Mayhem and Miscellany

What a whirlwind two months!

There's been a ton of gaming packed in, and even more miniatures painting, and if I may say so, I think I've outdone myself with speed and quality.

This month started out with some Hobbit Strategy Battle Game hobbying. My gaming group heard rumblings that 40k was getting a re-boot, and so we were in that strange gaming limbo gamers often find themselves in during a changeover in rules. Oddly enough, every time this happens it results in us dusting off the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit Strategy Battle Games.

For this short dalliance, I painted up the last four figures my men of Númenor needed.

Isildur and his bros.

 We played some games, had some fun, but it was time for me to get back to my Slaanesh army for Age of Sigmar. There was the Wet Coast Grant Tournament coming up in July and I couldn't waste any time painting the last 1000pts needed in the army. I had struggled to get the first 1000pts painted in time for the Wargaming Without Borders (WGWB) tournament at the end of April and didn't want to be stuck doing the exact same last-minute stress-job on some figures (spoiler alert: I was).

Then the Warhammer 40,000 boxed set (Dark Imperium) got delivered to the shop. I painted up the Primaris Marines and Darren painted up the Death Guard, but they had to be done by release day on June 17th. I pulled some all-nighters and got them finished, mostly. I still need to do two highlights on the armor, but they're definitely table-ready.

Clockwise from top: Primaris Ancient, Lieutenant 1, Captain in Gravis Armor, Lieutenant 2

Inceptors

The whole shebang. 980pts (51 power)

Intercessors 1

Intercessors 2

Hellblasters

The next step will be finding out what size of game the Foodhammer tournament will be later this year, and work up towards it. The starter set has 969pts of Primaris Marines, and I have a grand total of three sets worth. 

Then after that is was right back into my Age of Sigmar force. I struggled to get 2000pts painted, and did so just at the last minute. I had a great time at the Wet Coast GT, and if anyone reading this can get a chance to make next year's (rumor has it it will be in February/March 2018), it's well worth it. I went 1-4, but won Best Painted, and (most-importantly) had fun. 

Game 1 vs. Ironjawz

My knights were no match for his Gore-Gruntaz

Oh look! More Gore-Gruntaz...

Guess who won?

The hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere?

Game 2 vs. Blades of Khorne

Don't crowd, lads!

20-year difference in models.

Daemonettes are not known for their attrition.

Game 3 vs. Flesh-Eater Courts

Game 5 vs. Disciples of Tzeentch

I'm so glad Tzaangors are back.

I actually did alright on this flank.

Now, I've gotten myself embroiled in an Age of Sigmar Skirmish campaign, which has me painting up these guys:

Which got me thinking: "Why not do a Stormcast army for Foodhammer this year (provided it's only 1000pts like WGWB was)?" So I picked up a box of Judicators (the old box that just had five), and crammed it into the army you get in the AoS starter set (the big one), and voilà, 980pts!

So that's what I've been up to these last two months: painting furiously with no sign of stopping. Now things can calm down a bit. I still need to have three Stormcast figures (a Lord-Relictor and two Liberators) painted for the start of the Skirmish campaign on the 22nd, but Foodhammer isn't until late Fall, and with plenty of notice I can avoid the follies of this Spring's scheduling.

On the Mutant Chronicles front, I haven't done much. I printed out the Venusian Apocalypse pdf I bought and am prepping for the long-haul of the campaign (which should begin in just over a month). I'm really excited! I love the RPG, and I'm glad my gaming group (who have no prior Mutant Chronicles experience) are excited about it too. 

I bought a "Blast Zone" F.A.T. Mat to simulate the bombed-out no-man's land of the Martian front, and Mitch Hunter to add to my Capitol force, but painting the starter box I already have has got pushed further back with all the Games Workshop excitement that's been happening these last couple months. I'll keep plugging away at them, but with my gaming group infatuated with 8th edition 40k, it's looking like the majority of my Mutant Chronicling this year will be the RPG and maybe the Siege of the Citadel, if that gets released.

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From One Army To The Next

Been a while since my last post. What's been happenin'?

Well, not a ton obviously. One thing I managed to accomplish is the painting of 48 models to round out my Kings of War Chaos army (or Varangur, as they're known in the realm of Mantica) for a tournament I went to last weekend. I pretty much spent almost every free moment of time over the course of the last two weeks to finish these figures, and I did it! They're to a tabletop standard rather than something I'd enter into paint contests, but I'm very happy with them. I had to borrow some marauders from a friend as my final regiment of them wasn't ready for the tournament, but the rest of the army's done. I'll return to those final twenty figures when I return to the army and the game.

So how was the tournament then? It went alright. I came in 7th out of 8th, which was a little disappointing but then again my game results spoke for themselves: two losses and a draw. I'm not one to be too discouraged by tournament results, normally, but this time stung a little bit more because I noticed that over the last few years I haven't seen any improvement in myself as a player. In fact, during my third game I was completely confused as to what strategy to take. I started to wonder if I actually got this game at all—that is to say, if I understood it.

My opponents were great, and the organizer was dialed, and the group of friends I traveled with was great and we had a blast. I'll definitely consider going to this event next year. I'm not going to let this discouragement worry me too much, though. I've decided that I'm going to take a step back from the flurry that was these last two weeks and focus instead on the other tournament I have scheduled: The Las Vegas Open.

I've bought my ticket to the Age of Sigmar North American Championship at the Las Vegas Open next year in February. It's a 2000 point tournament using the General's Handbook Matched Play rules and I couldn't be more excited. I plan on bringing my Slaanesh army, which needs a few more painted warscrolls in order to bring it up to a playable 2000 points. I don't have a ton of time to finish it, but neither is it breathing down my neck. This should prove to be a nice palate-cleanser after furiously working on my brass-clad legions.

More on that tournement later, but for now, here are some pictures of the tournament I went to this previous weekend:

Note the borrowed marauders on the left.

Knights get double-charged.

 

Epic "boss fight" between my lord and his.

I even managed to get a 4-player game of Age of Sigmar in using my Kings of War figures:

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Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix Vancouver 2016

Hey all!

Today I'll be at the Magic: the Gathering (MTG) Grand Prix Vancouver. It's a limited format (sealed deck)—which I absolutely love—and it's nine rounds of sweet, sweet, Magic action.

If you want to see any pictures I'll take follow me on Instagram (steelrabbit). If you want to read anything I may say in 140 characters or fewer, follow me on Twitter (@carminlive). If you want to see what others are saying then follow #gpvan on Twitter.

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Vancouver's First Kings of War Tournament

Yesterday I had the great pleasure to play in the first Kings of War tournament held in Vancouver, BC.

Vancouver's always been a pretty hot city for Warhammer, with very dedicated groups of tournament players willing to travel to various locations to compete. I say this because when 8th edition Warhammer ended there was—and still is—a schism in Vancouver's gaming community. Some people have moved on to Warmachine and Hordes, some people have gravitated deeper into 40k, or into SAGA and Bolt Action, while others (like myself) are very excited about Age of Sigmar (AoS).

Then there are some of us who hope that the majority of the old Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) crowd will want to play Kings of War (KoW) to sate their tournament needs. I'm actually glad AoS split the tournament crowd here. If it hadn't, I don't think I would've given KoW a second glance. I'm having loads of fun with AoS, but I also had a ton of fun at yesterday's KoW tournament. I think the two games compliment each other better than others realize.

Anyway, enough of my yammerin' about the crowd here; let's get into the tournament: It was put on by Wargaming Without Borders (WGWB), which is a charity event run by a combination of the three biggest clubs here in Vancouver: WCP, A-Club, and CHOP!. This year they ran the gamut of popular miniatures games, but eschewing AoS, they instead ran a KoW tournament.

The tournaments these clubs run are great. They often involve a great "soft score" element—that is to say, sportsmanship, painting, etc.—and they're very well-run. Some of these guys have been running tournaments for over a decade, so they're always tight. They tend to have amazing prize support, and this was no exception. They raffled off about a dozen prizes and I managed to get the new Khorne Bloodbound Battletome for AoS, which, as one of the more enthusiastic AoS players in the city, was fitting.

There were four games at 1500 points each, using the scenarios from the KoW book. There were twelve players and the overwhelming majority of the armies were painted, with so few exceptions that they could be counted on one hand.

Hilariously enough, when I first signed up I thought this tournament would be a bit of a cinch for me. I'm not the most competitive gamer, which often means that I get rocked in tournaments, but I had been playing lots of KoW, and had even begun playing well before anyone else in the city, so I thought I'd at least give my opponents a run for their money. As we'll see, this was not the case. I was surprised to see how much experience everyone had with this game. Two people even had glued their models to the movement trays! Which is something that I had only seen my friend Paul do (and he's been on the KoW band wagon since day one). I had a great time, and I definitely would do another one.

So let's look at some pics I remembered to take (sadly, while I was prepared to bring my camera, I instead forgot it in typical Carmin style, and had to rely upon my cellphone):

The only shot from my first game. I'm not going
to lie, I was a bit rough from a party I went to the
previous night, which is the only thing that could
explain my horrendous deployment. My opponent,
Vern, still played a solid game, but my deployment
didn't make it any harder for him. A loss for me.

My second game was against another Kingdoms
of Men army (this time, my good buddy Paul).
Our game ended as they usually do: closely. Had
we gone to a seventh turn (which is randomly
determined on a 4+ after the 6th turn) I would've
won. Sadly, none of the four games I played this
day went past 6 turns.

We played the "Loot" scenario from the rulebook.
The blue counters are loot counters.

I was feeling better this game, so took more pictures.

Best dice roll of the tournament. That's a troop
of ironwatch riflemen (rifledwarfs?) shooting. For
those that are wondering why I would document
even a good roll like this, I should let you know
that I am famous—amongst gamers in Vancouver
who know me—at having the worst rolls at the
most in-opportune times.

Game three against another dwarf army. This
one was hilariously the "Invade" scenario, which
meant that two dwarf armies had to get into each
other's deployment zones to score. 

This game was against my good buddy Calen.
A guy I've known for almost a decade. He's a
skilled gamer in almost any game he sits down to
play, and only lost one game this whole tournament.

This was the dumbest move I made all game
(or maybe Calen's smartest), which is going up
against a dwarf king with regeneration and De: 6+.
Needless to say, the dwarf berserkers were a minor
speed bump in Calen's path to victory.

Little tactical tip for those that are thinking about
getting into KoW: Units with De: 6+ are really
hard to kill. 

So that's it. Sadly, I forgot to document my fourth game which was the "Dominate" scenario against a Brotherhood army (KoW's version of Bretonnians). At the time I hadn't eaten and was starving. My brain was in no state to even think about gaming and had never played against—nor even considered—this army and the game was pretty much his. Still, he played a solid game, and had a really uniform-looking paint job.

Here are some observations about the game in general:
1) KoW is more relaxing to play in tournaments. WFB, and to a greater extent, Warmachine/Hordes always left me exhausted by the end of the day, unable to think or do much but pack up models and grab a drink in silence. This was not the case with this game. I could've easily played another one or two games that day before feeling wiped.

2) Games of KoW are quick. Paul and I have been playing with chess clocks and our games of 1500 points have come in at just over an hour. I never had a game go to time in this tournament.

3) Every time I play KoW I like it more and more. When I first looked at it, I thought it was silly, but felt that I had to try it. My first actual game felt boring. But every game after that has had me like it more and more.

4) KoW is a better tournament system than WFB ever was. I love(d) WFB. For years it was my favorite game, and I tried to become a better gamer with every game I played, but for tournaments it was too wacky; too much variance in both the army lists and what happened in game. This made it amazing for club or campaign play (which I think was its intent), but for tournaments, organizers had to create a list of exceptions and rules (again, I think this was its intent). KoW was designed to be a tournament game and I think it excels in this regard. I can game comfortably knowing that this will be my tournament game.

So there you have it: A glowing review from someone who loves AoS, doesn't play a ton in tournaments (though that may change), and at first didn't think much of KoW. If you have been thinking of trying this game out, and have fond memories of 6th or 7th edition WFB, you should give it a go (I mean, you already have the models, and the rules and army lists are free). And if you're ever in Vancouver, BC and your models are handy, pop by an event held by one of these groups. You won't be disappointed.

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Tournament Wrap-Up

I went to a Warhammer tournament on December 14th, 2014. It was at a Games Workshop retail store, and there were ten people there. It was a three-round, 2000pt, tournament where anything goes provided you had the book to back it up. This means that if I wanted to use the Chaos Ascendant rules, I had to have the Glottkin book with me (which I did!).

Each 6'x4' table had a special scenario attached to it, and you had to play that scenario while on that board. My personal favorite was the first table I played on, where there were no deployment zones—meaning you could set up anywhere you wanted on the table as close as 1" to the enemy if you dared—but every time you set down a unit you had to roll a scatter die to see which direction it faced (a HIT is any direction you want).

It was tons of fun, and I came in third place. I only won one game, but due to the inclusion of soft scores like painting, sportsmanship, and so forth, I rocketed to the top three. I lost out by one vote for best sport, so the award I usually win in tournaments went to someone else. I won the first game, and then proceeded to lose the next two, but the hilarious part was that I played all three games against people who were either in my gaming group, and/or were friends of mine. 40% of the people at the tournament I've known for 10+ years, and have, or still, game(d) with regularly.

Anyway, I was pleased to find out that they're doing the same thing this year, and that it is an escalating tournament (I just missed the first two parts in 2014). There's a tournament in Spring that's 1000pts, one in Summer that's 1500pts, and the last one in Fall that's 2000pts. I plan on bringing my old-school Lizardmen army to these three events, so keep up to date on that. It'll be like the tournament journal I've always wanted to write for this blog.

Without further ado, here are some pictures:

This is my army on display. Everyone did this
and people went around and voted on the best
painted. 

This is actually the set-up for the first game—or
as much as I could include on my cellphone's
camera. See the 2nd paragraph for why it's so
chaotic (no pun intended).

A grisly shrine.

I didn't get a chance to finish painting my
daemonettes, so I had to summon plaguebearers.

Game two against Beastmen. I lost this one.

Final game against another Legions of Chaos army.

There used to be five knights with this fearsome
exalted hero of Chaos, however the winds of magic
are fickle indeed... 

CHALLENGE AXEPTED!

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Scion of Slaanesh

Keeper of Secrets: Finished!

This figure was a long time coming. I think I've owned this model for over eight years! Anyway, it's finished, and ready to lead my damned legions across the war-torn battlefields of the End Times.

Speaking of which, if you haven't gotten your hands on any of the End Times books—and who can blame you? They're impossible to find in hardcover—I strongly suggest you pick up the newly-added softcover ones. The stories are amazing (Nagash was a bit slow at the end). I've been reading them before bed, and I have to say, the last couple weeks I've been excited to get to bed.

Anyway, I now have a fully-painted 2000pt Legions of Chaos army. But am I going to stop there? Nope! In the (hopefully) rare chance that any of my champions turn into spawn I'll need to have a couple of those foul abominations on hand. I have two days to finish these two models. This is entirely doable.

It appears that I won't be finishing my daemonettes, which is a bit sad. It also means that if I have an opportunity to summon daemons, I'll have to use my old pewter plaguebearers. I love my old pewter plaguebearers, but they're a tad out of place in a Slaanesh army, no?

I'll keep y'all updated.

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