Hardly An Evil Empire

The drums are beating that it is a new Empire book for Fantasy next month. I have my doubts but hope I’m wrong. I just wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see another fill-in month with perhaps the Empire in May or June (post Dark Angels perhaps).
Of all the books out there I think the Empire book has best stood the test of time and is very competitive in the current environment. While it was clearly second tier under 7th and against the best 7th Edition books it has been helped both by 8th Edition and the re-balancing that GW have made. Spell decks such as Light and Shadow really help the Empire army and it really is a good all-round combined arms force.

Given all that, I’ll be very interested to see what changes they make. The old adage “if it ain’t broke” seems to hold true here. I don’t see a lot in the book that is broken or really needs boosting.

Interested in what others think.

Work in Progress - Plenty to Do

This weekend I have a game against Mike King’s Lizards in a hit-out prior to the upcoming Equinox. This is followed by one on Wednesday versus David Appleby’s Skaven.


I get the last of the Ogres from Charlie tonight. He has painted 3 more Rhinox to match my existing ones. Over the past week I have been basing my newest additions and making lots of movement trays for the army. Hoping to finish that tomorrow and get some photos done to post up here.

Currently about halfway through painting Skullvane Manse. I will try to finish that as well this weekend.

Other than that I need to work out a list for Natcon. These are due on the 23rd March. It has been awhile since I’ve played at 2000 points so I’ll need to get my head around first which army to use and then how to build the list.

2012 NZ Masters Qualification Clarification

There is a bit of controversy raging in the UK about the inclusion of Team and Doubles results in the RankingsHQ rankings. There is the situation occurring where 15 teams competed in a 4 man team competition and the results have been entered as for a 60 man singles competition where teams are ranked from 1st to 15th. So the four members of the team that finished first get 100 ranking points each, second team are getting 95, third 90 etc. This is skewing the overall rankings and will likely impact UK Masters invites determined at the end of the year.


I am flagging here that when I determine NZ Masters invites for Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k, any doubles or teams resulted included in the rankings will be disregarded for invite purposes. Where it occurs I will delete the team/doubles result and include the next highest result.

Why? Well the Masters is an individual competition and results in Doubles/Team competition are irrelevant. I have no problem if the RHQ Administrator wants to include them but as Masters TO I believe they have no relevance to individual performance.

I understand that the FOW invites do include Doubles results. Personally I feel this is wrong but previous FOW TOs have made the call to allow them and now the genie is out of the bottle.

So please be aware performance/non-performance in a team competition will have no impact on 2012 Fantasy/40k Masters invites.

5 Days of Dark Eldar - Day 4 & 5 Fail!

A long overdue admission of fail here.  As you might have guessed, I didn't end up getting up to much in the last two days of my hobby marathon.  However, I am currently back to painting furiously ahead of Equinox next weekend.  I'm trying out quite a different list to what I used at the masters, and still need to get two Raiders finished.

The tourney is 1850pts, and I basically chose all of the stuff that I have painted, and then filled in any gaps with borrowed models.  Hopefully it should be less of a rock-paper-scissors type experience than my masters list, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot and have a laugh regardless of how it goes.

Here's what I've submitted:

Haemonculus, Venom Blade, Shattershard
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun
Haemonculus, Liquifier Gun

3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
   in Venom, Extra SC
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
   in Venom, Extra SC
3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters
   in Venom, Extra SC

5 Warriors, Blaster
   in Venom, Extra SC
5 Warriors, Blaster
   in Venom, Extra SC
9 Wyches, Haywires, Hekatrix, Agoniser
   in Raider
9 Wyches, Haywires, Hekatrix, Agoniser
   in Raider
9 Wyches, Haywires, Hekatrix, Agoniser
   in Raider
Ravager, Flickerfield
Ravager, Flickerfield
Razorwing

The Horned Rat V Players Pack

Here is the Players Pack for the Horned Rat V here in Wellington on 5/6 May.

It appears that the snotlings have run amok and desecrated the document.

Raymond is happy to ask answer any gaming questions while I'll cover the logistical ones.

Umpire's Errata to the Pack:

If an item generates D3/D6 power dice no other dice can be generated in that phase. If any are then they are discarded. The player may use all dice rolled but will be stuck with only 1 additional dice if that is what is rolled.

Post-Runefang Ruminations

Looking at the results for Runefang V, there are no surprises in the Top 8 placegetters. Certainly there are no players who I wouldn’t expect to be pushing for podiums. All eight participants have played at at least one Masters event.


What is interesting is that the Top 8 finishers used 8 different armies. That is a pretty solid endorsement of the current 8th Edition landscape when a light comp stick is applied to remove the more egregious lists. Certainly under mid to late 7th Edition you’d struggle to see a comparable situation with Daemons, Dark Elves and Vampires dominating.

Another point I noticed is that apart from the Dwarfs (who can’t) and the Daemons each of the armies contained a Level 4 caster (two having multiples). Magic is still a key part of the game though the lore du jour varies from event to event. The triumvirate of Level 4 + BSB + Scroll is such a strong base that it features in pretty much every successful list these days.

One aspect of the lists that did well at Runefang was that apart from Joe’s WoC and Thomas’ Dwarfs they all featured a fair number of drops, allowing expendable or throwaway units. The next move in our local meta may be having a build that includes the ability to clear out this units. In some cases this can be easy e.g. Giant Rats to the more difficult e.g. 20 Dark Elf spearmen.

To this end I think we’ll see more use of Magic Missile lores and Direct Damage spells than has been evident recently. The last 4-5 months locally have been all about hexes and augments. Perhaps it is time for Fire to come back in vogue.

Update on Fields of Blood - The New Zealand Grand Tournament Tickets

Tickets for NZ's premier Warhammer 40k event are being snapped up fast. There are now less than 30 of the original 70 left on sale. We are still four months from the event so I do expect it to sell out.

I can categorically say now that I WILL NOT be increasing the number of places if the 70 tickets are sold prior.

Player comfort is the key reason behind this decision. For the first year at the venue I'd rather err on the side of caution than over-commit. I don't want people packed in like sardines so 35 tables it is.

Get in quick. I'd hate you to be disappointed.

Upcoming Events

These are the upcoming events that I'm aware of overy the next four months:

March

17/18 - Equinox (40k, Fantasy) - Auckland
24/25 - March to War (40k) - Tauranga

April

6/7/8 - NatCon (40k, Fantasy) - Hamilton
14/15 - Auckland Open (40k, Fantasy Doubles) - Auckland

May

5/6 - The Horned Rat V (Fantasy) - Wellington
19/20 - The Wandering Orc - Tauranga (Fantasy)
June

2/3 - Southcon (40k, Fantasy) - Dunedin
3/4 - NiCon (40k, Fantasy) - Auckland

July

7/8 - Fields of Blood - The New Zealand Grand Tournament (Warhammer 40k) - Wellington

Storm of Magic at RunefangV

Over the weekend I played at Runefang V here in Wellington. I took Skaven although I hadn’t played with them since the Masters (one game last week excepted).


My list is up on the blog but the key thing was that I eschewed virtual all combat ability except for the Hell Pit Abomination, relying heavily on mages – two Seers and two Warlocks. These were backed up by chaff, a cannon and catapult and two units of Gutter Runners.

So I‘ll run through my games and then give you my thoughts on the list.

Runefang V Results

Runefang V was run over the weekend here in Wellington with the following results:

1st:  Jack Dunn (Empire)
2nd: Andy Potter (Dark Elves)
3rd:  Mal Patel (Lizardmen)

Best Painted: Joe Dixon (Warriors of Chaos)
Best Sport: Sam Whitt (Warriors of Chaos)
Best Newcomer: Dave Appleby (Skaven)
Umpire's Prize for Most Interesting Build: Kent Jackson (Vampire Counts)

Thanks very much to Peter Williamson for umpiring the event and to all 27 participants for making it another enjoyable event.