Another Crowdpleaser - Fateweaver

Last weekend I started playing with my new airbrush set up. The stool pigeon for this was Kairos himself. I laid down some base coats and then broke out the brush.

Here's some pics of where I'm at:

Still got a lot of tidy up work and detail to do. Hopefully that will only take a couple of evenings.

Next in my run of Special Characters (Skarsnik, Kairos) are the Chaos duo of Archaon on Foot and Kordel Shorgaar (Limited Edition Standard Bearer from 2004). I'd then like to do a Sigvald if I can get hold of the model.

 

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Everybody's Favourites - WIP

Friend. Storm Friends.

I have put togetHer of Friends with Ratling Cannons and a Warpgrinder. These still need to be finished but I'm keen to get them on the table for a run.

To finish them off I want to apply some of the techniques I learned at Adepticon in the Liber Metallica seminar.

Here I have used some of the GW technical paints to try and build up texture on the plates before I start weathering/rusting them.

The conversions were made with Ravenwing Assault Cannons and Tau Burst Cannons.

Once these are done I'm looking to do some Poisoned Wind Mortar variants.

 

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HomeCon V Upcoming

I'm running a HomeCon for 8/10 gamers at Chez Dunn on the weekend of 23/24 May ( Lynne is down vising her parents). So a weekend of BBQ, beers and Hammer.


Going to use the SCGT pack and see how that goes. I think it is extremely innovative, rewards army choice and by all accounts worked well at the event a couple of weeks ago.


The only changes making to the pack are that given the small nature of the field, the lists will be open rather than closed and the secret mission will be randomly determined rather than player choosing from a list and having to use them all. This eliminates intentional and unintentional "scouting" with such a small field.


Should be a bit of fun.

And Suddenly, Nothing Happened....Again!

So another week goes by and nothing is released for WHFB players.


But there is good news. Apparently more big robots are on the way.


Wonderful. About as interesting as Jeremy Clarkson in a new Star Wars movie with an Ed Sheeran soundtrack.

Weekend Hobby Update

In New Zealand we've had a long weekend and I've had a great three days of hobby.


On Saturday I managed a 3.5 hour session with the airbrush followed by another two hours on Sunday. I managed to learn an awful lot - doing really is learning. The first thing I started on was some Citadel Trees and have got them finished. I then painted Kairos Fateweaver (base coats with airbrush) and finally started on a Khorne Herald.


Finished Kairos off with a brush, based him and he is sitting ready for photos - I'll look to get them up tonight.


The Badger Minitaire paints are great. No mixing required so you use them straight from bottle (but remember to give them a good shake first). I tried 15-20 colours over the course of the sessions so I could get used to colour changes and cleaning. Can't wait for my paint rack to arrive rather than trying to find them in a box.


Really enthused for hobby with new spacious setup and new toys.


Also managed to pick up 25 painted metal White Lions for $50.

Badger Minitaire Paints Arrive

Got home from a shitty day at work yesterday (and I very rarely have them), sitting on the porch was a parcel.

Inside were the full set of Badger airbrush paints I ordered last week from Amazon USA (fantastic service).

Roll on the weekend.

 

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Yay......I'm a Collector

My April purchases from Games Workshop

Tick tock.

The sense of entitlement is strong in this one.

 

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Kickstarter Malaise?

Jump back two years and the Kickstarter revolution in Wargaming is in full swing. Like the Stockmarket in the 80's , anything can get funded. You've just got to have an idea.

Back now to today and reality bites. We are facing a totally different market. The air has gone out of the tyres...and some. Rather than its purpose funding small producers that can't get traditional funding to bring their product to market, the Wargaming Kickstarters are dominated by established players using the avenue as a pre-order mechanism.

So what caused this "evolution"?

Well generally you can isolate the problems into the following areas:

• Hobbyists not businessmen or manufacturers
• Unrealistic stretch goals which overinflated projects
• Access to cost-effective producers which sometimes meant international (think China), something they were ill-equiped to undertake
• Over-optimistic timelines
• Capability to deal with financial inflow appropriately
• Scale - usually too big for their expertise.

For some it has been learning experience that has seem them emerge stronger. For others I expect a death knell - if not actually, then certainly reputationally or because they are now exhausted - in terms of future manufacturing.

 

Personally I've been lucky in terms of the projects I've backed:

• Tablescapes (SWM) - delivered 12 months late but a superior product. Eighteen months on I'm still waiting display board
• Darklands (Mierce) - involved in first project and one of later ones. Good delivery. However now use it as pre-order tool
• Creature Caster - now approaching a year late. Will deliver but case book study for being seduced by stretch goals.
• Games & Gears - brushes. On time no drama.
• Dead zone (Mantic) - terrain package on time. Like Mierce use KS for pre-orders
• Miniature Terrain Scenery - just finished. June 2015 deadline. I'm optimistic given scale.

The one I've been burnt on is Custom Dice Lab which was going to create bespoke dice. Guy raised $70,000 and bought laser cutter and dice but hasn't been heard of for three months. Now 9 months overdue....I'm not expecting to see much for my $37.

The key lesson is to look at the "success" of the campaign. You don't want them to fall victim to that success. For me something like Miniature Terrain Scenery is what I'm looking for in a new venture. Sufficient money to deliver but not too much that they have to rework scale.

 

As always, Caveat Emptor.

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Panzer Corps - iPad Game

Over the past few weeks I have spent an enormous amount of time having fun playing "Panzer Corps" for the iPad.

The game is produced by Slitherine (makers of the Field of Glory tabletop Wargames rules) and cost NZD 24.

When I say the game is produced by Slitherine it is really just a faithful reproduction of the game mechanics, engine and playability of the 1990s PC game Panzer General II. And if you played and loved that game then you will absolutely love this one.

You fight as an Axis General over one of five campaigns - full war, early war, Barbarossa, post Stalingrad and late war or you can pick individual battles/scenarios. There are five difficulty settings so it contains an enormous replayability.

I tend to throw my resources into winning the air war and back this up with mobile pioneer units to take cities. This seems to work well but you can't afford to ignore artillery or tanks.

Can certainly see this whiling away a number of wintry afternoons and fully recommend it if you have an iPad.

 

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My Current Games Workshop Purchase List

Pot of Screaming Skull paint.
Pot of Reikland Flesh wash.


That is all

Call to Arms in August

The next local event here in Wellington (as far as I'm aware) is Call to Arms in August.


This is the annual convention of the Wellington Warlords and is being held at St. Pat's, Kilbirnie. Generally it is a multi-system convention and I expect that in addition to the two Games Workshop games there will also be Historicals (Ancients, Flames of War, Napoleonics). Hopefully this year we will see some of the newer games such as Malifaux, X-Wing, Bolt Action etc - either as competitions or demo games.


It would also be great if the Warmachine competition returned. Apparently last year there was a falling out over prize support that saw the Warmahordes guys not attend. Hopefully the Warlords and local Warmachine players can settle any differences as it is a shame not to be able to see all the different games on offer.

Weekend Hobby - Skarsnik

Taking advantage of my new hobby setup, I spent some time on the weekend finishing Skarsnik and Gobbla.

Loved the "Skarsnik" novel and the material on the Night Goblin Overtyrant is some of my favourite in the End Times.

My only disappointment was after I started painting Gobbla I realised there were two tusks missing. I fix that with GS over next couple of days.

 

 

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Assassins Boxed Game

Apparently this week's White Dwarf teaser "Can You Save The Galaxy?" refers to a new release next weekend.

GW are releasing a limited edition 40k boxed game featuring Assassins. It is a standalone game but contains four Assassin models - one from each of the temples - and various non-Imperial prey. The game will be available for a couple of months or until sold out.

Sounds interesting and reinforces last week's "An Unfortunate Experiment" post which highlighted GW's return to their roots.

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My New Hobby Set-Up

While I was away at Adepticon - and partly inspired by seeing Jack's desk - I decided to "refurbish" my hobby area.

This involved some negotiation as Lynne had part of the area I coveted as a dumping ground for her work material. I gave up my desk in the lounge and Lynne has happily moved her stuff in there, freeing up some space.

I now have a galley area about 10 foot by 4 foot that I can utilise. To this end I have dumped my old wooden desk and roller top cabinet and picked up two glass desks off Trade Me (NZ's local eBay equivalent). The best thing is I'm currently $60 to the good doing this. Still after a third one but isn't the interim using an old wooden desk for airbrush set up.

So here's what I've now got.

The area on the left is for assembly, cutting and other non-painting hobby. The central part is where I do my painting and on the right is my airbrushing set up. One of the best things is the lighting. There are three ceiling lights above and my two lamps can be swung to where they are needed.

There is so much more room than I am used to. This means I can have my ultrasound cleaner, Dremel and paint shaker all in easy reach. The organisers on the left have my tools while those in the centre are painting focussed.

I have some exhaust hose on order so my spray booth will vent out the back door.

This is the type of setup I have been looking for and hopefully it will see my hobby hours getting more productive. The ability to switch task within the area should mean that the setup and take down time is avoided.

And I have a happy wife because now everything is in one area and I'm not turning the kitchen bench into a de facto hobby area.

 

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FOB Army Rankings

Well three months have rolled around again and here is the latest update of the Army Rankings. As always these are drawn from the three jurisdictions that use the FOB system - UK, Australia and New Zealand.

I've gone through the methodology in the past so you can go back and check those posts rather than me go through it again.

Two key trends are present across all three countries - the retreat of Warriors of Chaos and the rise of Wood Elves. The first of these surprises me a bit because I thought WoC would be a significant beneficiary of the relaxing of character restrictions. Perhaps we are seeing a couple of things - the lack of a super character in ET context and some siphoning into Legion of Chaos. However you'd expect to see similar in Wood Elves and that's not the case. I think it is just a confirmation of how good Trueflight Arrows are and how good Wild Riders are for their points.

The other key point is the entry of Elven Legions into the UK list. It reinforces the Elfpocalypse blighting the Warhammer World. "Save us Everchosen, you're our only hope!"

The combined rankings reinforces this trend:

Six months ago Wood Elves had a combined score of 6/30. Now it is 21. In the same time WoC have fallen from 24 or 25 to their current 18. The Elfpocalypse is in full advance.

The Daemons have maintained their ranking and I think this reinforces how good a counter they are to elves.

Interestingly, we now have a definite two tier game. The top seven armies are head and shoulders above the rest in terms of results. We have only seen one army force its way into the top tier in the past year and that is the Wood Elves.

 

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Great Airbrush Paint Deal

Jack pointed out to me a great paint deal for Badger Airbrush Paints via Amazon. You can find it here.


You get the full Badger range of 84 paints all for around NZD 270 including postage.

This works out around NZD $3 per 30ml pot.


The big advantage of these paints - confirmed by Jack - is that you can use the paint straight from the pot without the need to mix.


If you are into airbrushing at all this looks a really good deal and represents a 42% saving on the normal USD price for the set.

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An Unfortunate Experiment?

I'm starting to wonder whether GW are finally starting to wake up to the realisation that the last ten years has been a lost opportunity.


Cycle back ten years and if you went to a tournament you were likely to see wonderfully crafted and themed armies - I'm talking both 40k and WHFB. This was encouraged by the GW Rogue Trader system first, then their own GTs and the NTS system they launched. And then something happened.


Suddenly they closed down all creativity in their codexes and army books. Variant lists whether they were in White Dwarf or in the back of books suddenly stopped. Index Astartes, Ork Klans and Eldar Craftworlds all "died".


In 40k the triology of books that did this were Gav Thorpe's Bastard Child, Phil Kelly's Eldar codex which introduced Eldar Allsorts and the Ork codex that was released in the 2005-2007 period (the ork klans including Speed Freeks were dustbinned).


For me that was when 40k died. I was heavily invested in the prior incarnation - six variant Chaos armies, Ulthwe and Iyanden plus a Goff army. Suddenly they were all invalid - and often illegal.


So what did we get instead? Nidzilla, Leafblower and the bastard offspring they sired. Suddenly theme/backstory went out the window and you could cobble any old shit together and call it an army - unless it was actually an army.


The last 5-6 years has seen this get even worst and we are had the introduction of allies, flyers, superheavies so things looked less like an army than ever. In the tournament scene numbers reduced with ever year as the game became even more detached from the backstory.


But I'm wondering if we are starting to see a new spring over the past 12 months with some of the releaves and "supplements". Suddenly forces like Harlequins are an army rather than a unit in Eldar Allsorts. The Imperial Knight and Adeptus Mechanicum armies have been released - imagine how welcome they would have been in 2005 - and will you can abuse them as allies in other armies, more importantly you can make a dedicated force. Finally this week we hear Craftworlds are back.


So is this the first germinating shoots of realisation by GW that the past decade has been an unfortunate experiment and a lost opportunity? You can produce great models but if you divorce the rules from the backstory you alienate a whole section of your market who wander off and find other games.


Why? Because the backstory is GW's chief advantage over its competitors. Yes, the quality of the models is a major plus but no matter how beautiful the model you need context. Think I'm spouting shite well as evidence look how excited the WHFB world was when they heard Nagash was being redone. The whole concept of the Great Necromancer was what drove that excitement.


So I'm hoping we are seeing a realisation that there is a trinity to a great game by GW. Backstory, rules and models. The last ten years have seen backstory ignored but with a retrospective look at the past 12 months I think GW are waking up to how important the context is.


And that is part of the reason why I'm optimistic that 9th Edition WHFB won't see the baby thrown out with the bathwater.

Has The Heresy Ground To A Halt?

The Black Library and Forgeworld have been the two main drivers of the Horus Heresy over the past five years.


We have got 30+ novels and some fantastic models (I'm just about to start painting Emperor's Children allies for my Death Guard) but lately it appears to have stalled.


Certainly the output from Forgeworld is now a lot less than say two years ago. That may be because they have produced the backbones of the range. Certainly the Chaos Legions are the poster boys for the Heresy and they have largely been done - Iron Warriors/Thousand Sons notwithstanding. I'm sure there is not as much interest in the deluded "Loyalist" legions but even I thought there might be enough interest to sell one or two sets of Space Vikings or Vampires. Obviously the stunning sales of such exciting legions as Imperial Fists have caused FW to stagger the rollout of other winners like Ultramarines.


This slowing seems to have been matched in Black Library's output. It's been some time since we've had new full length novels. The most recent "Damnation of Pythos" was dreadful and the proceeding one about Imperial Knight houses was not much better. The story, like the advance seems to have stagnated.


Both FW and BL have fallen off the horse. Hopefully they will get back on it soon.

Small (Sorry Short) Things, Amuse Small Minds

I am shocked. Who would do such things?

Panzershreck WHFB Full

Well done to the Manawatu Duellists on filling up the 24 spots for Panzershreck Fantasy three months out from the event.

They are now operating a reserve list so there may still be an opportunity to sign up if more space becomes available or there are drop outs. There is a thread on WargamerNZ.com that you can follow.

Spaces are also filling up for Wrath & Ruin II in June. Thirteen of the 20 available spots have gone so get in quick. Again there is a thread on WargamerNZ

Hopefully this is a harbinger for tournament attendance going forward.

If You Wait Long Enough.....

Things go full cycle.

In 2006 Games Workshop killed the Eldar Craftworlds effectively rendering whole armies obsolete. Those of us who had Iyanden and Ulthwe armies were told we could play Eldar Allsorts with the release of that codex.

A few year ago they gave back the Iyanden and now the rest of the Craftworlds are back.

All hail the Seer Village!

Possible Comp Fix for End Times Khaine Elf Lists

The two most difficult things to comp with the End Times lists have been Legion of Chaos and the Elf Khaine lists. For FOB Lite comp I've addressed LoC by making it Mono-God only but the Elves have been more difficult.

Last evening I was thinking about it again and remembered a discussion I had when Nagash came out. A lot of people thought that ET lists had no access to specific book magic items - as they weren't that book. I never bought that line and I think Imrik settled the argument. However it may provide a solution for the Elves.

What if you said that the Elf lists in Zkhaine are fine - super characters excepted - but they only have access to Commin Magic Items  ie items in the rulebook. That would mean that there were real concessions to taking the combined list - especially no BotWD. Denying access to book specific items might knock the top off the Elf Allsorts list and still leave it viable under FOB Lite.

What do people think?

SCGT - Innovative Players Pack

Over the weekend the South Coast GT was held in the UK. This is the UK's largest event and attracted 190 people. You can check out the Players Pack here


I'm sure that we will here a mountain of feedback on forums and UK podcasts as to how people performed. There will be tales of woe and tales of awesomeness I'm sure. However that is not my key interest.


I think that this is one of the most innovative Players Packs I've seen. The writers have made both comp and the scenarios mean something as well as put restrictions on what you face across the table.


First, the scoring system:

• 4 TPs for maintaining your Fortitude
• 4 TPs for breaking your opponent's Fortitude
• 4 TPs for achieving your secret mission
• 4 TPs for denying your opponent his secret mission
• 4 TPs by scoring more than 200 VPs more than your opponent (shared if neither does)

Those give you your 20 Battle Points per game. It is zero sum in that there is only 20 points on offer so if you score 16 then your opponent gets 4 (all good).


The six secret missions are as follows:

• Kill enemy general
• Capture more standards
• Destroy more Special/Rare units
• Capture more buildings
• Table quarters
• Capture more hills

All this is reasonably straightforward and not too unorthodox but the beauty comes in how it interacts with the Comp System.


Each army has a Pool System with a Power Pool and a Soft Pool. All armies start with a comp of 5. For each Power choice you take your score is reduced by 1, every Soft choice increases it by 1. There is a floor at 0 and a cap at 10 (and you may take a maximum of five of each choice).


Your Comp Score is important in the following ways:

• If your comp score is less than or equal to your opponent you must play with your Secret Mission revealed
• If your comp score is higher than your opponent you get +1 to scenario dice rolls
• If your comp score is more than double your opponent then you get +2 to scenario dice rolls

The Scenario Dice Rolls are:

• Deployment - Winner choose whether deployment is Battleline, Meeting Engagement or Battle for the Pass
• Sides - Winner decides which side they will choose
• Order - Winner decides who deploys the first unit
• First Turn - Winner decides who goes first

So your Comp Score influences four important rolls as well as whether your secret mission is revealed. I think this is an absolute masterstroke and adds a level of thinking/planning to the game absent in most players' packs.


I was giving this a lot of thought over the weekend wondering where I would want to pitch my army if I was going to this. I suspect the "golden" scores are "4" or "7". With "7" you double all the 0-3 lists where with "4" you are only doubled by the 9-10 lists. I'll be very keen to see how things pan out. Certainly I'll be watching the feedback with interest.


I would absolutely love to try this pack and if there was sufficient interest locally would be keen to run a "Homecon" to try it out.

Latest WHFB Rumours

Lots of rumours are starting to come in now for WHFB 9th and they make some interesting reading. Here is a compilation of some of the more recent ones:

New rumor from Warseer
I heard that the game (skirmish) 9 edition light (or whatever) is “The End Times’ call, and participating in them. It will focus around the stories told in the 5 books and especially in represent your hero / s and a small band, fighting bravely in the middle of a huge conflict, embedded in a much larger battle around them. That is why a lot of random things can happen during the game, including fireballs unscrupulous, meteors, guns, and so on knocking on random units. The list of random events changes with the factions. Therefore, if your band is formed by dwarves, elves and chaos is right now in the battlefield, first what faction query tables (random) is determined and then what happens exactly.

Bonham on Warseer:
New kids info. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the situation, but I think 9th edition will have 2 ways to play WH. The game will arrive this month in skirmish way I think, and rules for massive battles will come this summer. But perhaps you’re misinterpreting and skirmish game is a completely different game, 2 sets of startup based in fantasy after the world ends seems strange to me.

One of my sources said the game was coming in May is another game (skirmish wh) and the 9th edition will not arrive until summer.

Warseer:
The hosts are grouped into factions yes, but have their differences within and can make an army of dwarves (who will be next to the Empire). Bretonnia will also be connected to the new Empire. With Mousillon and the undead of Sylvania’s something wrong because some are loyal to the Empire.

Units range in square bases and characters, war machines or thumbnails to be added to units will go on round bases.

Powerful characters with dataslates with their armies. Simple magic. Points per unit not mini. Many minis with 2 or 3 wounds.

The background:
Tyrion, Alarielle and Malekith are alive or something. Settra, Nagash, Guilles, Aborash, Glott bros and living Belakor. And Archaon is the new good guy

Big Man
Sigmar (apparently) is empty at the end of Archaon … says he took the orb and a miracle took shape …He is the embodiment of Azyr – linked to precognition and luck …Teclis / Alarielle mentioned near the end that Lileath missed an opportunity to unite the previous incarnated to help save the world …

The skirmish game is 5 minutes to midnight ….

What if Sigmar recreates the situation just before the end of the world … to give another chance …?
That’s where the players will intervene again to fight in the final moments, giving another chance to save the world …
That would give you a bridge to the new edition … can use your armies to fight again the final battles, which are smaller scale fights through the streets of the city … with some new rules …
Then fast for a mass battle game in summer, where the world has not been saved, regardless of their efforts

From this is seems the smart money is coalescing into two games. A starter box intro game - skirmish level and the more traditional massed army battle game we are used to.

The key question is the setting for the massed battle game - pre or post End Times - and the participants involved.

My gut feel is that they will reduce the armies into the factions BUT you will have supplementary books/dataslates that allow you to build standalone "existing" armies.

Going to be interesting

Wrath & Ruin II - Auckland Fantasy Event

The DILFs are running their second W&R event in June.

It is being held in Ellerslie, Auckland and has a limit of 20 participants. You can download the Players Pack here

The event is using ETC composition and rules.

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New Games Workshop Figure Cases

I'm surprised that there hasn't been more talk about the new figure cases Games Workshop have come up with to replace their existing range.


I went into the local GW store the other day and had a look at one. My initial impressions were that they weren't an improvement - more boxy, internal foam very flimsy - and then I watched the GW video posted to YouTube.




Clearly more aimed at 40k rather than Fantasy - but who knows in three months - but I was surprised at how they work. They really appear to be a different take on what has been the industry standard for the past 5-10 years of pluck foam and dedicated laser cut.


Now I won't be replacing my current Battlefoam cases but I do think it is great to see innovation.


Has anyone got one and if so how do you find it?

Adepticon Hobby Seminars

The highlight for me at this year's Adepticon was attending a series of Hobby Seminars over the four days of the event. Myself, Jack and mike king loaded up on them and I must say that they were great.


The seven I attended were on the following topics:

• Painting Skin & Flesh
• Basic Weathering
• Using Weathering Powders
• Airbrushing 101
• Painting Miniatures with Airbrush
• Painting Metals
• Terrain Building

Each of the seminars was two hours and had a class size of between 8-16.


Three were run by Mr. Justin from Secret Weapon Miniatures but rather than just an avenue to push his product he went through techniques highlighting good products (be they his own or competitors). Another was done by ex-WD Editor Dave Taylor where he covered techniques for painting metals. Like most of the seminars, this was very hands-on and by "doing it" you could see real progress over the 2 hour period.


The opportunity to learn new techniques, shortcuts and tricks was really worth the entry cost which was typically $15-20. I learned an enormous amount which I hope I'll be able to put into practice over the next few months.


As I said, a real highlight.

FOB NZ Rankings - Updated for NatCon.

The FOB rankings for WHFB and FoW have been updated for Easter's Natcon. Thanks to Sofia Chambers and Phil Comins for sending the results through. I am still waiting for 40k and will put them in as soon as they are received.


In Fantasy the main action has been in the Best Army icons which have seen a number change hands.

• Kelly Gragg has added the Warriors of Chaos to his Beastmen icon
• Tim Joss has picked up the Best Dark Elf icon
• McCrae Louden now holds both the Dwarf and Chaos Dwarf icons
• Phil Comins has garnered the Best Daemons of Chaos icon

The next event that I have on the calendar for WHFB is Panzershreck in July. The event is limited to 24 participants and my understanding is that it is getting close to capacity.


Both Natcon 2014 and Runefang will roll off in the next couple of weeks which will shake things up some more.

Draft FOB-Lite Comp - Looking for Feedback

Looking at an update of FOB-Lite Comp now that the final End Times book has been released. Thought long and hard about the new ET units and characters as well as the lists. The aim with FOB Lite is, as always, to be permissive but also to knock the hard edges off the top.


I saw a lot of things at Adepticon that did not look like "fun". Most involved either uber characters or the Elf-Allsorts list. This was followed by the "Legion of Skullcannon" list. I've tried to address these issues while letting some of the cool things in the End Times to be used.


So here is a Draft Update to FOB-Lite Comp. Really like to get people's thoughts on it. As always constructive feedback is valued most highly.

MAGIC DICE

Power Dice usage is limited to 12 in any one Magic Phase.

Night Goblin Mushroom D6 do not count as "power dice" as per their Army book.

Chaos Dwarfs’ Chalice may not be used mid-spell.




LIST RESTRICTIONS

• No single non character unit in the army may be over 500 points
• No triple of the same warmachine except for Elven Bolt Throwers/O&G Spear Chukkas where you may take up to 4
• Max  4 units with the ‘Fly’ or 'Hover' special rule (a max of 3 may be characters)
• BSBs in older books are assumed to have mundane weapons as per core troops
• “Fozzrik’s Folding Fortress” may not be taken.
• Maximum of three of the same character selection e.g. three Warlock Engineers, three Scar Vets, three Masters etc

RACE SPECIFIC RESTRICTIONS:

• No variant lists in ET: Khaine, ET: Thanquol and ET: Archaon may be taken.
• No Special Characters from ET: Khaine or ET: Archaon may be selected

Skaven

• A Screaming Bell or Plague Furnace may only be placed in a unit containing no more than 50 models.
• Stormfiends, Thanquol and any Verminlords from ET: Thanquol may be selected
  

Tomb Kings

• Khalida is restricted to unit with 40 shots
• Tomb King units may march as per ET rules
• May select Morghasts
  

Daemons of Chaos

• Beasts of Nurgle restricted to maximum of 6 in list with Epidemius
• May select Blightkings, Wrathmongers or Skullreapers
• May select Maggoth Lords
  

Ogres

• You may take a max of two of Dispel Scroll, Runemaw or Hellheart
  

Warriors of Chaos

• Crown of Command may not be taken on model with Third Eye of Tzeentch
• May select Blightkings, Wrathmongers or Skullreapers
• May select Maggoth Lords
  

Vampire Counts

• May select Morghasts
  

Empire

• May not take Karl Franz Ascendant

Beastmen

• May take marks as per ET: Glottkin rules
• May select Blightkings, Wrathmongers or Skullreapers
• May select Maggoth Lords

Undead Legion

• May not take Nagash

Legion of Chaos

• Any Legion of Chaos army must have all units marked by a single Chaos God – no non-marked units in the army and all units from a single God

Adepticon - Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed Adepticon this year. It was a different experience because both my wife, Lynne and Jack were there for the event.

The venue was switched to a new hotel this year and this had some positives and some negatives. First, the positives:

• More room. The venue was bigger and more spacious.
• Lobbies. Lots of sitting down areas.
• Starbucks on site - so at least a chance to get espresso.
• Food in the bar was good and good value. We ate there four times during the week.
• Close to big shopping mall - great for Lynne.

As for the negatives there were a few:

• We were on 5th floor so could hear lobby noise until early hours
• Lack of eating alternatives close by when no car and it's -2 degrees
• Only artificial light in gaming halls - I missed the daylight of the Westin

This year I had learnt from 2014. I only signed up for the 1000 point Teams and How You Use It. There were a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I couldn't be arsed travelling 26 hours for unfettered End Times but secondly, and more importantly, I wanted to enjoy the full convention experience and that meant committing two days to the Championships wasn't feasible.

 

Interesting the Championships numbers were heavily down from last year. They offered 200 tickets, sold 124 and 84 people finished the event. Pretty sure that the uncertainty around WHFB with ET and 9th Rumours had a lot to do with that. Certainly there were a lot of Elf Allsorts armies with Malekith, Imrik etc. Failing that KFC, Nagash or Legion of Skullcannon armies. It put me off and I suspect a lot of others were put off too.

Jack and I signed up for seven courses and this really was where there was great value for me. I learnt how to paint skin, lots of weathering techniques, how to airbrush and some terrain making techniques. These were all things that in NZ we never get the chance to do. For where I'm at this type of positive hands-on instruction was great.

As always the vendor hall was great. I caught up with John Matthews and had a good chat at the Battlefront stall. Thought that the Forgeworld set up was better though not sure if they were doing as much business. I picked up stuff from Secret Weapon, Forgeworld and Badger - so I was a happy boy!

The final comment I'd like to make is just how friendly the people are. If you are an outsider it is very easy to strike up a conversation and meet new gamers.

If you get an opportunity, jump at it!

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Adepticon - General Pictures

Here are some general photos from Adepticon to give you a feel of what is on offer.

On the Friday Jack and I played in the Teams event and went 1-1-1.

The Bits area. This shop comes every year and you can generally find any model you are looking for - within reason. Jack picked up some metal Witch Elves while I got some metal Phoenix Guard and a Boltthrower.

He also has painted stuff as well as new. Great to finish off those units.

The 40k hall being set up. The White divider is sectioning off the vendor hall as it is set up. Normally it is removed.

The Fantasy hall. This year it was in the Ballroom. All carpeted, nice chairs. The light was ok but I missed last year's natural light.

Mike King and Regan Ridge from New Zealand played together in the Teams. Amazingly we were drawn against each other in Round 2. Quick word to the Umpire and all sorted.

I think things are looking sub-optimal.

Warhammer 40k hall up and running.

Another shot showing the weight of humanity.

The more salubrious Warhammer Fantasy hall for Gentleman gamers.

 

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