Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Mighty Empires III- Round 1

3/25 Games Workshop, Oak Park

The third installment of our Mighty Empires Campaign is underway. This time we've added two new players, a slew of house rules, custom tiles and a bigger map. There is no winning point total, we are just going to let it run 9 turns and see who wins.




The Armies and their Generals

Erik- Dogs of War -Mercenary General
Andre- Dwarfs- Runelord
Kenny- Ogres- Tyrant
Josh- Chaos Undivided- Exhalted Sorceror
Eric- Lizardmen- Saurus Old Blood
Joe- Lizardmen- 2nd Gen Slaan Mage
John- Empire- Empire General
Bill- Vampire Counts- Vampire Lord
Billy- High Elves- High Elven Prince
Jeff- Chaos Undivided- Chaos Lord
Anthony- Orcs and Goblins- Black Orc Warboss

Strategic Events

Dogs of War- Land Grab
Dwarfs- War Tax
Ogres- Building Boom
Chaos Undivided( Josh)- Fortune Favors the Bold
Lizardmen (eric) - All or Nothing
Lizardmen (joe)- No Guts, No Glory
Empire- Survey the Battlefield
Vampire Counts- Scouts
High Elves- Lead by Example
Chaos Undivided- Praise be to the Oracle
Orcs- Espionage

Campaign Events

Dogs of War- Fame
Dwarfs- Hidden Cache - Rune of Battle, Master Rune of Challenge
Ogres- Thy Lord Returns- Skrag the Slaughterer
Chaos Undivided (Josh)- All is well
Lizardmen (eric) - Hidden Cache- Dispel Scroll, Power Stone
Lizardmen (joe)- Corruption
Empire- Fame
Vampire Counts- Fame
High Elves- All is well
Chaos Undivided- All is well
Orcs- Corruption

Revenue

All player starting with one hex have a Empire Strength of 1, and generate 25gp.
Exceptions-
Dwarfs- 125gp (war tax+100) Lizardmen (joe)- 0 (corruption-100) Orcs- 0 (corruption-100)

Challenges
(This weeks games are all 2000 points before gold upgrades)

Dogs of War VS Dwarfs
DRAW, 2 Empire points each.

Ogres VS High Elves
DRAW, 2 Empire points each.

Chaos Undivided ( Josh) VS Lizardmen (Eric)
Chaos Undivided (Josh) - Solid Victory!!!! 4 Empire Points

Lizardmen (joe) VS Orcs
DRAW, 2 Empire points each.

Empire VS Chaos Undivided
Chaos Undivided (Jeff) - Solid Victory!!!! 4 Empire Points

Vampire Counts VS High Elves
Vampire Counts- Massacre!!! 5 Empire Points


Special Characters
(each army has a access to a special character who is revealed over the course of the campaign, those in bold have joined their Empires)

Dogs of War- Lorenzo Lupo
Dwarfs- Thorgrim Grudgebearer
Ogres- Skrag the Slaughterer
Chaos Undivided (josh)- Galrauch
Lizardmen (eric) - Krog Gar
Lizardmen (joe)- Lord Kroak
Empire- Karl Franz
Vampire Counts- Mannfred Von Carstein
High Elves- Teclis
Chaos Undivided (jeff)- Archeaon
Orcs- Grimgor Ironhide

Important Rule Errata-
pg 2- Strategic Events - strike the line, ",with the exception of #12"
pg 3- Strategic Events- 9. Fortune Favors the Bold- should read
"If you are able to seize an Empty OR Enemy Hex after your battles are fought this turn,
you receive 1 bonus empire point which MUST be applied immediately to that Hex."


Monday, March 24, 2008

A hobbyist guide to better business.

I've purchased alot of materials in the last couple of years from small independent business that cater to this hobby, These range from large public companies like Games Workshop to any number of tiny online sellers providing specialty products. I'd like to go over a bunch of them here and take the time to discuss and rate their customer service and some of the operational challenges I've witnessed as a customer. I should note this is merely my personal experience with each company others mileage may vary. I have owned and operated my own successful business for over 10 years. While I don't provide a physical product ( I provide technical services) I can easily say I feel I have the professional background to make such criticisms.

Games Workshop-
The biggest fish of the bunch by far, a 30 year established, publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange with worldwide offices, stores and distribution. There isnt much else to compare GW to as a provider of a niche product. In a class by themselves, there isn't a independent gaming company I can think of anywhere that rivals these guys. The World Headquarters in is Nottingham, UK.

Money spent- $1000+
Problems- Several
Customer Service Rating- A+

I've spent a ton of money at GW, I capped it at a $1000, because I really don't want to know what I have spent. While I buy most product retail from the store these days in order to support my FLGS. I have previously purchased numerous items direct from the US website, or thru independent online dealers. My problems via GW direct are few and both had to do with not getting issues of White Dwarf in the mail, when I called I was immediately priority mailed a new issue. These problems went away when GW wisely changed its magazine distributor. Say what you want about certain business decisions within your favorite product line but as a company GW gets all aces in my book. Yes, the stuff is way too expensive but that's a whole other discussion.


Forge World-
I find Forge World a total conundrum. Any company would give its left arm to have the public demand for it's product that Forge World does, so that makes the current goings on there even more of a mystery. They are affiliated with GW but carry none of the positives of GW's great business model over into their own business, Saying Forgeworld is a train wreck as far as its business operations go could be considered an understatement by some. They make the coolest resin models in world, but somehow cannot keep up with the every increasing demand for their products. They have little to no quality control and don't seem to care to fix the problem, they also don't seem to have any decent international shipping options. Practically every order everyone I know has placed with Forge World has been screwed up, either a mispack, a QA issue or products just not showing up due to non trackable overseas shipping. From the debacle that was last years Games Day booth, to not being able to fulfill orders at XMAS placed BEFORE their own self imposed cut off date for holiday orders- these guys are a disaster.

Money spent - $200
Problems 3 orders/ 3 problems
Problems heard about from acquaintances and friends- countless
Customer Service: B

To their credit I have never heard of Forge World screwing anyone over and they make good on every order eventually. Even by giving me free expedited shipping from the UK doesnt excuse the basic problems. While I am not familiar with the inner workings of the company but from my own orders and what I witnessed at Games Day last year, the problems are obvious. Too many people trying to fulfill multiple roles in the company, Order Takers, Order packers and QA people need to all be separate jobs. When you are buying a $800 model somebody needs to be going over each piece with fine tooth comb, removing pieces of excess flash and making damn sure every cast is good. Screwing that up is inexcusable.

Plastic Legions advice-

How should they fix the problems? easy. Hire more staff, define specific personnel roles, focus on real QA, and while the U.S dollar is currently going the way of the peso, they need to expand into the US and open a new shop that only caters to the United States market. Invest in new molds and have two separate business arms- the US and the Rest of the World. Set up a direct exclusive deal with UPS for international sales to cut costs worldwide and let the US market dictate the domestic shipping. The demand for the product is there and US sales would double if they took away the extended shipping times and expensive shipping options, plus they would lower their retail costs on the printed books by manufacturing them in North America. The demand is there, so there is no reason not to make it happen.


Armorcast-

Armorcast is US company with a long history of manufacturing specialty miniatures and scenery, and had several notable run ins with GW over copyright infringement and licensing issues over the years. It was put up for sale and purchased by a couple of veteran gamers a few years ago and they began re-manufacturing most Armorcast products and are now selling other products by boutique miniature manufacturers. Armorcast operates out of the Cleveland, OH area.

Money spent $300ish
problems- every order
customer service A++

Despite that they screwed up every order I placed, I really like these guys. Matt personally emailed me back immediately upon every problem, made good and sent me some free product to compensate my time. I like the direction these guys are taking and their attention to individual customers. I will still buy from these guys in a heartbeat and would recommend them, despite the bumps in the road.

Plastic Legions advice- Hire a couple of people to pack, sort and QA orders.


Litko Aerosystems-

Litko is specialty manufacture of wargaming products- magnetic basing, move trays, tokens, some scenery. They operate out of NW Indiana.

Again I like these guys, they seem to have a good niche business model and make low cost, quality products. Their direct competition is the over-priced Gale Force 9, and in the battle for a niche business it looks like Litko is winning- if not doing very well for themselves.

Money spent $200+
Problems 1
Customer Service A

Theses guys seem to know the market and what they want to do, there product line increases every month as more and more people get turned on to them, in fact I am about to put in a big order myself for these guys. they also are reaching out to specialty games in order to strike deals to make specific gaming aids for specialty games- nice.

Plastic Legions advice- keep it up!

Gale Force 9

The most well known of the specialty gaming aid manufactures, GF9 operates out of Northern Virginia. GF9 suffers some backlash from being around the longest and taking too many of the wrong cues from Games Workshop in terms of how to price your products. Their relationship with GW direct has obviously suffered some strain over time as they seem produce less and less GW compatible product. They mainly now produce overpriced gaming aids for a variety
of collectible card and miniature games and some specialty hobby products.

Money spent- $100+
Problems- 1 plus other-
Customer Service- C

Nothing I dislike more than online companies that don't return customers email, if you getting too much email you can't answer it, that is a good thing and you should hire some one to do it. These guys keep their costs high by spending way too much money on color packaging and when I bought a bunch of laser cut move trays from them, the second time they screwed up my order and did fix it- but not in the most timely manner. The biggest rub is the damn trays where not sized properly and I had to file and sand them to get the alloted bases to fit. That wasn't the case with all but definitely with some, when you are paying $10 for a move tray the damn thing better be sized right. I no longer do business with these guys and have no advice for them.



The War Store

The most well known of wargaming retail distributors, the War Store is premier online retailer for Wargames, Miniatures and other games and gaming supplies, they operate out of the far tip of Long Island, NY

Money Spent- $400
Problems 1
Problems heard of thru friends- several
Customer Service - A


The Warstore has had several challenges recently, one is they doubled the inventory of what they sell in the last 12 months and they also took over the much beloved Battlewagon Bitz. The inventory increase and the added workload of doing a bitz business obviously led to a tough period of reorganization. Email communication was down, and products being out of stock were common with out of stock warnings not being updated on the site you could easily pay for something and then have to wait, when you could have gotten it somewhere else. Also the Battlewagon Bitz section is nowhere what it used to be when it was its own company. Having said all that the only problem I ever had was with my most recent order and the problem was addressed immediately by Neil and fixed within 48 hours, so I cant really complain. Overall I think this will still be the premier online avenue for certain products, they have just had a reorganizational period that probably caught some customers off guard. I will still gladly buy from them...in fact I just did.

Plastic Legions advice- Unless the bitz business is raking in the dough to make it worth the intensive labor costs, I'd drop it in a heartbeat. Battlewagon Bitz was great while it lasted (except for that $30 going out business grab bag that screwed everyone over..it still hurts ) but it was just a minor sideshow along the long road that is this hobby.
Replicating BW bitz it as it was is not possible in the current enviroment- due to GW's online policy and the inherent excessive labor costs of a second hand bitz business, so keeping it around for the guy that needs the odd bit seems silly. Unless its cash positive on its own merits, I'd dump it and invest that labor into general inventory management and fulfilling orders and answering emails, Do that and they will once again be living up to the hype and goodwill they spent years creating.


FRP Games

The west coast version of Warstore, these guys have a massive inventory and have always been uber reliable. They operate out of the San Jose Area in California

Money Spent- $600+ (since 2003)
problems -ZERO
customer service - Don't Know


I like these guys and have bought a ton of stuff from them mainly board games and non-GW miniatures, When I used to play Reaper's Warlord, I bought all my stuff from them, paints on down. There prices are all over the places some stuff is a great deal and some stuff totally overpriced, They also carry weird stuff you cant find anywhere else, I've probably put in 20 orders with them over the years and never had an issue, they always drop you a shipping notification and its always trackable. The also have the seemingly rare ability to get what you order, actually in the box they send you on the first try! I can't really comment on their customer service as I never have had to use it and that is a good thing.

Plastic Legions advice- if you can't competitively price something ( like GW products ) then drop the line, because unless I have no other option-why would I pay retail and shipping from you when I could by it from the GW online store or somewhere cheaper. Other then the wacky pricing on some stuff, keep up the good work.

Old Glory Miniatures-

Old Glory manufactures historical resin models and scenery and their own pewter historical miniatures, They also carry miniatures from several import only companies. They operate out of the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Money Spent - $106.00
Problems- 1
Customer Service - C-

The dog of the bunch here, I am most disappointed because this is a company I really want to like. I placed only one order with them and it was an expensive Resin Model of a Pirate Ship, it's missing the carriages for 6 of the 10 cannons it came with. They have 2 email addresses for customer service, it took forever for them to fulfill my order ( about a month) and they never answered any of my emails about order status and are still not answering any further emails about the missing pieces. I also called the phone number listed and only got a machine and at this point -I have given up. Obviously this is a small company with a few people making stuff to order, not answering emails from customers whose money you've taken is just not acceptable, now I am left to go fishing on the foundry website to find 6 cannons that are the right size and its not going to be cheap... I am going to try to Green stuff cast my cannon carriages and see if I can make my own first...a total drag and a hassle.

Plastic Legions advice- Get your shit together!!!

Edit- Finally heard back from OGM customer service, roughly 2 weeks after I sent them emails about missing parts. They apologized for the both the delay in communication and the mispack are say they are sending me the missing parts. better late than never!


Back2base-IX-

A manufacture of resin bases for miniatures, with a huge variety of Terrain options, they are distributed here in the US from a variety of retailers, but the selection is better if you order direct. They operate out of Southern Australia

Money Spent- $50
Problems -1
Customer Service A+

My most recent online purchase and my first time order. It was screwed up in a pretty big way and that's even more of drag because they are sending you the wrong stuff from all the way from the other side of the world and it takes a good 10 days to get your order. These guys immediately stepped up and are making good on my order at their own expense. At this point I am recommending them, but repeated packing errors are sure way to lose customers.

Plastic Legions advice- double, triple check your packing. IF this is a repeated problem, get rid of whoever is packing orders and get someone who isn't dyslexic to read the packing slip.


Well that's an honest rundown on everyone who came to mind as I wrote this. If I think of more
I'll add it to it and if you've had different experiences with any one of the companies I've listed here I'd be glad to share war stories, either in the comments section or you can always email me at oldcoast@comcast.net

Plastic Legions, Looking Ahead.

Kind of a light month on the blog for me, while I have several updates in the works they just aren't ready yet. I've recently been following up on my attraction to Warhammer Historical games buying both the Ancient Battles and Legend of the High Seas core books. I plan on a LotHS update first which will start with my Pirates crews and their 10 gun Brigantine primed and based with alater follow up with everything painted. I got about half my crew based on the some resin wooden deck bases I bought from a Austrailian company called "back2base ix", and I need to put the masts on my Brigantine and spray prime up the lot, I don't see this happening until after Adepticon however, Ancient Battles will have to wait until sometime in the future when I find someone to play with and decide on an army. I of course will be following up on my WFB armies, rounding out my Empire to 3K and moving on to the Vampire Counts, which will be my second fantasy army slowly creeping its way to light later this year. You'll probably even see some 40K out of me this year. I plan on buying the 5th ed book as soon at its released, and I have a nice 1000 points of Ultramarines totally done, I just need to build up a couple of vehicles and paint my Heavy Support Squad to round it out, I don't plan on playing it alot, but since I know so many people that play 40K I'd be remiss not to get some games in this year when the new books out and everyone is excited and not bitching how broke "X" army is.

My third installment of my photography articles about ready to go This one goes over your ISO setting and some other tricks I picked up since my last writeup..I just need to make the time to take the test photos and finish it up..hopefully very soon. In the immediate future I will definitely be blogging from Adepticon. Hopefully getting a lot of pics posted on Friday 4/11 with a couple reports on the various events I am in and then again on Sunday 4/13 with a report about the the Warhammer Fantasy Championships.

I've been pretty busy with real life of late and all my hobby time has gone to working on the new Mighty Empires Campaign we are about to start at my our local shop and well as working on finishing my tourney army. I hope to post pics of my finished 2250 Empire Army on its display base in the next couple weeks, Half the problem in getting is finished is figuring out what I am running. I built the Helstorm rocket battery this weekend on the real potential of adding that to the mix. I am down to painting my Pistoliers and either the Rocker Battery, my Greatswords or Flagellants, which ever makes it in the finished list. Against my better judgement I am probably going to end up gambling putting my General back on the Griffon and using him as a Flanker since he and the griffon are unit strength 5, the only hassles this creates is that I will also need to paint a foot model of my general for when the griffon gets shot out from under him by every enemy warmachine gunning for the large target. I am considering dropping both my Greatswords and Flagellants and running 2 cannons, the Helblaster and the Helstorm rocket battery, while that is a lot of artillery enough to make you immediately have to deal with it, my foot troops are going to be limited and games are basically going to boil down on whether I score big early with the Artillery, how my knights do and whether or not my General gets run off the board or gets gunned down. The upside is I'll be done painting weeks early instead days early. I had some problems running my Army of late only winning about 25-30% of the games I play. On big issue I've had recurring is my main block of swordsmen losing combat due to shit dice rolls on my part, so even their static +6 CR bonus has them losing combat way too early. Nothing is worse than having a unit of 20-25+ guys getting run down after crappy 1st turn of combat and flubbed flee roll. I am going to have my BSB start using the "rod of command" it will cut down on his melee effectiveness, but it seems surviving a crappy first turn of close combat has more value in the long run. My friend Bil thinks I should run my General in the main block like he does with his VC, and I see the wisdom in that conservative approach, although its not really my style I will be trying it in our upcoming campaign. As for Adepticon, my tourney army is definitely going to have alot less theme, and a lot more flash...but since the organizers have changed the direction of Adepticon's tourneys to emulate the more traditional tourney scene I just have to roll with the punches.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Empire Heroes

I realized that I hadn't gotten around to posting any shots of my finished General. I also recently did another reconfiguration of my tourney army, which needed a mounted Warrior Priest. I didn't have one so I made one out of bits and brown stuff. The priest is a free company head, (shaved down to be bald) and the body is all from the knights box, while the arms are from the White Wolf Sprue, the robe/cloak is made out of Brown Stuff, first time I've worked with it and its so much easier to work with than green stuff, Brown is much harder and when flattened into a square you can actually cut shapes with a pair of scissors!. Try that with green stuff..anyway green stuff for gap filling, brown stuff for modeling parts...got it. I still got make the priest a horse as he is currently riding one belonging to my knights, but that will have to come later, I think he came out pretty good for two evenings work. Ok-back to painting.









Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Mighty Empires Round 9



Current Scores (in Empire Points, 18 wins)
map post round 8 results-

Orcs and Goblins-14
Chaos (Black)- 12
The Empire- 8
Vampire Counts- 6
Lizardmen (Blue)- 6
Lizardmen (White)- 5
Bretonnians- 5
Chaos (Brown) -3
Orcs (Green)- Eliminated

Map analysis- even with this weeks disasters the Orcs have this wrapped up if they can score a solid victory or better versus Chaos (Brown), if the Orcs take the lone Chaos City, Anthony will have 16 points, at 17 points he automatically wins as you get 1 point a week regardless and no one can catch him in a weeks time. The best Chaos( Black) can do, even with a massacre is 14 points as he can't expand. An upset by Josh, or another bad round of disasters for Anthony is only way this will continue past next week.



Events
Chaos (Brown) - Scouts
Vampire Counts- Survey the battlefield
Bretonnians- Land Grab
Lizardmen (Blue) - Building Boom
Lizardmen (White)- All or Nothing
Empire- Espionage
Orcs (Orange)- War Tax +200
Chaos- Disaster @ Anthony - Orcs lose City and Mine!!!

Revenue

Lizardmen (Blue)- Had 550 gp spent =125 gp, 2 mines= needs to roll, - TOTAL =425 gp
Orcs (Orange) - Had 534gp spent= 125, + wartax 200 TOTAL 609 gp
Chaos (Black)-Had 240 , spent= 240, mines= TBA.
Vampire Counts - Had- 184gp , Spent 143gp + Raid 40 Total 181gp
The Empire (total-0gp)
Lizardmen (white) TOTAL= 270gp
Bretonnians TOTAL= 260gp, Spent-100 total 160gp
Chaos (Brown) TOTAL 120gp, Spent -100 total 120gp

Challenges

Chaos (Black) VS Lizardmen (white)
again no game- 1ep each! booo

Vampire Counts VS Lizardmen( Blue)
Vampire Counts, Massacre!!

Orcs VS Chaos (Brown)

Orcs- Marginal Victory!

Bretonnia VS The Empire
Bretonnia- Massacre!!!!

(
recap- not much to say here, I was having a flashback to game 1 last saturday. I lost my side of the table, rolled near useless spells None my units could hit a damn thing, rally dice where stone cold, flee dice where a mile short, First time playing Brets and it showed. I did not handle the incoming charges properly, I hope that now I know better, although I am going to lose a city tile over it argh.- good game billy)


Results


Bretonnians- 5EP + land grab, Take Empire mountain city and last open tile!
Vampire Counts- 4EP, Take Lizardmen Mountain/ Mine tile
Orcs (Orange)- 3EP, upgrades Castle to city, builds City
Chaos (Brown) - Scouts- Raids
Lizardmen (Blue) - Building Boom- upgrades to city, raids.
Lizardmen (White)- All or nothing, nothing
Empire- 1EP- builds castle
Chaos- 1EP- builds castle


This round ended the campaign as with Jeff and Eric unable to get in recent games and the rest of us unable to catch Anthony, The Orcs have seized the Day with the largest empire
big comeback by Billy in the end to jump up third place buy crushing me in the last week here is the final map.




ORC AND GOBLINS -16 EMPIRE POINTS
10 WINS, 1 LOSS, 1 DRAW

CHAOS MORTALS UNDIVIDED- 13 EMPIRE POINTS
7 WINS , 0 LOSSES, 2 UG

BRETONNIANS- 8 EMPIRE POINTS
2 WINS, 5 LOSSES, 2 UG

VAMPIRE COUNTS- 7 EMPIRE POINTS
5 WINS, 5 LOSSES, 1 UG

EMPIRE- 6 EMPIRE POINTS
2 WINS, 6 LOSSES, 1 DRAW

LIZARDMEN (JOE)- 6 EMPIRE POINTS
2 WINS, 4 LOSSES, 1 DRAW, 2 UG

LIZARDMEN (ERIC)- 5 EMPIRE POINTS
1 WIN, 2 LOSSES, 1 DRAW, 5 UG

CHAOS SLAANESH- 3 EMPIRE POINTS
1 WIN, 3 LOSSES

ORCS AND GOBLINS (KEN)- ELIMINATED
5 LOSSES, 3 UG

* UG= Unplayed games

A bigger better Mighty Empires starts 4/1/2008.


Sunday, March 2, 2008

Adepticon Primer

Chicago Battle Bunker, Downers Grove. 3/1

I took a ride out to the Battle Bunker for the first time on saturday for the Adepticon tourney primer, I've been meaning to get out there forever as it's less then 20 miles away, but normal weeknight traffic and the construction on 88 leaves the my only real option to get out there left to the occasional free saturday so the tourney preperation was the motivation I needed. I brought my standard 2250 Empire Army that you see listed in my recent posts. I knew I was in for tough lists all around and wasn't too shocked by anything I saw. I had pretty rough day offically going 0-3, but the second two games were very close, close enough I didn't mind losing at all. My first game however was a disaster. Rather than explain the complicated scoring, I'll just rate these games 1-5, in "Fun", "Comp" and "Sportsmanship"

Game 1- Empire vs High Elves (Dustin)

The Elven Army was two blocks of spearmen, a block of Sea Guard, Trianoc Chariot, two bolt throwers, two units of 5 Dragon Princes and huge Dragon ridden by an Elf Prince who was the Army General. This was a relatively low model count, low magic, melee army for High Elves very different than the few games I've played against High Elves, the Dragon was totally over the top but you got to expect this in a tourney enviroment. I just need to learn to deal if I am going bring my fluffy campaign Army to a competitive tourney. This is one of those games where everything that could of have went wrong, did. At the bottom of turn 2 the Terror causing dragon broke the game wide open because my main block of swordsmen 30 strong with my BSB Hero and my general attached, failed the damn terror test at the top of my turn with double 6"s when I only needed a "9"to make matters worse my flee was short enough I need to roll a double 6"s the next turn when he charged them while fleeing, of course I didn't so by my third turn I had lost the focus of my army and about 600 points without even a single combat dice roll!!. Everything else the could have went wrong did, I made very few psych test and barely any rally test, both my cannon crews ran off the table I dont think I did more damage then a few spearmen, and 1 dragon prince with my cannons, my stubborn greatswords lost combat vs 4 dragon princes broke (again need a 8) and got run down. I had one chance to light the dragon with the Hellblaster, I rolled 16 shots, scoring 8 hits and 4 wounds so an average result which was great except Dustin saved all 4, with ward saves. My only saving grace where my knights who I held, saving off repeated bolt thrower shots for 3 turns, getting into it with 5 dragon princes on turn 4 breaking them and running them down, I then charged his bolt throwers only in turn 6 to get rear charged by the dragon and flanked by the chariot. It was so over by that point anyway, my whole army was dead or had run off the table. I think I only killed 6 dragon princes and a handful of spearmen, undoubtedly a out and out massacre. I made a few key errors due to my lack of experience playing HE, I choose lore of life for my Magic knowing the Dragon Princes where immune to fire. In retrospect I should have took lore of fire anyway as Dustin had really low dispel dice for an HE army and I could used it on lots of other units. I attached my General to my Swordsman as I was worried about getting individually targeted his bolt throwers, I should have just moved over to the forest and turn back at my troops so when he made the dragon move, flying over the forest. I could have had a rear charge on him, (of course I would have still needed to make the psych tests).

FUN = 1 ( games like this are never fun. Its no fault of my opponent but when everything goes wrong for you and right for him it's never that good a time. Compounding that was some annoying kid watching the game was making annoying comments for about the first half of the game, ( basically he was heckling me during a tourney!, WTF???) Dustin said he was friend of his so I let it ride, thankfully he told him to get lost, but that's just not cool. That shit would never fly at GWOP, that kid would have been bounced asap)

COMP= 3 ( interesting list, standard tourney fare, I scored it better yesterday at the table. When I though about it later and saw two other High Elf armies there that day, I would have much rather played those.)

SPORTSMANSHIP= 4, ( Dustin was easy going and humble, even when crushing me to dust- the only reason its not a "5" was he only brought one army list, and I wanted one to keep. You're supposed to bring one for each opponent.)


Game 2- Empire vs Dark Elves ( John W)

I had seen this Army before, either at Adepticon last year or just pictures posted of it online. The game was against John W who posts as Frozen Dark Elf on the IWFB boards. Nice display base, great looking army- Knights on cold ones, executioners, 2 groups dark riders, a Hydra, big block of Corsairs, pair of bolt throwers. This was a great game, a lot of fun to play and John was great sport and player. Our armies were very evenly matched. It was a back an forth close game until last turn and a half. I killed his Hydra and took out his wizards, but my Greatswords could not handle the DE Knights and my swordsmen couldn't handle the DE General, I couldn't get my general into combat in time and he got taken out by Bolt Throwers. In the end I had my Huntsmen and Hell blaster left, while john had his knightsm executioners and three Darkriders all above 50% unit strength and 4 crossbowmen, due to point cost of his big units left, I'd say he probably had a solid victory ( we didn't figure out the score as it was clear he won and tourney scoring is different so there is no need if there is a clear winner) although it seemed allot closer than that until the very end.

FUN = 5 ( games like this are why I love Warhammer)

COMP= 5 ( A great well balanced army, the way an army should be- tourney or not.)

SPORTSMANSHIP= 5, ( a great General and a gentleman)


Game 3 Empire Vs Dwarfs ( Rob K)

I am at the point now where I hate playing dwarfs. I was pretty surprised that of all the people there and I had only played two of them before and that I ended up playing Rob K. I was really hoping that all my games would have been against new people but that's just the way it worked out. Robs army was a bunch of warriors and longbeards supported by crossbowmen, rangers, 2 stone throwers and two bolt throwers. All his warmachines had engineers and tons of runes to beef up there effectiveness ( entrenched, to hit bonuses) he actually had runes that let him reroll every artillery die all the way through the process, which was pretty cheesy. He also had like 7 dispel dice so there was basically no magic phase. The game went like this, he went first, held his troops and shot the crap out me, I went second moved my troops up, put some good shooting on him, My Flagellants got in fast tying a up a big block of warriors all game breaking them and bring them below half- so it was nice that they earned thier points. My Knights immediately marched out and charged his warmachines on the right flank ( which for some reason it didnt seem like he was expecting) I tied up his general and basically both warmachines the whole game as ten knights fought his general round after round and neither could kill each other as we both making armor saves even thou I wasted the regular crew. This combat also blocked the LoS from that side bolt thrower from doing any shooting, while my huntsmen tried in vain to shoot that up all game. Even though the never ending combat with his unbreakable general was retarded it kept my knights alive who where my most expensive unit and part of scoring for the scenario. I managed to take out the other stone thrower with my cannon by turn 3 and by then his Longbeards and other unit of warriors where engaged with my swordsmen, greatswords and general. In the end he broke my swordsmen, got the banners and that's what did me in, as I destroyed his other block of warriors (somehow lost the banner) sending his expensive runelord fleeing at bottom of turn 6. In the end it was a last round shot from his quarrelers that brought my crossbows to below half strength giving him an extra +40 points over a Draw, so he had a marginal victory.

FUN= 3 ( better than I thought it was going to be, mainly because I thought I had him for about 2.5 turns, I just could not close the deal)

COMP=3 ( Bleh, I hate gimmicky armies, just play a balanced list, it Dwarfs for pete's sake, its not hard and it's fun. I would have much rather seen a Gyro and some Miners than a bunch of entrenched, triple rerolling stonethrowers)

SPORTSMANSHIP= 3 ( Rob is a nice guy but he needs to work on his game etiquette a little.)


Overall- A long but good day and met some great new people. I would have loved to have gotten a chance to play some Orcs, or new VC or Chaos, something I am used to playing all the time, but that's the breaks. I need to give a BIG "5" to the tourney organizer Marty, I've heard he runs the best tourneys and this was run perfectly as far as I could tell. On the flipside I need to give a FAT "1" to the Bunker for letting this be on the same day as the Bizarre Bazaar, and a bunch of other stuff going on too. The place was freaking packed which gave annoying loiterers plenty of opportunity to be annoying loiterers On top of that I go to buy 1 damn blister from the counter and freaking Allen (whose met me about a dozen times between the OP shop Adepticon and Games Day) decides to spend 10 mins trying to hardsell me on VC stuff, I was like gimme a break guy, you don't need to worry about me spending money. I would have liked to stick around and BS and see the final scores ( at 0-3 I am pretty sure I am at rock bottom) but I had to get home asap to let our nanny go home which failed miserably as I got stuck in horrendous traffic going east on 88 for over an HOUR because of some bullshit year long construction project...next time I take an alternate route both ways.

Anyway still questioning my army list and wondering how I am going to do anything other than go 0-4 at Adepticon with my current Army. I don't feel compelled to run special characters or add a steam tank in order to compete, so my best hope is to practice my ass off for the next six weeks and hope someone gets the dice I had in game 1 this day, and maybe I can squeak out a win. On the positive side, I must gotten twenty compliments on my painting from various passersby so thats something.

 

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