer – General, Bell, Earthing Rod, Skalm, Dragonbane Gem

Chieftain – BSB, Standard of Discipline

Engineer – Level 2, Doomrocket, Condenser

Engineer – Level 1, Ruby Ring, Dispel Scroll

Engineer – Brass Orb

Assassin – Weeping Blades, Potion of Strength

30 Clanrats – Full command

22 Stormvermin – Muso, Standard, Storm Banner

40 Slaves – Champ, Muso

40 Slaves – Muso

40 Slaves – Muso

6 Gutter Runners – Slings, Poison

6 Gutter Runners – Slings, Poison

Doomwheel

Hellpit Abomination

Warplightning Cannon

The list has more toys than I’d normally like – I've never been a big user of the Orb – but it gave me an option in most circumstances. Critically it gave points up sparingly and was risk averse in that I took the Rod over my more usual Power Scroll.

So how did it go?

NZ Masters 2013 - WHFB Results

The 6th Annual NZ Masters were run in Hamilton over the weekend. Six rounds with 2400 point armies using rulebook scenarios.

The results were as follows:

 *Unfortunately Ross was taken ill after Round 4 and did not play the final two rounds

Best Sport: Richard Barby

Best Painted: Sam Whitt

Here also is the breakdown of the highest scorers Day One and Day Two

Thanks to Rob Shirley and his team for organising the event.

NZ Masters Round-up - Fantasy

Just looking at the current Rankings for Fantasy, it looks like a score of 225+ will be required to ensure that you get an automatic invitation to the Masters - that is be ranked in the Top 11.

Most of the current Top 10 have three 2013 season results which means that their ranking score can only improve. Certainly 9 of the Top 11 will score at least 218 points come 31 October.

So if you are aiming for the Masters you'll need to attend events to get that score above 225.

Coming up we have:

Panzershreck (closed) - Palmerston North
Call to Arms - Wellington
Warpfire - Wellington
NerdyCon - Auckland
Tauranga Open - Tauranga
CavCon - Christchurch
Skitterleap - Wellington

NZ Masters Event Information

One of my aims with the Masters is to have it in different centres. In 2011 the event was run by Phil Wu in Auckland and this year Rob Shirley from Hamilton is running the event. 

Rob has sent out the first event information for the 2013 Masters and you can download it here

Thanks to Rob for getting this information out so early in the piece, it makes planning for travel and accommodation much easier for participants.

I will post further updates as they are released.

The Race for the Masters - Fantasy

Thought it was worth looking at this year's race for the Masters given we are two-thirds of the way through the tournament season.

Tom Dunn - 2012 winner and automatic qualifier. Hasn't played a singles event since the Masters as he hibernates in a uni hostel.

Tim Joss - currently #1 and is absolute certainty to qualify. Worse case score sees him finish on 255 points. He is away at the ETC but has banked points early to qualify.

Dan Butler - the big man broke his duck at Nicon, unfortunately no ranking points were up for grabs. Worst case he'll finish on his current score. Certainty.

Sam Whitt - also has banked points early and the worse he can score is 237. Will make the Masters and is building WoC so he can join three quarters of the field at this year's event.

Ross Hillier-Jones - looking shaky. Needs one, possibly two good results to ensure his place at this year's event. Has sold his current WoC army to build a harder one.

Mal Patel - has 230 points locked in which will be enough to get him a dance. May snag a southern event to improve his score nearer the cutoff.

James Brown - score drops to 205 when 2012 events drop out. James will, even now, be scouring forums looking for events in small provincial towns. So if you are a gamer in Te Kuiti, Opotiki or the like expect to see him on your doorstep soon.

Joel van de Ven-Long - will drop to 210 when non-2013 events drop out. I suspect this will be the benchmark and he'll scrape in.

Wil Hoverd - needs one more result to replace last year's Skitterleap. Pretty sure he'll get it and hold onto the Ogre icon he has made his own.

Thomas van Roekel - worst score he can get is his current 218 and change. History says that he'll qualify with that but is out of the country so it will be purely academic. Still three years qualification in a row is great effort.

Locky Reid - needs one more result so expect to see the weekend away in Christchurch at Labour Weekend.

Jeff Kent - worst he can get is 206 but this may not be enough. Obviously is mighty concerned as he has spent a student's yearly allowance on buying a WoC army to give him the edge that 150 shots fail to do. Unfortunately for Jeff it may be all in vain and he'll have to content himself with "Miss Congeniality" and the newest Taylor Swift album.

Below these worthies, a school of sharks circle and with at least 10 events still to play out there is ample time for blood in the water.

Australian Masters Changes

The Australians are going through the process of looking at qualification for their Masters for 2013. Ex-Pat New Zealander has taken over the running of the Masters for this year and has published his criteria.

Three areas of departure from recent years:

1. Removal of auto invite for highest representative from each State
2. Introduction of entry for any winner of 50+ player event regardless of ranking
3. Removal of invite to top ranked NZ player

Of these I think that the first two are retrograde steps. Why? Well, with regard to state representation, the size of Tasmanian and Western Australian events, in particular, is unlikely to see anybody qualify without extensive travel. I think that having their presence at the event fosters the wider community.

The second change is also, IMO, a backward step. For me the Masters (and Rankings) has always been to reward tournament participation. Therefore it requires a commitment to four (three in NZ) events over the year. Inclusion of someone who has played a single event at the expense of someone who has attended four and ranked highly would be wrong (again my opinion).

As to the last point, I personally don't see the rationale for the invite - apart from historical reasons - especially given that there has been virtually no NZ-domiciled attendance at Australian events in the past two years. However that is very much a personal opinion and I appreciate that others will have differing views.

Here's what I said on WargamerAU as to why I didn't attend the 2012 Australian Masters after receiving an invite:

I received the invite for NZ player for 2012. I chose not to attend for a couple of reasons:

1. It was scheduled for the same weekend as the NZ Masters for which I was TO

2. The NZ and Australian scenes have diverged markedly in the past 2 years, most notably in Comp. Subjective comp is unheard of here in NZ over the past 18 months with a Hard Cap comp being the norm. This is also lighter comp than what appears to be the norm in Australian circles.

3. The inclusion of the Army Swap rounds.

So these were all personal decisions by me as an individual rather than by the "NZ Scene". 

Other individuals might have different motivations.

In addition to this, I think the New Zealand scene stands on its own. Our Masters are as keenly fought as any similar event, including the Australian Masters.

My preference would be to see an event where the top 6 ranked players in each country played their equivalent over 6 rounds over a weekend. This could be done early the following year with the venue alternating between countries. However the Oz Fantasy scene seems to have become a little insular and I suspect few would travel to NZ to play.

Major Change to RHQ Rankings Site

Overnight some of you would have been advised by RHQ that they are changing the way they do the rankings.

 Previously they have been a free service funded by the ad revenue at the website. This is now going to change.

 From April 1, the service will now no longer be free for users. There are two ways that it can be paid for. Firstly, an affiliate (effectively sponsor) can pay to provide the service.For example Battlefoam is paying for 40k rankings in the USA, UK and Oz. The second option is that individuals will have to be to register and be ranked. This is slated to cost each individual USD $12.00 per annum. If you do not pay your ranking score will not be published.

This is a real shame.

Up until 2009 I ran the NZ rankings on a spreadsheet using the same formula as RHQ. It was a bit of work but it ensured that we had our own rankings. And it was free. RHQ offered to take it over in 2010 and have maintained it ever since. I don't think that there is much potential for a Sponsor to come through for New Zealand. I might be wrong and if anyone knows one that would be good to hear about. That means if we want RHQ to continue to maintain NZ Rankings it will need to be funded by the community.

I believe that the individual funding option is doomed to fail as unless there is a critical mass then the rankings will be meaningless and lose what ever initial support they have over time. This means that the way forward - in an RHQ world - for NZ might be through crowdfunding.

I have asked Andrew Galea how much RHQ would require to maintain the 40k/Fantasy rankings for NZ and if the some was reasonable I would seek to crowd fund it through Fields of Blood. If there was enough local support to continue RHQ based rankings then it would be up to local gamers to fund it.

If, for whatever reason, the RHQ route wasn't viable, I would seek a local solution to maintaining NZ rankings for 40k and Fantasy. As the total number of events in NZ GW games was less than 30 last year (Fantasy 17, 40k 11), it would not be too hard to go back to a local solution - be it blog or website based. Obviously it would not necessarily have all the bells and whistles of RHQ but it would at least be "ours".

I'll let you know when I hear back from RHQ.

2013 Rankings Change

I've noticed that RHQ have made a change to their rankings for 2013. In the past the rankings have been "Opt Out" where you were automatically included unless you actually asked not to have a ranking published.

However for 2013 this has changed to "Opt In". So what does this mean?

Well to be included in the rankings you need to register with RHQ. If you do not register your results will still be included in determine ranking points but you will not be assigned the points and consequently won't get a Ranking. RHQ have taken out those who have not registered with them as at Jan 1 so you have some people drop out - notably Masters participants Mike King and Raymond Dick.

As all the data is still there all anyone who has dropped out has to do is register and their Ranking will be restored. Alternatively if you want to still play events but not be ranked then the default "Opt Out" is there. Either don't register or if you have then ask RHQ to exclude you from the rankings table

Impact of Teams Events on UK Rankings and Masters

The UK Masters invites come out later this week and I am very interested to see what the reaction will be when some players realise that they have missed out on their place due to the inclusion of Team events into the rankings.

My back of the envelope calculations show that ten of the Top 20 ranked players have Teams events in their best four scores. You can determine the impact of this by replacing the Team Event with the next best Singles event score. The impact ranges from -5 RPs to a whopping -80 RPs in one case for those ten aspirants. Five of the Top 20 would lose in excess of 35 RPs once these team events are disregarded.

Given the gap between 16th place and 30th place is less than 17 RPs and also that the aspirant currently in the Top 16 would fall to 78th in the Rankings if Team Events disregarded, I can see some unhappy teddy bears.

And that is the reason why Team Events are not included in Masters invites here in NZ.

Guest Post - Peter Willamson's High Elves

Given that Peter Williamson astounded a lot of people with his success at the Masters with his High elves, I thought that it would be great to get some insight into his thoughts in putting together and playing his list.

I really appreciate him taking the time to put together his analysis. Enjoy!

Peter Williamson's High Elves - The Susan Boyle of Warhammer

Introduction


I have been asked to provide some comments on the design of my list. So here is what goes through my head when I design a list and some specific comments about my High Elf List. Lets hope this didn’t devolve into a rant.

General list building

I think of a list as a tool box, overall it does everything sufficiently. Maybe it doesn’t deal with one thing overly well but, it deals with armour, swarms of cheap infantry, monsters, enemy chaff, monstrous cavalry/infantry, buses of different forms, choppy characters and so on… Since there are so many different armies each with multiple builds it is important to be able to deal with as much as possible.

All armies are about delivering the right unit(s) into the right opponent. If you do that much then to be honest, you’ve probably already won. I try to write lists that have many fast elements so that you can do long charges when needed. They also allow for counter charges over a greater distance. I also include fast chaff to get in the way once the battle has started, helping stall the enemy from doing anything that I don’t want them to. It should also contain enough deployment drops to allow you to basically out-deploy your opponent (Deployment is honestly half the battle.)

The deceptive thing about my armies is that they actually look like armies you can beat. They promote people to play aggressively and seek combat. Combat is where battles are won big, rarely are people shot off the battlefield. If you don’t engage then it usually becomes a piece trade and nobody in reality wins. I include some shooting or ranged attacks as this sucks people into range so once again I can get the combat that I would like.

The list

So what’s the trick with the list? Well to be honest there is no trick, its all solid play and the list basically covers all match ups better than one would think. It’s a list that suits my play style that gives me as many options as possible with dealing with multiple circumstances that can and do arise during games. Each unit can fulfil a multitude of roles in the army, for instance Dragon Princes, Can be used to hit hard into a unit that won’t be steadfast, Keep Chaff at bay due to its speed, Hit a flank whilst another unit go in the front (Once again due to speed), Snipe a Mage from a unit with 4 Strength 5 re-rollable hits and so on.... I could go on about all the units in my army but I think you get the picture.

This list also has sufficient magic and shooting. Magic and shooting forces people’s hands. People don’t like losing troops and they often feel that they need to make amends for losing such troops, thus forcing them to play aggressive which often will lead to mistakes in game. It also doesn’t go overboard on the above either. 6 spells is actually 1 spell too many for even low casting high magic. Most magic phases in any army are likely to cast more than 3 spells. Spending more on magic levels just to get extra flexibility can be good but I would rather pick a lore where nearly all spells have a use.

The list is built around having many elements that work in sync together, but also interdependently in a way so that even as I start to lose my army, it should still work to some effect. There is no real crutch piece to it. Some would argue the white lions are but choppy characters, chariots, dragon princes can pick up the slack. Also when I lose a unit, it’s not the end of the world on points front. There is no Key unit that all my points are in. Points are so evenly spread that I don’t have to worry about sacrificing any part of my army, if it will serve a greater cause.

Deployment generally means the unit with the gleaming pennant is deployed wide, with a chariot. This means that enemies cannot form a straight line in order to face me, meaning a broken line allowing flanks to be exposed. Spears are actually not bad troops and when there is a flank. It will beat the best of foes. Chariots also help spears in combat allowing them to become a threat that cannot be ignored (remember chariots only need a corner to do max damage). Also Tip: Advance first turn as much as possible to put pressure on your opponent, but not to leave yourself open. You can always back up.

What could I do to make the list harder?

High Elves in general are a race that does not take punishment. Speed is key to their success. Speed not only involves the movement phase, but that of the combat phase. One could comment that my list lacks any staying power. Partly true, however, I never intend to stay in combat more than 1-2 rounds. If I am its generally because I’m doing something wrong.

Larger unit of white lions? It doesn’t achieve anything other than painting a target on their head to either avoid for now and take the rest of the army, or to overwhelm now while there are less supporting troops around. The number I chose actually all gets to attack in a 8 x 2 formation and puts the boot in fairly badly.

More shooting? Shooting doesn’t win games, Combat does! Shooting is more of annoyance than anything. A good player can hide the vulnerable pieces and only expose them when needed. If you do somehow manage to take a unit out, then usually the amount spent far exceeds what that unit was worth. So does a heavy shooting list actually achieve much, since once combat happens they become easy points.

More Magic or different lore (shadow)? My magic was actually one of the strongest at the tournament. I was casting many spells in my magic phase. On average 4 per magic phase no matter what the roll was. I don’t actually like shadow, because in short you become reliant upon it. What happens if you don’t get mind razor or any of the debuffs off… you just entered a really unfavourable combat. Generally speaking it has nothing to draw out a scroll early so the above is quite common. The lore chosen complements the list with its combination of magic missiles, buffs and debuffs and range. Again though, the army is not reliant on it to work.

Less Free points? To be honest there are no free points in my list. I can easily protect most of my points, the only points that are vulnerable are Eagles, Chariots, Bolt Throwers. To be fair it would take some extreme shooting to remove all these elements throughout the game and not lose anything in return. Remember folks you often have to lose points in order to make more…

Feel free to make comments, even if it’s to say… Mate your Dreaming.

Masters 2012 Report Pt 4 (the finale!)

Right, better get on into it then!

In the build up to the final round, Daniel Hayden looked to be pulling a big upset and was in the process of destroying Pascal in Kill points. This was setting things up nicely for an epic finale, as this would have put me 16-17 points ahead of him, meaning if he could produce a big win against me he would slap me down and walk away with the whole thing. 

Clearly Dan's Flyrants were about to gift him the tournament...

Alas Daniel did what Daniel does best, and threw it all away at the most crucial moment, drawing to Pascal 6-7. This meant that mathematically, I could have spent the next 2 hours punching Daniel in the balls for a max sports hit, then gotten tabled, and would still be winning the event. However, that did not make the event a dead rubber, and we both went into the round hungry for a win; Daniel aiming to secure second place and prove a point, while I'm a colossal jerk and wasn't going to let anyone get a win against me if I could help it.

Onto round 7 then... Battle of the pregnant flying dinosaurs in space!

Any caption at this point would be redundant really.

 Round 7: Daniel Hayden
Mission: Purge The Alien
Deployment: Dawn of War

This was set up to be the round of the event. Dan had what I felt was
the most competitive list, and the best chance of winning going into
the tournament. Right up until the final dice roll of his round 6
game, it looked like this round would decide the event. Unfortunately
for Dave, an earlier draw against Haydn and now a draw against Pascal
meant he would be scrapping it out for 2nd.

Dan had 2 flyrants with 2 powers, 3 tervigons with 3 powers and all
the usual upgrades, 3 squads of gaunts to make them scoring and 4 hive
guard.

It's a dance party with psychic powers for music!

Dan won the roll for first turn, and gave it to me. Having looked at
how his army worked, it seemed like he would be hinging his gameplan
on enfeebling wraiths, and shooting them with the flyrants. Giving me
first turn was an effort to bring me inside enfeebles 24inch range at
the start of the game. Especially as every single MC in his army
rolled enfeeble, and 2 of them rolled Iron Arm as well!

I deployed as if I intended to push everything right down his throat,
and Dan deployed to match it, with gaunts and tervigons up front to
punish any t3 wraiths foolish enough to assault them. His flyrants
deployed at the rear to be outside of any t1 nastyness.


Turn 1 - me: I immediately moved my wraiths backwards and to one side,
turning my central deployment into a refused flank, and forcing him to
now come to me wading through 4+ turns of shooting before he would
reach me in piecemeal. My annihilation barges moved into range of the
iron arm tervigon, and once the whole army had shot, it was dead.

Turn 1 – Dan: Dan was now forced to come in, or risk continuously
bleeding killpoints. 2 tervigons spawned, with one having a wee
accident and clamming up. One flyrant iron-armed to t9, but did not
fully commit in pushing forward. The other had endurance cast on it
and pushed centrally.

Hive guard pen’d an annihilation barge, so the flyrant then blew up
its now AV11.

That jerk Flyrant did this to my poor vehicle.

Turn 2 – Me: Both flyers came in. Meanwhile the wraiths continued to
move backwards and sideways to be out of range of any enfeebling
rather than the 1 flyrant who was now target alpha. The first flyer
shot at him, doing 2 wounds, and grounding him, which did a 3rd wound.
Everything else then shot him, and did nothing, until the cheeky gun
on the bottom of the command barge took his final wound.

The warrior squads from reserve shot up a depleted termagant squad
that had suffered from the first ones death, and wiped it out.

Turn 2 – Dan: Dan pushed the second flyrant up into the same spot, and
a tervigon assaulted the command barge. Gaunts advanced up my right
flank, which was totally empty now, so were making the hard hike over
to me. Hive guard managed to pen the command barge, so the flyrant
again blew it up with his devourers. The tervigon charged him, but
promptly failed his mindshackle scarab test and was reduced to 4
wounds. A horde of gaunts were also in this assault, but a challenge
was protecting the lord from their attacks.

Turn 3 – Me: I pushed a wraith squad into these gaunts, while
everything else shot the other flyrant to death. As this turn I would
now have too big a lead, I pushed both other wraith units forward to
keep pressure on, knowning I would lose 1 but mop up the rest of the
game in the process. In the combat, the wraiths wiped the gaunts out,
but after passing his mindshackle test the tervigon hulk-smashed my
lord to death for only 2 more wounds in return.

Lest we forget....

Turn 3 - Dan: The last free tervigon enfeebles the nearest wraith
squad, spits out its last unit of gaunts with the last getting trapped
until an emergency C-Section can be performed, shoots the wraiths with
2 units of gaunts helping, before 1 unit and the tervigon make it into
assault. A couple of gaunts are killed, and a wound is pulled off the
tervigon, but the wraiths are reduced to just 1 wound.
In the other combat, the wraiths finished the tervigon that had killed
the lord, who got a big consolidate.

Turn 4 - Me: One unit of hiveguard are shot to death, and 9/10 gaunts
are killed in another unit, while the wraith unit that had killed a
tervigon multi assault another gaunt unit's remnants and the last of
the hive guard, wiping both out.
The fresh wraith squad assaults the gaunts who are locked with a
single wounded wraith and tervigon, wiping out the gaunts while the
tervigon suffers another wound dropping to 4.

Turn 4 - Dan: Dan now has a wounded tervigon in combat, a single gaunt
who has gone to ground, and a 9 man unit of gaunts pushing for my
deployment zone for linebreaker, successfully passing their
instinctive behavior roll in the process, so the turn is fairly quick.
The wraiths strip another 2 wounds for no loss.

Turn 5 - Me: The wraiths who beat up the hive guard breakdance in Dans
deployment zone, the 2 flyers force a moral check on the gaunts
closing in on my deployment zone, causing them to run, and the
tervigon is finished off along with the solo gaunt.

Turn 5 - Dan: Dan passes the rally check and heads back into my
deployment zone for line breaker, and the game finishes at 12-4 kill
points.

Win - 15
First Blood - 1, Tervigon
Line Breaker - 1, A Wraith unit
Slay The Warlord - 1-1, Flyrant, Necron Overlord

Dan had played fantastically to get to this point, and had 2nd place
locked in very tightly. In another mission where pulling back like I
did would mean giving the entire board control over to him, the game I
felt would have been a lot closer. Unfortunately as it stood, the game
was able to play out extremely one sided due to my significantly
better mobility, range, and decision to not just shovel units into
hungry open tyranid mouths.

I must say it was fantastic to see his tyranid list do so well all
weekend long, both in terms of further game development and variety,
and in terms of Dans development as a player. Dan has always had a
wealth of potential, just lacking enough polish to pull through some
of the higher pressure situations. With every event he seems to get
better and better, and seems to have improved greatly since the ATC
experience, which was the main aim in bringing him in the first place.
I look forward to seeing him stomp sucka's over the next tournament
season.

So, that was it! The masters for another year. When the dust had settled, the 2 people I brought with me to the ATC rounded out 2nd and 3rd places - which felt vindicating, and after a year of being separated from my precious I was able to reclaim the trophy and take out first place.

Awww yeahh!

I must admit going into the game I had had basically zero time to prepare, so felt pretty down on my chances, hoping on a few theories and a basic understanding from reading the book a few times without getting to put any of it into practice. As such, I had already resigned myself to finishing a little lower in the pecking order; staying competitive throughout the weekend actually came as quite a surprise for me!

Over the weekend I'll see if I can get some pics of my army up, as it's changed a fair bit since the last time I posted.
Until then!

Skaven at the Masters - Part Three

Sitting on 42 points out of 80 with two rounds to go I needed to score some points……fast.


Game Five – Tim Joss (Tomb Kings) – Watchtower

Over the weekend Tim had been telling people that he felt that his Tomb Kings had the measure of my rats so I was keen to see how this game would go. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the scenario as I felt that I certainly had the tools to remove the Tomb Guard from the tower if they ever got ensconced. If they didn’t I also felt I knew enough to work over the TKs to get sufficient points to win whether or not I held the tower.

Tim’s list has two key point sinks – 450 points plus character in Tomb Guard and 400 points in Necropolis Knights – and to get a significant win both of them have to be “harvested”. That, along with destroying his warmachines, was my key strategy.

The Early Rat Gets The Bone

Tim won the roll-off for the Tower but chose not to put anything in the building. My deployment was heavily concentrated towards the centre while Tim’s was more spreadout but along his baseline.

I went first and killed one catapult with a WLC shot. I was able to start the whittling away of Tim’s TG unit through magic – warp Lightning and Scorch – and shooting, Ratapult. This was to be my mode of attack for the game. On Tim’s first turn the Storm Banner went up and eventually stayed up for three player turns.

The Doomwheel and the WLC start to work on the Necropolis Knights and eventually these were reduced to a single wound. At this point Tim threw them into some Slaves. The last Knight won the first round but lost the second round.

I stopped Tim’s first “Light of Death” attack from the Casket which was targeted at my warmachines – burning a scroll to do so. In my second turn, the Bell rang Defeaning Peals (24% chance on three dice) which inflicted D3 wounds on any T7 units. It put wounds on the remaining catapult and Necrosphinx but importantly destroyed the Casket.

The HPA went down in one shot to the remaining (and now re-healed) SSC and a unit of Gutter Runners took out two small units of archers before being panicked off the board.

As we moved into the last turns I managed to get the last of the TG as the Prince abandoned them for the safety of the Hierophant’s unit. At the same turn I moved up the Gutter Runners and they occupied the tower. Tim said that he felt this was a mistake but I was worried that Necrosphinx would charge the tower last turn and felt poisoned attacks were a better dissuader.

In the last turn, Tim approached the tower to shoot the Gutter Runners out. I stopped Smiting and knew that as long as I made a Ld test of 8 with re-roll I would get the 600 points for the tower. Tim managed to shoot four but they held and won the scenario.

I felt I had the right tactics for the matchup and a plan that would allow me to get the big win I needed. In the end I lost 412 VPs to get a 1392 VP victory.

Win 17-3 (1804 VPs earned)

Interestingly, this left Tim and I equal in 4th Place on 59 points going into the last round. Tom was on 72 points, Rory on 70 and Peter Williamson on 63. Tom had played the others in the top 5 so was drawn against Antony’s Brets and with Rory playing Peter, Tim and I were drawn against Mike’s Lizards and Raymond’s Beastmen respectively.

Game 6 – Raymond Dick (Beastmen) – Battleline

Raymond had a flying Doombull and I knew that if I could ensure that this fellow never got into contact then I was likely to be okay. I believed I had the magic and firepower to target his Bestigor and big Gor unit and get the win.

My first turn shooting whittled away the Bestigor and when Ray’s Great Bray Shaman miscast killing several more they were very vulnerable. He managed a joint charge on my Doomwheel with Razorgor and Chariot but was one wound short of making me make a Ld 5 (with reroll) break test. In the second turn the Bestigor became rats, panicking the Gor who fled towards the side edge.

Last Picture of Stormvermin Raising The Storm Banner

With a mix of initially the Storm Banner and then Howling Warpgale I was able to ensure that a Doombull “No Fly zone” was in place until Turn 5. He then picked up my Warp Lightning Cannon who had been sniping him all game – one 4+ Ward Save and one single wound – Grrrrr.

The rest of the Skaven army did what it does and picked up the rest of his points, isolating units and picking them off.

In the end I had lost only the WLC for a maximum win.

Win 20-0 (2163 VPs earned)

With that 20 points I finished on 79 points. Tim also managed a max win but over the course of the event I had scored more VPs and so was ahead on tiebreaker. Peter W beat Rory 19-1 to jump ahead and Tom got the necessary points to take out the event.

The Skaven Brains Trust Indulge In the Obligatory Furpile After the Event

Tom was a most deserving winner given his strength of schedule (he played everyone else who finished 2nd to 7th). I was happy to be called out 3rd Place Overall. I thought I had played well over the course of the weekend, been unlucky in places and had luck in others. That’s what you get with Skaven – a rollercoaster of fun!

Late on Monday Night the Storm Banner Holder Arrives Back Home

Skaven at the Masters - Part Two

Game 3 – Mike King (Lizardmen) – Battleline

This was the other matchup I wasn’t looking forward to. I normally like playing Lizards with my Skaven but Mike and I played this particular matchup a couple of weeks ago and it ended in disaster.

Why? Cupped Hands.

The inclusion of the Power Scroll in my list meant that I had lost the Earthing Rod for miscast protection. This meant that I was very vulnerable to losing the Seer to a Dimensional Cascade passed onto me by the Slaan. It then becomes a 50/50 chance that I lose my prime rat. This had happened previously and I was determined to minimise the chance of it happening again.

I knew Mike would look to six dice a spell each turn to generate a miscast so decisive action was needed. Mike also had Becalming which meant my 6s were to be discarded. Mike did not deploy his Slaan in a Saurus block and that proved to be a real mistake. I appreciate he was worried about me targeting the combined unit with magic then shooting but I felt the Slaan needed the protection. I drew out his dice with a Plague then popped the power scroll and my warpstone token. I required 9 on three dice with no sixes and was able to achieve that.

Zappp!

On the same turn my WLC killed the Skink Priest leaving Mike with no magic protection. The rest of the game involved me feeding the Lizards chaff – Slaves and Engineers – while I went after his points. I collected a total of 1793 VPs from Saurus, Salamanders and Skinks as well as the magic users. In an eic struggle a unit of Slaves reduced the Ancient Steg to one wound before succumbing to the Stomp.

In what I can only describe as an extremely petty act of vindictiveness, Mike sent out units to hunt down the newly evolved Slaan and killed him as he ran to the welcoming arms of his new family.

Win 16-4 (1793 VPs earned)


Game 4 – Tom Dunn (Daemons of Chaos) – Meeting Engagement

I fancied my chances in this game but was less impressed with the scenario. The Skaven tend to dominate Daemons and I knew with the Ruin deck and my shooting I had enough to trouble Tom’s particular set up – GUO, two Bloodletter blocks with Flaming Heralds, Tzeentch Herald in Horrors, Furies plus Fiend/Bloodcrusher chaff.

Tom set up first but had a Bloodletter block off the table along with two Crushers. I stole the initative and was able to take out a unit of Furies before he could get them away.

However the key moment came in Tom’s first Magic Phase. He rolled 6 dice for his Winds of Magic then picked them up and irresistibly cast Final Transmutation on my Bell unit.

Seer…….6!

Bell…..6!

BSB…..6!

Ooooooow Look! Shiny!!!!

Oh dear. And how the crowd’s rejoiced in my misfortune. I’m pretty sure that they misunderstood the situation and didn’t realise that it had happened TO me.

Now staring a 20-0 in the face, I mounted a rearguard action against the Daemons. I worked out that I was limited in what points I could get so focussed my efforts on maximising the. Over the course of the game I got all Tom’s chaff, the Horrors and then focussed my warmachine shooting and magic on a single Bloodletter block. I was helped by the fact that I was passing a lot of Leadership 7-8 tests as Tom moved the GUO forward to terrorise me. The Tzeentch Herald exploded Turn 4 giving me the opportunity to work over the Horrors. When I managed to reduce a Bloodletter block below 5 RnF I sniped the Khorne Herald with the WLC allowing my Stormvermin to finish them off.

I almost snagged an unlikely win when the remnants of the Bell unit charged the GUO and Tom rolled low for Thunderstomp. I inflicted 4 wounds but from there normal service was resumed and the Clanrats were eventually broken.

Given the start I thought I played a really good game especially as Tom kept the pressure on me throughout. I resisted throwing my HPA into the fray given the presence of Khorne Heralds and instead he picked up Furies and Fiends where he could. I was proud that I kept the difference to 357 VPs.

Loss 8-12 (1276 VPs earned)

So four rounds gone and I’m 2-2 and on 42/80 Battle Points. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Final two rounds to follow.

Masters 2012 Report, Pt 2

Right, so, the continuation of yesterdays post then.

Well, at least Jack got the reference...

Rounds 3, 4 and 5 shall be known as "The Flyer Power Hour" with an average of 4.3 flyers each between my next 3 opponents. Thankfully I'm playing an army that gets handed anti-flyer tools hand over fist.

Round 3: Ivan Soo

Mission: The Emperors Will

Deployment: Dawn of War

Ivans list was Nemesor Zandrek, 2 lance crypteks with a pulse, 1 chronomotron cryptek, 4 5man warrior squads, 4 night scythes, 3 doom scythes. Effectively CronAir or Croissant Airways, depending on how you look at it.

I knew this game would be fairly difficult, given my wraiths and command barge would be useless all game, but with Tesla and 2 effective flyers of my own I knew I had a better shot than most at countering it. The plan would be to put my wraiths to work as getting in the way and blocking places to put flyers, to minimize the amount they could shoot my tesla.

Ivan won the roll for going first and elected for me to take it, thus giving him the chance to respond to my flyers. He set his objective up fairly centrally, and I was able to place mine next to a great little building that completely blocked LoS from all but 2 very narrow angles.

T1 - Me: With just Zandrek and his buddies hiding towards the back of the board, out of my threat range, I shoveled everything forward.

T1 – Ivan: Zandrek gave himself nightvision, had his little buddy peer through the fog and fired 2 lances at a barge. 1 hit. 1 pen. 1 failed 4+ cover save (where the nightfight would have made it a 3+, which is what I rolled, curse you nightvision!), and a 6 on the damage table. Hmm, ok then!

T2 – Me: Everything else continued to shovel towards his board edge. Neither flyer showed up, yay! The wraith squad hungry for some vengeance pounced on Zandrek and his crypteks, wiping them out, and spreading out on the spot so that there were no eligible places for him to get back up.

T2 – Ivan: Ivan had 2 doomscythes and 3 nightscythes show up. Between the LOS shenanigans, forcing him to come on in less favorable positions, boosting one clear across the table to make an early play for my objective, and my coversaves – the only losses this turn for me were a wraith. One of the death rays failed to pen, and the other got coversaved.

Con Air would have been oh so much better with robots...

T3 – Me: Both flyers show up, and gun for his in such a way as to minimize return fire. The 2 annihilation barges get into significantly safer positions while lining up snapfire shots at Ivans flyers, while 1 wraith squad starts to head back to help out near my objective. Now that the bulk of blocking is done, my strategy is to wind up cramming so many wraiths/vehicles around each objective that come the final turn Ivan can’t sneak anyone close enough to them. Both Doomscythes are destroyed, and a nightscythe has its velocity locked.

T3 – Ivan: The remaining nightscythe shows up, but the doomscythe does not. One of my flyers dies, but this is the only loss I suffer. The nightscythe that had jumped across the table unloads its troop unit, and flies way away from any action. The squad rapidfires at my squad cowering in the building, killing 3 but one gets back up.

T4  - Me: The wraiths go and pounce on the squad that disembarked. The other wraiths surround his board edge, ready to eat scoring units that are forced on. I drop a 5man squad off on his objective, a turn earlier than I would have liked but at this stage I want to keep my flyer on the table to try bait firepower away from the troops. My other squad in reserves from the nightscythe dying show up and hunker down near the objective giving me 2 squads on it with difficult line of sight.

and I only manage to kill a single nightscythe.

T4 – Ivan: Ivan makes a play for trying to shove me off my objective, but can only draw LOS to a few models with his flyers. The doomscythe comes in and tries to kill a barge, but instead kills a wraith and 3 of my warriors on his objective. That flyer that was zooming around not part of the game before? It sneaks in to finish the last 2 warriors in that squad on his objective and stops them from being able to get back up. Another squad tries to kill the warriors inside my own los blocking ruin, but only kills 1.

T5 – me: potentially the last turn of the game. I kill his troops in such a way that he cannot possibly get his objective. The wraiths I pulled back wipe out a troop unit, leaving him just 1 scoring unit inside a nightscythe. I block off the objective so that he cannot contest it with the unit, and shoot everything at that nightscythe, but it all bounces off a fortunate string of evasion rolls.

T5 – Ivan: Ivan has his last ploy to kill the troops on my objective, but can only kill 3 out of 4 members of one of the squads, and 1 of the 2 in the other, relying on 2 failed moral checks for the game – which I pass both of. To rub salt in the wound most of them get back up with reanimation protocols. With the position Ivans flyers are in, he only has an outside chance if the game goes to turn 7. We play it out and there is a turn 6, but it stops there.

We play the game out from there and the last of his scoring units are all dead, the game stops before turn 7 leaving me with 2 on my own objective, and a fairly emphatic win despite some fairly average shooting results at flyers after my first(turn 3) turn of it.

Win – 15.

First Blood – 0, Ivan got my Annihilation Barge first.

Warlord – 1, Zandrek

Line Breaker – 1, a squad of wraiths.

Final result, 17-1.

Cronair was always going to be a fairly annoying game to fight. The death rays were always only really going to get one shot however, and despite my troops being quite fragile, they are quite well protected. Being able to really limit Ivan’s flyers to only shoot good targets every other turn, and in cover situations etc. really meant I was able to minimize my losses and control the flow of the game quite nicely. I also feel though that as Necrons, I have an abundance of anti flyer strategies and tools I can employ that other codices simply can’t field currently. I can certainly understand peoples immense frustration when playing against this list, as for some army books it is just a couple of hours of rolling armor saves and putting models back into their figure case with increasing velocity.

All make way for the Amazing Mephiston and his 3 flying short-busses

Round 4: Pascal Roggen

Mission: Crusade

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Pascal had Mephiston, 3 Storm Ravens dripping upgrades, 2 furioso dreads, a 5 man squad, and 10 assault marines.

We had an objective in each corner pretty much (though I had mine a fair bit closer together so 1 wraith squad could defend both), and after winning the roll for first turn, Pascal elected that I set up and go first.

I set up centrally, in such a way that all my units could respond to a threat wherever required.

Pascal set up the 5 man squad hiding behind a large LOS building, and Meph cowering behind it also.

T1 - Me: I push everything up slightly more centrally, but make a huge push with my command barge lord, trying to bait out meph into wraith assault range.

T1 – Pascal: Turns out Pascal isn’t that dumb, and doesn’t take the bait, boo! Instead they shuffle about to make sure they’re not gonna get shot by annihilation barges.

T2 – Me: My vehicles jump around a bit here and there so they will have 4 + cover saves. I want him to come in the full 36 inches towards me, so I put one of my barges inside the 12 inch range for the melta, hoping he will go for it.

The lord sweep attacks the small 5 man squad, killing 2, and in the resulting assault they are gone. Both my flyers behave and don’t show up. That’s 2 games in a row. Good boys!

T2 – Pascal: only 1 storm raven shows up, and pushes deep to try kill the barge. The assault marines deepstrike in on top of one of my objectives, combat squadding, with the other squad scattering to be next to it. Meph assaults the command barge, fails his s10 roll, but passes his mindshackle scarab test, boo. Thanks to my 2+ save though, I only take 1 wound, and do 1 in return to meph.

T3 – Me: Both my flyers show up. I bring them on so that both squads can get out and rapid fire one of the combat squads of assault marines, in conjunction with the third troop squad already on the table. A wraith squad heads back to the other squad. The wraith squad I had been pushing towards meph is close enough for a charge with a big enough roll, so I sweep attack him causing 1 wound, bringing him to 3, and set him up so I can charge him if the wraiths don’t make it.

In the shooting phase I manage to destroy the storm raven, which in turn immobilizes the dread it was carrying. In hindsight, I wonder if this would have actually destroyed the dread like it did in 5^th? Either way it did not matter. The rapid fire reduced that 5man squad to 1 model left.

The wraiths made the assault with the other 5man squad, wiping them out. The other wraith squad rolled high enough to reach Meph. He perilsed himself when rolling the s10, taking himself down to 2 wounds, and the wraiths took the i1 whipcoiled mephiston on a trip to rend-city.

T3 – Pascal: The remaining 2 ravens show up, again pushing for annihilation barges. They destroy 1 of them. The last assault marine charges a 5man warrior squad, who gun him down on the way in.

T4 – Me: Both squads hop back in their flyers, which fly off to shoot at Pascals flyers, as does everything else. In a monumental effort of evade saves, Pascal saves over half a dozen penetrating hits alone, and neither raven is downed (obviously I was rolling ridiculously well to generate that number of pens in the first place!). The dread is blown up.

T4 – Pascal: with no hope in site, Pascal now aims for the warlord, and blows up my command barge, but the warlord himself is fine.

T5 – Me: I zoom up and drop a squad on each of his objectives. Both storm ravens are destroyed and the dreadnaught removed, ending the game with a tabling.

Win – 15

First Blood – 1, tactical squad

Warlord – 1, Mephiston

Linebreaker – 1, 2 squads of warriors

This was probably my easiest game of the tournament, only losing an annihilation barge and a command barge. Good rolls whenever I needed them made it a lot more one sided than it needed to be, with Pascals string of good luck in cover saves coming too late. His list tends to live or die on whether or not you can kill storm ravens, and unfortunately for him, if you can, there’s really nothing he can do about it other than roll over and let you scratch his belly.

In saying that, Pascal was pretty upbeat throughout the game, never sulking when things were majorly not going his way, and was on the back of an all-nighter, so some big props there are deserved definitely!

By the beginning of round 4 I was pretty damn tired, and it kinda feels like I may have the turns slightly askew, so I apologise if that's the case. That being said, the order of things is pretty much right so at least there's that.

The Peter Williamson Phenomena

Prior to last weekend the only thing that Masterton was famous for was eels in the main street and a poor adventure tourism health and safety record.

Now there is something else - The Peter Williamson Experience

Peter drove his High Elves to 2nd Place at the New Zealand Masters shocking all and sundry on the way (some will say they saw it coming but if they are honest it was just bluster).

Here's what New Zealand's most astute Warhammer commentator had to say before the event:

I’ve looked at the list and I’ve got to admit….I just don’t see it. Now Peter is a smart gamer so I am worried I am missing something.

For me there is not enough of anything to dominate a phase of the game. The Spearmen aren’t strong enough, resilient enough (even with the Shield of Saphery) to withstand prolonged punishment. The White Lions are too small, the chaff too expensive, Lore choice is diffident etc.

As I said, I don’t see it. Based on the list, Peter is in for a hard weekend. But there is something nagging me….what have I missed?

Peter shocked the doubters going:

3-17 (vs. Daemons) - netting me a free pint from a pointy eared apologist

20-0 (vs. Warriors)

4-16 (vs. Tomb Kings)

20-0 (vs. Empire)

20-0 (vs. Locky's Skaven)

19-1 (vs. Vampire Counts)

Now there are some staggering results in there and I certainly didn't see the wins vs. Empire, Skaven or VCs coming.

From a personal point of view I would have loved to play the list to see how it works. I'm not going to lie I would have been whetting my lips at the matchup.

However this is not a one-off. Peter has previous taking what are perceived as weaker lists and achieving more than expected. he has done it in this edition with both Wood Elves and Tomb Kings.

Hopefully I can get him to post battle reports telling us his thoughts.

Skaven at the NZ Masters - Part One

Yep, so last weekend was the NZ Masters and thanks to some locals offering to umpire the event, I was able to play.

I used the Skaven Screaming Bell list I had been using most of the year. However I included the Storm Banner and the Power scroll, at the expense of the Earthing Rod and some chaff units. These changes were a success as my Seer only miscast once over the weekend – I was more conservative in my casting dice due to the Power Scroll – the banner blunted incoming warmachine attacks and reducing my drops meant I was generally at +1 to go first.

Looking at the lists lined up against me, I was pretty confident I would do well. I’ve been playing the Skaven for three plus years and know their strengths and weaknesses very well. My list- based around the Screaming Bell list that came out of last year’s ETC – was honed to reflect my playstyle.

The danger with Skaven is generally the vagaries of the dice but you take the bad with the good. Target priority becomes critical to ensure the enemy is neutralised as quickly as possible.

NZ Masters Results

The Masters have been run and won for another year. A big thank you to all the participants and especially to the four Umpires over the weekend - James, Ryan, Hagen and Russell.

Here are the headline results:

Warhammer Fantasy

1. Tom Dunn (Daemons of Chaos)
2. Peter Williamson (High Elves)
3. Pete Dunn (Skaven)

It was a closely fought event with every participant experiencing at least one loss. Tom played each of the 2nd to 7th placegetters so really had to work for his win. Peter Williamson earned a staggering 54 points on Day Two of the event.

Tiebreak for 3rd based on Game Result (I beat Tim 17-3) and VPs scored (I think I was about 1000 ahead)

2012 Fantasy Masters Champion - Tom Dunn

2012 Runner Up - Peter Williamson

Warhammer 40k

1. Charlie St. Clair (Necrons)
2. Daniel Hayden (Tyranids)
3. Haydn Korach (Chaos Daemons)

This was Charlie's third Masters win (out of the five held so far) and he finished well ahead of the field. Both Daniel and Hayden brought armies well suited to the current 6th Ed meta and were rewarded accordingly.

2012 Warhammer 40k Masters Placegetters (Daniel, Charlie & Haydn)

Neither the 40k nor the Fantasy event saw anybody suffer a Sports hit - Thumbs Up!!!!

Flames of War

1. Steven Hill (German SS Panzergrenadier)
2. Nick Garden (Romanian Vanatori Motorizata
3. Craig Courtis (Hungarian Motorised Infantry)

Steven was the clear winner even though he did lose to Nick in a close encounter in Round 5