The weakest waaagh in the west?

Hiyo!

So I've been retardedly busy recently, to the point where hobby has had to take a bit of a mandatory backseat vacation, but with an upcoming tournament, I had to get something done!

This weekend sees Nicon 2011, which I really don't have time to attend. In saying that, it also sees the first proper non-comp tournament in a very, VERY long time. Moving away from comp is something I truly believe is a step in the right direction with how the books are looking, and nothing shows support more than voting with my feet.

Busy busy busy! Not to be confused with busty busty busty!

It seems a lot of other people are in the same boat, the last update I heard had Nicon looking at 49-50 people, which would make it the largest (equal) tournament this year, and with FOB not happening due to 300 men having a bit of a ruckus in some paddocks this September, its unlikely events will reach higher than that.
Nicon is typically very small and unimportant, so its nice to see such an instant show of support for the TO Haydn Korach's decision.

Certainly I think it's going to be a rude wake up call for a few people, particularly the "I only lost because I've got a softer army to get better comp" camp and equally so the "everyone is easy and I'm unfairly punished by comp" camp... but that's something we can muse over next week! Toys will fly out of cots!

Personally I didn't really have time to reinvent the wheel (a basket I suspect many people will be in), and just switched out my regular warboss from my 1750 point list for Ghazghkull in an 1850 point list.

Silly ginger, don't reinvent the wheel!

This doesn't really work for a number of reasons, firstly very few armies smoothly transition from 1750-->1850 points by simply adding 100 points of stuff in, it is usually noticeably more efficient and powerful to rebuild it from the ground up, and certainly I think I would get more mileage by bringing 9 killer kans instead of 6, but also Ghaz is generally much more suited to a list that has been built around him.

That being said, I had quite a bit of fun painting the figure, even if it was predominantly yellow, and I chose to use a method that involved no less than 9 layers in order to build it up from black.

Painful amounts of yellow are painful, but you can at least click for increased size if you must.

Baby got back.

With any luck I can get him stuck in this weekend, though I am fairly dubious about my chances by not ramping things up, and hoping to wing it having never played a game of 40k with a special character before, let alone with Ghazzykins!

I'll let you know how it goes, and as usual will be tweeting results from the event, if you're interested you can follow my account, @proximityNZ

Cheers,
- Charlie

Post-Retribution Thoughts on Death Guard List

So what are my thoughts on the Death Guard after six games?

Well first of all, the codex is showing its age a little bit. I certainly think that there has clearly been a more distinguishable power creep in 40k than there currently is in Fantasy (Compare oldest 6 codexes – Necron, Witchhunter, Chaos, Eldar, Tau, Black Templar - versus newest 6 – Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Tyranids, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard). When it came out the Chaos book was a bland reflection of the 3rd/4th Edition book and it has slipped down the power rankings since then.

Second, for those of us that try to stick to mono-god and in particular Traitor Legion, there is little real variability in the list. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, the underlying Plague marines are a solid choice.

My list had one very real weakness; an inability to reach out and hurt somebody. Any shooting over 24” was restricted to the four Obliterators I had. Defensively these are now a lot weaker having lost the T4(5) of the previous edition – however this really only becomes an issue when they are in combat, which if they are well, you’re doing something wrong.

This lack of long range firepower is very reminiscent of the Death Guard army at the time of the Index Astartes article (WD266 - 2001) prior to the release of the 3rd Edn codex. It struggled to engage the enemy as they had little or no reason to move inside 24” range. As a result the army struggled for big wins. And that really is the problem with the set up I have now. It lacks the mobility and reach to force somebody to engage if they don’t want to.

On the weekend both the Dark Eldar and Grey Knights could afford to play an avoidance game if it suited their objectives as the Death Guard lacked the tools to force them in close. Even then both those armies had work arounds on the Death Guard’s greatest strength FNP – power weapons in the GK case, poison for the DE.

Looking ahead I think I would look to drop a Troop squad and introduce a Defiler into the army for greater “reach”. The alternative would be to go what seems to be the current favoured Chaos route and add in more Oblits. I don’t think I’ve reached that point yet.

Roll on Codex:Traitor Legions!!!

"Fields of Blood" - The New Zealand Grand Tournament

DATE CONFIRMED - 7/8 JULY 2012 - MARK YOUR DIARIES


Unfortunately there will not be a “Fields of Blood” this year. I am putting it into recess for 2011 because of the difficulty getting a venue in September/October, but more importantly the scarcity of cheap flights and accommodation for participants.

With the Rugby World Cup on here in New Zealand in September/October, the airlines and various accommodation options have taken the opportunity to jack the prices to capture maximum “value”. I can’t say I blame them as it makes good economic sense to screw every last cent you can out of those that are prepared to pay whatever the price.

Because I run “Fields of Blood” as an individual venture, I am exposed to significant financial risk (hall alone is now $2400 for the weekend) and so I can’t rely on just locals attending to break even.

However it is not all doom and gloom!! Fields of Blood will be back early July 2012, hopefully bigger and better. Mark it in your diaries now. I’ll confirm dates once I’ve secured the venue.

28 May 2011 - A Great Day

As well as wargaming, the contributors to “Fields of Blood” have another hobby – a shared hatred of all things Manchester United. In Charlie’s case it is because he’s a Chelsea fan while for Jack it’s in his DNA.

We’d just like to extend our heartfelt thanks to FC Barcelona for completely outclassing scum in the Champions League Finalon Sunday morning (NZ time). The game was so one-sided that it turned into a procession.

I can honestly say I wished it could have gone on forever such was the ineptitude of the English team. Each minute exposed more and more chinks in their no-existent gameplan.

Thanks Messi, Mascherano, Puyot, Piquet and co. One of the great days in Sports.

A Day of Retribution!

On Saturday I went 60 miles north to Levin for a day of 40k gaming. Glen Burfield and Wil Hoverd organised ten gamers to play a three round tournament that they named “Retribution”. I posted the various lists last week so you can check them out if you wish.

Now I haven’t played a 40k tournament in New Zealand since 2005, way back in the early days of 4th Edition. I had played the various Liber Animus events in Melbourne 2006-08 but again they were all 4th Ed events. In total I believe I had played eight games of 5th Ed over the three years it has been out (four of those in the first two weeks). So it was with some trepidation I sent in my list for this weekend.

Game 1 – James Stewart (Space Marines) – Dying of the Light

Six objectives which are whittled to three over the course of the game. Jimmy had a bike army backed up by two Vindicators and a Land Raider of Assault Termies. I managed to work plasma magic on the bikes and reduced him to a single scoring unit. The game went the full seven turns and going into the last turn I had units on two objectives. I managed to bring down his Land Speeders to stop them from contesting. My unit on the central objective spread out over 4 levels to minimise the effect of the Vindicator. The game came down to whether Jimmy scored a 5-6 for the run on his Termies. He managed a three so failed to bring it back to a draw.

The Assault Terminators make a run for the central objective.

What Happened Next?

So here's a little picture from a recent game between myself and Tane with his Dwarfs.

As you can see the Skaven Plague Furnace is rampaging forward and bearing down on the Dwarf lines.

Standing in its way is a lone Dwarf Dragonslayer.

SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Post your thoughts and I'll post the answer tomorrow.

The Answer is Below

Retribution This Weekend

On the weekend I'm playing at a small one day 40k event in Levin about 50 miles north of Wellington.

It is 1750 points. Here are the lists

I'll let you know how it goes.

Next Tomb King Wave

So here are the next release of Tomb King figures and these are all in "Finecast". In addition to thise Tomb king, Casket of Souls, Ushabti with Great Weapons will may the switch to resin.

Prince Apophas

Necrotect

Liche Priest

Ushabti with Bows

I really like the Special Character, dislike the Priest

"Spirit of the Game" Redux

I always like to pick at a scab so I’m going to revisit a couple of posts from earlier in the month on the “Spirit of the Game”. My treatise was that there were some things that I wouldn’t do regardless if they were legal because they weren’t in the spirit of how I (note- it’s all about me, my wants and desires) think the game should be played. These things aren’t illegal; rather they take advantage of rule mechanisms rather than tactics or strategy to gain an advantage.

I am revisiting the subject after listening to a podcast earlier in the week and a guest outlining how he was getting his army tournament-ready. The player in question was using Dark Eldar and in his description of how he went about things there were three aspects that made me raise an eyebrow

Buy, Sell & Swap forums

A lot of bandwidth has been expended over thepast week on GW’s price rise and their “price rise” (Rest of the World). I’m not sure how this will play out in the end except to say that I hope wayland’s workaround is all good.

However there are other ways to pick up your models cheap and that is second hand.

The two key pathways are through professional sites, Trade Me (here in NZ) and eBay (globally), and through the Buy, Sell and Swap area on most forums.

I’m keen to talk about the second of these, the Buy, Sell and Swap Forums. Most wargaming forums have a “marketplace” where goods are sold second hand. Generally these forums will allow members to post stuff they want to get rid of and also stuff they need. This can be a great way to pick up models or to get elusive bits.

As a regular user of various forums over the past decade, there are a couple of pointers that I can give you.