Busy February

As we near the end of the month I am looking forward to a quieter March.

Early in the month I attended Over the Top in Hamilton with Cody, Ryan and Wil. This involved painting up another Dreadknight and character for Cody as well as some weeapon modifications for my Wraithlords. As Ryan has already posted he and Wil played in the Fantasy event while Cody and I played 40k. I really enjoyed the tournament and played top notch blokes in all the games against Tyranids, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, Tau, Space Marines and Orks. As I have been playing a lot more Fantasy I wanted to have a good look at the state of NZ 40k now that 6th ed has been out for a while. No shock to see fantastic use of allies, flyers, new psychic powers and larger troop units making up a lot of the armies. There is no messing around in the 40k scene which is awesome and the standard of armies on display was impressive too. The Eldar have been relegated to being the Psychic servants of a few armies most notably Tau with Divination amping up the Tau's considerable shooting capabilities. I took a heavy Wraith list lead by Eldrad and at 1500 and 2000 points being joined by a Wraithseer toting a D-cannon. I had a couple bad match ups(Dark Eldar) and a couple games could have gone past turn 5 for a better result in my favour but thems the breaks and I finished up with 24th of 38. I really enjoyed talking with other players and listening to their views and army construction ideas, it gives me plenty to think about going forward with 40K.

After a late but fun filled trip back home and only a couple hours sleep it was off to work cramming in paperwork before an early flight the following day to Queenstown to visit some the impressive Otago stone fruit orchards - I work in produce. After a couple full days around the primary Otago growing areas it was a late flight back home. After work the next day some quick base colouring was required on a couple Hellstead mounted Vampires as it was time for the NZTC!

I was a proud member of Team OMEN captained by Sam over at Hashut's Right Hand, I brought the chafftastic Vampire Count list rocking the dual Terrorgheists. I highly recommend checking out some of the Youtube clips we made. They may not be full of tactical inspiration but gamers should get a laugh out of some. Sporting our fine Yoda adorned team shirts we made our plays and faced 6 great teams including the 3 who placed. Day one was an incredibly long day of Warhammer not finishing until 10pm after 4 games! OMEN had a mix of results and I lamented the loss of my Ghoul King in a couple of key moments which resulted in my army shitting itself in spectacular fashion, I did get a couple big key wins though too so I was happy after the first day. Heading back to Ryan's place with Cody afterwards we watched some Top Gun and the Thing!? while having a couple beers. At some stage when I decided it was bedtime Ryan declared it was time to head into town - this resulted in a big 'F... off!' from me as it was well past my bedtime but as Ryan and Cody were about to head out the door I threw my blanket aside, donned appropriate attire and followed them into the capitals night.

Well after a noisey night or should that be early morning of more beer, music and dancing we staggered back and I got some sleep before the final couple rounds of NZTC. With a strained awakening and emulating my undead forces with a shambling trip to the bathroom I realised it was near game time so self cast Vanhels Danse Macarbe and hastened out the door with the others for the tournament.

Chugging down energy drink and water I faced off against Beastmen first and like my teammate James drinking on the first day it may have improved my play as I got a good win. We were sitting middle of the field after the 5th round with the opportunity to claw a little bit higher. Our fortunes were not to be realised and after facing off against NZ Hammered we tumbled back down the ranks to 7th. I again managed to turn what was looking to be a favourable result versus Warriors of Chaos into a big loss as the Ghoul King got Gatewayed inspite of mass dispel dice being thrown, thems the breaks in the hard game of Warhammer Fantasy folks. I would like to say a massive thank you to Pete Dunn for putting the event together and congratulations on his team the Von Trapps for winning. Also tankyou to Ryan and Locky for running the two days in a fine display of organisation. The team format was awesome and provided a format for using some different and riskier builds. This may not have been successful for us but Team OMEN will be back with a better selection of forces at our command.

Back to work for a few days then this weekend it was off to Brisbane for the Soundwave Rock festival. No gaming involved but my powers of finding a gaming store in a retail haystack worked when I randomly looked down an arcade to see GW signs much to my wifes amazement... or was it horror? No purchases made but it was a nice busy spacious store with men and women sitting around a busy paint station and a nice selection of terrain on the tables. I did find a good comic book store to spend some funds in though so that was ok.

Amongst all this the Monday night RPG group has embarked in playing 40k Rogue Trader at last. Proving a great change from good old D&D/Pathfinder as the players have to actually think again instead of slaughtering whatever they come across... though that idea doesn't seem to have reached Cody's highly intolerant Flamer carrying Arch Militant yet as some barbequed faux port officials can prove evidence too...

So as the month approaches it's end, its time to get some hobby and gaming focus again. After some good hobby chats with James at NZTC he suggested adding to the Raven Guard's bases to break up the dark colours. I couldn't have agreed more so have started adding some small pieces of modelling lichen and grass to the wetlands bases, so far its making an improvement and I will post some pictures soon. Runefang is the end of April so time to make some choices in regards to Fantasy. Give the Vampire counts a break? Maybe fix up the High Elves and run a Hoeth inspired list I put together or have a good look at Daemons as the new book drops on Saturday and make use of Stu's massive painted collection sitting idle on the shelves in my gaming room... that and help Cody get his very own Warriors of Chaos army up and running for Runefang.