Special Characters at Blog Wars 3

As promised here's a rundown of the special characters that will be in attendance for Blog Wars 3 on Saturday. Let's start with the Emperor's Finest, for the mighty Space Wolves their only representatitve, Frank Marsh, has opted to bring along Grimnar's Champion, Arjac Rockfist. It's no secret that he's my personal favourite SW character thanks to his impressive "bang per buck" ratio and the fact that he can't be targetted separately. Oh and when you do hit him he gets a 2+/3++ save and Eternal Warrior, nasty.

Those shiny men of the moment the Grey Knights will be represented by two lots of Inquisitor Coteaz, Castellan Crowe and Grand Master Mordrak. I'm sure people are familiar with Crowe and Coteaz but I'm keen to see how Mordrak performs. Surprisingly no-one opted to bring along Draigo. We've lost a couple of Blood Angels players but Paul O'Boyle who stepped in last minute will be bringing Commander Dante and my mate Scott will be fielding the walking tank himself, Mephiston.

The other space marine chapters will include a 'counts as' Chaplain Cassius for the Iron Hands from Jamie Jackson, Kayvaan Shrike for the Raven Guard, Vulkan Hestan joining the Relictors and Pedro Kantor of the Crimson Fists. What I like about most of the Codex: Space Marines characters is that they allow you to theme an army to a chapter's particular style of play so I'll be interested to see how well these players pull it off.

Rounding up the Imperial offerings we've got Commisar "he just won't fecking die" Yarrick, the ever faithful 'Iron Hands' Straken (amongst others in John Holland's list), Sergeant Harker and the bargain Guardsman Marbo. This time around however, Marbo will in fact be "Marbo Fett" as he's part of a Star Wars themed army.

Onto the xenos scum then, the two Necron entries will have Trazyn the Infinite and reigning champion Andy Humphris will be bringing Anrakyr the Traveller (or Anorak the Gypsy if you prefer). The strong Tyranid contingent features a couple of Swarmlords, a sneaky Deathleaper and Graham Sanders' ever faithful Doom of Malan'tai. I remember facing the Doom for the first time at End Times and was a little surprised when Graham said it now had 10 wounds after just arriving from reserve and killing some grey hunters!!

The only Ork force will feature Boss Snikrot and his kommandos who'll no doubt be wreaking havoc on their enemies back lines. Dave Halfpenny (WeeMen) has Karanak in his Chaos Daemons force. His list is strongly themed towards the worship of Khorne but we'll have to wait and see how much blood he manages to spill for the Blood God.

Last but not least the Dark Eldar players, myself included, have shown a stunning lack of imagination and all brought Baron Sathonyx!! Now I can't pretend he isn't the best choice, which is why I've brought him, but it's a little bit of a shame that we won't see some of the other excellent characters from the book. I'll be interested to see everyone else's conversions. Mine is still a bit of a work in progress because I've not created his cloak yet and I'm not happy with his head at the moment!

That's your lot then. As you'll know from reading the scenarios, shrewd use of your special character could be crucial in all 3 missions. The last two tournaments have seen some great showdowns between special characters such as my Arjac Rockfist taking out Prince Yriel and a classic battle between Yarrick and Ghazghkull on the table behind me in Blog Wars 2.

Finally, just to confirm the prizes that are on offer this weekend:

1st Place - £50 Maelstrom Games voucher
2nd Place - £30 Maelstrom Games voucher
3rd Place - £20 Maelstrom Games voucher
Last Place - £10 Maelstrom Games voucher and limited edition Wooden Spoon
Best Painted Army - £25 Maelstrom Games voucher
Best Painted Special Character - £15 Maelstrom Games Voucher
Best Army Theme - Battleforce of the winner's choice

I've spent all the money from the entries then. As I've mentioned in earlier posts I'm considering revising the prize structure for future events so look out for information on that after this event.