Retiring from Tournament Organisation (after DT4)

The title pretty much speaks for itself but I've been back and forth over this decision for the last couple of years now. Since I stopped doing Blog Wars (after BWX), I've told myself each time that the next tournament would be my last. Then I have such an awesome day at that tournament that I think I should run another. It's been the law of diminishing returns though as the buzz I feel after each event is less each time. What's really motivated me to wrap it up though is the amount of time it takes to organise and run the events and since I'm expecting my second child towards the end of the year I'm sure I won't find enough time to do these events justice. Not to mention I barely find enough time to paint my models as it is! For the record, it was my wife's idea to have one last event. I'd considered making DT3 my last.

That's not to say I haven't I've thoroughly enjoyed running events and it's been incredibly flattering to see the same faces turning up time and again. There can be no greater compliment as a tournament organiser than for there to be regular attendees and that includes some who have been to the vast majority of my events over the last seven years. Most of the events have veterans making up something like two thirds of the crowd. Over the years I've been doing this I've kept a log of all of the players who've attended and there's been 167 different players over the 14 events. Of those players 106 of them (63%) have been to more than one of my events. I think that's a pretty good retention rate! It also continues to amaze me that I've had players come from overseas to play in my events!

I only started keeping a record of the tournament and raffle prizes from BW6 onwards but over those nine events I've given away a grand total of £3492.26 in prizes! That's an average of just over £388 per tournament. Considering I've only averaged 35 players in those events that means roughly £11 per player which is pretty good considering tickets are £17.50 and I have to hire the venue and buy lunch!

Something else I also started doing at BW6 was the, now obligatory, pie chart post. I've given you a hefty (and pleasingly round number) total of 50 pies over the years. It's become a favourite part of the build up for me and something that I'm completely aware is utterly pointless too! If I had any graphic design skills at all I'd put together some sort of info graphic of all these figures but, as anyone who's seen the pie chart posts knows, it's not my forte. Still, it's interesting (to me at least) to look back over the years and see what's changed and how my organisation of the events has evolved.

I really think that DT3 was a culmination of all my efforts over the years to make a fun event where the emphasis is on the social side of gaming rather than winning at all costs. I'm particularly pleased that I managed this without having to heavily comp the armies or worry about policing the lists. Obviously there's not much opportunity for abuse at 875pts but I really think everyone entered into the spirit. Not only that but to my knowledge there were no problems on the day and everything ran pretty much perfectly to time. The format lends itself to it though I suppose.

Anyway, as I said in the title, this isn't goodbye just yet. I'm going to have one last fling with you all (OK that came out wrong (title of your sextape)) at Double Trouble 4. There was a general consensus in the FB group that another Double Trouble event would be more fun that a singles event which I'd traditionally run at that time of year. For any of you reading this who haven't been to one of my events recently I'd encourage you to come along and give the format a try. It'd be great to see some old faces that have been absent in recent years. Even if you don't play 40K much any more I'm sure you could cobble together an 875pt list on Battlescribe and join in.

Hopefully this will be my biggest Double Trouble event yet. That means I'd need to sell more than 32 tickets and I haven't really got long before the event comes around. Please spread the word and let's go out with a bang!

Artist's impression of the NWGC during the DT4 closing ceremony!

Once I've wrapped up Double Trouble 4 I'm going to write up a post about the lessons I've learned over the years of running these events so maybe someone will pick up the baton. I might even see if I can get WH Community interested in publishing it. I'd promised them an article ages ago but never quite got around to writing it. For now I'll leave you with a gif of every logo from the start and a hope that I'll see you on September 1st at DT4! Speaking of which, head to the DT4 page now for more information.

A massive thank you again to all of you who've supported my events over the years and enabled me to do something a little different in the 40K tournament scene.

Blog Wars Feedback Roundup

Sorry, I intended this post to appear a lot sooner but I've been away for the weekend and my little boy has come back poorly so I've had other priorities recently. I want to draw all the feedback together tonight and then at the weekend I'll make the announcement of the new tournaments for 2016 so come back for that. I firmly believe that the key thing for Blog Wars was that I wasn't content to keep the format identical every time and I hope you guys felt that I responded to feedback and the event improved because of it. For that reason, let's tie everything together and look at what I should be thinking about for the new events.

Atmosphere and Format
It seems that for a lot of people this is the main reason to attend Blog Wars. That makes me really happy because that was the aim in the first place. I think it's been a lot easier than I thought to get a friendly atmosphere whilst still having a competition. It wasn't an instant thing but I believe that certainly in the last couple of BW I got it about right. There weren't many OTT lists and generally people enjoyed all three games outside of the odd unavoidable total mismatch.

When I've posed the question about full weekend events before it's always received a mixed response and it seems that's still the case. I'm not sure people would be prepared to commit to a full weekend for a casual event. I'm not sure I would for that matter! I think I'll be sticking to single day for now. There seems to be interest in something other than singles event though so we'll see what can be done for that.

Venue
As I've said before there are things I love about the NWGC. The location is reasonably convenient for most people. If two guys managed to get there from Germany the rest of you don't have an excuse! It's near to a train station and with a decent hotel (by all accounts) nearby it seems like a good fit. Darran the owner is a great guy to work with and couldn't be more helpful. Table service seems like a big plus for you all too!

That said, I agree with you that there are things that can be improved. The toilets aren't the best but I think that's reasonably easy to rectify. The venue used to be freezing in Winter and roasting in Summer but it seems to be better on both counts this year. I do think it needs a bit of TLC though. The tables are pretty good though and they've certainly put together a lot of scenery recently giving some really varied tables. I don't think there were many scenery complaints this time.

Subway seems to go down a treat so for the time being at least I'll be sticking with that for lunch unless I hear any strong objections. I think cold food is easier as then you aren't risking anyone getting there late and not enjoying it and Subway are pretty good at catering for dietary requirements which is a big plus I reckon.

I'll see what I can do about getting Element to stay open right until the end. I really can't promise anything on that front but I really think it's a missed opportunity for them. Perhaps they used to do it at events and found it wasn't worth their while. Can't hurt to ask though eh?

Missions
I think generally speaking people find them to be a good test for their army. There are comments that they favour faster armies but I think that's true of 40K in general at the moment. Obviously there are missions that people enjoy more than others but I think the overall consensus is that people like that the missions aren't too dissimilar from the rulebook ones but different enough to fix some of the problems. That was the aim all along so I'm pleased people think I'm on the right track at least.

I'll be talking more about it when I reveal the new events but I will be producing a new Maelstrom deck for one of them (despite how little fun it was cutting 300 cards out last time!). I think the objectives should have more emphasis so I'll be looking at ways of achieving that.

Scoring
I think the new system worked pretty well. Looking through the results I don't see any glaring problems where people are woefully misplaced having done better or worse than it seems. Doesn't seem like any of you guys felt that either so let's stick to that system or something similar going forward.

I'm still a big fan of having all three rounds worth the same number of points (and it seems you lot are too) so I'd like to try and work that into the scenarios for the new events. Not getting maximum points for tabling is definitely staying too!

Points Limit and Timing
I think most people were managing to get at least a decent chunk of their games done in the time but I think it'd be sensible to drop the points limit to 1,750 or thereabouts to help keep things to time. If I'm ditching the special character comp I don't think it's a problem to reduce the points. Hopefully it'll make for more sociable games where people don't feel rushed.

There wasn't a huge surge of interest in smaller skirmish games. I'm not sure it's something that 40K lends itself to particularly well. I think it's best at 1500+ and anything below that becomes a bit samey. For next year at least, I don't think I'll bother with a skirmish event.

Painting Competition
The new format seems to have been favourably received. I think only allowing entry into one category is a good thing. It means you have a target to work towards and you aren't totally demoralised when someone scoops all the prizes.

There have been several comments about the timing of the judging. To my mind I don't think people actually were voting before all of the armies were out on display but obviously people felt that this was happening. Maybe I could set up something so people enter there votes straight onto a laptop. That way I don't have to spend time typing everything in and I could only give people access to vote once everyone had displayed their armies. I think I'd need to tweak the schedule to accommodate this but it should be doable.

Prizes
Finally, everyone love the raffle but that is a no-brainer. Who doesn't like getting free stuff just for showing up? This will be something that definitely won't change in the new events and I want to look into more ways I can expand the prize support even further! I think the door prizes were well received and I'd like to find a way to keep that up. The tournament prize system works, in my opinion at least, in that it doesn't make people desperate to win at all costs but still rewards the winner. I'll be keeping things pretty similar on that score in the coming year.

Right, come back (hopefully) tomorrow when I'll be posting the details for the June event and shortly after that the November one. I'm hoping that both will appeal to the majority of you and that you'll give them the same support Blog Wars has received over the years.

Blog Wars 2 Rules Query - Response Needed

So I've been spending some time over the last couple of days checking out everyone's army lists for Blog Wars 2 (since they've got to be in by tonight). For the most part everything is fine, and I've emailled people about a couple of minor corrections, but it seems the third and final mission is causing a few problems. 

For those of you not familiar with it the last mission is an attack & defend scenario with some deployment restrictions. At the time of writing these missions I thought it would make sense for the defenders to be able to deep strike some of their units as if they'd called for assistance when they found themselves under attack. I didn't want people to reserve their entire army though as that felt a bit daft when the "attacker" was meant to be attacking someone! Similarly I prevented the attackers from having any deep striking at all and instead allowed them to Outflank some units (which the defender can't do). My only concern was that if there were any Chaos Daemons players that wanted to come then they'd find themselves with a problem because they HAVE to deep strike.

Luckily, (but also a shame too) there aren't any Daemons players coming to Blog Wars 2. However, since Imperial Armour (forge world) armies are allowed there is an Elysians (posh Imperial Guard) army coming along with a tyranid army with some mycetic spores. Both of these armies rely on their ability to deep strike as part of their strategy. This will work fine in the earlier missions but with the restrictions it will cause problems in the last one. So what to do?

The IA player suggested he mimic the aforementioned Daemons by splitting his forces into two "waves" and rolling to see which he gets on turn 1. Seems reasonable because most of his force is deep striking but for the 'nids player not all of his force is in spore pods. At the end of the day it'd be up to their opponents in that final game as to what they allow but as tournament organiser I really ought to come up with something to prevent any delays, disagreements or worse, full blown arguments!

Therefore I thought of just removing the restrictions completely but that brings me back to the problem of what if the defender decides to just reserve everything? Kind of defeats the point of having the attacker attacking! I suppose you could argue that they might be trying to capture a crucial point which they happen to find undefended (at first) and then all hell breaks loose. The other problem with just removing the restrictions is that perhaps people have designed their armies with them in mind? Mind you, since I know some people hadn't even looked at the missions until recently I doubt this would actually be a problem.

Right so what do you lot think? Here are the options:

1. Keep things as they are and let people decide on the day if they come up against an army that has problems in the last mission.

2. Make everyone follow the rules to the letter and therefore penalise people with Deep Strike "themed" armies

3. Only allow units in reserve (for both players) if they can EITHER Outflank OR Deep Strike

4. Scrap the deployment restrictions completely and see how it goes

Personally I think option 3 is the best since it stops the vast majority of armies reserving everything and still allows armies with special deployments to make the most of them. I'll go with the general consensus though!

Seriously, I'm wondering if the custom scenarios were worth the hassle!! I think next time (if there is one) I'll go with rulebook missions but keep the new scoring system.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions... (playtesting the BW2 scenarios)

So Matt and I have just played through the Blog Wars 2 scenarios. We've played my Dark Eldar against his Blood Angels, a Grey Knight Draigowing and then his Blood Angels against my Space Wolves. We're pretty pleased with how the missions played out including the final mission which now seems to be reasonably balanced as far as we can tell. I'll do quick battle report of the three games before I talk about the decision I've got to make.

Game 1: Blood Angels vs Dark Eldar
Matt got first turn and promptly took out two raiders, immobilised the other two and then stunned both ravagers. I managed to bring down his stormraven but Lelith failed to wound Mephiston in combat (needing 6s is a bitch) and then eventually got chased from the board. His drop pod dread locked some witches in combat who managed to get some damage with haywires but never quite got the killer blow.

A combination of poisoned shooting and wrack assault brought Mephiston down to a single wound but not without losing both wrack squads (one ran off). Mephiston eventually killed himself with a dangerous terrain test though!! That was the only highlight in an eventual tabling where the sheer weight of fire and open toppedness meant I never really left my half of the board.

I should've reserved my entire army really and then any transports that came on could've blasted 24" and hoped the ravagers opened up a transport for them to assault the occupants in later turns. I spend too much effort trying to kill Mephiston for the 3 KPs and I was lucky that he died. Realistically Matt's list is probably the rock to my scissors but I played badly and poor luck didn't help. I'm pretty sure Matt would've taken the 8 TPs from this game (but we didn't sit and calculate it).

Game 2: Dark Eldar vs Grey Knights
Matt had a paladin blob, 2 psyflemans and a vindicare. He got the first turn again and learning my lesson from game 1 I reserved everything. I got the vast majority of my army in turn 2 and proceeded to take down one of his dreads. I opted to fire both venoms at the paladin blob but thanks to 2+ saves and FNP I only caused a single wound, should've shot the vindicare but you live and learn. Over the next few turns Matt killed two raiders, 2 ravagers and reduced one venom to a hull. One of the wych squads also fell to storm bolters and psycannons from the paladins. I killed off the vindicare with ease and the remaining dread over a couple of turns.

At the start of turn 5 I blasted my remaining vehicles into a position where I controlled 3 quarters and contested the one with the paladins in it. In turn 6 Matt would need to break off Draigo, the Librarian and the Techmarine in order to contest my quarters and force a draw, it would be nearly impossible for him to win. Luckily for me he rolled a 2 and there was no turn 6. This meant I'd got a health 3-0 victory but gave away a marginal VP win to him.

Game 3: Space Wolves vs Blood Angels
I finally won the roll off and got to be the attacker (we didn't do the TP thing cos we weren't using the same armies in the first 2 games). I'd put together a tasty SW list with Arjac as my compulsory Special Character. My first turn was disastrously poor with the lowlight being my long fangs missing with all 4 krak missiles. However, Matt had an equally poor turn 1 and I punished him for it in turn 2. His furioso had disembarked from the stormraven to kill my infiltrated scouts and a multi-melta shot from my land raider blew it up. The long fangs were luckier this time and blew up the storm raven and Arjac and friends killed his land raider meaning 570pts down the pan for Matt.

Arjac and co. were charged by assault marines but held out well killing all but the priest who ended up running. Mephiston killed my land raider but his other dread was bogged down in combat with some grey hunters with neither side able to end it. Arjac and co turned their attention to Mephiston managing to cause 3 wounds with plasma fire and then killing him off over two rounds of combat leaving Arjac standing alone. Over the next few turns Arjac killed a further assault squad (with librarian) after the thunderlord had softened them up. By the end of turn 6 I'd managed to table him to win the game. I'd have probably taken 8 TPs from that game.

The Big Decision
I really enjoyed the last game playing Space Wolves again and this has caused a problem. I'd prefer to take them to Blog Wars 2 now instead of my Dark Eldar. This is for 3 reasons. Firstly because I've still not found my feet with DE and with only a couple of months to go I feel like I need to do a lot of tweaking to get a list I like and I'm comfortable playing with. Secondly, there's A LOT of painting to do to get my DE up to scratch in time for BW2. I'm changing my list again which means I've wasted time painting wracks when I should've been painting other stuff. I want to do the models justice and not rush the paint job and that means I won't have them ready for BW2 by a long shot. Finally, From The Fang is a Space Wolves blog and although I've started Kabalite (see the link on the right) for DE I don't feel like I did SW justice at the first Blog Wars.

In writing this post I think I've made my mind up. I'm going to put all my effort into painting Arjac to be an impressive centerpiece for my army and take SW. It'll let me take my time painting DE for some future tournament (did someone say Blog Wars 3?) and get to a point where I'm winning more consistently with them. It's a shame because I really like the models, the playstyle and the fact that they aren't just another MEQ army but with moving house I just won't have the time.

Time to get cracking on Arjac and write a nice post about painting and converting him methinks. Blog Wars 2 tickets are available on the right. I look forward to seeing you there!

Blog Wars II: Battle of the Bloggers - Possible Dates

Just heard back from Maelstrom about possible dates for Blog Wars II. I decided to try and make it a bi-annual tournament as I think once a year is too little and, as some people have suggested, if I made it more regular then it would be more like a club night than an event.

I've provisionally booked in for Saturday 17th December 2011 but the 3rd December is a possibility. In addition the Sundays are also available that weekend so we have the oppportunity to make it into a weekender if people would prefer that? It really depends on how much interest there is this time round. If there's the same number as last time then I think there'd be too many match-up clashes over a 5/6 game weekend.

Anyway, I've put a poll up on the right hand side and I'd be grateful if you could vote for which date you'd prefer as well as commenting about why you voted how you did. I'll try and do a mail shot later today so that people know the poll is there but if you could spread the word that'd be great. 

Just for reference, there are no dates available in Nov/Jan so if there's little interest in making it December then I might just try again later in the new year. I'll try and get a new page started for Blog Wars II (with a new logo I promise) once I get chance but for now we'll see how it goes.

Did the Special Character thing work at Blog Wars?

Well from the feedback I've been getting it appears that it did. End of post. Good job. See you next week....

Seriously though, aside from it mainly being open to bloggers and their friends, what set Blog Wars apart from a lot of the other tournaments was that I required everyone to field a special character. Now initially there were a lot of groans and moans and "my codex has crap special characters" etc. Then we had "I'll just drop this unit and throw in a token SC to keep him happy". However, once people started to think about how including a certain character would affect their army they began to see that it wasn't that simple. You know I'm a big fan of SCs and I think that they add a different dimension to games. There are certainly better ones than others but for the most part they all have their uses. It comes down to how you use them. Take the winning army, Andy's Dark Eldar, led by Baron Sathonyx. If Andy had just thrown in a 5 man Hellion gang and attached the Baron then he'd have had a fair amount of success but Andy actually put some thought into his army and it really paid off.

By including a massive gang of Hellions (20 of them) but also including wracks and an haemonculus Andy was able to use the Baron to full effect. Not only did that make a massive troops unit that would be difficult to deal with (and must be dealt with because it's scoring) but also the pain tokens from the wracks/haemo meant it would be an even harder task. Now don't get me wrong, Andy's list was definitely a tournament army thanks to the good old classic of MSU but at the same time it had character. I'm sure Andy will agree that it's a by no means perfect list but it proved itself on the day.

In my own list, which was significantly less successful, I had Ragnar and his unit as a centrepoint for all my battles. He was always in the middle of the field smashing face as he does best. Any opponent that knows about him will naturally want to stop him before he steamrolls their army. This means that my lone wolves, rhinos and speeder got a little overlooked. It's just a shame my rolling didn't let me use this to full effect.

Blog Wars 2: Battle of the Bloggers will definitely feature the same mandatory SC rule because I thought it worked and it seems like most of you did too. I quite like the xbox-style achievements for things like SC vs SC scraps etc but I think the difficulty here is that again I'd like to play so monitoring the scoring of the achievements would be difficult. It's all fine until a couple of people who know each other play and all of a sudden they seem to earn a lot of achievements in that particular game. 

Anyway, I'm going to keep that as the only condition of entry as I don't want it to get too complicated. Hopefully before the next one people will have had more time to play test and figure out which special character suits their play style best. I've already got plans....

The Next Blog Wars.....

It may seem premature to be thinking about the next Blog Wars when the first one is still fresh in everyone's mind but that's exactly why I want to do it now. If we can flesh out the next one and get an idea when we fancy doing it then I think we can make it even better. Based on the responses to the earlier post there's a few things I think I can improve on. I always (rather cheesily) said it was a tournament by bloggers for bloggers but the first one was more by blogger singular. The more feedback the better Blog Wars 2: Battle of the Bloggers (that's the name deal with it!) will be. Please try and respond to the questions in red.

1. Timing & Day
The idea behind 2hr 30min games was that people wouldn't feel so pressured to finish on time which would aid the friendlier feel of the tournament. As far as I'm concerned it worked pretty well. I don't think there were many games that needed the full time but also there weren't many that didn't get to a full compliment of turns be it 5, 6 or 7. The only issue with this is that 7pm was quite a late finish for a Sunday and it did make it a long day. There are two obvious solutions to this. Firstly, make it a Saturday and secondly shorten the games. I'm far more keen on the former than the latter! I know there were quite a few first timers at Blog Wars and perhaps some who hadn't played the game much so I'm keen not to alienate them by making it too much of a rush.

Therefore I'm not going to do a Sunday again if at all possible but I don't intend on changing the game length. The other thing I'd like to do (if a bit ambitious) is try a weekender with 5/6 games over a whole weekend. The wives and gfs might not like it though. However, if we all went to a pub in the evening (dunno if the Maelstrom bar opens late on a Saturday?) then the social side would improve.

How would people feel about this? Would you prefer shorter games? Were the breaks between games long enough? Would you be up for a full weekend?

2. Missions/Scenarios
I played a very enjoyable tournament (also at Maelstrom) that had slightly different missions and a different way of doing GPs. Basically it borrowed some of the 4th ed missions and the GPs were based on how successful you were at achieving them. For example in Cleanse (where you must control table quarters) you got 1 point if you won by 1 quarter, three for winning by two quarters and the full 5 for a tabling. The games were 1500pts and there were then 5 points for tabling the other army, 3 pts for over 1000pts margin and 1 point for less. That meant each game had 10 points available but requiring a tabling to achieve that. It really made people push to kill that last unit and there wasn't an annhiliation mission so that solved the KP issue. The only problem is that it means objectives might get ignored in favour of just going for the tabling but I guess that's the same whatever the mission.

The reason I went with the rulebook ones is that everyone knows them, it's less effort for me and there'd be no confusion about my wording in custom scenario descriptions. I've got a lot more time spare at the moment (since I'm never gonna plan another wedding) so I'd be quite up for coming up with some scenarios (or more likely stealing them from somewhere else).

Anyway, I think we're all agreed that the rulebook scenarios aren't much fun if you get crap combos like spearhead and c&c or dawn of war and..... anything DoW sucks! By avoiding these missions and probably anything using KPs I think we can make it more fun for all and reduce the risk of people playing the same opponents.

What scenarios do you guys like? Have you found any at other tournaments that worked well? Should there always be objectives with annhilation as a secondary mission? How should it be scored?

3. Number of Players
Not so much I can do about this because it's really down to you lot. What I will do is a lot more work on publicity for the event. I'll put it on Unseen Lerker again and mention it on a couple of forums. The downside to this is that we might attract the WAAC crowd. To this end I'll definitely keep the compulsory special character. I think most people saw what I was trying to do and embraced it. I think those that did had a lot more fun than those that threw one in last minute (maybe that's just me though?). I think it encourages as many as it puts off but I think the kind of people it attracts are the kind we want and vice versa. Special characters are what sets Blog Wars apart and I'd like to keep it that way.

The other option is that I just leave it to word of mouth (or word of blog at least) and plan it further in advance so there's more time for people to plan. I think if it's a Saturday then more people will show up too. That or a full weekend will make people feel a long journey is more worthwhile.

Word of mouth or forum spam? Keep it blogger only or open it up to anyone? How do you feel about the mandatory SC?

4.  Soft Scoring
I've never been a fan of points for "sportsmanship" or painting quality as I don't think it's ever likely to be honest when you're filling it out with your opponent stood at the other side of the table. It's a waste of time and doesn't really add anything so I'm keeping it out.

The painting competition was pretty good but I think it could've been better if I'd had some labels for each player making it easy to tell which army was which and also given people more time to set them up. Well that and actually bothering to mention they needed to set them up in the first place! I admit I'm a gamer before I'm a hobbyist but I still think it's an essential part of a tournament.

Does anyone out there actually like it? Could the painting comp be a bigger part? Should there be a sportsmanship award?

5. Prizes and Awards
I liked the categories for the awards as there weren't soo many that it became an "Everyone Gets a Trophy" day but I wish I'd put a bit more effort in here. I'll definitely make some certificates (if not trophies) for next time. The store credit I'll definitely produce vouchers for to make it easier afterwards but I'd like to keep it as a prize. It keeps the venue sweet too as you're spending cash while you're there. The discount also helps boost the prize money.

I liked the raffle but wasn't soo keen on the prizes. I'll put some more imagination into it next time. I've already got some ideas but I'll keep them under wraps for now. Suffice to say they're better than the finecast models people didn't want/need!

The ticket price I think was about right. Again, I wouldn't expect to make any cash. I was flattered that there was a whip round for me but it'd be like a restaurant including a service charge if I was to make it from ticket sales. I might, however, allocate a portion of the budget for "event supplies" so that I'm not out of pocket at least! I'm not sure the lunch was worth £7.50 but it wasn't bad, might discuss this with the venue and see what we can do. I'd rather more money went into prizes than catering but with more numbers we'd have more bargaining power.

Finally, I want to contact some companies and try and scrounge some free stuff, something I didn't get round to doing this time.

What sort of things do you want as prizes? Does the store credit thing work (if improved a little)? Were there too many/not enough prizes?

6. Other Bits and Pieces
The reason for two scorecards were in case (a) people lost there's i.e. you'd hope both hadn't lost them and/or (b) to ensure that both scores agreed in case anyone was trying to buff their scores. What didn't help was when BOTH people put the wrong thing making me look daft in the prize ceremony!!! What I will do is print them on thicker paper/card next time so they aren't so flimsy. Might even make them look a bit better!

I'll bring a better laptop next time so I can have the score on the big screen with perhaps some reminders of the scenario scoring system so that no-one can claim that's why they lost!

Name badges (read sticky labels) is something I though about but never got around to doing. I like the idea and I think it'll help Maelstrom out with the discount so they know people aren't just chancing it. The "Who's Who?" over lunch would have to be done by someone other than me since I won't have time if Sunday was anything to go by.

I think I ought to have a spectator ticket. There were a few guys who came just to watch which is fine but it'd be good for them to chuck in a few quid for the lunch (not sure if they helped themselves to buffet or not since I wasn't there long) but it couldn't hurt to offer the option. I'd hope the spectators this time would play next time anyway.

We set up the scenery in the morning. It's difficult to tell how good or bad it is until you start playing but I reckon the rule of thumb that it should cover 25% of the surface when packed together is a good one. Line of sight blocking is a good playing field leveller (well not literally) so it stays but perhaps only on half the tables or something.

A new logo. I can't tell you how sick I am of the thing. Looking back there's way too many posts with it on so I'm going to put some effort into making a better one. Watch this space!

Any ideas for improving the "meet and greet" side of the game? Would you feel stupid with a name badge? What could I change scenery-wise (if anything)? How was lunch?

Conclusion
There WILL be another Blog Wars I promise. It WILL be bigger and it WILL be better. The only question that remains is when? Sooner rather than later but I'm thinking Sept/Oct sort of time. Let me know what works for you and I'll try and go with the majority. I'm already looking forward to it and my mind is racing with ideas so trust me your ticket price will be worth it!

Post #100 - Blog Wars: The Aftermath

Today I've reached my 100th post and I think it's quite fitting that it should be a report from yesterday's first ever Blog Wars tournament. I have to say I'm really pleased with how the event worked. Everyone showed up and we got going slightly earlier than planned. There was a nice variety of armies and opponents and although my performance was somewhat lacking 23rd out of 26 (1 draw & 2 losses). I had a brilliant time as all of the games could've gone either way. I'll post up some reports in the next few days.

I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who turned up. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. If there's enough interest I'd like to run another one. The results were as follows:

1st place - Andy Humphris (Ven - Sons of Sanguinius) - Dark Eldar - winning £50

2nd place - Andy Pattison (Songs of Sanguinius) - Imperial Guard - winning £30

3rd place - Ken Morley (Ignatum) - Tau Empire (!!!) - winning £20

Last place - Scott Rocco (From the Fang) - Chaos Space Marines - winning £10

Best painted army - Tim Wharton (A Guardsman's Guide to Glory - Elysians) and Drew Lord (Excommunicate Traitoris - Imperial Guard) - sharing £25

Best painted special character - Damian Hannon (Sons of Sanguinius) - Belial (DA) - winning £15

I also gave away some Finecast miniatures in the raffle. With no one winning two prizes that meant that of the 26 people there (including myself) 11 people took home prizes. Not bad for £15 entry I reckon. 

Anyway, full results can be found on the Blog Wars page. I'll be taking down the banner in a couple of weeks but it will remain accessible through the tab at the top. There were some closely fought (and I hope enjoyable) games as well as some out and out thrashings. I'm extremely pleased with the winning armies. Obviously there was always going to be a guard list involved but for the only Dark Eldar army to win the grand prize is immense. I think there's an element of "oh shit I've never played these before, what do they do?" to it but that's not to take anything away from Andy (who wasn't even going to bring DE!). As an occasional Tau player I'm also thrilled that Ken achieved 3rd place.

As I said above I'd like to run the tournament again, hopefully later this year but definitely next year. It was by no means a perfect event and there's a few things I know I could improve on for next time:

• More players - due to there only being 26 of us it meant there were a couple of clashes in round 2 and 3 where people had played before. Easily solved and even in massive tournaments this happens but with more numbers it should be less likely. Only way I can get more players is by word of mouth and better advertising of the event.
• Bring a better laptop - I took my wife's laptop along to do the scores and act as a timer for the games, sadly since it's getting on a bit now it doesn't have HDMI so therefore I wasn't able to connect it to the big screen. Not a big deal since it wasn't a massive room but it'd be nice to see the timer better and not be squinting at a screen for the scores.
• Better thought out prizes - I wanted to avoid giving out a bundle of prizes to people only to have them swap it for something else. Therefore I opted for store credit at Maelstrom. If I choose to do this next time I'll definitely make a better arrangement with the staff and get some vouchers printed up.
• Better raffle prizes - I bought the finecast stuff on the day and unfortunately they'd not got a lot left so I was limited in my options. People seemed fairly pleased with them but I know I can do better next time with a bit more planning.
• Certificates - there was me thinking people wouldn't be bothered about a crappy certificate I'd made on my PC. However, I think there needs to be something presented to the winners at the end.

I also appeal to anyone that attended to send me their feedback on the event. How do you think it went? What could I do differently next time? Was 2.5 hours too long for games? Was the scenery decent? What do you think of the venue? etc etc. Please comment on this post or email me if there's something you don't want to post up on here. Also if people have pictures from the event they're happy to share then I'll try and create a web album with a selection.

Once again, thanks for making the first ever Blog Wars a success and I look forward to seeing all of you again for the next one! We need to knock that smile of Venerable's face. It's going to be unbearable to read his blog for the next few days!

Blog Wars Army Gallery

It's less than 24 hours to Blog Wars now and I've completely finished my army (at least to a standard I'm happy with). I decided to that since I've barely put any pictures of my army up on here before that I'd go a bit mad with this and put a load up so apologies for the number of pics. As ever click for a bigger pic. Oh and before I start I've added one more thing to the what to bring bit of the BW page. Namely, TRAYS people, TRAYS. Makes a big difference to have something to move your army around on!

So here it is my Blog Wars army (you can find the list on an earlier post):

Here's a few close up of all the individual units. Firstly the Long Fangs:

Now the two standard grey hunter squads:

The grey hunter packs' rhinos display the symbol that corresponds to the shoulder pad design on some of the squad members. One being the wolf's head and the other being the claw. Both symbols were painted freehand and I'm pretty pleased with them. The join down the middle of the rhino hatch gives a good marker to keep symmetry:

The land speeder has proven itself time and time again so I'm hoping for a good showing from it tomorrow:

The lone wolves took a bit of converting since GW don't make any right handed storm shields that I could find anyway. The conversion was fairly simple. On one I carefully carved out the original fist and greenstuff/glued it onto an arm which had had the storm bolter removed. The second I simply green stuffed the shield onto one of the arms intended for a frost blade:

The wolf guard with combi-melta and power fist all have a different attempt at a combi-melta conversion. One simply has a melta barrel glued onto a storm bolter (not so keen on that one), the other has the bottom carved off the meltagun and replaced with a piece from a bolter (my favourite) and the last one has parts from an old bolt pistol glued into place on top of the meltagun:

Finally, last but not least, Ragnar and his bodyguard. A completely tooled up grey hunter pack with wolf guard riding into battle in a land raider redeemer:

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with how Ragnar turned out. As I've said before I'd love to do a proper conversion but I lack the tools, skill and time!

Well that's it then, this is the last post before Blog Wars (assuming I haven't forgotten to mention something vital). Can't wait to see you all there and I hope that my army makes a good showing of itself. See you tomorrow!

Special Characters at Blog Wars

Well with the tournament only about 36 hours away and my army pretty much finished I thought I'd share with you a list of the special characters which will be making a (mandatory) appearance at the tournament. For those who didn't know every list has to include a special character. The reason for this was to try and encourage people to use "friendlier" lists which has, for the most part, been successful. It's encouraged people to try out new things and it'll certainly make the games more interesting in most cases. Anyway, in attendance on Sunday will be *drumroll*:

Ragnar Blackmane (mine, Space Wolves)
Draigo & Inquistor Coteaz (Grey Knights)
Abaddon the Despoiler (CSM)
Corbulo (Blood Angels)
Njal Stormcaller (Space Wolves)
Commander O'Shovah (Tau Empire)
Wazdakka Gutsmek (Orks)
Belial (Dark Angels)
Kharn the Betrayer (CSM)
Logan Grimnar (Space Wolves)
Knight Commander Pask (Imperial Guard)
Sergeant Harker (Imperial Guard)
Harker & Marbo (Imperial Guard)
Colonel Straken (Imperial Guard)
Mephiston, Lord of Death (Blood Angels)
Baron Sathonyx (Dark Eldar)
Justicar Thawn (Grey Knights)
Kharn the Betrayer (CSM)

Marshal Helbrecht (Black Templars)
Marneus Calgar (Ultramarines)
Chief Librarian Tigurius (Relictors a.ka. Space Marines)
Kaldor Draigo (Grey Knights)
Doom of Malantai (Tyranids)
Bjorn the Fell Handed (Space Wolves)

As you can see there aren't too many duplicates. There's 2 Kharns, 2 Draigos and a couple of Harkers. Rather pleasingly there's 4 different Space Wolves characters which you can read more about using the links on the right. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noted that there are only 24 on the list. This is because one Tau player and an Elysians (Forge World) player have used their option to be exempt from the requirement. This shouldn't affect things too much I hope but that remains to be seen.

As I've mentioned before there'll be a competition for best painted SC. This means it's worth putting a few extra details on to their models even if you don't have time to do it for the rest of your army. It also means that those two players will unfortunately be unable participate in that part of the competition. There's plenty of other prizes on offer though. With potentially 9 prizes available that means hopefully a third of the people there will get their entry money back! Not bad I reckon. Obviously, some jammy sod will end up winning more than one prize. I must point out that I'll not be eligible for any of the prizes to ensure my impartiality which is a shame because I could do with some Maelstrom cash! It also means you get a 3 in 25 chance of scooping a raffle prize!

Anyway, some (possibly) interesting data on the armies attending. There'll be 5 Imperial Guard players (roughly a 20%) which is no big surprise because they remain a strong tournament army and with their cheap special characters it's easy to write a Blog Wars list. There's 4 Space Wolves, 2 BA, 3 CSM, 1 DA, 1 BT, 2 vanilla and 3 GK lists which means a total of 16 power armour armies or just under a third. There's therefore 69% loyalist Imperial armies. The remaining 5 armies are Orks, Dark Eldar, 2x Tau and Tyranids. There's quite a bit of variety then but there's good chance you'll play Space Wolves or Imperial Guard. Not really surprising given it's an SW blog and IG are always popular at tournaments. I'm really pleased to see a couple of Tau lists as they were my previous army before SW. I'm very thankful to Venerable from SoS for bringing DE in the end as I'm considering them next.

That means the only codexes not represented are Eldar, Necrons, Daemons and Witch Hunters. Sad there's no Necrons because I've never played them but since they're one of the oldest codexes it's hardly surprising. Daemons would probably have been represented by Darren from C&F who sadly isn't attending. There's often a couple of Witch Hunters armies at bigger tournaments though as they remain pretty competitive. At one point there was going to be an Eldar list but that player changed to CSM at the last minute after he discovered they aren't that great any more! Bit of a shame since I've got an Eldar army tucked away.

Hope someone other than mean found all those stats interesting. Tune in tomorrow for pictures of my (hopefully) completely painted army for Blog Wars! I promise there aren't too many more Blog Wars related posts coming up for those who are sick of hearing about it!

Blog Wars This Weekend - few updates and things to bring

So time does indeed fly! I can't believe Blog Wars is this weekend. I've spent the last couple of weeks painting up my army and getting them ready for this so I'm really looking forward to seeing them in action at the tournament. Incidentally, I'm going to post up some pictures of my "finished" army later on today once I've had chance to do some photography in this lovely weather. I use the quote marks because, as I've previously mentioned, at some point I'd like to go back to them and add more detail.

Anyway, onto Blog Wars. I've updated the tournament page with some more details including what to bring, prizes, food & drink etc. The numbers are now finalised and the number you see next to your name on the list is the number I'll use for the results and fixtures on the day. Please make a note of it now and print it at the top of your army list. 

A couple of quick reminders. Firstly, the venue has asked me to remind all of you that no externally purchased food or drink is allowed on site. They have a shop for hot & cold drinks and snacks so make use of that instead. Secondly, your army must be painted to at least a three colour minimum. It's at the discretion of your opponent how strictly this is enforced. If there's a problem I'll come and make a ruling but if it's clear little or no effort has been made to paint your miniatures then it is possible you won't be able to use them. Obviously, I don't want to do this but it's a shame if the rest of entrants put a lot of effort into army appearance only to find others haven't put the time in.

Other than that I look forward to seeing all of you on the day and I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun. From the look of the lists and group of people attending I'm sure it will be a laugh. Please remember that even though prizes are involved it's only a bit of fun so no nerdrage please! 

I hope this will be the first of many Blog Wars events so let's try and make this a great starting point and a regular fixture on the calendar.

My Blog Wars Army List

Well since you lot have all been kind enough to submit your lists for Blog Wars it seems only fair that I should post my up here too. I have to say I'm pleased that the majority of the lists have embraced there spirit of the compulsory special character. I know that some of you might not have been keen on the idea initially but it seems from reading various blogs that people have had fun trying out different combinations. It's made people think about their army selection a bit more rather than just churning out the same old tournament list.

Anyway, here's my offering:


1749 pts of Space Wolves

Ragnar Blackmane
Rune Priest (Jaws & Lightning)

Lone Wolf w/ TDA, chainfist and storm shield
Lone Wolf w/ TDA, chainfist and storm shield
3x Wolf guard w/ combi melta & power fist

8 Grey Hunters w/ meltagun, Wulfen & standard in Rhino
8 Grey Hunters w/ meltagun, Wulfen & standard in Rhino
10 Grey Hunters w/ flamer, meltagun, power weapon, standard & Wulfen

Land speeder w/ multi-melta & heavy flamer

5 long fangs w/ 4x missile launchers
5 long fangs w/ 4x missile launchers
Land Raider Redeemer w/ multi-melta

Well nothing too shocking there. Ragnar and a full strength grey hunter squad go in the redeemer and are my "hammer" unit. It's sickening how many attacks they can put out. I had a test game against Matt's grey knights and Ragnar took out Draigo's bodyguard of terminators on his own and the rest of the squad would've finished off Draigo and a dreadknight (that I multi-charged) were it not for some good saving rolls by Matt. As it was Ragnar finished Draigo off in the following turn. I ended up losing the game but it was certainly memorable for a number of reasons. When you get a decent roll for the extra attacks from Ragnar and combine them with a Wolf Standard your opponent may as well forget it! Furious charge means they strike before most things too so it keeps them pretty safe. They completely rely on the charge though so that's where the Redeemer comes in.

The redeemer seems to get overlooked in favour of the other variants but I think the flamestorms are brilliant. It's not so much the number of marines they can kill but the fact that your opponent has to try and guess the range of a flamer template when he's trying to manoeuvre around it.

The rest of the list is pretty standard. I've never used lone wolves until recently and I have to say I love them. There may be a few groans around the blogosphere but they're in the codex same as anything else. It's amazing the amount of punishment they can take sometimes and they scare most vehicles and monstrous creatures. The long fangs are essentially there just to soften up targets for them.

Well when I got back from honeymoon I had 22 footsloggers and a land raider to paint. I've got the models sat in front of me as I type this and they're all done apart from the washes and basing. I've still got Ragnar and the Redeemer to paint but I've got plenty of time. It's a shame I've not had chance to convert up a better Ragnar. The old school model I have has no presence on the field and I'd love to try my hand at something like this.

The entire army needs free hand company logos adding to it but I think that will only happen if I've got time spare once the raider and Ragnar are done. I might even do a quick tutorial if I can. I reckon the basic logo can be broken down into shapes and it shouldn't take too long.

Well not long to go until Blog Wars now and hopefully you've either got your army painted or you're frantically getting it there. I've got a few practice games on Thursday against Matt & Scott but I'm pretty happy with the list and how it plays so it's just a wait and see. It's a good all round list but there will obviously be armies it struggles against like Grey Knights. Have to wait and see I guess. Just over 6 days to go!

They're all a little bit special!

Just a quick post to say I've been looking through the lists that I've been sent so far for Blog Wars and I'm pleased to tell you that so far of the 16 lists I've checked no-one has taken the same character as anyone else! Granted this could change and there's been a couple of people who were exempt from the rule. Anyway, I just thought it was pretty cool that everyone had gone for something different dispite there being a few races who are represented several times!

Sadly, so far, no-one has come back to me saying they're playing Dark Eldar. I suspect this is probably because it's a relatively new codex and most readers of a Space Wolves blog like mine are unlikely to field them. Having said that I think they've got some of the coolest special characters both in models and rules so its a shame. I've decided I'm going to have to get me a DE army because those models are just too gorgeous to pass up.

My current plan is to finish off the bulk of the painting for my Space Wolves so I can field a decent sized, fully painted army. After that I'm turning my attentions to the green skins and maybe towards the end of the year I'll start to build up my DE army. I don't want to rush into it like I have with my other armies. This is for several reasons such as that I don't want to have a pile of unpainted miniatures so that it seems like a massive task that I'll never complete. I also don't want to end up with models that I'm never going to use (here's looking at you skyclaws). Incidentally I might sell some of the redundant units from my wolves army to fund the DE one.

I'm not going to be completely retiring from playing SW but I'd like to try something completely different and away from power armour for a while. Might see what the next codex is to be done. I'd love it if it were Tau because I've already got a nice sized army for them and some new models would go down great. I suspect it will be Necrons though which is an army I considered before choosing SW but I was put off my a severely limited codex.

Anyway, enough rambling, I'm off to sort a few more Blog Wars things out before bed.

Blog Wars Tickets - 48 HOURS LEFT

The title says it all. In 48 hours your chance to participate in what is probably the first (until someone commments and tells me otherwise) blogger against blogger tournament in the 40K universe will be gone. The event is on the 5th of June (a Sunday regretably) at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield, UK. If you're not a blogger don't feel like you can't attend. The aim was for a meet and greet of bloggers but anyone is welcome.

To those of you have already bought tickets. Firstly, thank you for supporting what I'm trying to do here. Secondly, I'll be contacting you all by email soon to let you know what exactly is happening on the day and what you'll need. Please let me know if your PayPal email isn't suitable for this (I know of a few ppl where this is the case). Thirdly, if you have any special dietary requirements let me know by email so I can tell the venue and finally you have 48 hours to get your army list in so DO IT NOW!!

If there are any issues with your lists I'll email you back sharpish so we can figure it out. If you don't send me a list then I may be forced to deny you dessert at the buffet and nobody wants that so don't make me do it! 

I had a test game on Tuesday night and I'm pretty pleased with my list. I'll fill you in on the details in another post but suffice to say I'm not changing it so I'll be posting it up here on Sunday. That means I won't be making any changes based on your list.

Finally, if I do end up participating i.e. if we have even numbers on the day then I'd like to point out I won't be eligible for any prizes. If I come third for example, then the prize would go to 4th place. I won't be entered into the raffle but I do still get lunch (which I'll pay for whether I enter or not). Other than that I in no way benefit from this tournament in a monetary way and in fact if I don't end up playing I'll lose £7.50!! 

Either way, I'm really looking forward to it and I hope those of you with tickets are too. Get testing, get painting and get ready cos it's gonna be a great day. To those of you without a ticket yet get your act together. There's still time and since it's the end of the month you've probably been paid. £15 is nothing. Join in!

Honey, I'm home! - Blog Wars Update (again)

So you may have noticed From The Fang has been quiet over the last couple of weeks. You may not have noticed but I'd prefer to think that you have! Anyway, I'm back from my honeymoon now and I've just finished wading through all the Blog Wars emails I've received whilst I've been away. The current number of attendees stands at 24 (including myself) which I have to say makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm amazed that people are actually getting on board with this.

Anyway, ego stroking aside, we're only just over two weeks away from the big day so I hope you're all frantically painting so that everything looks pretty. I personally have a crapload of painting to do between now and then, not to mention a bit of play testing too. I've had army lists from a couple of people but I'm going to set a deadline of one week before the tournament for final submission of your list. Please try and get them in ASAP so I can find time to check them all in between painting up my army.

The final deadline for list submission will be before the end of: SATURDAY 28TH MAY

This will also be the point when I take the ticket link down. If people want tickets after this time then I'll do my best to sort it but there are only 40 spots in total so it may not be an issue.

This should also hopefully give me time to sort out any special character issues that people might have and clarify any rules or FAQ stuff. Now is the time to do it.

From reading various posts it seems like people are really embracing the Special Character thing. I was worried at first that this would alienate some of us who prefer truly competitive lists. However, the whole point was to try and encourage people to have a bit of fun with their lists and work out an army based around a character leading it. Now, I'm not naive enough to think we won't see Imperial Guard armies with Marbo or Grey Knights with Vindicare assassins but it'd be nice to think at least some of the players had properly got on board with the idea. I really hope we see a wide range of characters too as I'd love to see how some of these guys perform in battle.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm really looking forward to it. Granted I'm hoping everything goes alright on the day but basically I can't wait to get stuck in and fight some interesting armies for a change. As I've mentioned before if there's an odd number of people then I may not compete but I'll still love wandering around during games and seeing how people are using their characters.

Finally, I'd like to highlight a few sites and people who are doing their bit for Blog Wars.

Firstly, Sons of Sanguinius, the original idea for Blog Wars came from a comment form discussion between C&F, the Sons guys and myself but also Venerable Brother has been prolifically (is that a word?) writing posts about ideas for army lists. Thanks for supporting the idea guys and for flying the logo on your site.

Secondly, Andy bG from Iron Wolves has set up a Google Group to help people sort out their transport for the day. I appreciate that Sunday isn't great for travel so if you're having difficulty try using this to help you sort out lifts etc. If you're driving and might be able to give someone a ride then please join the group and volunteer. I might have space if someone is coming from the Sheffield direction?

Lastly, Brian from the Roll With It gaming club has recently set up an online t-shirt store which sells 40K related shirts of the kind you see people wearing at tournaments. It's an impressive range of designs and they're using the shop to help fund their club. We've talked about a couple of Blog Wars shirts but watch this space for those!

Blog Wars Tickets and Brief Hiatus

As I may have mentioned before I'm getting married in a few days. As such I'll be off on honeymoon for a couple of weeks. Obviously I'll not be blogging whilst I'm away so From The Fang will be going a bit quiet until I return.

Had a decent response on the Blog Wars tickets so far with 16 people attending at the moment. Thank you to everyone who's already bought tickets. To those who have yet to buy them I'd like to point out that since I'm going to be away you might not receive confirmation as quickly as the others have. I'll leave the PayPal link up so that people can still buy them but I'll do all the confirmations and answer any questions once I'm back. I'll try and keep an eye on my emails but without wanting to be stung with roaming charges it might be difficult. Maybe some of the hotels will have WiFi so I can at least check but I'll certainly not be blogging at the risk of divorce!

I hope you've all had a good Easter and I'll see you all at Blog Wars once I'm a married man!

Blog Wars Tickets Now Available

As you can see from the right of the page the Blog Wars tournament tickets are now available. Tickets are priced at £15 and there will be 40 available. If demand is high (which I don't really expect) then I may be able to offer more tickets once I've confirmed availability with the venue. If you have any difficulties buying tickets either comment here or contact me using the link on the right.

I've updated the event details on the Blog Wars page including a list of accepted codexes and details about the compulsory Special Character rule. If there are still any questions feel free to contact me and I'll attempt to resolve them.

Upon buying your ticket please specify your name (and blog), email address and the army you intend to use. Once people start buying tickets I'll change the list on the page to reflect ticket sales and players/armies attending. In a few weeks time I'll send out event packs to those who have purchased tickets. Until that time your PayPal receipt is proof of purchase and means you have secured a ticket.

As I've mentioned on the page the ticket costs covers £7.50 for your lunch on the day (please bear in mind Maelstrom do not allow food to be brought in from outside the venue) with the remaining £7.50 going into the prize pot. Assuming we get 20 people attending the prizes will be broken down as follows:

Prize pot total: £150

First Place - £50 Maelstrom voucher

Second Place - £30 Maelstrom voucher

Third Place - £20 Maelstrom voucher

Wooden Spoon - £10 Maestrom voucher

Best Painted Army - £25 Maelstrom voucher

Best Painted SC - £15 Maelstrom voucher

If more than 20 tickets are sold then the extra prize fund will create a raffle of GW products. Everyone who enters will automatically get a ticket with the winners being drawn at the end of the day.

I look forward to seeing you all there and hopefully wiping your armies from the board. For now I need to crack on and get my army painted up so that they'll look good as they lose!