All prepared for 2015(?)

I have finished basing the models in the previous post - here are some close ups.

Converted Ministorum Priest for the Astra Militarum (sorry for the blurry photo!)

Techpriest Enginseer for AM, Culexus for... anti-psyker shenanigans

Random henchman, cherub for either Book of Lucius or Liber Heresius

One of the original GW psykers, and the old Witch Hunter bound psyker

Last Chancers (thanks Carson!)

More random OOP models to be used as henchmen

Old models that were in need of some conversion attention

This will be an Ordo Xenos henchmen unit... Harlequin = DCA, eldar ghost warrior = arco flagellant, note the original OOP Adeptus Custodes... and the squat techpriest enginseer

Ordo Hereticus psykers

Bits and bobs

Eschers to be used as henchmen

More... Heavy Stubber makes a good storm bolter in-game (I have a second in the painting case)

More ccw/laspistol equivalent henchmen

And here are some Ordo Hereticus Crusaders. I'd made a mold of the GW shield and reinforced it with some plasticard

They'll do... :-)

All set for an undercoat in the New Year. I see more cans of GW chaos black undercoat in my future...

Here's what's on my desk...

Last night I set about pulling models out of the carry case that sits next to my modelling desk, plus the models I'd been stripping of paint, cleaned them up and stuck them onto bases...

Before...

Theres still a few models to add, that need the odd hand/arm/weapons...

After!

The eagle-eyed may spot a mix of Necromunda models, an original Custodes, and the odd WHFB model in the pile.

Now I have to add basing materials, always a task and a half.

There's about 45 all up to paint... I'm no Dave Taylor so it may take longer than the 3 days it would take him to finish...

Christmas is coming...

... and some hobby time beckons. On top of quality family time of course!

Someone has too much money

Terrain-wise I have a Sector Imperialis board that needs painting... although I watched the 20 minute GW YouTube tutorial on painting it and thought 'OMG WTF LOL OMG SRSLY?...'... Inspiring and terrifying all at once. 

I also have two extra Realm of Battle boards that need to be painted up to match my others. I have visions of setting up a huge 14'x4' (or some combination of 8x RoB and 6x 40k boards) for a large game... can't wait.

I have some leftover Imperial Sector ruins to build (I'm a bit light on taller than one story at the moment...) plus wreckage etc. I definitely need to get some more terrain. No excuses (apart from financial ones)

I need to buy some mdf to chop up for building bases as well.

Model-wise I have a couple of metal Grey Knight Terminators that need bringing up to speed with some replacement arms (now that Justicars can't have psycannons, boo).

I have a small pile of Inquisition warband models sitting in Simple Green ready for the ultrasonic cleaner to do its thing. I did manage also to pick up some Last Chancers and other older metals (thanks Carson!) so I'm looking to get a few painted if not at least prepped and undercoated. Here's hoping that an update to the Inquisition Codex will allow henchmen to be armed with normal lasguns... rather than just hotshot ones. I mean, who would ever buy them?

I need to think about my NZTC list - specifically whether I take a magic or cavalry lizard list. Last year I took cavalry, but had Tetto'eko to comet people to bits. This year there's no special characters so maybe I'll have to default back to a Slann in order to get some serious magic. Or just toughen up... Time to find out what everyone else in the team is taking!

I'm going away for a couple of weeks to Christchurch visiting family (and house swapping) so am hoping to catch up with some olde wargaming comrades and fit in a visit to Comics Compulsion. Assuming we have room I'm hoping to also take my Lizardmen Temple Guard with me. They haven't seen any paint since last time I ... took them to Chch.

All in all I am looking forward to the break.

Awesome Space Marine ... here in Wellington!

Check it out here... Pretty awesome Storm Warden!

I wonder if Bryn is checking this out...

Masters 2014 - the TO's thoughts

I just thought I would share my views on the actual running of the Masters. 

What went well:

• Everyone was really positive and appeared to enjoy themselves
• Location was great
• I had maybe one rules question to resolve each round, which is excellent.
• Missions worked well, people seemed to be getting into the three-tier aspect of it
• Once we got through the first round of scoring and everybody got their head around it, it went swimmingly.
• I got two games in of my own (one 1500pt 40k, one 4000pt ...hey Ryan, where's the batrep??)

What didn't go so well: 

• Players keeping to time, particularly those with lots of rules or models. This is the Masters though, so I was happy to extend time required (as long as both players were also happy to do that)
• The combination of players win/loss ratio meaning that the last round the two bottom placed players had to play each other again - a curse of only having 8 people rather than the 10 originally planned for. This delayed the start of Round 6 by 15 minutes as we all worked through it together, so that wasn't to my plan. Thanks to everyone for their patience.

Overall thoughts: 

I (really) appreciated Ryan Lister's support - it meant that there was someone to 

• Talk to
• Play a couple of games against
• Provide umpiring backup for me and Pete if needed. 

Thanks to all the players (FoW, WHFB, and 40k) that turned up to make this event a success. 

I also want to thank Pete Dunn for organising/booking the event and hall, collating the players packs, providing tables and terrain, cat herding, and generally being the driving force behind the rankings and the 7 years of Masters events we have had.

So yes, overall I am really happy with the way it went over the weekend. I wish we had more players!

Masters 2014 missions and scoring

For the 2014 Masters I (unashamedly) copied and very slightly modified the format used by the 2014/15 UKGT and the 40k ETC. Of all the tournaments and missions I had reviewed, they certainly looked the most promising for a few reasons:

• They used Rule Book missions
• There were minimal (I felt) alterations to these missions
• They had been playtested in what I felt (well, I assumed) was a pretty competitive environment
• They also provided some clarity for things like deployment, terrain definitions, and so on (to speed up the whole pre-game preamble)

I have reproduced the relevant bits below.

Terrain

Players were advised to spend a few minutes before each game classifying each piece of terrain. The following clarifications were used.

• Buildings played as per page 110 of the 7^th Edition rulebook.
•  Terrain on a base that would have been considered area terrain in 6^th Edition would be treated as a Battlescape – Page 188 of the 7^th Edition rule book (change the Terrain Type from Dangerous to Difficult).The exception is that Craters were to be played as Moonscapes
• All Ruins grant a 4+ cover save for models that are obscured 25% by the actual ruin. If the ruin is on a base or model is on a level, then the model doesn’t need to be 25% obscured. 
• All woods treated as a Twisted Copse – Page 190 of the 7th Edition rulebook.
•  Hills played as open ground and provide a 4+ cover save to models obscured by 25%

Missions
Missions were a Primary/Secondary/Tertiary mix

Mission	Deployment	Description
1	Hammer and Anvil	Primary Mission (Eternal War) – Big Guns Never Tire* – 5 objectives (3 VP each + 1 VP per Heavy Support) Secondary Mission (Maelstrom of War) – Tactical Escalation Tertiary Mission – Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
2	Vanguard Strike	Primary Mission (Eternal War) – Purge the Alien Secondary Mission (Maelstrom of War) – Cleanse and Control Tertiary Mission – Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
3	Dawn of War	Primary Mission (Eternal War) – Emperor’s Will* – 2 objectives (4 VP each) Secondary Mission (Maelstrom of War) – Contact Lost Tertiary Mission – Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
4	Dawn of War	Primary Mission (Eternal War) – The Relic ­– 1 Relic (6 VP) The Relic is a 7th objective not used for Maelstrom of War purposes Secondary Mission (Maelstrom of War) – The Spoils of War Tertiary Mission – Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
5	Vanguard Strike	Primary Mission (Eternal War) – The Scouring** – 6 objectives (1-2-3 VP) Secondary Mission (Maelstrom of War) – Deadlock Tertiary Mission – Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
6	Hammer and Anvil	Primary Mission (Eternal War) – Crusade* – 4 objectives (3 VP each) Secondary Mission (Maelstrom of War) – Contact Lost Tertiary Mission – Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
* For Mission 1, 3, and 6 where Eternal War objectives number less than 6, both players note the following: ·          Big Guns: Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the Eternal War objectives ·          Emperor's Will: Objectives 3, 4, 5, and 6 are placed pre-deployment, with Objectives 1 and 2 placed in each player’s deployment zone, more than 6” from the board edge and 12” from another objective. ·          Crusade: Objectives 1, 2, 3, and 4 are the Eternal War objectives **The Scouring objective deployment: Each player takes it in turns to place three objectives ­each – they must be placed at least 6 "from the edge, and 12" from another objective. Each player also secretly notes which objective is worth 1, 2, and 3 points.  Before rolling to seize the initiative, each player reveals the value they have assigned to each marker they placed.

Post-tournament review: I really liked the mix of Primary/Secondary/Tertiary - it  always gave people something to fight for. 

Deployment

The following process was used to start each game; this order overrides the process described in the rulebook.

1.     Discuss terrain and decide types as per the Terrain section above.

2.     Determine Warlord traits.

3.     Generate Psychic powers (if required).

4.     Roll for Night Fight if either player wishes to (Page 135).

5.     Each player rolls a D6: the player who rolled highest places the first objective using the rules from the 7^th Edition rulebook (page 134).

6.     Each player rolls a D6: the player who rolled highest then chooses their table using the rules from the 7^th Edition rulebook (page 131).

7.     Each player rolls a D6: the player who rolled highest chooses who deploys first (page 132)

8.     Deploy infiltrators (page 167).

9.     Make scout moves (page 171).

10.  Once both forces have deployed the player who deployed first can choose 1^st or 2^nd turn, if they choose first the player going second can attempt to seize the initiative.

Tactical Objective Cards

Each player started with a deck of the following Tactical Objective Cards. Each Tactical Objective could only be scored once per game.

Players could only score two Tactical Objective Cards per turn. If any objective was unattainable, such as Scour the Skies and their opponent did not bring any, it was immediately discarded and redrawn. However, this does not apply to objectives such as killing a flyer, if the opponent’s flyers were simply not on the board yet.

D36 #	Tactical Objective #	VP	Description
11	31	1	Secure Objective 1
12	32	1	Secure Objective 2
13	33	1	Secure Objective 3
14	34	1	Secure Objective 4
15	35	1	Secure Objective 5
16	36	1	Secure Objective 6
21	42	1	BEHIND ENEMY LINES—Score 1 VP if one of your scoring units is within 12"of your opponent's table edge at the end of your turn.
22	44	2	ASCENDENCY – Score 2 VP if you control any three objective markers at the end of your turn.
23	45	2	SUPREMACY – Score 2 VP if you control at least two Objective Markers and at least twice as many Objective Markers as your opponent controls at the end of your turn.
24	51	2	OVERWHELMING FIREPOWER – Score 2 VP if you completely destroyed 3 units or more in the shooting phase
25	52	2	BLOOD AND GUTS – Score 2 VP if you completely destroyed 2 units or more in the Assault Phase
26	53	2	NO PRISONERS – Score 2 VP if you completely destroyed 3 or more enemy units during your turn.
31	54	1	HUNGRY FOR GLORY – Issue a Challenge in the Assault Phase or Win an ongoing challenge
32	55	1 or 2	PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE – Score 1 VP if you opponent failed a Morale, Pinning, or Fear test during this turn. If your opponent failed 3 or more of these tests (combined), score 2 VP instead.
33	62	1	WITCH HUNTER – Score 1 VP at the end of your turn if at least one enemy unit with the Psyker, Psychic Pilot or Brotherhood of Psykers/Sorcerers special rule was completely destroyed during your turn.
34	63	1	SCOUR THE SKIES –Score 1 VP at the end of your turn if at least one enemy Flyer or Flying Monstrous Creature was removed as a casualty during your turn.
35	64	1	ASSASINATE – Score 1 VP at the end of your turn if at least one enemy character was removed as a casualty during your turn.
36	66	1	BIG GAME HUNTER – Score 1 VP at the end of your turn if at least one enemy Vehicle or Monstrous Creature was destroyed during your turn.
Please note –some objectives have been edited or tweaked, typically to remove components involving D3 VP – this table is the ultimate reference used during games to determine what each Tactical Objective is worth.

Post-tournament review: I'd probably not use this again, rather just use the normal decks.

Tournament Scoring

The Total Tournament Score was out of 150, from the following criteria.

Sportsmanship (30 pts)   

Post-tournament review - everybody scored 30/30, which is as it should be. Yes there were a couple of niggles, but nothing overly dramatic...

Battle Points: (120 pts)

Every game offered a maximum of 20 Battle Points, allocated as follows.

The Primary Mission was based on 7^th Edition VP as per the scenario being played.

Winning the Primary Mission: 10 Battle Points

Drawing the Primary Mission: 5 Battle Points

Losing the Primary Mission: 0 Battle Points

 

The Secondary Mission was based on 7^th Edition VP as per the scenario being played.

Winning the Secondary Mission: 6 Battle Points

Drawing the Secondary Mission: 3 Battle Points

Losing the Secondary Mission: 0 Battle Points

The Tertiary Mission was always based on the following objectives:

• Slay the Warlord – as per the Rulebook (pg 133) – 1 VP
• First Blood – as per the Rulebook (pg 133) – 1 VP
• Linebreaker – as per the Rulebook (pg 133) – 1 VP

Winning the Tertiary Mission: 4 Battle Points

Drawing the Tertiary Mission: 2 Battle Points

Losing the Tertiary Mission: 0 Battle Points

Tiebreakers

In the event of a tie, total VP’s scored for the tournament were used as the tiebreaker. 

Post-tournament review: This proved to be rather fortuitous as it split 1st and 2nd!

So yes, that was it in a vague nutshell. It provided a lot of clarity for the players and I'll be looking to use the same scoring for any tournaments I run in the future.