Crack's Call - Date Change

Crack's Call will now be run in Masterton on the weekend of 1/2 October.

The event will be a Kings of War 2000 point event - but with a twist. TO Neil Williamson will be developing some special scenarios for the event.

You can see all the details in the Players Pack here

Rules Questions Asked At This Weekend's Event

This weekend I had only two questions asked of me - other than the normal "flank or front" judgement calls.

• If a unit is in terrain that provides cover and shoots at another unit also in that terrain piece, does the shooter take the cover modifier? Yes

• Can a unit countercharge a unit to its flank if there is no room to pivot due to the close proximity of other units? Yes, but only if its final position is completely free of other units. During a Countercharge, the pivot can take it over other units but after it has contacted its target, it must be completely clear of all units. It may slide to achieve this.

The situation in the second question is covered in the most recent FAQ where there are diagrams illustrating this. It was also a question that had previously provided confusion in threads on Mantic Forum prior to the FAQ being issued.

I will say, as an Umpire, I find KoW an excellent set of tournament rules where the rule is easily found in the well written and logical rulebook. This makes umpiring a relatively painless process.

Weekend Hobby Update

Most of the weekend was taken up with WSS "Winter" which ran on Saturday. The event went off well and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

The idea of having a series of events tied go the local club has worked well. Entry for the events is free to club members and with four tournaments, a club membership is a 50% discount on entry (if you go to all four events). It has resulted in 12 new members plus the non-member entry has covered all the costs of trophies. Win-win.

Yesterday I started making the bases for my first "The Herd" units. These are my first attempts at multi basing.

I used various pieces of bark, slate and twig and have now primed them, prior to painting. I left the twig unpainted as I wasn't sure I could improve on nature.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Call to Arms Kings of War - 6/7 August

Just a reminder that Call to Arms is on 6/7 August at Kilbirnie, Wellington.

You can download the Players' Pack in the "Event Calendar" section just below the banner.

The Umpire announced yesterday that the Clash of Kings Pack "Tournament Tweaks" as used at WSS "Winter" will be used for the event. This was after a show of hands showed that an overwhelming majority of WSS participants were happy with the changes.

A list of participants can be found under "Event Registrations" and will be updated as people signup.

Press Coverage of 3D Printed Wargaming Scenery

Article in the Sunday Press about local gamer Matt Barker and his successful Kickstarter for 3D printed wargaming scenery.

You can read the article here

AS you know I'm a big fan of Printable Scenery's models so nice to see some mainstream coverage.

WSS Winter Photos

Here are a selection of photos I took at WSS Winter yesterday.

Sam Whitt, Otaki's very own "Mother of Dragons" was leading into the fourth round but saw his dreams crumble against Peter Williamson's Empire of Dust.

An elf-off in the last round saw Rex Foote prevail versus Kent Jackson.

By all accounts Kent's Elves withered against the torrent of fire from Rex's two shooting hordes.

WSS "Winter" Results

Yesterday "Winter" arrived in Wellington and we had the third of the Warlords' Super Series.

Four rounds, 2000 points with each player having 55 minutes (including deployment). The four scenarios used were INVADE, DOMINATE, LOOT and PILLAGE (in that order). Also used were the Clash of Kings tournament tweaks.

Results were as follows:

Best Sport was Robert Higgins who had 3 out of his 4 opponents give him their Best Opponent vote.
Best Army went to Neil Williamson's Goblins.

I'll post some photos later today and also some thoughts on the CoK tweaks.

Painting At Future FOB Events

Over the past 12 months there have been relaxed painting criteria at Fields of Blood run events. This is largely because Kings of War issued a new edition and indeed for most people was a new game.

The intention was to allow people time to transition to the new game, build new armies or rebase if necessary.

Well a year has past and I'm of the opinion that those that intended doing so, probably have. And so for future events I'll be insisting on painted armies and utilising paint scoring.

As in the past, this will be a checklist system whereby there will be 45-50 points on offer but you only need to get 35 points to get full painting marks. The infamous "checklist" will return.

All the reasons of why I have used this in the past still hold true. For me - and let's not forget it is all about me - Wargaming is a visual hobby. If I am organising an event I go to a lot of effort to create nice tabletops with high quality, functional terrain. Therefore I want those boards to be complemented by painted armies.

I can hear the groans already but as with WHFB in the past the outcome is worth the noise.

This doesn't mean that you have to rebase your figures on multibases. Quite happy for people to use individually mounted figures in the appropriate trays. These are cheap (try Sarissa Precision) or you can easily make them yourself.

However your army will have to be painted to a minimum tabletop standard. Given that that covers everyone at the past two events that shouldn't cause too many waves.

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Winterdale Turret - Six Piece 3D Tower

On Monday and Tuesday I printed off the Winterdale Turret that came as part of the Indigogo crowd funding campaign run in April/May.

The turret is a modular tower that you can make as high as you want. You can also use it to put on the towers for the Winterdale Castle.

These are the six modular pieces straight from the printer. There are two of the window floor but effectively five unique.

• Roof Section
• Ring Support for Roof
• Window Floor
• Door Floor
• Base

You can do without the base if you need to.

The pieces fit together flawlessly. The interiors are all detailed. I will likely put plastic pins in to help in game use (don't want floors falling off).

All together the six pieces took 48 hours of printing time. However my direct interaction was only about an hour. This included ten minutes using Cura (free software programme that converts STL files to Gcode) and loading them on SD card.

From the web I have found out about a product called XTC-3D which is a resin coating for PLA (the plastic filament) prints. I am going to use that tomorrow to seal the pieces and see if it improves finish as much as it promotes.

My tower stands 12" high. I intend painting it up over next week and will post it once it is finished.

 

Posted with Blogsy

"Winter is Coming" - WSS Winter Tomorrow

Unrolling one of the most used cliches of the past five years "Winter is Coming"

Well tomorrow it is here.

The third of the Warlords Super Series "Winter" is on this Saturday at the Warlords venue in Khandallah.

All visitors welcome. If you are interested at all in Kings of War wander along and have a look. Warlords is on Ganges Road in Khandallah. Battle kicks off at 8.15am and continues through to 5.00pm