Grail Quest IV: Lethal Flagon

Grail Quest 4:  Lethal Flagon is coming to Sci Fi Genre in Durham on February 18^th, 2012.   Don’t miss out on North Carolina’s best (and only) Lethal Weapon themed Warhammer Fantasy Tournament.

Date: February 18th, 2012

Time: GQ will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Rounds will be 2.5 hours, with a one hour break after the first round for lunch.

Location: Sci Fi Genre

3215 Old Chapel Hill Road

Durham, NC 27707

(919) 490-7900

store@scifigenre.com

General Information

Grail Quest IV will take place on February 18th, 2012 at Sci Fi Genre in Durham, NC. Start time for Round 1 will be 10 a.m. The address is 3215 Old Chapel Hill Rd. Durham, NC 27707, and the store phone number is (919) 490-7900. This will be a 2,500 point tournament. There will be three rounds, each lasting 2.5 hours, with a 1 hour break for shenanigans and/or food after the second round. Round scenarios will be themed to the tournament, but not extremely unusual. Entry fee is ten dollars.

After last year’s successful Highlander themed tournament, we’ve upped the ante and are diving into a Lethal Weapon theme this year.  That’s right, you’ll not only be facing your opponents, but will be challenged in scenarios featuring the Triad, South African gangsters, and of course, Gary Busey (all in a fun and balanced way).

Special Scoring System

Fighting battles isn’t always about preserving your troops carefully, sometimes it’s just about the sheer amount of damage you can cause even if you do get beat down in the process.  Therefore, at the end of each game, each player will report the amount of victory points he or she scored, regardless of win, loss, or draw.  Scenarios will give each player a chance at additional VP’s as well.  For the best overall prize, sportsmanship and painting scores will be added in, and will be combined worth around 25% of the overall score.

Fabulous Prizes!

Prizes will be awarded for Best Overall, 2nd, and 3rd Place, Best Generel, Best Painted Army, and Best Sportsman. I am beginning by contributing fifty dollars to the prize pool, and then adding in the entry fees.

So if you think you’re getting too old for this stuff, man up like Murtaw and get here for Grail Quest IV:  Lethal Flagon!

Registration

It is not necessary to preregister for Grail Quest, however, space is sometimes limited. If you would like to reserve a spot for the tournament, please email us at grailquestregister@gmail.com, or reply to this thread on the Sci Fi Genre forums.  http://z6.invisionfree.com/Scifi_Genre_Forums/index.php?showtopic=7162&st=0&#last
 

F.A.Q.

Q: Do my models have to be painted to play in the tournament?

A: No. Painting and Sportsmanship scores will contribute to your overall score and ranking, however.

Q: Will there be a composition score this year?

A: No. Note, however, that the Power Scroll is not allowed in lists at Grail Quest.

Q: Can you use proxies?

A: Yes, within reason. As a general rule, as long as you make it very clear to each opponent what represents what, and the model choices are not misleading (such as having the same type of model represent two different types of models) we are generally okay with proxies. The size of the model's base must be the same as the original model (since otherwise, it could change things like maneuverability and number of models in combat) but otherwise, feel free to use proxies as needed.

Q: What about conversions and/or non-GW miniatures?

A: Same rule as proxies; same base size, and make it clear what it is. Feel free to use Reaper miniatures or whatever else you find. We actually encourage this, since it fuels creativity and gives people something really neat to look at. As long as they don't give any sort of in-game advantage, conversions are definitely fine.

Q: Do you have to submit your list to the organizer at a point in time prior to the start of the tournament?

A: No. Please bring a list for inspection before the tournament. If you ever feel the need to check your opponent's list for any reason, do not hesistate to request it, and call over the TO if it would make you feel more comfortable. Any illegal list will be disqualified.

Q: What materials are you required to bring?

A: Your army book, your army list, your army (of course), dice, templates, and a measuring tape. Pens are readily available at the store and not required.

Q: Are there any list restrictions?

A: There are no special characters allowed.

Southern Assault Tournament Report: Rounds 1-3

Saturday started at 5:30 a.m. and getting up to travel down to Charlotte, NC.  The Fancy Lads were represented by myself (Beastmen), Tom (Ogres), Lance (Dwarfs), Collins (High Elves), and Ian (Vampire Counts).

My army, in short:

Doombull with 1+ armor save giving more attacks
Level 4 Shadow General
BSB
Level 1 Beasts
44 Gor
10 Gor
10 Ungor
10 Ungor
5 Ungor Raiders
5 Ungor Raiders
5 Minotaurs
24 Bestigors
Razorgor
Ghorgon

Games One vs. Tomb Kings

This was my first game versus the new Tomb Kings.  Matt was my opponent.  He had a 1,300+ point unit with his King, Hierophant, Tomb Guard, and some other characters.  My opening game went well, and I destroyed his Catapult and Snake Riders with ease, and set up for a combo charge on his main unit from the front and flanks.  Unfortunately, Matt had the mask that causes Terror, and I had terrible leadership roles, so he made my Gors and Bestigors flee in his turn. 

Sometimes, this is how the Beastman game goes.

With my army now grossly out of position and trying to rally, he cleaned things up fairly easily.  I failed SIX more terror tests over the course of the game, constantly fleeing (but getting all the bad leadership rolls out of the way for the tournament).  I did manage to save my General and Bestigors through constant running away, and salvaged a major loss instead of a massacre.  I lost 14-6.

The Fancy Lads finished 0-5 in the first round...not too great and our worst start since, well, ever.

Weekend Update: October 3rd, 2011

Whew!  So the Southern Assault Warhammer Fantasy Tournament is in the bag.  It was a ton of fun and very well organized, and I look forward to doing it again next year.  The winners: 

Best Overall: Eoin Whealen
Best General: Bobby Ash (2nd to existing winner Eoin W.)
Best Tactician: Travis Hill (2nd to existing winner Eoin W.)
Best Hobbyist: Todd Klimpel (2nd to existing winner Bobby Ash)

Best Sports: Tom Geater (2nd to existing winner Travis Hill)
Best Painted: Joel Busta (2nd to existing winner Bobby Ash)
Players Choice Paint: Robert Brandon
Top Team: Kobra Kai

I came in 5th overall, and had a 3-1-1 record.  I should have a full tournament report for my games up this week.   Thanks to Dan and Jerry, who organized the event, for a wonderful weekend. 

Weekend Update: September 26th, 2011

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending an invitational 40K tournament at All Fun in Games in Apex, North Carolina.  Since I hadn't played 40K in a while, and it was a 2,000 point tournament, I dusted off the most fun things I have in my army.  I only brought the units that I have painted, rather than bring an unpainted army, as I was going just to have fun and not to worry about competition. 

I ran Shrike and Lysander supported by Lightning Claw Terminators and some medium firepower.  I love running Shrike and Lysander so that I can make Lystander fleet, and not only were they a lot of fun to play, but they ended up winning me the tournament!  Of course, this means I get to run the tournament next year, but I think I'll enjoy that as well, and since I've been running other tournaments off and on for three or four years now, the idea isn't a stress.

Other than that, I did some more work on my Spellweaver, and hope to have her ready as my first Tale of Painters entry for next month.  I'm leaving for the Southern Assault GT this coming weekend, so I need to get any painting I'm going to do out of the way before going. 

Weekend Update: July 18th, 2011

Okay, so I did a lot this weekend, but there wasn't a ton of hobby related stuff.  I did put a good four or five hours into painting my minotaurs, and can probably finish them up this coming weekend.  As they've been on my desk for a solid few months now, staring up at me balefully, it'll be good to get them done. 

In Charlotte, the player's pack for the Southern Assault Warhammer Fantasy 2011 GT was released.  I'll be excited to attend in October!

Beastmen Tournament Short Battle Reports from the July 9th Sci Fi Genre Warhammer Fantasy Tournament

Wow, work really threw me for a loop this week!

Last weekend, I got to participate in a 14 player Warhammer Fantasy Tournament at Sci Fi Genre in Durham, NC.  While it wasn't Blood in the Sun (which also happened that weekend, but I couldn't make the trip), it was a well run tournament and was a ton of fun.  And *spoilerth* my Beastmen ran away with the top prize.  While I didn't take notes or pictures for full battle reports, here's a quick rundown of my games.

I was especially pleased with my day as I had brought what I consider to be an extremely soft Beastman list, which consisted of:


Wooly Bull, a Doombull with Sword of Swift Slaying, Talisman of Preservation, Ramhorn Helm, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor and Shield

Shambo, a Level 4 Great Bray Shaman with a Talisman of Endurance and the Lore of Shadow

Hordor, a Wargor BSB with Armor of Destiny and a Great Weapon

Shamalama, a Level 2 Bray Shaman with Lore of Beasts and a Dispel Scroll

45 Gor with Full Command and Additional Hand Weapons

Two Units of Ten Ungor

Two Units of Five Ungor Raiders

Tuskgor Chariot

24 Bestigor with Full Command the Flaming Banner

5 Minotaur with Additional Hand Weapons

Ricky the Razorgor

Robby the Razorgor

Percival the Giant

Game One

In my first game, I drew Ben H., who has a very nicely painted Skaven army that is almost finished.  I've played him before and he is a great opponent who seems to really enjoy playing.  He had a Grey Seer, Level 2 Plague Priest, Two Warlock Engineers, a BSB, 4-5 big units of Clanrats/Slaves, 40+ Stormvermin, 40+ Plague Monks, 6 Rat Ogres, 2 Doomwheels, and a Hell Pit Abomination.

What he didn't have was any shooting.  Since my Minotaurs generally die to light shooting, they breathed a sigh of relief.  I was still worried about the combined power of the Plague Monks, who I guessed had the scary banner which allows them to reroll hits and wounds for one round, and the Stormvermin who had a Skavenbrew character to make them extra mean.  Fortunately, Ben H.'s dice helped me out.  The Skavenbrew rolled a 1, so it killed a few rats instead of helping them.

I managed to get a Pit of Shades off on the Plague Monks, and took off 15 or so of them.  In his first turn, Ben H. then miscast with his Plague Priest and ended up removing it from the game and having to place a large Blast Template over his Plague Monks.  In the end, eight of them remained.   Meanwhile, I had managed to ambush some Ungor, and was using them to steer his Hell Pit Abomination off in the opposite direction of his fighting.

This allowed me to concentrate my Bestigor and Minotaurs into his Stormvermin / Chaff, and in the first round of combat my Minotaurs rewarded me by doing twenty-one wounds all on their own to the Stormvermin. 

After that, it was a matter of mopping up.  Ben H.'s Grey Seer had been hiding in a unit behind the Plague Monks, and the Gor finished the Monks and then had the Seer for dessert.  The HPA was contained long enough so that when it got into the fight, it had to do so against flaming Bestigors.  A good game, and a massacre for the Beasts.

Game Two

My good friend Tom was my second round opponent, and was also rocking Skaven.  This one will be brief, as it really comes down to Tom's dice not working.  He fired Warp Lightning Cannons, nasty Skaven Spells, and general scariness at me, and everything either missed or didn't go off.  He did have a Plague Furnace, which I had to redirect using my Giant of all things in order to whittle down his other units first.  At the end of the day, Tom's dice handed me a massacre.

Game Three

At the top table, I drew Mark and his Chaos Warriors.  Mark had a roughly 1700 point unit consisting of 35+ Chaos Tzeentch Warriors, four mages (Level Four Death, Two Level One Shadows, and Level Two Tzeentch), his General and BSB).   He also had a unit of 20 Chaos Warriors, Two Warshrines, and Five Marauder Horsemen.   His general goal that day had been to give the big block of Tzeentch Warriors a 3++ Ward Save (I hear it's the new black) and mow down everything in the opposing army.  His first two opponents had obliged him in combat, and had been mowed down. 

Since Mark's army was so small, I held everything out of ambush and simply deployed my inexpensive junk units (Ungor, Razorgor, Chariot) while he had to deploy his whole army.  Once his giant block was down, I deployed my expensive stuff as far away as possible, on the same side of the board as the rest of his army.  Long story short, I then proceeded to put Ungor Raiders and Razorgors in the way of his giant unit while using my army to kill off the rest of his army.  At the end of the game, Mark had managed to kill 160 points, while I had 450 or so for the win, and I think he might have learned an important lesson about Death Stars.  Wait, not the one in the link, the one about eggs in baskets. 

So the Beastmen won first place, with second going to Rob's High Elves, third going to Mark's Chaos Warriors, and fourth going to Ben H.'s Skaven.  I had a bit of a lucky draw on my day, as there was very little shooting to really hurt me, and my army performed well against its opponents.  I'm comfortably achieving my goal of being the southeast United States Mark Wildman, striking fear into the hearts of my opponents with a subpar army book.

Weekend Update: July 11th, 2011

With the wife out of town this weekend and nothing else planned, there was little to do except engage in some serious hobby action.  Saturday saw a nice fourteen man local Warhammer Fantasy tournament (it was no Blood in the Sun, but it was still really fun), and my Beastmen taking first place for the first time!  I hope to have a summary of the tournament up for this week.  On Sunday, I broke out the always awesome and amazing Battle of Westeros with my buddy Brian, and we played through scenarios 8-9 out of 10, which means we may finish up the main game scenarios very soon.  It was a great way to spend a Sunday, especially with Dance with Dragons coming out tomorrow.  All in all, a full and rewarding hobby weekend, although I didn't get around to painting like I had hoped to do.  

Southern Assault Grand Tournament Announcement!

Those crazy kids down in Charlotte, North Carolina will be running a Warhammer Fantasy at their new digs this year!  Information below:

DATE: October 1st and 2nd, 2011
ENTRY FEE: $35
ARMY SIZE: 2500 Points
LOCATION:Parker Banner Kent & Wayne (PBKW)
http://www.pbkwcomics.com
21500 Catawba Avenue
Cornelius (near Charlotte), NC 28031

The event will be limited to about 40 people, so make sure that you register early.

For more information as it comes in, and to register, go to www.warnc.com.

Weekend Update: June 27, 2011

I had a pretty great hobby weekend this time around!  Not only did I finish assembling the Arachnorok spider for Lance on Friday afternoon, I then headed out to Heroes Headquarters in Mocksville, NC for a Warhammer Fantasy tournament with my mighty Beastmen.  I went 2-1 and came in third overall in a field of about twenty-two, so not a bad showing.  One of our locals, Collins, managed to take home Best General.

Most importantly, I had three really good games against two people that I've played before and enjoyed playing against and one person who I've known for quite a while and never had the chance to play against.  They were all fun and challenging the whole way through.

On Sunday, I got some heavy work done on the Spider, and put down several layers of base coats, washes, and highlights.  The body is now done, but I still have to work on the trees at the base, the little spiders on the big spider and on the base, and the howdah.

How was your weekend?

Tournament Report: June 4th, 2011 40K Tournament at Sci Fi Genre

This past Saturday, I attended a 40K tournament at Sci Fi Genre.  Not having played 40K in a good long while (about six months), I didn't know what to expect going in.  Overall, it ended up being a lot of fun.  I don't have any pictures, but I thought I'd give a quick run down of my games. 

I took some Blood Angels, who I have been slowly painting, as I hadn't tried the new book.  I didn't really have an interest in running a tough net list or anything, and wanted to run the more punchy version of the BA, along with some fast vehicles.  It was an 1850 tournament, and I had:

A No Upgrade Librarian with the 5+ Cover Save and Fear of the Darkness Power
Two Sanguinary Priests, one with a Jump Pack
Two Ten Man Tactical Squads with Missile Launcher and Flamer
A Ten Man Assault Squad with Jump Packs, Power Fist, and Two Flamers
A Ten Man Assault Squad with Jump Packs, Power Fist, and Two Plasma Pistols
An Eight Man Assault Squad with No Jump Packs, Power Fist, and Melta Gun
A Vindicator
A Predator with Lascannons on the Sides and an Autocannon up top.
A Whirlwind
Three Rhinos

All the vehicles had extra armor.

Game One

I played Bart and his Eldar in the first game.  He had:

Eldrad
Maugun Ra
Dark Reapers
2 Units of Fire Dragons, both in Transports
2 Units of Dire Avengers in Transports
Rangers
Striking Scorpions

His tanks all had holofields or the like, which made them hard to kill.  The scenario was kill points, but there were also two objectives to hold.  Bart got first turn and shot forward with Ra and the Fire Dragons.  We had deployed relatively closely on one side of the board.  His first shots all did nothing to me (phew!), and I killed his tanks that had come forward.  He did pop my Vindicator by turn two or three with the Fire Dragons, but the Assault Squad killed Ra, the Fire Dragons, and the Striking Scorpions.  My stuff retreated, and he couldn't get the job done with Eldrad and the Reapers from a distance.  I won the kill points, but he got the secondary objective by contesting one objective and holding the other.  So a pretty good win to me for the start. 

Game Two

My opponent in my second game had a Space Wolf list that I think is a pretty basic internet Razorback spam list.  He had a couple Rune Priests, Long Fangs with Missile Launchers, and Razorbacks with Las/Plas turrets.  Our objectives involved getting things to the middle of the board.  Sadly for my opponent, I made my smoke cover saves and managed to get all my stuff to the ruins in the middle of the table, where there was plenty of cover.  The high point of the game for me was when, in succession, I had an assault Marine's pistol blow up a Land Speeder, which cleared a shot for my Predator to blow up his one Rhino, which contained a Wolf Priest and Wolf Guard.  Fear of the Darkness then made that unit run off the board.  The long and short of the game is that I controlled the middle of the board while he had to shoot ineffectively from a distance, and I ended up taking all the points in the game. 

Game Three

The objectives in my third game involved holding four strategic points.  I played an Imperial Guard player who I think again had a pretty typical internet tank list.  I had let him choose our table, and with a sinking heart noticed that he chose the one table in the store that had zero terrain in the middle of the board.  He had:

A Manticore
3 Valkyrie / Vendetta (the kind with the Twin Linked Lascannons)
Three or Four Lemans
A Couple Chimeras with minimum troops.

The deployment was in opposite corners of the board.  I was in the cover of some buildings, but had absolutely no ability to cross the board and get to him.  Fortunately, I had two objectives in my buildings, and a third was nearby. 

This ended up being a really weird game of 40K.  I'm not sure that my opponent had a grasp on the scenario (grab objectives), or perhaps he was just used to ignoring scenarios and blowing his opponent off the table completely.  Apparently, this is what had happened in his first two games, and in several games before.  He was really surprised that I wasn't dead after the second turn.  Our game was pretty much him sitting still and dropping template after template on me, and my guys hugging cover like crazy and controlling the objectives.  The game had a random length, and could go 5, 6, or 7 turns.  On turn five, I controlled two objectives to his zero, but the game didn't end.  On turn six, I controlled three objectives to his one, and the game didn't end.  On turn seven, I finally failed a bunch of 3+ cover saves and was tabled.  I was happy with the result, as I think I outplayed him in what was a terrible set up for my army, but sometimes the dice give out on you.

Anyway, I had a ton of fun playing some 40K.  I was really impressed by the resilience of the Blood Angels army.  The game as always felt a lot less aggressive than playing Fantasy, but I enjoyed it all the same!

On Painting Scores in Miniature Gaming Tournaments, Part III

Links to Part I and Part II.

.Part III:  Judging Paint Scores

Now that you've settled on the weight you'll give your painting scores, you'll want to find an effective way to judge those scores.  There are several ways to go about doing so, but I believe that some are better than others.  

The first issue to deal with is whether or not to judge your players painting on a "soft" scale, or whether to use a checklist.  A "soft" scale allows the judge to assign a score to each player's army, say from 1-10.  These numbers are not defined, but rather based upon the judge's feelings as to the relative standing of each army at the tournament in terms of painting.  A checklist system is more prevalent, such as the one here for the Colonial GT (scroll to the fifth page).  This provide points for different aspects of painting and modeling, such as shading, highlighting, conversion, and the like.  

The second issue to deal with is whether players will judge their opponents painting scores or your and/or other judges will do so.  Players can do a good job of judging their opponents army, as they spend some time really looking at it, but you'll also run into the problem of players who will mark their opponents down in terms of painting in order to knock the other player down in terms of overall score.  Judging painting yourself and/or with neutral judges is more work, but should reduce the threat of bias and people gaming paint scores.  

I would personally suggest using a checklist to judge paint scores and not having other players do the judging.  This should eliminate the randomness of "soft" paint scores, as well as the bias of having players judge.  I also highly suggest using multiple judges (two or three) rather than using a single judge.  Use the scores that these judges provide in an average to get your paint score.  This will eliminate the problems of a kind of Rashomon effect for painting.  Even with a checklist, two different judges can and will get significantly different results for the same army, and averaging these scores out will allow for better, more accurate scoring.  Recruit a friend, a spouse, or a store owner, and get to judging!

Okay, so hopefully these articles have been fun and informative, and I hope that they have been helpful to any T.O.'s present and future as well!  Thoughts and questions are appreciated!

Mocksville Fantasy Tournament: Fourth Place Beasts

I attended the Heroes Headquarters Warhammer Fantasy Tournament put on by Game On in Mocksville, NC this past weekend.   The venue was very nice, the event was well run, and I had a lot of fun.  In three games, I lost to a Lizardman Slann army, beat a Skaven army, and barely got a win against some Dark Elves in a wild back and forth game that came down to a 200 point difference.  Thanks to all involved for a great time!

Brawler Bash IV - Day Two

Now that I've gone ahead and lost my notes from the last two games, we'll see how much I can remember.

I finished the first day, 2-1, and had a chance to do well going forward.  Then I sat down to my Round Four, and got a wee bit nervous.

Round Four

Jon was my opponent in Round Four, and brought the Double Abomination Skaven scariness.  He did only have one magic user, a Level Four Gray Seer, and rounded things off with several blocks of Slaves, Clanrats (including a block with his War Litter General and BSB (which was in the second rank, grr!) and a Warp Lightning Cannon, as well as two groups of Gutter Runners.

Since I don't have notes, I'll hit the pivotal stuff.  We played Meeting Engagement, where units and characters have to stay in reserve if they roll a one.  Deployment was weird, with only my Gor block of 45 getting left in reserve.  This caused my BSB and General to be in the Flaming Banner group of Bestigor instead of my Gor. 

By the beginning of turn two, Jonathan had killed all four of my mages using his Abominations and General's unit.  My level four had managed to use his bound Stone of Spite, which killed Jon's Grey Seer.  At this point, I was pretty nervous.

Enter the Bestigor.  These guys, combined with the General and BSB, suddenly became an unstoppable unit.  They got charged by the Skaven General unit with BSB and an Abomination, and chopped everyone down.  They chased a couple other Clanrat units and the other Abomination until everything died, and Jon ended up with nothing left except a few low point rats on the table.  His WLC had been eaten by a Razorgor.

Massacre to me, and I believe Jon went down as my favorite opponent of the tournament.  He was a great sport when he was kicking my butt, and a great sport when the tides turned.

Game Five

Joel was my final opponent, and was somebody I had never had a chance to play before.  He had a pure Nurgle Daemon army, with a Great Unclean One, Three Blocks of 25 Plaguebearers with Heralds, Three Beasts of Nurgle, and Five Swarms of Nurglings.

Our final match was straight Battleline.  Joel got an early lead when I charged a unit of Plaguebearers in the flank with my Flaming Banner Bestigor, only to whiff and end up fleeing.  His Great Unclean one charged my other Bestigor, and while the GUO killed a ton of the Bestigor, he didn't manage to kill my Level Four in the unit.  The Bestigor fled through my Gor block, and then rallied.

At this point, I managed to get some good magic off, and took down his Great Unclean One, followed by a Purple Sunning of one of the Plaguebearer blocks.  My Gor Block moved up, and supported by Beast and Shadow buffs and debuffs took another Plaguebearer block out.  Meanwhile, my Chariot and Razorgors were busy tying his Nurglings and Beasts of Nurgle up on the other side of the Board.  Joel ended up killing them, but not soon enough, and the game ended with my achieving a massacre.

So I ended the tournament 4-1, and placed 3rd overall out of 38.  Not bad for some bright orange Beastmen! 

Beastman and Skeletor: Ready for War

As Brawler Bash quickly approaches this weekend, I've finished up my painting and modeling.  Leading the Orange Beasts are Beastman the Beastlord and Skeletor the Great Bray Shaman.  Can anything stand in their way?  Probably, but at least it'll be a good time!

Shard of the Herdstone

At Brawler Bash, I'll be running the Shard of the Herd Stone as a magic item, and that meant representing it as a piece of terrain.  I had a Trygon base that I'm not using, and I wanted the Stone itself to be pretty massive (especially since Brawler Bash requires a painting "centerpiece" for your army in its paint scoring).  Thus, out of box clay was born the Super Shard!  It's lucky that this is the shape that Herd Stones should basically come in, as it's also probably the most complicated shape that I'm capable of sculpting.  It's super fragile, so I'm hoping it will carefully survive the next couple weeks, then to be retired to shelfdom and occasional play.

2011 Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Scenarios

The 2011 'Ard Boyz Scenarios have been posted, and can be found here.  The major theme you can see throughout is a strong penalty to taking a shooting army, which my Beastmen warmly approve of.  The first round is April 16th, at locations throughout the U.S. 

Warmachine "Greenmachine" Tournament Reports

After my first tournament this past Saturday, Warmachine remains a very interesting game to me.  On the one hand, I enjoy the game mechanically and from an intellectual standpoint.  On the other hand, however, there is a bit of a "nasty surprise" aspect to the game, and I'm not sure the local scene is quite for me.  I'll try and illustrate using the tournament. 

My list for the tournament was (25 Points Mangled Metal):

Goreshade the Bastard
Helldiver
Deathjack
Reaper
Seether

Goreshade's feat creates a six strong unit of Bane Thralls as well.  The idea of the list was to use the Bane Thralls as assassins against enemy casters by throwing them forward on the feat turn, and to use the Reaper to drag enemy Beasts/Jacks away from their owners and then murder them with the Deathjack and Seethers.

My first game was against pThagrosh, with a Carnivean, Angelius, Shredder, and Seraph.  My opponent had obviously had a similar thought to me in list creation, in that Thagrosh can reincarnate a Beast as his feat, effectively giving him a bigger list.

He ran his army up the first turn, and left his Carnivean forward.  I used the Reaper on my turn to drag the Carnivean in, and then killed it with Deathjack.  I then feated with Goreshade, leaving the Banes in the backfield, and used Goreshades teleport to move the Reaper and Deathjack back into my backfield and out of range of his army.   He moved his army around the next turn and returned the Carnivean to life in his backfield.  I ran up the next turn, and then he killed my Banes with shooting and charges in his turn.  Unfortunately, his Angelius frenzied, and so was unavailable to him, and his Beasts were now in the charge range of all my Jacks.  I killed the Carnivean and Seraph in my turn, and my opponent conceded. 

I went into round two having a good time.  My opponent was a good friend of mine, and was a brand new player as well.  He brought Karchev, two Kodiaks, a Destroyer, and a Berserker.  With a huge charge range, I was a bit nervous, but it was a short game.  My opponent came forward, casting Tow to move all his Jacks.  After the first turn, I was able to use Mage Blight to shut down any chance of Karchev's feat or spells.  My opponent then upkept Tow and moved his Jacks, but left Karchev up in front of his Jacks.  I then moved Goreshade up, feated, and used the Bane Thralls to kill Karchev. 

My opponent was a bit upset after the game, because he thought my list was nasty, and decided to take a walk.  I can completely understand his frustration.  What was really awful was the T.O. then coming over to me in order to tell me how much of a "douchebag list" I had, and how she wished she had a "douchebag stamp" to stamp all over lists like mine. 

Let me put in my side here.  The first game of this tournament was my fifth total game overall.  While I can appreciate that the Goreshade list is hard, I thought I had come up with a clever list for a tournament, not something that required a T.O. to tell me about what a horrible person I was.  I suppose I was suckered in by a lack of experience with the game, and the idea that Page 5 had some small meaning. 

In the third game, I played another friend with his Circle.  My heart wasn't really in it, and he assassinated Goreshade using eKaya's feat and a Ghostly Warpwolf. 

Somehow I won first place in the tournament, and with zero product prize support (despite an entry fee) ended up with a Steamroller Coin.  My friends with Circle and Khador ended up with second and third, respectively. 

So, Warmachine.  I really enjoyed my first game.  I can understand my opponent being upset and surprised in the second round from the Bane Thralls, and wish that I had thought to explain that the Thralls could activate after being summoned.  I knew that my opponent had studied my caster prior to the tournament, and honestly thought he knew they did so.  However, I hated that the T.O. come stuff her face in a few minutes later and publicly berate me.  If my list was too hard, it sure as heck wasn't from my masterful understanding of the game and evil genius, and it sure could have been handled either before or after the tournament in a tactful manner. 

My only other experience with the local crowd, a couple weeks earlier, involved my opponent being friendly when he thought he was getting an easy league win out of a new player, and then turning surly and rude when I unexpectedly won.  I have had good game experiences with people that I've known from Fantasy and 40K previously. 

I want to like this game.  I like the miniatures and painting potential, the base rule system, and the Privateer Press customer service philosophy.  While I would in now way push the idea that Privateer Press players are anything but top notch, I fear that the local crowd may put me off the game. 

First Warmachine Tournament

I'm headed to my first Warmachine tournament tomorrow, a twenty-five point Greenmachine Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw tournament over at All Fun and Games in Apex.  To translate, Greenmachine means that only newer players can play, or at least players who have never placed in a previous tournament.  Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw means that only Warcasters/Locks and Jacks/Beasts can be taken, so units and solos are out. 

I wasn't sure what I would take at first, as there are so many good builds with Cryx.  I won't, if you don't mind, post my list until Monday, as I want it to be a bit of a surprise.  I hope to have battle reports as well.

Enjoy your weekends!

Grail Quest 3 Results

Grail Quest 3 was a great success once again this year, with eighteen participants duking it out Warhammer Fantasy style for fabulous prizes.  In the end, there could be only one...best overall!

Best Overall - Ian Holland (Dark Elves)
Best General - Robert Brandon (High Elves)
Second Overall - Collins Mullen (High Elves)
Third Overall - Joel Busta (Daemons of Chaos)
Best Painted - Erik Lindley (Daemons of Chaos)
Best Sportsman - Bart Bartkowiak (Daemons of Chaos)

Congratulations to our winners, and thanks to all the participants for making Grail Quest 3 a great time for everyone.

On a side note, look at that broken Daemon army book.  It was obviously written to dominate in painting and sportsmanship in Eighth Edition!

Getting Ready for Grail Quest

Oh man!  The week before running a tournament is especially hectic!  With twenty folks preregistered for Grail Quest this year in Durham, NC, I'm hoping for a great turnout.  On my list:

1.  Writing the scenarios.  They've got to not only be great, they've got to be Highlander themed this year.  There can be only one!  With 8th edition, I would like a standardized table as well. 

2.  Making some awards.  We've only given out gift certificates in the past.  I'd like some sort of trophies to go out as well this year, as well as to get some to the tournament's previous winners.

3.  Scheduling with the store.  I'd like to get in a little early and set things up.

4.  Making sure we have the materials.  Terrain is no problem, but I like objective markers and such.