Firstly, let me apologise for my recent lack of blog posts. We've recently moved house and our internet connection won't be activated until bloody December!! Therefore I'm currently borrowing my mobile's internet connection to post but as you can imagine it isn't ideal!Anyway, all that aside I wanted to throw up some updates about Blog Wars 4.
Maelstrom Drama
Let's get this out of the way before I talk about the fun stuff. As you may have read on various sites across the internet Maelstrom is apparently having some financial difficulties. Obviously as this is the venue for Blog Wars I've been paying attention to this.
However, as far as I'm aware the venue, Eye of the Storm, will not be affected by the apparent problems. From what I've heard they split the venue which was profitable from the store which was struggling in the wake of GW's change to shipping policy (i.e. can't seen to the US/Australia any more). Anyway, I believe they've moved the store to a new warehouse and kept the two things separate. I think they're trying to deal with the complaints from people about not receiving stuff but obviously I don't work for them so I can't comment.
The important thing as far as Blog Wars 4 is concerned is that I haven't heard anything about the venue closing. Given the the event is only a month away I would've expected to hear something by now and haven't. I'll be getting in touch with them in a couple of weeks to order the food etc so I'll confirm everything then. If the unthinkable happens and the venue closes then I'll try and find somewhere else at short notice but more likely I'll refund everyone's tickets and re-arrange for next year. Hopefully it won't come to that. I think it's mostly just internet forum drama but we'll see what happens.
Ticket Sales and Army List Submission
As with previous Blog Wars events, tickets will be on sale up until two weeks before the event which is the 17th of November. This is also the deadline for army list submission. For those of you new to Blog Wars I tend to ask for army lists a couple of weeks in advance because it allows me time to check them through and clarify any potential problems. This means that the day will run a lot more smoothly and we shouldn't have any of the issues surrounding inaccurate lists being found halfway through the tournament. One thing to bear in mind is that:
BLOG WARS 4 IS 1850 PTS NOT 1750 LIKE BW 1-3
As you can see from the BW4 page we're currently a bit short on numbers compared to BW3. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll get the usual last minute purchases (looking at you Humphris!). As ever I'd ideally like 20 as a minimum but looking at some of the other smaller events it seems tournament attendance is down a little which is perhaps due to some uncertainty about 6th edition. No matter how many show up on the day I'm sure it will be just as much fun as it has been the last 3 times I've run it.
Please take some time to read through the scenarios and rules back before the event. I'll shortly be emailling PDFs of this to everyone who's bought a ticket so far. If you have any queries about ANYTHING now is the time to raise them rather than trying to work them out on the day. As ever, please bear in mind I run this pretty much solo so you'll understand if I don't get back to emails straight away.
The Daemon Issue
In a recent post I talked about the current problem with the daemons codex and a couple of units that are slightly ambiguously worded between the codex, WD update and rulebook. In summary, the rules for screamers and flamers need clarifying with regards to what parts of the two versions of the "Daemon" rule actually apply to them.
Since that post GW have put up an FAQ stating that these units get all parts of the two different "Daemon" rules. Now, I'm glad they've clarified things but frankly I think it's the wrong decision. For 20-odd points you get 2 wounds, Eternal Warrior, a 5+ invulnerable save, Fearless, Fear, etc. The screamers also get S5 AP2 attacks with Armorbane and the flamers get a 4+ AP1 flamer. That's frankly obscene for the amount of points these units cost.
Anyone who's played them at a tournament knows that these units are nearly impossible to kill. Now, all armies have their deathstars that are hard to shift but when you can comfortably take 3x9 screamers and 3x9 flamers in a list that still contains scoring units too, I think something is amiss.
Blog Wars is supposed to be fun and no-one will have fun playing an army like that. If they really think about the guy controlling it won't enjoy it either. Rather than imposing restrictions I'm emploring people to think about their armies lists carefully. I'll get to see everyone's lists before the event and if any of them contain a large amount of these units then I may ask them to rethink.
I realise this seems a bit childish to say "you can't take unit "x" because I can't beat it", but really think about how your army could deal with these units.
I'm open to suggestions on this issue but please keep things civil.
Finally
If you know anyone who you think might like to come to Blog Wars 4 please send them in the direction of the blog. Doesn't matter if they've never been to a tournament before, I'm sure many of the "veterans" of previous events will tell you that it's a friendly environment where everyone is welcome.
Yeah, yeah you know I love a late minute purchase..
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try and get some Sons of War club members to come along, see if I can boost numbers that way.. I think as this is a "community"-based event, it'd be good if everyone asked around and got mates involved etc.
I am sure there is some uncertainty around Maelstrom and that may have contributed to lower sales than usual.. but I am sure we can get a few more.. plus, as you say they are actually seperate entities so I feel confident they will be there..
Re the Daemon issue.. yeah they are strong at the minute, but I'm personally of the opinion that they don't need to be disallowed, which is effectively what you are doing.. and no, before anyone suggests it, I am NOT bringing a nasty daemon army! Perhaps you might suggest a limitation to the volume of said units, but even then I am uneasy suggesting that.. it is a perfectly legal combo afterall..
For my part, Daemons are a cool and fluffy army, they have a consistent style and theme and look awesome on the table.. having played them in tournaments in sixth - they are tough, but not unbeatable..as long as you have thought about the typical builds you may face at a tournament you will be fine..
On Daemons, bring a high volume of firepower or failing that, units that can tarpit the flamers. They aren't killing you with massed AP1 templates then and you've probably (if you have that kind of codex that allows tarpit blobs) not spent a lot of points to do it. You can even tie up multiple units of them.
Screamers are not tough, and although both these units typically appear with Fateweaver (who is, after all.. a special character and therefore a likely character at blog wars, although a truly nasty combo might be to spam 3*9 and 3*9 and just go for the Changeling for 5 pts as your character..lol)..anyway what was I saying? Oh yeah, they have crap saves, even with a reroll.
Fuck 'em. Just shoot them..
Use a deep strike defense set up as you know the army will deep strike - this means spreading your units out to the maximum 2" coherency, keeping just a few (3"-5") inches between your units and covering as much of the board as possible.. this does 3 things:
1) Maximises the chance of a mishap
2) Minimises number of models hit by templates
3) Reduces the likelihood of vector strikes as they have no where to land afterwards (flying MC's)
Play smart, don't hate! lol
Just my thoughts.. ignore at will boys!
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I agree that Daemons are cool mate. I always like to see a Daemon army on the tabletop. As I've said. I'm not going to ban them or limit them but I hope that people won't bring a disgusting 3x9 3x9 spammy list to Blog Wars anyway.
DeleteDeep strike defence is all well and good but the screamers are pretty mobile so don't need to land near you. In smaller numbers both are pretty reasonable units but once you start taking them in large units they become a little daft in my opinion. They don't make for an interesting game if nothing else!