The Man with No Time

It's been a long, long time since I made it to a Guardians of Tyr event. Over a year in fact. A few factors are responsible for this: the loss of the events in Milton Keynes this year means they're bimonthly, so if I'm busy there are fewer opportunities; a busier schedule for me combined with unfortunate timing of the events, and the Sunday dates. I keep my eye on the calendar, and always express interest, but inevitably something comes up and I can't make it. However, the latest event, which was last Sunday, I was actually able to attend! There have been some changes since I last went to Northampton for an event. They've moved to Deathclock (probably a plus), have moved from a slightly lower points value to the tournament standard (definitely a plus), and have standardised most of the events to be standard Steamroller (which I think is a shame, though the last event  is  a Who's the Boss tournament). Oh, and the both the new edition of Warmachine and the new...

Just a quick one today. Yesterday I had a productive day. Well, some would call it productive, others might disagree! I spent a large part of the afternoon working through the pile of unopened stuff in my games cupboard, building lots of models. First up was a little wind-up toy car that I was given for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's plasticard, and all the parts were push-out and push-fit. It looks cool I think, and runs quite well (though the front wheels are a little wobbly). Next up was a not-Mechano tank, received the same Christmas. This was quite fiddly to build, as the spanner to tighten the nuts and bolts was tricky to fit into some of the tighter corners. I also couldn't work out how to fit one of the pieces to the turret, the gun barrels work loose very easily, and the tracks weren't big enough to fit around all of the wheels without deforming the side pieces. But overall it looks quite good. Next up were some Warmachine and Hordes models....

On 29th June, Privateer Press released the new editions of Warmachine and Hordes, my current miniatures game of choice. This was not a complete surprise. Chatter in the community for a few years had been "I hope they change this for Mk 3", or "list the changes you want to see in the next edition", or "when is the new version coming out?", but Privateer themselves had been tight lipped on the subject, making no statements either way regarding an update. Then, at the end of April, they announced that the new editions were coming. With new starter boxes, a new app, a new points system, and new hardback rulebooks. The excitement in the community was palpable. Banner art for the new edition of Warmachine and Hordes, showing new leaders for Khador and Trollbloods.  (Credit: allnewwar.com, Privateer Press. No commercial use intended) I'm not going to go into a detailed review of what's changed between editions; the release was over a month...

This past weekend I made my way down to London for SmogCon V, the latest incarnation of Europe's biggest and best Warmachine convention. My first visit was last year, and I had such a great time that I just had to go back. Spoiler alert: I'll be heading back next year too. Rather than giving a blow-by-blow of all of my games, I thought I'd give an overview of what I did, where I spent most of my time, and my results. Then I'll do a separate photodump post of the best snaps that I managed to take. A blow-by-blow might follow at a later date if I can be bothered (and have the time).

Just over a week ago I had an absolutely awesome experience - I spent three days at a hotel just next to Heathrow airport. Which doesn't sound so great, until I say that it was my first experience of a convention. Specifically SmogCon 2015, the UK's biggest Warmachine convention, and the only US-style gaming convention in the UK (and possibly Europe, though I'm not sure that's entirely true).  As I said, I had an awesome time. I'd been hoping to go for the last couple of years, but was either a) in Scotland, or b) forgetful and missed the tickets sale. This year I was actually at orchestra when tickets went on sale, but fortunately there were still about 50 left when I got home and I managed to snag one. I decided pretty early on that I wouldn't bother trying for any of the tournaments; instead I'd spend all my time in the casual play area playing pick-up games of Warmachine/Hordes, or trying out some of the boardgames. I'm quite pleased with that ...

Monday nights is our weekly gaming session at Warwick Sci-Fi. There are only three of us that regularly play Warmachine & Hordes: myself, Paul (a PhD student), and Dom (a final-year undergraduate). It’s a bit of an awkward number, but we’ve worked around it with smaller points levels, three player games, and by only having two of us there a lot of the time. As Dom’s graduating this year he’s going to be leaving, and since last night was his final week at Sci-Fi we decided to do something a bit special as a send-off – a massive 100pts, two warcasters per side game. I’ve got easily the biggest collection, so I agreed to take one side by myself using my Cryx. Paul and Dom would take 50pts each of Khador and Circle Orboros respectively. I had several advantages going into the game. First, with 100pts to myself I had full control over my side. Second, Paul and Dom’s limited collection meant that I had a decent idea what they would be taking, particularly for their...

Another month, another Guardians of Tyr Warmachine tournament! This time it was back to Northampton for another 35pts Steamroller even. However, this was no ordinary Steamroller. One of the things that I like about the Guardians of Tyr setup is that they try to mix up the even formats throughout the year. They ran a Highlander (there can be only one!) event at Northampton to start the year which I sadly missed out on, and have run Who's The Boss at Milton Keynes this year as well. This time it was "4-Headed Hyda". The idea of the Hydra event is that you make a single list, assuming a set number of warjack/warbeast points - in this case 35pts, with +5 warjack/beast points. You then choose a number of warcasters/warlocks equal to the maximum number of rounds to run the list - in this case 4. Each round of the tournament you select one of your warcasters/warlocks to use, and each can only be used once. It's an interesting twist, and forces you to think about list s...

Last Saturday I travelled down to Milton Keynes for my third Warmachine tournament of the year. Like the last one I went to ( in Northampton ) this was organised by the Guardians of Tyr, and was a 35pt standard steamroller event. This time around though there was no Divide and Conquer in play, so no need to play each list, and the event was a little bigger - 24 players rather than 16 thanks to the extra space in the Milton Keynes branch of Wargames Workshop. After my bad form in the last two tournaments I attended, where my record was 0-7, I was really hoping that I'd at least get one win in. But in some ways that was a secondary goal - my main aim was to have fun, be a good sport, and try to give my opponents an enjoyable experience playing me. WARNING: Like most of my tournament reports this is going to be a really long post!

Last Sunday I travelled down to Northampton for my second Warmachine tournament of the year. It was being held at Wargames Workshop Northampton, and being run by the ' Guardians of Tyr ' gaming club. Despite a poor showing on my part in terms of results, I have to say that I had a really enjoyable day at what was a very well run tournament.

Tomorrow I'm travelling down to Northampton for my second Warmachine tournament of the year. It should be about double the size of the last one, with 16 players signed up for four rounds, and I'm looking forward to it. I've had my Cryx on the back burner for while so that I can learn how to use some of my Circle Orboros models at weekly gaming, which has been a lot of fun. But it will be nice to get the undead back on the table.  After my disastrous results at the last tournament I attended, I'm setting my sights low. I would like to win one game, and if I manage that I'll be happy. 

Shock, horror - I've actually managed to finish painting some models! I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of free time the last couple of weekends, and have used it putting paintbrush to metal. I've had a fair number of figures for my Cryx army partially complete for some time now, and with some tournaments coming up that I'm attending/planning to go to I thought I should get some of them actually finished. What a novel concept. Look ma, zombie pirates! (Credit: David Brown) First up on the block were most of my unit of Revenant Crew. I say most because there are two still to do, including a second copy of the most awesome model in the unit (the diving helmet guy), but they need stripped before I tackle them. Even so, eight models down isn't too shabby; it's been a long time since I got any kind of unit done, so I'm counting this as a victory. Sadly I don't have any plans to use them in a list at the moment, although I'm mulling over...

So as I mentioned in a previous post , I travelled over to Leicester today for my first Warmachine tournament of the year. I'd been told that it started at 10:30, and after a tangle with Leicester's current heavy roadworks and diversions, made it to the venue about 10:15 to find that the tournament was literally just starting. I'd made it just in time! It was a small affair - only 8 players - and very Warmachine heavy. We had two Cryx players (including myself), three Protectorate players, a Mercenaries player, and a Khador player. The sole Hordes representative was playing Legion. I said in my other post that I was hoping for 'not last'. Sadly that wasn't to be, and I did indeed finish at the bottom of the heap. Sadly it wasn't even particularly close, and I put in what was a pretty poor showing at times. Not the worst I've ever played, but not the best either. I do miss playing more regularly. I'm going to do a quick run down of m...

Tomorrow I'm travelling over to Leicester for my first Warmachine tournament of the year. I've never been to the store there, so it's a bit of a journey into the unknown. But after asking on the Warhammer Forum's Warmachine board it seems that there's no sign up, just turn up on the day. So I thought I would. It's a 35pt, Deathclock, Steamroller 2014 event. Two lists, with each having to be played at least once. 

It's time for part 3 of the post series chronicling my (possibly misguided) attempt at Lost Hemisphere's Most Epic Unloved Model Challenge 2013. My introduction post can be found here , and some musing on Venethrax and the options available to me can be found here . For this post I'm going to take a look at the lists that I've come up with. These are my initial ideas, and will probably change after some play experience, but in the end my options are limited somewhat by the restrictions of the theme force.

It’s time for the next instalment of my Lost Hemisphere Challenge, and since this is going to be year-long series of posts I’ve decided to create new heading. It’s been a couple of weeks since I signed up to the challenge, and it may seem as though I’ve been slacking off. I’ve actually been rather busy doing some background research. I read Lamoron’s blog posts chronicling his experiement with Venethrax over at “The Overseer”, I read GentleBen’s post at “Bell of Lost Souls”, I watched several YouTube video battlereports featuring Venethrax, mostly from bitzandpiecesNL , and I re-listened to the Chain Attack podcast of Venethrax vs. Reznik . Today I want to share some of my thoughts and conclusions based on that research.

It's been a long, long time since I posted anything to do with wargaming. There are a few reasons for this. First, I didn't really get much painted for large parts of last semester, and I lost all of the motivation that I'd built up over the summer. Second, all of the events that I wanted to attend clashed with lifesaving competitions. So I haven't played any games in months. Third, I was getting more into boardgames again, sparked in part by the realisation that my brother likes them too, and the greater convenience of carrying them around (for example, taking them to my parents' for Christmas). However, something has cropped up on one of the podcasts that I listen to that has really got me excited, and that will hopefully provide me with some structure to my wargaming for 2013. This will hopefully be the first in many posts concerning  Lost Hemisphere's Unloved Model Challenge , which I've signed up for. What have you gotten me into LHR? *Shakes ...

This month has seen the release of the latest expansion for Warmachine: Colossals. This new expansion has only two releases per faction (three for Mercenaries), but they're well worth the wait. Each faction has a new warcaster, which is a third incarnation of one of the Prime warcasters for the four original factions, and a colossal warjack. Unlike with the battle engines though, this time the Mercenaries aren't left out. Mounted on the same 120mm base as the battle engines, these new colossals primse to be game changing, and I can't wait for the Cryxian Kraken to be released. The new Cygnar Stormwall colossal. That thing is scary to deal with. (Credit: David Brown)

Last Sunday I travelled South for the inaugural Worlds Gaming day. Organised by the owner of Worlds at War , it was held at the Howden Park Centre in central Livingston, and featured tournaments for Warhammer 40K, Flames of War, and Warmachine/Hordes. It was a long day, starting at about 10:30 and going on until 18:45, but very enjoyable. I met lots of new players, all of whom were very friendly, and got to know some of the more familiar faces a little bit better. Not only that, but I even won half of my games!

After the Warmachine  April Annihilation steamroller tournament that I went to down in Livingston, I've been starting to think about my lists for the upcoming Worlds Gaming Day on the 20th of May. Organised by the same pressganger, and run in conjunction with Worlds at War once more, it's going to involve a twist on the standard 2012 Steamroller tournament. Primarily a 35pt tournament, with the usual 2-list, character restriction format, the final round will be played at 50pts, with all restrictions lifted. So you can repeat character units/models from your 35pt lists, and even use a different warcaster if you want to. I'm in a few minds as to the direction that I want to go in with this, so I'm posting up some thoughts here to get them down on paper.

Yesterday I travelled down to "Worlds at War" in Livingston (well, Craigshill to be precise) to take part in my first Warmachine tournament of the year. I was really looking forward to it; I hadn't managed to get any games in at all up to that point this year, so these were going to be my first 4 games of the year. I was also eager to play some new opponents, as there were several people on the entry list that I'd not met before at my previous two tournaments. The tournament was a standard 35pt Steamroller event. Two lists, with character restrictions in place and reinforcements required. We could play each list as many times as we liked, including not at all if we wanted to.  I was fairly sure about my first list - a tier 3 Deneghra1 list that was tweaked from a list that I'd used previously. But my second list gave me pause. I considered taking one of the warcasters that I'd not used much/at all; Skarre2 and Terminus both crossed my mind. But in the en...