Team NZ ETC 2016 Captain's selection underway

The 2016 ETC will be held in Athens Greece on 5th to 7th August or 12 to 14 (most likely the 5/7)
Playing 9th Age

The first stage to putting together a team is selection of a Captain. This is undertaken by last years team who review applications and make their selection

The new Captain then runs the team selection process ie convene a selection panel and seek nominations from interested players

So to start can those interested in the 2016 captaincy please email me at katatt@bigpond.com
The deadline for applications being 7pm NZT on the 14 October 

I do not intend to apply for the Captains roll 

Cheers Chris

Athens is a beautiful city, and the Greek Islands are only a few hours away on the ferries. 

The ETC community has voted to bring in "The 9th Age" as the rule system to replace the now unsupported WHFB 8th edition, with Age of Sigmar almost unanimously being voted down. Full details on the rules can be found on the 9th Age website. 
If you are interested in the captaincy for 2016 please email Chris.

A big thanks to Chris for all his efforts over the past few years!

ETC 2015 Fantasy final results are in

Full results are in and a big congratulations to Germany for taking the top spot in both WHFB and 40K. Poland and Italy round out the top performers.

A good effort from team NZ finishing in 27th after a narrow loss to the Ukraine 79-81 in the last round. Also well done to our Cousins across the ditch coming in an all mighty 10th place!

There was no game between NZ and AU this year, and since we always win that match I guess NZ has been sorting them out previously.

We also see our warm up partner Singapore finish in a respectable 16th. Newcomers Argentina are also up in 18th ahead of USA! who finished 19th. Did not see that coming...

Proposed basing conversion chart

I thought I would post up the easy part of the WHFB to AoS conversion.
Here is the base sizing chart I have created as something to potentially be used in creating tournaments or even just transferring your old square bases to new rounds

The idea behind this is there is a standard table to convert square bases to the closest equivalent round bases manufactured by GW, and that a Hero model will use the next size up base to represent their influence on the battlefield. Moving forward, I anticipate there will be a standard rule that you will measure from the base, not the model.

I am currently working on the full conversion chart for the existing GW model range that has warscrolls. 

After that I have a draft rules errata to make AoS playable as a competitive game, and a points formula so there is at least a place to start from for purposes of balancing.

Balancing Age of Sigmar for competitive play

Now that the dust has settled somewhat its time to really look at the new game from fresh eyes.

The one thing we can be sure of is Games Workshop is not interested in competitive play, thus the community will need to address the shortcomings of the Age of Sigmar rules to make them work. I also wouldn't hold your breath for a FAQ!

This of course will provoke untold RAW vs RAI conversation, but the reality is, the rule set is not solid and needs a peer review. And the list is long. The time for that argument is over.

However, this process is simpler than it has been in the past, as the player base only needs to review 4 pages, not 150! This enables us to re-write the whole thing a lot clearer and with little ambiguity. 

Now the only issue with doing this as it will not be considered "official", and therefore there will always be detractors, and will be unacceptable by some. That is ok, as I expect any review/re-write to be aimed more as part of a player pack for a tournament. Think ETC or even Swedish comp systems.

So some of the game mechanics and rules that I think need fixing and/or clarifying.

• Bases - Moving forward a chart will need to be created to standardize base size (both square and round) for any competitive play. All measurements will need to be made from the base. The ETC chart is a good place to start.
• Spells and abilities - I think a move to "a model must be present at the beginning of the phase" to be able to use their spells and abilities in the command phase. This is to stop the endless summon cycle or the special command bomb drop.
• Shooting - Models cannot be shot at in combat - period (includes spells) and models may not shoot if engaged in combat.
• Removal of all the silly antics that GW has felt need to be in the rules for people to have fun. We all know how to be clowns on our own merit and it adds nothing to an enjoyable game. The model shall just have those rules on a roll or X+
• The keywords in all warscrolls allow us to easily group units for specific rules and limitations. This needs to be taken advantage of.
• Introduce cover mechanics. In previous editions we used modifiers to hit targets with ranged weapons. We have the opportunity to look at this differently now that the mechanics have been simplified. I think a bonus to save will work better now. So, for example, if a unit was shot in soft cover, they would receive a +1 to their save. A unit in a building would receive a +2 to save. Its nice and simple and will allow terrain and buildings to play a part in the game.
• Actually include some rules for moving and or fighting in buildings!
• Look at a simplified line of sight system to suit the simplified rules. True line of sight leaves to much ambiguity.

Then there is the general clarifications to the rules themselves such as who gets summoning spells or how multiple wounds are handled. There are a few rules that have multiple interpretations, and it wont be difficult to fix.

I personally would like to see an alternating turn introduced so that it engages both players in the same turn and introduces a more tactical approach in the other phases besides the combat phase.

And finally, a army selection system will need to be created. This will most likely be the most difficult. Many people are suggesting a wound based system, but that in itself will not work. Not all wounds are created equal.

I have some ideas around a tournament based on scenarios. Each player in the tournament would select X war scrolls to bring to the tournament. These would be the available units to the player for the entire tournament. They would also decide what summoning spells a player will get. Each round in the tournament is a specific scenario. The scenario would set win conditions (and even secondary conditions) to achieve whilst also setting scroll limitations for that game eg 

• Scenario "Kill stuff" would allow you to select 7 warscrolls to field in this scenario. They may be chosen as follows: 1 Hero, 1-3 monster, 0 war machine, and 2-5 troop scrolls.

The victory conditions might be to kill the opponents general (primary) and kill a monster (secondary). Basic stuff but you get the idea. Scenarios could be made very interesting and killing things could become entirely secondary in some.

Now there would need to be some limitations of warscrolls (which could be wounds based) or the total army to ensure that things like the goblins have a fair chance vs the sigmarites.

So in summary I think the above could be what some of us are looking for and a way to salvage Age of Sigmar/Warhammer for those of us who want a more balanced and/or competitive experience to amuse us. Out of the book AoS is not an option...

The riders of Icehorn Peak

Moonstruck baby!

Wellspring mortals...

WTF is that you ask. Well its the Dwellers Bellow annual Warhammer event. Limited to 90 places and hosted in the Ibis hotel in Melbourne this sold out event has everything a travelling Warlord could ever want: Alcohol, food and accommodation all at the venue!

Morbidex Twiceborn is coming Moonstruck, and hes go friends!

Although far from finished*, hes tabletop ready. I still have a bit of work to do around the tentacles, tounge, rust, horns, sores and face.

The rest of the Grand Census of Icehorn Peak

The army I am taking this year is the following: (Chaos Legions List, 2600 points, Comp 3)

Orghotts Daemonspew (General) 

Bloab Rotspawned

Morbidex Twiceborn

The Tallyman's Blades (23 Plaguebearers, full command)

The Rotting Chanson (23 Plaguebearers, full command)

The Bounderbeast (1 Beast of Nurgle) 

The Slimebringer (1 Beast of Nurgle)

Slithertongue, Shrine of the driblets (1 Chaos Warshrine, Mark of Tzeentch) 

Bubo, Maggoth beast of the Eternal Lagoon (1 Skull Plague Cannon of Khorne Nurgle) 

The Repugnauts of Brass Keep (4 Skull Plague Crushers of Khorne Nurgle, Standard, Ensorcelled Weapons)

Ok so I copped out a little with the mark of Tzeentch on the Warshrine, but really felt the 3+ ward save would be more suitable than -1 to hit in combat for it. Bubo and the Repugnauts are now reformed psychopaths that now see the error of their ways. Pappa Nurgle is pleased. I only chose the Skullcrushers for this list because under the tournament pack, units with a rank and a banner can claim table quarters/center to gain up to an additional 5 tournament points a round (the tournament is being run on a win/loss/draw 5/10/15 format). Skirmishers and fast cavalry cannot claim quarters, otherwise I would be running 2 units of plague drones instead!

My first opponent is a Dark Elf sycophant with the following list: (Dark Elves, 2600 points, Comp 2)

Supreme Sorceress: Black Amulet; Tome of Furion; Level 4 Wizard; Lore of Dark Magic; Black Dragon 

Dreadlord: Cloak of Twilight; The Other Trickster's Shard; Heavy Armour; Lance; Sea Dragon Cloak; Shield; Dark Pegasus

Death Hag: Sword of Anti-heroes; Cauldron of Blood; Battle Standard Bearer 

Sorceress: Dispel Scroll; Level 2 Wizard; Lore of Shadow 

25 Witch Elves: Hag; Musician; Standard Bearer (Razor Standard) 

12 Darkshards: Shield; Musician; Standard Bearer (Banner of Eternal Flame)  

5 Dark Riders: Repeater Crossbow; Shield; Musician; Standard Bearer  

20 Har Ganeth Executioners: Draich-master; Musician; Standard Bearer 

Reaper Bolt Thrower  

Reaper Bolt Thrower 

Bloodwrack Shrine 

Well its a nasty combination of big fast tough gribbly monsters. Ugh. Not a huge amount of shooting but two big nasty blocks of squishy elves. There is a lot of pain to be delivered here! I'm thinking (like a good little disciple of Nurgle) push it forward and infect all the squishys! and prey to Ku'gath that I can tank all the attacks...

So Moonstruck is likely to be my final 8th edition tournament, and I couldn't think of a better way to see it out! Really looking forward to this event, and its been really refreshing painting all the brighter colours of Nurgle! It has really got my 9th edition WHFB buzz going and round bases or not, I am very excited to see what the new edition brings.

Nationals silliness

At the time of writing Nationals are just around the corner. Three days and eight games of war dollie goodness! I've been wanting to try something a little different with my Dark Elves so came up with the following:

Dreadlord, CoT, Dawnstone, Black Dragon
Master, Ruby Ring, BSB, Dark Steed
Master, Charmed Shield, Mnticore
2 units of 14 Dark Riders
4 Repeater Bolt Throwers
7 Shades
2 units of 5 Brolocks
1 Hydra!

WIP of my Dark Elves War Hydra

Basically I have been working on this guy and wanted to put him in a list. Of course any good general knows that one big gribbly needs some buddies for moral support! Balls to the wall that tells me a naked Manticore rider was in order!

Not to be outdone, any Dreadlord worth his salt will have the biggest and most badass mount there is, so a Black Dragon was in order.

After taking one of the more filthy variants of Dark Elves riff raf and winning Equinox with that I wanted to take something different... I hear its a smaller field at Nationals this year (Auckland, what is going on with you? Even Christchurch can rustle up more!) so I'm not expecting any great things. With no level 4 sorceress its going to be push it forward and 6 dice Doombolts all around!

Equinox 2015

Over the weekend I attended my first tournament of the season, Equinox in Auckland

Having not played any games of WHFB since August of last year (thanks to ETC withdrawal...) I decided to substitute skill with a filthy list and luck...

The boys in pink ride against Ross's minions of Chaos

Dreadlord on Dark Steed, Giant blade, OTS, Dawnstone...
L4 Sorceress on Dark Steed, Dispel scroll, Dragonbane gem and Shadow magic? (why!?)
Master on Dark Pegasus, Twilight...
Master on Dark Steed, BSB, Obsidian amulet, Dragonhelm...
13 Dark riders, Rxb, command
14 Dark riders, Rxb, command
3 RBT
2x 7 shades
5 Brolocks
13 Brolocks and a Brochamp...

Rusty as ever, the draw gave me John (Brets are dead!) with some Teclis filth... Very disapointed he didnt take the spell selection he had posted on the ACG forums.... boo John. booo.

High Elves matchup ever being a pain, game played out to be a draw until some of the boys in pink that had strategically withdraw to a corner (read, cowering trying to get out of range...) decided after suffering some casualties from a fireball that this stuff wasn't for them and made and quit the field... breaking my army and handing over 700vp's last turn.. .well played
7-13 loss

Round two I faced Chris's Tomb Kings. Apparently they still exist in Jafa land. Dropping the first game, I though stuff it, lets push it and get a game (instead of the usual Dark Elf shenanigans...). I rolled his left flank which only had a small unit of Ushabti with great bows, pit of shades took care of a war sphinx while his casket exploded and decided to kill my Dreadlord! Miasma made sure his shooting wasnt an issue. I cleaned up the rest of the army leaving a unit of chariots for a big win
20-0

Last game of Day 1 I played Evert and his Lizardmen. Usual LM vs DE mischief happened. His Scar vet threw caution to the wind and started rolling through shades, bolt throwers and Peg Heroes like theres no tomorrow. The last bolt thrower however managed to luck a single bolt killing the old lizard. Game was basically DE shooting > LM shooting after that with it going back and foward several times. Small win
14-6

Round 4 tables 1, 2, & 3. Dark Elves hold the left on all tables, 'others' on the right.

First game, day 2. Ross was up with some WoC sprinkled with Slannesheee goodness. Apparently there's some rule that Brolocks don't like Slaneesh stuff. Who says they are not balanced! Who would have thunk. Being more mobile and with no return fire to speak of, we played on Ross's side of the table. Game can basically be summed up with me shooting off most of the threats and Ross failing some panic checks he shouldn't of. A decent win for my Elves
17-3

Game 5. Civil war. Ryan's DE vs mine. Ryans on the NZ ETC team this year with his DE. Meeting engagement is the scenario of the day and we line up. Instead of doing the wise thing and cornering it up, playing safe and taking a 10-10, I though we should make a game of it. I dropped my scouts on the left flank and van guarded the center. Small arms exchange had my scouts survuve and take of his one. I then dropped one of his Dark rider units to 1/3rd strength and used the scouts to cover the Peg riders advance. A combination of Miasma helped reduce the return fire and I took the flank forcing Ryan to abandon his Bolt Throwers and come across to the center. We had both set our bolt thrower out of range of each other, so now his army was in range of mine. Big win for me which we both agreed was probably down to Ryan not dropping 1 unit of scouts on my right to threaten my bolties.
19-1

Last game vs James. Went into this one knowing that I was at a disadvantage. I had no real way of dealing with his infantry bunkers, not to mention the Star dragon. Seams my terrible choice of shadow magic paid off again as the star dragon fell into a pit (of shades). Rider survive though... Our bolt throwers exchanged fire most of the game, but my Peg rider decided to suicide on his left flank! I failed to finish off a unit of Silver helms and the game ended a small loss for me. Better than I anticipated.
8-12

Mr Tibbles Dark Elves pre final transmutate. Note James's Star dragon is still alive!

So two minor losses and 4 wins I end up with a raw score of 85, with James closing me by 4 in the last round. HE needed a 14-6 win to pip me at the end. I think we both thought we had dropped down the order as we heard Ryan and Kelly had decent wins last round, so was pleasantly surprised to find out I had won Equinox! The field was dominated by #elfapocalypse and WoC, which I guess is a sign of the times. 

Big thanks to all my opponents for some entertaining games, and to Phil for all the time put in to making things happen! 

1st event of the year for me and can confirm filth and luck are a substitute for skill. Just ask James about Star Dragons and final transmutate...

Conquest: The armies

About three weeks ago I attended my first 40k competition since 5th edition. While I was there I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the other entrants. Here they are for your viewing pleasure...

My Imperial Fists

A Weekend of Conquest

So my 40 days of 40k culminated in attending the South Islands main 40k event of the year, Conquest, in Christchurch. This years event attracted a field of 40 players from the 140 odd attending the multi-system weekend. This would be my first 40k tournament since 5th edition.

Sentinels of Terra, in all their glory!

My list consisted of a Fellblade, Sicarn with heavy bolter sponsons, Whirlwind Scorpius with Venteran of Keylek campaign, a Fire Raptor with Autocannon turrets, 2 10 marine Tactical squads with melta, combi-melta in drop pod, 1 10 marine Sternguard squad in drop pod, and a Master of the forge with 2 servitors.

Played Daryl first with his zombie hoard and C'tan mix. Ended up putting 22 wounds on the C'tan only for him to ward save 21 of them... He had gone first so the last turn was mine to steal the objectives and gain a win taking both primary and secondary objectives 7-2

Josh was up next with his Deathwing terminators. He deep struck them all in my side first turn. The Fellblade turn its attention to one squad taking a large tool only to be assaulted by josh turn 2 with his Warlord and escort, however when the Fellbade exploded, ony resulting in a st2 hit on the unit, I still managed to cause 2 wounds to his Warlord killing him! I spent the rest of the game running off with the relic throwing combat squads between me and the terminators eventually tableing my opponent. Josh was the only person to kill the Fellblade at the tournament. 9-2

JD had a hoard of Orks which suited my template numbers well. I had first turn taking big chunks out of his hoard. I put my drop pods on objectives early and managed to maintain the dominance. A last turn push by JD to contest some failed giving me both primary and secondary objectives. The Fire Raptor took a huge toll on his light vehicles. 9-1

Tim Adams and his very nicely painted space puppies where next up (ooooh do I hate space puppies!). Tim decided early on to ignore the Fellblade, which probably cost him the game. Got a good hit off with the Scorpios Whirlwind on his wolf riders, a cheeky shot from the Fellblade's accelerator cannon killed his Achilles, and terrible luck with his drop pods didn't help. I even managed to 1 shot overwatch a charge from his dread with a tactical marine using his melta gun... 9-1 win

Final round, and I unexpectedly find myself table 2 and within 3 points of the top. Karn's Eldar did not fair any better than the rest. Poison from the Sternguard help clean out the Avatar and Wraith Knight, Scorpios Whirlwind got 4 hits on a Nightweaver, and then proceeded to roll 4 's for pen before dieing to combined firepower of the war walkers. The Fire Raptor almost went down in flames after getting a  immobilized result from being shot by the Eldar flier, but then the Fellblade exacted revenge by snapfiring a quad lascannon and exploding it mid air. 9-2

So a rather eventful weekend after staying up to 4am Friday night painting everything in preparation. After only 2 games of 7th before the tournament I managed to come first place to my surprise. I boil it down to all the ruthless WHFB tournaments preparing me! 

Thanks to Wes for taking the time to run a great event and to all my opponents for 5 good games.