Blog Wars 4 Painting Competition (pic heavy)

Sorry for the delay in getting these up but I've finally managed to get the internet installed in my new house so I should be back to regular posting. There's already a lot of things I need to post about that I haven't been able to but I thought I'd finish off the Blog Wars 4 stuff first.

Let's with a look at some of the entries from the competition. First off here's the tournament winner, Andy Humphris' (Sons of Sanguinius), Necrons. I have to say I'm a fan of the fading purple look and this army makes me determined to try airbrushing at some point. If for no other reason than how quick it seems to be!!

Here's Nathaniel Gibbs' Grey Knights. There are some excellent conversions in here and in particular the dreadnoughts with wrist-mounted autocannons. Nathaniel was a close runner up in both the Best Painted Army and Best Painted Special Character votes.

Andy Gosling (Iron Legion) has been working on his "one force" marines. The idea being that his models can be used to represent an army from several different space marine codexes. It's an intriguing prospect as it helps keep both costs and painting time down. Think of it as insurance against your codex becoming useless in comparison to that new one that just came out! Here they're used to represent Blood Angels in his "Team Fist Bump" which sees them in an interesting combination with Necrons!

Here's Andy Lane's (Claws & Fists) Tyranids. He's been working on the army for a little while and its always interesting to read how someone develops their list over time.

So let's move onto the winners. Firstly the Best Painted Special Character award went to Dimitris Kiourtsoglou (hopefully spelt that right!) who was a well deserved winner with his Epidemius conversion:

Dimitris' army also featured some nurgle jetbikes which at first glance you might think were converted from the new Horus Heresy ForgeWorld models. However, as Dimitris demonstrated they were actually scratchbuilds, impressive stuff! You can read more about this army on Dimitris' blog.

Last but not least, the winner of the Best Painted Army award was Graham Sanders. You could tell from the look on his face when I announced it that he wasn't expecting it. However, I was thrilled to see he'd won when I totted up the votes. Had I been judging the competition I'd have certainly picked out his Squats for the prize. Graham has been working on that army for as long as I've known him (if not longer) and it was great to see them finally making it onto the table top. Some people (not me, honest) would call his Squats the "Blue Peter" army since he's made use of various household objects to make them. Anyway, I'll leave you with the pictures but you should read more about the army on Graham's blog.

Blog Wars 4 - Results & Tournament Report

The fourth Blog Wars tournament took place this weekend at Maunsfeld Gaming (Maelstrom's old "Eye of the Storm" venue). Normally my coverage of the event would begin with the results, cover the painting competition entries and then move on to battle reports from my games at the event. There's one slight problem with the battle report part.... I didn't end up playing! With one participant unable to make it through sickness and my back-up not able to take part I was merely a spectator this time around. However, all was not lost because this meant that I was able to appreciate the event as a whole which will hopefully make future events better. More on that later but for now here's a rundown of what went off this time around. Incidently there will be a post about the painting competition still.

Like a Monkey with a Miniature Cymbal
First things first, as you may have read over on the Sons blog, Andy Humphris managed to take victory for the fourth time out of four! This prompted many a discussion about what we can do to stop it happening again. Let me say before I go on that I don't for a second think that Andy didn't deserve victory all 4 times. My first though was that perhaps we need some sort of handicap for him (no I don't mean breaking his thumbs). The problem with that is if someone else wins it will seem like a hollow victory. This applies for any of the other plans that result in Andy in some way being limited. What we need is for someone else to take the trophy from him fair and square. Not saying he wouldn't deserve to win it again but frankly I'm tired of giving him your money!

I think the problem is perhaps in no small part down to the pairing system. Now Swiss pairs isn't something unique to Blog Wars, it's pretty standard at most 40K tournaments. I could write a whole post entirely about the need for a better system and if I ever get the bleeding internet installed in my house then I'm sure I will. Anyway, the thought crossed mind that we should seed Blog Wars. Now, since everyone doesn't come every time we couldn't do it on past form and not everyone has been to a ranked tournament before so we can't use RankingsHQ. However, Andy himself suggested we do something similar to what I think Brighton Warlords (?) do in that they look at the army lists and divide them into tiers. Whilst I know most of the guys that come to Blog Wars, there'd still be some who might have an excellent list but not know how to use it or vice versa. Anyway, this can be saved for a future post. The point is I throw it open to anyone reading this. Everyone loves an underdog so if you reckon you can topple Mr. Humphris from the top of the Blog Wars pile then I invite you to come along to Blog Wars 5!

There were certainly some contenders this time in the form of Frank Marsh, Graham White, Franco Marrufo and Gary "The Voice" Percival who took second. Let's hope next time they can step up their game and stop him.

Clash of the errrr..... what's the opposite of titans?
For me the highlight of the day was the hotly contested battle for the wooden spoon. At the start of game 3 Graham Sanders and newcomer Andy Cox were on the bottom table. Graham's Squat guard against Andy's Necrons. History would teach us that bottom table in the final round is Graham's heartland but the new pretender to the crown (or whatever the opposite is) might offer a strong challenge (or weak whichever is better at this sort of thing).

To cut a long story short the game was close throughout. Andy was sending plenty of Necrons forward towards Graham's Aegis line (that his squats couldn't technically see over!). Volleys of fire from the tiny gunmen cut them down but they couldn't hold out forever. The Tyranids in the previous round had managed to eventually triumph and given enough time it looked like it would be the same with the Necrons. It wasn't looking good when wraiths managed to make it over the barricades and begin their assault. Sadly time's incessant progression would prevent the world from finding out how many squats it takes to kill a wraith. When the clock ticked down it turned out the result was a draw. We'd need to know the victory points (4th/5th edition style) to find out who the biggest loser was. Everything looked good for Graham to secure victory (but lose out on the title) leaving Andy to claim the spoon.......

I entered the results into the spreadsheet, hit sort, scratched my head, called over someone to check results and then realised that a certain Andy Lane had managed to come out of nowhere and steal the prize! The good news is that Graham took best army (more on that later) and Andy Cox managed to take a raffle prize.

The Results
Here's a full rundown of the results:

All that remains of this report is to say a massive thanks to everyone who continues to support this event. There are a handful of people who have been to every single one (or nearly) and that sort of dedication makes it worth the hassle of organising it.

PS. I'll add some more pictures to this post just as soon as I can sort my google storage problems out!

Quick Appeal on Behalf of a Blog Warrior!

I've been asked by Andy from Sons of Sanguinius to appeal on behalf of Gary "The Voice" Percival. Basically, Gary is coming to Blog Wars 4 this weekend but doesn't currently have transport sorted. If any fellow Blog Warriors (Andy's term but I kind of like it) can help him out please get in touch with Andy through the Sons blog or contact me and I'll pass the message on.

Otherwise preparations for Blog Wars 4 are continuing and I'm about to have a couple of games against Jamie to get me into the swing of things for Saturday. Incidentally you should check out Jamie's blogs here and here.

Finally, I thought I'd give a quick plug for my Movember appeal. For those of you not familiar with it, Movember is a month-long fund raising event for male cancer charities where men of all ages grow a moustache for the entire month of November. In my case it should really be "attempt" to grow a moustache as I'm just too youthful to manage it. That's right, youthful not lacking in manliness in any way! Luckily for you guys my effort will be long gone by Saturday (as I think my wife will force me to get rid) but if you would like to donate you can do so HERE. Thanks in advance.

Armies at Blog Wars 4 - Interesting shift for 6th & PRIZES!!

First things first. Does anyone know Mal Junor or Ewan Smith? They're coming to Blog Wars together as far as I know but they've yet to submit an army list. I've tried emailing but there's no response. If someone knows them, please get them to confirm to me that they're still coming. If they are, they need to get their army list to me ASAP.

Army Distribution
There's an interesting mix of armies at this year's event. Before I get to that though, I took at look at the spread of armies at the previous three events. Since I'm a sad individual I've produced a graph to show the sort of armies people were taking in 5th edition (click on it to make it legible):

As you can see there are a lot of Imperial Guard players and there's been a hefty following of SW, BA and GK who make up 28% of the armies that have come along. If we fast forward to Blog Wars 4 the picture is a little different (again click to embiggen):

Bear in mind this only represents the Primary Detachment so I've ignored the allies to make it. Sadly there are neither any Orks nor Black Templars this time around. One thing we aren't going to be short of are Necrons! There a 5 people bringing Necrons out of the current 28! Granted if the two mentioned at the start don't come we'll be down one but still it seems that people agree with me that Necrons are pretty strong in 6th! Now obviously this isn't the most accurate statistical analysis in the world but I still think it's pretty interesting. What's most surprising is the number of tyranid players! Now, Blog Wars veteran Chris Benstead from Weemen has been pretty consistent with his support of them but some of the other guys are coming to them from other races. Daemons are also making a pretty strong showing and the ever present Grey Knights don't seem to have dipped in popularity. On the contrary Space Wolves certainly have with only one person taking them.

The interesting thing will be how the armies fair across the tournament. Obviously winning Blog Wars 4 is hardly proof of one codex's dominance but part of me thinks it'd be funny if Necrons don't win!! At least I'm representing for the Tau Empire (even if they're joined by some space puppies)!

Sisters of Battle remain the only race to have never been represented at Blog Wars!

Special Characters

Thanks to the allies system there are actually lots of armies (about a quarter) which feature more than one special character. I'm pretty pleased to see it as you should all know by now that I'm a fan! The clear winner of the special character popularity contest is Inquisitor Coteaz from the Grey Knights book. It's pretty easy to see why as he opens up a host of options in the troops section and is pretty good himself! There are tons of characters who appear more than once and there are only actually 21 different characters in attendance. Not that significant until you consider the number of armies with more than one!

What's also nice to see again is armies that are truly themed around a special character. Special mention (no pun intended) has to go to Dimitris Kiourtsoglou with his Nurgle themed army with converted Epidemius. As ever I can't wait to see all the armies on the table-top.

Prizes
This is the bit I'm sure you're all interested in. The main prize breakdown is as follows:


1st Place: £25
2nd Place: £15
3rd Place: £10
Last Place: £5 & Wooden Spoon
Best Painted Army: £15
Best Painted Special Character: £10

Now, in previous Blog Wars tournaments the prizes have all been in the form of Maelstrom vouchers. Obviously, since they don't technically exist anymore, I won't be able to do that again. The new name for the venue is Eye of the Storm but unfortunately they no longer stock GW products. Therefore what I propose is to let the winners of the prizes decide for themselves what they'd like their prize in the form of (and no I won't do that for money). Think what you like about the Maelstrom saga but I've always liked the venue and I think it would be a shame for it to vanish so I'd like to support them. However, I totally understand if people would rather have an alternative. Therefore I'm prepared to issue Games Workshop vouchers as an alternative. For those of you who don't want to get their stuff from GW at full price I've spoken to my FLGS (Wargames Emporium) in Sheffield and they've agreed to accept vouchers for their store at 20% off which will mean the prizes are a bit more valuable. As I said I'll leave it up to people on the day.

Alternatively, if people prefer, I could pop into my FLGS and buy some suitable prizes to the same values as those above but I'd personally be against this as it will probably mean getting something you don't really want/need.

So I mentioned on Wednesday that'd there'd be some spot prizes and a raffle on the day so here's what you can win there:

The prizes shown in the picture will be split between the raffle and spot prizes. There'll be a spot prize for each game for achieving something I'll announce on the day but you can win:

Game 1: Gale Force Nine Counter Set
Game 2: GW Dice Cube
Game 3: Gale Force Nice Counter Set

At the end of the day, just after the awards ceremony I'll draw the raffle. Everyone who's coming will automatically get one entry to the draw. The prizes are as follows:

1. New Chaos Space Marine Codex and set of Psychic Cards
2. The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook
3. "Battlescape" scenery piece
4. Munitorum Vehicle Dice
5. 2 Servo Skull tape measures

I hope you agree it's worth sticking around to the end to see if you win something from that little lot! Basically I'll draw names out of a hat and let people pick which single prize they want. I hope people prefer this prize structure to that of previous events. The plan was to make the tournament prizes smaller to discourage people from bringing cheesy lists whilst also freeing up some cash for more bonus prizes!

Finally
In case I forget to mention it on the day or don't get chance to post again before the event I'd like to say a big  thanks to everyone who continues to support this event. There are several people who've been to all (or most) of the four events and I hope you'll all be at Blog Wars 5 and 6 in 2013 as well!

Blog Wars Army Lists

Spent a painful few hours checking all the army lists today. I've emailled out queries so if you haven't had an email then assume your army list is fine! There's some interesting combinations coming and I'm pleased to see a lot of different races represented. I'll throw up a post later this week with a full rundown of what you can expect to face! There's been an interesting shift in the armies people are using since 6th but more on that later.

As it stands at the moment we have 28 participants which is a pretty good number in my opinion. It means we've got enough to minimise repeat pairings without have so many that it doesn't feel as friendly as normal. Luckily for me it also means that I can play. As I've said before, if there ends up being an odd number on the day then I'll simply not play. I'm popping into my FLGS later to sort out the raffle/spot/door prizes depending on what I can come up with. *EDIT* I think I made the owner pretty happy when I bought all the spot/raffle prizes for the day! I'll throw up some pictures on that post I promised above.

There is one small confession I have to make though. I've been forced to change my army list. With the house move I've simply not found the time to get my Dark Eldar army up to scratch. This is a huge disappointment for me as I was looking forward to showing what they're capable of in 6th edition. I've therefore had to switch to my backup list which is Tau with Space Wolf allies. It's nowhere near as fun but it is a lot easier to use and hence should mean my games will go quicker which has to be a good thing as tournament organiser. Anyway since I've seen your lists I suppose you ought to see mine:

1,848pts of Tau with Space Wolf Allies
Shas'el w/ Fusion, Plasma, Shield, HWMT
2x Shas'vre bodyguard w/ Fusion, Plasma, TA, HWMT

2x Crisis Shas'ui w/ Flamer, T-L Missile Pod

3x 8 Fire Warriors in Devilfish (DPod)

2x 2 Broadsides (ASS, Leader w/ DC, 2 Shield Drones, HWTL)

Ulrik the Slayer
Rune Priest (Jaws/Lightning)

9 Grey Hunters w/ flamer, standard, MotW (WS5 from Ulrik) in Drop Pod

5 Long fangs (4 MLs)

Nothing too complicated. Shas'el and his team deep strike in to deal with terminators and the like. Drop pod slams down and Ulrik and co. harass behind enemy lines and probably die trying. Fire warriors are nice and cosy in their 'fish with the new DP rules and can put out a nice amount of fire when they jump out. Broadsides do what broadsides do best.

Was tempted to squeeze an aegis line in but didn't really fit with the army very well somehow so I'm happy with what I've got. Not going to win but should be capable of putting up a good fight against most things.

Stay tuned for the post about prizes and the races that are represented!

More Blog Wars 4 Updates

Thought I'd answer a couple of questions that have arisen this week. Before I do let me remind you that tickets will still be available until midnight next Saturday. This is also the deadline for army list submission.

Maelstrom Games Collapse
As you may be reading across the internet, Maelstrom Games has gone under. I wanted to get a post up pretty quickly to prevent any concerns that Blog Wars 4 won't be going ahead. It is my understanding that whilst the retail arm of the business is going into liquidation, the Eye of the Storm venue is still trading normally.

I want to reassure everyone coming to BW4 that their money is safe. If I'm forced to cancel the event because it turns out the venue is closing then everyone will get their ticket price back. Therefore if you're having doubts about coming along because of the Maelstrom drama then rest assured that you won't be taking a risk in buying a ticket!

One final point on this. I've yet to clarify whether the venue still has a store attached to it. If it does then I'll check if participants still get the 15% tournament discount. I think it's more likely that the shop has gone but I'll let you know what I can find out. The other thing of course is that the prizes are in the form of Maelstrom Games vouchers at the moment. I am, of course, going to change this but wanted to know if people would prefer an actual physical prize (i.e. a box of miniatures, scenery etc) or some monetary equivalent.

Special Characters in Allies
I've had a couple of people asking me to change the ruling about the Special Character having to come from the Primary Detachment. As ever with these things I'm open to suggestions but I wanted to just explain my thinking on this before I let people debate about what I should do.

First of all I have no problem with an allied detachment containing a special character as long as the "commander" is in the primary detachment. I can't see an issue with armies having more than one SC regardless of where they are in the list but I intended for the "commander" to be from the primary detachment. It just makes sense to me that the leader of the force would be from the main codex.

My concern with SCs in allied detachments was that people would simply take a cheap troop unit in order to field a strong SC from another codex. For example a 5-man BA assault squad or scouts to allow Mephiston to be taken. The reason I'm not a fan of this is I think it detracts from the feel of the army when done in this way. However, I appreciate that this isn't the only reason people might want an allied SC.

I know a couple of people have written their lists around an allied SC and I apologise for not being clearer about it in the initial rules. Do people have any strong objection to me allowing the "commander" SC to be in the allied detachment? Does it matter if this is the only SC in the army? Frankly I don't think it'll make that much difference and of course I'll see all the army lists and be able to clarify things.

So it's up to you guys. If people aren't really fussed then I'll just let people take their "commander" SC wherever they like in the army! As ever I appreciate your feedback.

Blog Wars 4 Ticket and Army List Deadline

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.

Dark Eldar 1850pt Army for Blog Wars 4

Blog Wars 4 is a little over 7 weeks away and tickets are still available if you'd like to come. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Blog Wars is a tournament that I run where the blogging community can come together and throw a few dice together. Whilst it started off as mainly bloggers the last couple of events saw more people who don't blog coming along. The event is of course open to anyone and at £15 for a 3-game tournament (including lunch) I think it's pretty good value especially when there's a sizable prize pot too!

The aim of Blog Wars 4 is to continue in the friendly spirit of the first 3 events whilst also trying out everything 6th edition has to offer. With the first 6th codex in the mits of the Dark Gods' followers I'm hoping to see some Chaos armies on the table. Blog Wars 4 will allow for most of the aspects of the new rules. The only thing that won't be included is random terrain placement (although I'd like to try it at BW5). Everything else is in from flyers to fortifications, allies to mysterious terrain. I share Natfka's (from Faeit212) opinion that 6th is here so there's no point playing 40k 5.5 and picking which rules you want to play.

Being Blog Wars there's a single restriction in that each army MUST include a special character. The missions are slightly themed around these special characters and there is a prize for the best painted SC as well as the best painted overall army. Anyway, advert over, here's what I'll be taking to Blog Wars 4:

1,850pts of Dark Eldar
Duke Sliscus
2 Haemonculi

9 Kabalite Trueborn (5 shard, 2 blaster, 2 cannon, haywires) in Raider

3x 5 Kabalite Warriors (blaster) in Venoms (2 cannons)
2x 9 Wyches (haywires) in Raiders

2x 6 Reaver Jetbikes (2 heat lance)

3 Ravagers

Nothing too complicated. With the rules changing about assaulting from webways I had to ditch my list from BW3. I've was a big fan of Baron Sathonyx but I fancied a change and Duke seems to be an interesting alternative. The haemonculi will join the wyches in the raiders and blast forwards to make the most of the haywires against enemy vehicles. The venoms will sit at maximum range and hopefully torrent down some infantry, later on in the game they can get into 24" or even 12" and the squads inside can rapid fire too. When they inevitably get destroyed the warriors will hug objectives.

The reavers will be used for harassment purposes either by bladevaning smaller units or trying to pick off vehicles with their heat lances before darting away. The aim is to keep them turbo-boosting as much as possible. In some games I might keep them in reserve. The ravagers are pretty self explanatory but they'll be my best chance of scoring First Blood points.

Finally, Duke's unit of trueborn are my shooty death star unit. Granted they're pretty flimsy but there isn't anything they can't take on. Hitting on 3s and wounding on 3s against everything means they'll have no problem taking down high toughness targets and the pair of blasters (coupled with Duke's pistol) will give vehicles something to worry about. Not to mention that haywire grenades make them a threat to all vehicles.

Now, I'm not naive enough to think they won't be targetted pretty early on by savvy opponents but hopefully by that point I'll have gotten them into a position where they can do some damage. If I fail to get first turn I'll have to make sure Duke's raider is getting a cover save but that isn't as hard as it used to be and at least I'll be able to position him near to the best target.

Duke also gives me the advantage of rolling twice on the combat drugs table. This did tempt me to swap the warriors for more wyches to take full advantage but the danger there is that you waste the venoms as you try and get the wyches into combat. To be honest it's all a bit experimental for me as I haven't really run this type of DE list much but I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun trying. That's assuming I get to play of course as I'm sure people will remember that that's been in doubt up until the day before all 3 previous Blog Wars!!

Anyway, my current problem is getting the army ready for the day. I had planned on having it all fully painted but I'm now being more realistic and aiming for 3 colours. The wyches, warriors and reavers are already at this point but the vehicles and Duke's unit need some work. I'll post up my progress in the coming weeks but suffice to say I'm already getting bored of line highlighting!!

News about Blog Wars 4 incl. Change of Date

I'm sorry this has been a long time coming but what with post grad work, interviews and getting in as much 6th edition as possible I'm only just getting round to it.

The first and most important thing to say is that Blog Wars 4 will NOT be on October 14th as previously advertised. Unfortunately a good friend of mine has decided to have his stag do that weekend (inconsiderate I know) and therefore I won't be getting back until later on the Sunday. I'm extremely sorry if this causes anyone any inconvenience since I know some of you have to reserve your tournament days with the wife etc early on! I'm currently trying to get in touch with Maelstrom to reschedule and my preference would be either  3rd or 4th November (depending upon availability). As soon as Tim gets back to me I'll post it up on here so people can plan. At that point I'll also release tickets.

The rest of this post will outline the plans for Blog Wars 4. I'm trying to include as much 6th edition stuff as possible. There's a lot to cover so this will be a long post, please bear with me. The BW4 page will be updated to reflect all this. If anyone has strong objections or otherwise suggestions for improvements then by all means get in touch.

Ticket Price and Prizes
Unfortunately Maelstrom has increased the cost of catering ever so slightly and it now comes in at £8 per person. As I've previously mentioned I'm going to be restructuring the prize system so that there are more prizes available and less incentive to just bring a WAAC list and take the top prize. Here's what I propose:

1st Place: £25 Maelstrom Voucher
2nd Place: £15 Maelstrom Voucher
3rd Place: £10 Maelstrom Voucher 
Last Place: £5 Maelstrom Voucher & Wooden Spoon
Best Painted Army: £15 Maelstrom Voucher 
Best Painted Special Character: £10 Maelstrom Voucher 

Bear in mind we'll be getting a 15% discount in the shop (or potentially more if they have an offer on) so, for example, the first prize is actually £29.41. I think these are still pretty reasonable prizes. I appreciate it's a big drop from the previous prize structure but with more spare cash to give out either spot or door prizes I think it'll make more people happy. With this structure the ticket price can remain at £15 (which has to be a good thing) and if we get 20 people to attend that's a total prize pot of £140 (after food) and therefore £60 left over for spot/door prizes. Obviously every extra person over the 20 mark gives us another £7 onto that fund and again I'd like to try and run a raffle.

I'd really like to know what you guys think on this as I'm open to suggestions for improving it.

The Scenarios
By November, 6th edition will have been out around 4 months. Whilst for most of us this means we'll be pretty used to it I appreciate that some people don't game as much as I do. Therefore I think the scenarios need to be pretty straight forward to make it easier for people who are still trying to learn the rules. Here's what I'm planning for the missions.

Game 1 - Vanguard deployment (diagonal) with the Crusade mission (5 objectives) (#1 in the rulebook)
In this mission the Special Character counts as scoring

Game 2 - Hammer & Anvil deployment (end to end) with Relic mission (#6 in the rulebook)
In this mission the Special Character counts as scoring


Game 3 - Dawn of War deployment (6th ed, side to side) wth Purge the Alien mission (#2 in the rulebook)
In this mission the Special Character is worth +1VP e.g. if he's the Warlord he's worth 3VP.


I had several more complicated ideas for how the SCs would work but I think it's better to keep things simple to avoid confusion. I appreciate a roll of "6" on the Personal Traits chart makes a Warlord scoring anyway but if that's the result then people can re-roll it.

This means we'll play all three deployment types from the rulebook giving people a chance to learn them. The missions are chosen because they don't benefit a particular army too much. Big Guns Never Tire and the Scouring are great but it forces people to take more FA and HS choices. The Emperor's Will is just C&C from 5th and frankly isn't very exciting.

I'll put up a link to the official scenario descriptions on the BW4 page as soon as I can.

Mission Special Rules
As stated in the mission descriptions, each mission has Primary Objectives and Secondary Objective. All of these will be in effect but as ever I'll also be taking down VPs (5th edition style) to minimise clashes. The scoring structure will be the same as at BW3 with "degree of victory" based tournament points.

Each mission has Night Fighting, Mysterious Objectives and Reserves as described in the rulebook. I know some tournaments aren't doing the Mysterious Objectives but personally I think they're part of 6th so they should be in and they only affect the first game anyway.

Terrain
There's been some debate online about whether TOs, such as myself, should allow players to deploy terrain as in the rulebook. For the first Blog Wars of 6th edition the TERRAIN WILL BE FIXED. This is for two reasons, a) it prevents people from arguing over placement and b) it prevents damage to Maelstrom's scenery. This is still allowed for by the rulebook as "Narrative Terrain" instead of "Alternating Terrain" deployment.

However, unlike other tournaments I plan on classifying the terrain beforehand. This will mean that there are no debates about if this is a building or a ruin or whatever. I'll use common sense though, if it looks like a barricade that's what it'll be. Each table will have it's own terrain guide to classify the terrain and how it should be played. There will be some Mysterious Terrain and I expect people to play it that way. It's part of 6th edition so get used to it! I appreciate that some people will find this a bit restrictive but ultimately it saves time and gets games going quicker.

In addition, something that worked well at Summer Skirmish was the Archeotech Horde rule that Tim had us play. Basically all ruins have the chance to roll on the Archeotech Artefacts table. The first time a player triggers the terrain i.e. move within 2" of it you roll a D6. If the score is "1" then you roll 2D6 and consult the Archeotech chart.

Again I'd like to know what people think of these things.

Army Selection
I don't know about you guys but I'm finding that games of 6th edition are actually a fair bit quicker than 5th once you get the hang of it. Not having to faff about assigning wounds is probably the main reason. However, starting a game takes a little longer thanks to the Warlord Traits and random Psychic stuff. Therefore I'm going to increase the points limit to 1,850 which should still be easy to finish in the 2.5 hour slots and allow a little more room for those more expensive SCs. As with the previous 3 tournaments, you must take at least one Special Character in your army (though this doesn't have to be an HQ).

With regards to the new units, both flyers and fortifications may be taken in every army. I'm sure you've found as we have that neither is as all conquering as people thought at first. The reason for allowing forts is because for some armies that's their only access to Skyfire weaponry. Now I'm tempted to say that only Defense Lines and Bastions are allowed but I think if you really want to bring a Fortress of Redemption and pay out around 250pts for it then by all means go for it. However, the following restriction applies, no fortification can be placed within 6" of any table edge. This prevents people from using their FoR to cut off one corner of the board. On tables where there isn't room to place a fort, existing terrain from within the player's deployment zone can be removed to make space. This must be put back as close to it's original position at the end of the game though.

I appreciate that forts are meant to be placed before other terrain but I think this will make game setup take too long. If anyone has a solution then I'm all ears.

Against my better judgement I think Allies should be allowed. I'm not a fan of them as I think they allow people to pick and choose to much but they're part of 6th so I suppose I should get use to it. Your Warlord must come from the Primary Detachment though as must the SC acting as "Commander".

6th Edition Rules Queries
Now is the time to ask me for rulings about any ambiguous rules in the 6th edition book. I understand that there'll be new FAQs pretty soon and obviously any changes they make will be in effect at BW4. However, if you want to know if unit "x" is allowed or how unit "y" now functions then please get in touch now rather than having to sort it on the day.

Similarly, if you want to clarify what counts as an SC or if your models are acceptable in terms of "counts as" then let me know asap.

Conclusion
I'm hoping that Blog Wars 4 will be just as much fun as the first three were. There's no reason it shouldn't be and I hope with the new prize structure people will be less likely to bring something nasty just to take first prize (looking at you Humphris!). Now, obviously I'm aware it's still a tournament so people want to win but hopefully players will still enter into the spirit and bring something themed around an SC.

The aim with Blog Wars 4 is to incorporate as much 6th edition stuff as possible to find out what does and doesn't work. It's very easy to say "fortifications shouldn't be allowed" but until they've been tested on the tournament scene I don't think a proper decision can be made. Blog Wars 5 will therefore hopefully be better for having tested so many 6th edition things in BW4.

Blog Wars 4 - Sunday 14th October 2012

With memories of Blog Wars 3 still fresh in my mind the time has come to announce the next Blog Wars tournament. Blog Wars 4 will be held at Maelstrom Games on Sunday 14th October 2012. Things will change quite a bit this time around so let me explain some of the differences.

Firstly and for some, most importantly, the prize structure will be changing. As others have pointed out the prizes in the first 3 tournaments were pretty generous and as such people felt that they needed to bring something highly competitive because so much was at stake. In such a small tournament if you bring a decent tournament list against a field of mixed skill level, you've got a good chance of going home with a prize, such is the nature of one day tournaments. Therefore my plan for BW4 is to reduce the amounts of the big prizes and hopefully encourage people to bring something a little different without hefty comps. I'll be announcing the details of the new prizing structure once I've finalised it but suffice to say the prizes will still be decent but there'll be more on offer and everyone will have a chance of taking home something. I'm also quite keen to offer door prizes so I'm going to be contacting some companies to see if they can offer me deals on buying these things in bulk in exchange for a little publicity.

I'd like tickets to remain at £15 each but Maelstrom have recently put up their catering prices which now stand at £8 a head. Depending on the prize budget I work out this means I might have to slightly increase ticket prices. They'll be staying at around the £15 mark but I'm thinking £17.50 might be reasonable and allow me to improve the prizes on offer and maybe include trophies....

Now, everyone and his granny knows that 6th edition is right around the corner. Matt and I are heading to the Open Day on July 14th and rumour has it 6th will be out the weekend before. I'll obviously be posting up some coverage from the Open Day but the point here is that it's difficult to release scenarios etc without having seen the new rulebook. My plan is to announce that the tickets are on sale towards the end of the month and then release the scenarios at some point in August once I've had chance to get a few 6th edition games in. I fully intend to keep the compulsory special character rule in force and I can't see this having a dramatic effect no matter what 6th brings.

This also presents a problem for determining points limits and timings. Whilst I'm sure people will have had plenty of games by October it will still be a relatively new rule set and depending on how far reaching the changes are it might either speed up or slow down game play significantly. Therefore I'll have to make a decision about whether to alter the points limit to reflect this. I'm quite excited about the prospect of 6th edition. I'm sure they'll fuck plenty of things up but hopefully when we adjust to the new rules it'll be a better game for it.

Anyway, put the date in your diary and keep your eyes on the blog for announcements about tickets, prizes, scenarios and general 6th edition changes. I hope I can count on people's support to help take Blog Wars into 6th edition in the same spirit that it left 5th edition!