Warpfire - The Undead finish 3rd!

On saturday Warpfire was held in Wellington.  It was a 1000 point no comp event and boy was it fun.

I don't know if it was the smaller games, the shared table space or the 5 games in one day but I don't think I have laughed so much at a wargaming event as I did at Warpfire - all for good reasons I might add.

So thankyou to all the chaps I talked too and played against.  As usual it was nice to catch up with players who I only see at Warhammer events.  Thanks to Pete Dunn for organising the event and subbing out due to odd numbers and big thank you to Locky for Umpiring the event and bringing back some meaning to painting scores.  For the post event rabble over the now and future painting markings have a look over here.  I for one was under the impression there always was a criteria and it had just been generously ignored over the last year or so.

Anyway if you having Dice problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a 6 ain't one... well most of the time...

Game 1 - Jeff 'Pink Shirt' Kent - Orcs and Goblins... or was that dwarfs in disguise...
 Jeff had a large block of Savage Orcs, 2 Spear Chukkas, Rocklobba and Doom Diver lead by a Black Orc BSB and a Savage Orc Shaman Lord.  Jeff castled up on a hill and I enquired as to the where abouts of the Orcs stolen dwarf helms.  We got straight into it and things did not go well for Jeff.  Misfiring and inaccurate warmachine fire plagued him and I pushed through a couple Curse of Years and Gaze of Nagash over the 3 turns the game lasted.  The Savage Orcs got whittled down while my Dire Wolves and Crypt Horrors got rid of his warmachines.  In the turns remaining Jeff and I worked out I could claim the maximum bonus points netting me a big WIN.

Game 2 - James Millington - Warriors of Chaos, look an actual army.
I enjoy playing James and this time was no different.  James had a Hero on a Daemonic Mount, Tzeentch warriors, couple dog units, Trolls and Skullcrushers.  This game used the Fortitude rules so if I could kill the mounted Hero it would be a big plus for me.  The game quickly became a grind as my Crypt Horrors blocked up the Skullcrushers and Trolls while an ever growing Zombie block held up the Tzeentch warriors.  After a couple dud rolls the Banshee and Engine cleared their throats and did some decent scream damage swinging things in my favour and after James made an exceptional amaount of ward saves I broke his Hero in combat and ran him down giving me the win.  I did not get maximum bonus points and James did not have too many standards but I got a big WIN all the same.

Game 3 - Hamish Gordon - Empire, well WoC masquerading as Empire right?
I was feeling good about this match up.  This was the kind of army my screams do well against.  Two units of 4 Demigryphs, block of knights and a couple characters.  Should be able to take this right... right?  So... I go first, have my movement phase then move onto magic.  I take 3 dice and attempt to cast Curse of Years I think?  It all gets a bit fuzzy here as my 6 comment above comes to haunt me.  There we go two 6s for an IF and the Master Necromancer yanks the chain the warp toilet, down the hole he goes...  So with the average leadership of my army being 2 my undead horde craps itself and pretty much falls apart.  Max win for Hamish. Hamish is gracious in victory and after we and our neighbouring players have a good laugh we play again for fun where he still wins but on less points and more bonus points for me.   LOSS for me.  Have to pay that VC tax sometimes.

Game 4 - Peter Williamson - Bretonnians, terrible list right?
I have played Peter before and know he is a cunning creature but looking at his list of knights, men at arms, archers, trebuchet and mounted yeoman I was feeling like the screams and regeneration of my army would stand strong against them.  Nope! I moved my Master Necromancer and his Zombie entourage into the Skullvane Manse that dominated the board and moved my other units into the 'box' where we would score bonus points.  I will point out now that the start of the game was delayed simply by all the terrible 'box' jokes from all the players along our stretch of the table, myself included.  I blame Joel and James ;P  Anyways through great application of Beast magic and maneuvering Peter slowly took my army apart.  I was still ok with this until his Men at arms unit and Prophetess charged the Manse where the moistened bint turned into a freakin Dragon!  Much gnashing and stomping of Zombies ensued and my Necromancer vanished from the table as did his control over my remaining undead forces.  I think Father Lukin the Necromancer simply hid really really well within the Manse, it was a Greater Fire Dragon that the Prophetess transformed into afterall and he wasn't having a bar of that.  LOSS

Game 5 - Neil Williamson - Bretonnians, time for revenge on the Williamson name.
Like Peter I have played Neil before and knew this would be a nice friendly game to end the day on.  Unlike his son Neil had gone for a simple theme, Knights, Knights, junior Knights and flying Knights!  Surely against all those armour saves the screams would power up?  The lack of magic in Neils army let me add many many zombies to my units and repeatedly cast Curse of Years on his main knight block only for him to throw all his dice at it in his own phase.  Neil did his best to out manuever the slow undead but I managed to hold him up with Wolves, Bats and Zombies.  Neil had one character with a Wyrmlance as well to ruin my regenerating day with and try as I might to block him up he did manage to charge out of his escorting knights through a gap and into the Crypt Horrors with a supporting unit.  I did manage to break a flanking unit of knights early on as my Banshee lurking in a zombie unit screamed like a champ and sent them packing.  Neil then charged the rear of that same zombie unit with his Pegasus knights and along with the central combats the game turned into a grind of hooves, lances and reanimated limbs.  About half way through the game we had attracted some spectators who reminded us that this game contained a curse box in the centre of the table, not only that but my Mortis Engine and banshee seemed to appreciate the crowd and performed for the masses.  After being left on a single wound and having no more zombies left to absorb bleeding CR the banshee let fly and double 6'd, screaming the peggy knights into oblivion.  I then screamed into the main knight block with the Mortis Engine and double 6'd there too!  Following this the ragged remains of the Bretonnians fled from the undead but not before taking a ridiculous amount of strength 1 wounds from the cursed box.  I followed this up the next turn by rolling an 11 to Neil's disbelief finishing off what he had left and ending on a big WIN.

So after packing up Locky whent through the results and to my confusion I had not been called out before hitting the top 5.  I ended up 3rd overall which I am extremely happy with and have my first Warhammer Fantasy podium position.  I did score well in the painting category and netting as many bonus points as I could really helped.  I also now have the Vampire Count Icon for the NZ rankings.  I dont think I will hold it for too long but having it currently in my dead clawed hands gives me some motivation for future events.

So again thankyou to all the fellas I played and caught up with and of course thanks to John Murrie for the ride home and Adam 'the people's champion' Richards for the entertaining conversation while doing so.