Wargaming Clubs - "Elephant in the Room" Time

I have recently started reading a really excellent blog called “Year of Frugal Gaming” where the intent is to “Spend Less, Play More”. In a recent post the guy who writes it focused on the second part of this equation. Here are his thoughts:

As regular readers know, I like to game. I like to paint, I like to model, I like to write my silly little blog, but in the past year I have made a conscious effort to play more games. Inevitably, like many other gamers, I have now started to look around for other gaming experiences; new games systems, new armies, bigger and more spectacular battles. Of course, as a frugal gamer I fear the required expense that comes with these options.

Recently though, I have come across another option, which improves my gaming for minimal outlay; I’m not getting more games systems, I’m getting more gamers. I’ve joined an excellent gaming club.

The benefits of joining a club are well known, but can’t be overstated. Plenty of new players to face, lots of other armies to battle against, trial games of new systems, and even the ability to share lifts to tournaments and other events. Of course, going to a club does have its costs. My club costs me £2.50 per visit for entry, a couple of pounds in petrol and the cost of a couple of drinks. I visit every couple of weeks so the cost averages out quite well, and the idea of laying out my army in front of a room full of other players helps me to focus on getting figures painted and building the best army I can.

So over the last couple of months, I’ve managed to massively expand my gaming, without a huge outlay of cash. I’ve also made a few friends, and brought a new person into the hobby. Playing any existing games you own with new people, whether seasoned pros or n00bs, can be great fun and put a spark back into your gaming. Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

It got me thinking. I was President of our local club, the Wellington Warlords for 5 years finishing up a couple of years ago. Over that time we built up membership to around 120 members. That has now fallen away to 70-80 people but more worrying is that less of these members come to the Club regularly.

This has taken a lot of pleasure out of my gaming as over the past 6 months or so there have been as little as 2-3 tables at some meetings. Like the blogger above part of my premise for belonging to a club is to play a variety of people.

To fill out the background, the Warlords meet weekly alternating at two different venues. They have trestle tables, GW basecloths and terrain. There is plenty of parking and the venues are on bus and train routes. There are no table fees but the annual membership fee is $60 (USD 45; GBP 25; AUD 42) for existing members and $40 for new members. This gives you access to 50 meetings a year for the cost of a box of Space Marines/Clanrats.

Yet the membership premise doesn’t seem to work. I organise a lot of events and these are supported by the local gaming community but this doesn’t flow through to Warlords membership to the extent I would think it should.

So here’s some questions for local gamers.

• What’s your thoughts on the above?
• What is it about club gaming that puts you off?
• What is it about the Warlords specifically?

I’d love to know because it’s in my own selfish interests (greater variety of opponents) to get you along.

New Hobby Purchases

Over the weekend I watched a DVD tutorial on Army Painting by Brandon Palmer of GMM Studios. If you click on my blogroll you'll see Brandon's blog featured. He has the ability to turn out seriously great armies in next to no time as evidenced by his recent Players' Choice at Adepticon in Chicago.

The DVD goes for some 4+ hours. It covers the tools you need plus the painting of an Elysian IG army with 3 vehicles and 60 Troops.

I found the sections on required equipment, techniques etc excellent. In particular there is a comprehensive tutorial on using an airbrush on vehicles and also some of the weathering techniques he uses. The parts on detail painting on infantry was less useful but still informative in terms of the overall army.

Inspired by this I went out and made two new purchaces. Both via our local eBay equivalent Trade-Me. The first is an air compressor with a tank (Brandon explains in the DVD why this is important).

The second was a small spray booth. I decided here that discretion was the best part of valour in that my long suffering wife, Lynne commented on the thin black dust that pervades our garage.

I'm really looking forward to doing some airbrushing over the next few months and seeing what results I can achieve. I have 4-5 Tau tanks plus three Iron Warriors Rhinos to act as guinea pigs.

Natcon 2011 40k Wrap up + Results

Hey ho fatties!

The Easter weekend saw the annual 3 day event that is the Nationals. This year it was held in Christchurch, which was an experience all in itself.

Christchurch was recently devastated by a fairly sizable earthquake, so seeing the level of destruction up close was something to behold all on its own, let alone the event!

Ruined buildings everywhere was quite a surreal sight, on the way to the venue.

This years 40k event had capped its player limit at 40 players, and reached that with a fairly decent showing from the entire South Island.

Overall the event was.... a bit of a fail. It was fantastic from the point of view of meeting a bunch of new people I hadn't met before, catching up with a few I had, and playing some games of mandollies with a few beers along the way. However, the core of the Christchurch 40k community never managed to adjust to and embrace 5th edition. They yearned for their long lost 4th edition with such a bitter twist that in the end they drove half their own community away from the game, and this really showed through in the running of this event.

Battle Report - Skaven vs. Night Goblins

Jack has been down for the past couple of weeks and from a wargaming point of view I always look forward to these visits because apart from him not painting my models it gives us an opportunity to have a few games.

I had high hopes of at least one Fantasy game and one 40k game so that we could get "new" armies on the table. In the end we only managed the one but this would give jack a chance to show me how to use the "Battle Chronicles" software to post battle reports.

So 2400 points of Skaven vs. Night Goblins (with obligatory Goblin Warboss General). We drew up our armies knowing what army the other player had but no clues as to make up. Jack was obviously using the new Orc & Goblin book and came up with a list of big blocks backed by the various NG toys. After using the Skavenblight Panzer Division at Runefang i decided to use something completely different. My list was:

Grey Seer
Grey Seer
Lvl 1 Engineer
BSB
2x Naked Engineers

25 Stormvermin - FC
2x 25 Clanrats - FC
2x 40 Slaves
1x 35 Slaves
2x 6 Gutter Runners
Doomwheel
Warp Lightning Cannon
Plagueclaw Catapult
Hell Pit Abomination

Jack had:

Goblin Warboss
Lvl 4 NG Great Shamen
BSB
Lvl 2 NG Big Boss
3x 35 Night Goblins - Nets/Fanatics
2x 25 NG Archers
2x 6 Spider Riders
2x 30 Squig Herds
5 Squig Hoppers
Rock Lobber
Doom Diver
2x Fast Hitty Snotling Pump Wagons
Mangler
4 Trolls

We rolled up Blood & Glory, both with Fortitude 6. Jack chose sides and I won roll for first turn

We both set up our blocks in the centre. I wanted to use my magic and Jack to flood the centre with fanatics so that my heavy hitters would need to go through them to get into the blocks. I deployed one unit of Gutter Runners in the Tower to try and neutralise the Squig Hoppers early.

In my first turn, out went the naked Engineers to try and muddy any Fanatic tricks and give my Seers a chance to ply their trade. The General got Plague off on the central Squig Hoppers but in the process managed to wound himself, his twin and the Engineer. The Warp Lightning Cannon and Plagueclaw catapult hit the Goblin Generals unit reducing it down to single digits. Unfortunately the NG Level 2 Shamen failed his LOS and died an ignominious death.From the Tower the Gutter Runners killed two Squig Hoppers which hopefully would force them onto the defensive.

The Goblin Warboss and BSB scurried off to a safer home. Unfortunately for Jack the Squig Herd on his right squabbled drawing in the nearby NG archers. The NG on the left involuntarily decided to charge the naked Engineer and the central Squig Herd the same. The Trolls charged the other engineer who decided to flee. The NGs failed charge but the Squig Herd made it in killing the Engineer. The Suig Hoppers moved backways while the Pump Wagons and Mangler did similar.

Turn 2 saw my Doomwheel hit the Spider Riders while the Gutter Runners moved out of the Tower. My leftmost Clanrats took one for the team by charging the Squig Herd and exploding the Fanatic. This allowed the HPA to charge in support which sealed the Squig's fate.

The Grey Seer cast Plague on NG2 which caused them to panic taking the Goblin Warboss and BSB with them. The Doomwheel exploded the Spider Riders which caused the other NGs to panic, running into the centre.

The third NG unit panicked from shooting from the Warplightning Cannon and turned tail.

Fortunately for Jack, all three NG blocks rallied and turned to face the Skaven. The lone Squig Hopper disappeared off to the corner.

The Wolf Chariot charged the Slaves and the contest was drawn. The Chariot tested and held. At the same time the Mangler Squig went through the Doomwheel causing two wounds.

Both the Trolls (stupidly) and Squig Herd moved forward.

My third turn started with the Clanrats charging through another fanatic but this time the HPA came up short. The Doomwheel went into the back of the Chariot while the other Skaven blocks moved back.

The Doomwheel killed the chariot while the NG and Clanrats fought a draw.

In Jack's Turn 4 he put the Pump Wagon into the flank of the HPA causing two wounds before dying. His Doom Diver hit and killed the Doomwheel. Unfortunately however the Rock lobba exploded forcing a panic check on his Warboss unit which failed and exited the table with the BSB.

This broke Jack's army giving the Skaven the win.

Wrap Up:

So what were the lessons learned from this battle? Well Jack twice failed Ld 9 (with BSB reroll) panic tests. This cost him the game.

I learned a few things. If your general is close by you can drop your blocks on fanatics and then tag in your random movers. I think this was quite a good lesson. Happy to tuck it away for future.

Jury is out on two seers. I love it from a defensive point of view in that it gives me two +4 dispel options which means I can use them with two dice to pressure most casting attempts. If I fail it happens again....so some defensive risk is gone. However I'm not sure that two is very efficient. I'll try it again but I'm not seeing it as long term venture.

Doomwheel is still blah in 8th. Not a big fan at all. The PC is great if you don't misfire vs. goblins.

I was able to get a couple of spells off as Jack held dice to stop me skitterleaping naked Engineer into his army triggering all Fanatics. I hadn't thought of it....I'm glad he had :-)

From a play point of view I'm pretty happy to confirm that I prefer a mixed army - not all combat like the SkPD or zappy like this one was. I think the Skaven compete better when they are multi-dimensional (though this was nearer the centre than the SkPD)

The Isle of Mir Avinu

Recently we had the Runefang IV Campaign Weekend that used the Mighty Empires system to generate the battles fought. This saw eight teams battle over the map board I created over a series of five games.

I am running a similar event at Horned Rat in July but now I have some background against which to run the event. So without further ado, welcome to the Isle of Mir Avinu.

This little known island off the coast of the Old World has been disputed for time immemorial. Originally a High Elf staging post for their new colonies, it was seized by a Dwarven fleet during the War of the Beard. However the last few millennia have seen it strangely abandoned until rumours circulated that there may be artefacts buried associated with the Old Ones. This inspired raiding parties to converge on the isle and try to gain a jump on the other races.

A period of fighting has occurred in recent months after the various parties ventured out from their footholds on the island. As the seasons move into winter the known part of Mir Avinu is controlled thus:

Dwarfs = Orange
High Elves = Blue
Empire = Purple
Skaven = Red
Orcs = Green
Chaos = Black

The success of the Orc & Goblin armies over the campaign season can be clearly seen. Two tribes – the Pigstikkas and the Squigchompers – drove a broad swathe through the central territories striking into the heart of lands previously controlled by Man. This push facilitated a southerly migration by the Realm of Men forces where they were blocked by various Skaven infestations.

The two Orc & Goblin Waaghs have now merged into a single “co-ordinated” force and will be looking to keep pushing the Men south. Their major concern appears to be the exposed flank they now have to the Forces of Chaos that are largely marginalised in the southeast corner.

The Skaven spent much of their campaign picking away at the scab which represents the Realm of Man. Very early they had decided their major tool was one of undermining cities and castles and they had much merriment collapsing the structures of the Over-races. Their ultimate strategy is unknown (probably even to them) but there has been talk that vast payments of cured dairy products passed between the Greenskins and the Ratmen.

The other forces of Law and Order appear to have got themselves into a bit of a pickle. The Elves have seen their lands splinter into three separate areas – and history tells us that this sort of sundering is not a good thing. Resources will undoubtedly by directed to linking the three isolated Elven groups as matter of priority.

Finally the Dwarfs. Their lands are now split in two. They hold a sizeable stronghold in the northern mountains but also lands in the south far from the hills. Couriers have been intercepted that indicate that some kind of financial transaction between the Dwarfs and the Realm of Men may occur whereby southern lands will be swapped for gold. This would certainly help finance a Dwarven effort to rid the mountains of Greenskins.

So that is the backdrop against which the second campaign season will occur. Surely all kinds of arcane alliances will manifest themselves over the course of the weekend.

The psychology of choking...

First and foremost, for once I'm not referring to Autoerotic Asphyxiation. No, instead I am referring to the tendency to lose one's nerve at the time it is needed most.

The BBC recently posted a fantastic article on the psychology of choking in sports, that actually draws a lot of parallels to wargaming (and in fact any task one does a large number of times).



I highly recommend reading the article itself, but here are the guts of it:

"In effect, experts and novices use two completely different brain systems. Long practice enables experienced performers to encode a skill in implicit memory, and they perform almost without thinking about it.

This is called expert-induced amnesia. Novices, on the other hand, wield the explicit system, consciously monitoring what they are doing as they build the neural framework supporting the task.

But now suppose an expert were to suddenly find himself using the "wrong" system. It wouldn't matter how good he was because he would now be at the mercy of the explicit system.

The highly sophisticated skills encoded in the subconscious part of his brain would count for nothing. He would find himself striving for victory using neural pathways he last used as a novice.

This is the neurophysiology of choking. It is triggered when we get so anxious that we seize conscious control over a task that should be executed automatically."

What you can do about it is another matter altogether, but as it is with most things - knowing what you're up against is half the battle. Choking is a huge part of the NZ 40k scene, where I've seen some people choking for over half a decade now and not being able to get past this hurdle.

I also think that this has a lot to do with why you see the people who never change their list by much progressively do better and better, to a greater effect than just the impact you would expect to see from getting more practice.

The original article can be found over at the BBC here.
It was originally written particularly focussing on some likely upcoming penalty shootouts in football, and took some time to reference Rory McIlroy's recent public implosion, but is well worth checking out.

What I've been working on

I thought I'd finally get some pictures up of the Dark Eldar I've been painting this year. At the moment, I'm just painting all the models I have, not really worrying about whether they're good or not (as shown by the Harlequins!). I haven't played any games or even made a list yet, so I'm not sure how the army will develop, but it's been a lot of fun so far painting it.

Here are the pics (click to make bigger):

Warriors

Close-up of Warriors

Wyches

Close-up of Wyches

Troupe Master

Shadowseer

Death Jester

Harlequins (1)

Harlequins (2)

Harlequins (3)

All the Harlequins together

There's also 3 Jetbikes painted that just need their riders finished. Up next is probably going to be a Raider, or perhaps some Hellions. I'm eagerly awaiting the new wave of models coming in June, and can't wait to see the pics of the new models, which should be coming out in the next few weeks!

A Goblin's take on Runefang - Day Two + Wrap

After Day One, our team, the Pigstikkas, were gaining momentum after a slowish start in the first two rounds. We were careful not to be too successful, as then we'd get the All or Nothing card, which was bad news (this card means all members on the team needed to win their games or the whole team got 0 points for that turn).

For the first game, I was paired up against Hagen Kerr and his Dwarfs, which promised to be fun. Hagen's list looked very 7th ed, with 17 Hammerers + Lord and BSB, 15 Ironbreakers and Runesmith, 18 Longbeards, 3 x 10 shooters and an Organ Gun. We played Battle for the Pass (the Dwarf players kept picking the card to choose the scenario...).

On my left flank, the Arachnarok and Trolls moved up quickly to take out the Thunderers in a building and the Organ Gun, since both of these units wouldn't get crippled by the Organ Gun. On the right, I had the Squig Hoppers, Mangler Squig, Chariot and Spider Riders all lined up to rush the two units of Crossbowmen opposite them. With some help from the Doomdiver (from our Empire's gold reserves), they were able to deal with these units in the first few turns.

In the center, the goblins and squig herd were opposite the three combat blocks. However, some rampant animosity led to a big squabble, and I had 4 of the 5 units unable to move for two turns in a row! The trolls overran into the centre after dealing with the Organ Gun, and this drew the Dwarfs closer to me when they charged these trolls. The Squig Herd eventually got into gear, and charged the unit of 18 Longbeards and one-rounded them.

The Ironbreakers were finished off by a combination of fanatics and doomdiver, leaving Hagen with just the Hammerers and characters. With minimal losses on my side, it ended up as a solid victory to me.

After a successful round for the Pigstikkas (3 big wins), we decided I needed to play Dwarfs again, so I played Matthew Hassall in Battle for the Pass (again). Matt had a Runelord in 20 Hammerers, 20 GW Warriors, 30 Warriors with 2 Thanes, 20 Thunderers, Cannon, Stone Thrower (S5) and Organ Gun. This was more suited to 8th ed than Hagen's list, but the units still seemed a bit small.

Matt had a big building across one side of his deployment zone, and promptly put the 20 Thunderers in there, which meant I was going to have to work really hard to get anywhere on that flank. I set up heavily weighted on the other flank (well, as much as you can on Battle for the Pass), and left the faster stuff (Hoppers, Chariot, Arachnarok, Spiders) on the building side to kill the Cannon and Organ Gun, then get out before the Thunderers did too much damage.

I had a lucky break in Turn 2, where my 5 Spiders killed the Cannon crew in one round. These spiders then went round the building and hit the Organ Gun in Turn 4, eventually killing it too. This good luck was balanced by some more rampant animosity in the center, and again the center locked up for the first 2 turns.

On the flank away from the building, the Squig Herd moved up with Fanatics to the left, and the Mangler to the right. Matt had nothing on this flank to deal with the Mangler, and so it eventually bounced through the Hammerers, killing 6 or 7, and the Grudge Thrower, killing it outright. In the next turn, the Herd was charged by the GW warriors, who took a beating from the Squigs, but stuck around. In my turn, the Trolls flanked the hammerers, and then the fun started! The Mangler Squig randomly turned around and plowed through both of these combats and another of my units. Both Dwarf units were destroyed, the Trolls were left on one wound, and the best bit was the last 2 handlers in the Squig herd were killed, meaning the herd blew up as well! That one Mangler was responsible for around half of the total kills on the table, and it alone killed well over 500pts of Matt's stuff. Well worth it!

From there, the game was pretty straightforward. I kept away from the last unit of Dwarfs and moved everything out of range of the building. This left me with another solid victory, and our team once again got 3 wins. The 6 wins on day 2 gave us enough points to expand and upgrade our Empire more than any other team, which put us in first place at the end. This was a nice way to top off a great weekend of fun gaming. I played 5 excellent opponents, and everyone was playing in the spirit of the event, which was perfect.

Finally, some thoughts on my list. The Goblin magic is very situational, and doesn't have much to do before the armies get into combat. I think it would be a lot better when paired with Orc magic, but that's not really an option for me.

The new rules for Fanatics make them very scary, and I would alway include some NG units just for them. I was impressed by the NG archers being able to shoot 15 shots out to 18" makes them surprisingly effective.

The Squig Herd was fantastic, as it gave me some punch I was otherwise lacking. Same with the Trolls, although 4 wasn't ideal. I'd have preferred 6. Likewise, more Chariots would have been nice, but I've only got 1. I'm keen to try the Hoppers in a bigger unit with a character. Being able to re-roll the move distance makes them even better! A unit of 5 was definitely useful though.

The big disappointment was the Arachnarok. It just doesn't kill enough to justify its 290 point price tag. Over the weekend, it killed only 14 HE archers and 10 Thunderers, and died twice. I'd much rather spend the points on the other rare units, like the Manglers, Pump Wagons and Doomdivers, all of which were fantastic! Certainly I think you need some artillery, at least a Rock Lobba and a Doomdiver for me from now on.

And after Game 5, I'll have as many Manglers as I can get away with ;)

Horned Rat IV Comp Restrictions

A few people have asked what Comp restrictions I'll be looking to use at Horned Rat in July. Here's the system I put forward in January with a few small changes and I think it looks okay for this event:

General Restrictions

• Maximum Power Dice usage of 12 in Magic Phase (as distinct from maximum of 12 dice in pool at any time)

• Army to have no more than four (4) potential template weapons

• Army to have a maximum of four (4) warmachines

• No more than two (2) of any Special choice

• No double Rare choice worth more than 70 points

• No Power Scroll

• Only one item that automatically dispels a spell

Army Specific Restrictions

• Daemons of Chaos: No duplication of Daemonic Gifts

• Empire: Steam Tank is classed as Warmachine in terms of General Restrictions

• Lizardmen: Slaan may have maximum two of Focus of Mystery, Becalming Cogitation, Cupped Hands or Focused Rumination

• Skaven: Maximum of three Engineers

• Orcs & Goblins: Maximum of three Mangler Squigs and/or Pump Wagons total

• Vampire Counts: Only one Vampire may have Loremaster ability

Does that stuff anyone's plans?

Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Scenarios

Can be found here if you haven't seen them already.

Scenario 1 adds a Night Fight element to Meeting Engagement

Scenario 2 is a Battleline with a buff of +1 S and A to a unit of your choice

Scenario 3 is where most of the complaints came from. It's Daemonworlds for Fantasy! I think the biggest problem was the lightning storm effect, which does D6 wounds to every unit on the table with no saves of any kind allowed. Ouch!