Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 7

This is the final part of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here. You can find the first part here.

One game to go, and I was still leading the field with AG nipping at my heels. I guess that made it my tournament to lose...

Game 7: Push
Geoff Holland - Dwarfs

• Golloch's Thunder (formation)
• Golloch's Fury (Legendary Steel Behemoth)
• Steel Behemoth
• Steel Behemoth
• Earth Elemental Horde
• Earth Elemental Horde
• Greater Earth Elemental
• Berserker Brock Rider Regiment
• Sharpshooter Troop
• Ranger Regiment
• Berserker Lord on Brock
• Stone Priest with Martyr's Prayer

That's about 50 points short, so I've missed something again. But the important stuff is there, right? 3 Steel Behemoths, and a total of 6 units with Defence 6! It was a wall of steel and stone. I had seen this army sitting on a table and the thought of facing it had worried me a bit. Now we would get to see if those concerns were warranted.

At the start of the game we had to select a single enemy unit to be worth double attrition points. I chose the Brock Riders, and Geoff picked the Winged Beast over on my right.

I was on the same table as before, and Geoff put me on the same side as well. And I was playing Dwarfs again. So there was an element of deja vu here. But Geoff's list was very different from John's, and seemed a whole lot more likely to be pushing at me. He also stacked a lot of weight on my left flank.

Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 6

This is a continuation of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here.

So I had finally lost a game, but with 2 games to go I was still a single point ahead of AG at the top of the field. I could yet emerge victorious overall!

Game 6: Control (2250pts)
John Healy - Dwarfs

• Ironclad Horde with Aegis of the Elohi
• Ironguard Regiment
• Ironguard Regiment
• Earth Elemental Horde
• Greater Earth Elemental
• Berserker Brock Rider Regiment with Brew of Strength
• Herneas
• Herneas' Ranger Regiment
• Rordin the Dwarf
• Ironbelcher Organ Gun
• Ironbelcher Organ Gun
• Flame Belcher
• Stone Priest (I presume he had Bane-chant)
• Battle Driller
• Battle Driller
• Mastiff Hunting Pack
• Mastiff Hunting Pack

I think that's about right, but once again I've missed about 35 points of items somewhere.

John had a lot of deployments, so I couldn't really control what would end up facing the Organ Guns (which scare me). I had a relatively token force on the right of the building, which was effectively dividing more forces.

Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 5

This is a continuation of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here.

At the start of the second day, I was somehow undefeated after 4 games. However, I now finally ran into AG, who I don't believe I have ever beaten at Kings of War. Perhaps my reign of terror was finally at an end...

We were up to the largest army size for the remaining 3 games. My list didn't change a whole lot from the previous one; I added another Beast of War and a couple of magic items on my Winged Beasts.

Game 5: Kill (2250pts)
Andrew Goodman - Abyssal Dwarfs

• Abyssal Grotesque Horde with Potion of the Caterpillar
• Abyssal Grotesque Horde
• Abyssal Grotesque Horde
• Gargoyle Troop
• Gargoyle Troop
• Gargoyle Troop
• Ba'su'su the Vile
• Dravak Dalken
• Infernok
• Greater Obsidian Golem
• Abyssal Grotesque Champion with Inspiring Talisman
• Angkor Heavy Mortar
• Angkor Heavy Mortar
• Angkor Heavy Mortar

For once I think I might have the list exactly right. Helps when there are so few items. Ba'su'su again... I do dislike him.

AG's deployment was pretty compact. An advantage he would have in this game was that he had fewer unwieldy units. I had plenty of compact elements in my many many monsters, but the size of the Pole-arm hordes makes it harder to concentrate force where you need it.

Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 4

This is a continuation of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here.

3 wins in 3 games. You wouldn't dare dream of it. I had come unstuck against Matt before however, so maybe my run of glory was at an end.

Game 4: Dominate (1995pts)
Matt Sellick - Elves

• Archer Horde with Heart-seeking Chant
• Therennian Sea Guard Horde with Brew of Sharpness
• Drakon Rider Horde with Chant of Hate
• Awoken Guardians
• Tree Herder with Healing Brew, Blizzard
• Tree Herder with Blood Boil
• Green Lady with Sabre-Toothed Pussycat
• Elven Prince on Horse with Sabre-Toothed Pussycat

Dominate. Nice and simple. It couldn't be too hard to move a pair of Tree Herders off the centre, right?

Matt's army actually looked pretty small. Sure, there was some good stuff there, but that's a pretty compact deployment.

Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 3

This is a continuation of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here.

Somehow I was undefeated after 2 games, and it was now time to shift to our larger 1995 point army lists. This was the point where I kind of wished I wasn't packing away my Arquebusiers, but I was pulling a lot of monsters out of the box instead. So it was a matter of give-and-take.

Game 3: Ransack (1995pts)

Huw Evans - Ratkin

• Warrior Horde
• Warrior Regiment
• Warrior Regiment
• Enforcer on Fleabag with Diadem of Dragon-kind
• Lab Rats (Formation)
• Horde of Blight with Brew of Strength
• Horde of Shock Troops of Potion of the Caterpillar (I think)
• Troop of Clawshots
• Troop of Hackpaws
• Horde of Tunnel Runners
• Death Engine with Bloody Carnage
• Warlock with Critter's Call, Bane-chant, Amulet of the Fire-heart (I think...)
• Night Terror with Inspiring Talisman
• Swarm-crier

Again, this falls well short of the 1995 point limit. I've missed a few things. I'm so good at this. Hey, I've never fought Ratkin before, OK? This is all new to me.

Actually, I think I missed a character. Maybe a War Chief with 2 hand weapons? Could be a thing.

Ransack meant we scattered a number of control counters all around the field. The central (light grey) point was worth 3 points instead of 1, and the orange ones (both of which were slightly to my right) were worth 2. The dark green were just worth 1 each.

Huw stacked most of his speed over here, on my left flank. The Rat Ogre dude is the Night Terror (apparently the dude on top is his Inspiring Talisman). The wheels are the Tunnel Runners. The Lab Rats formation meant all the regular Warrior units (the 2 regiments you see here and the horde up the other end) all had Regeneration.

Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 2

This is a continuation of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here.

So I had narrowly escaped with a win in the first game. This was an unusually positive start for a KoW tournament by my standards. Probably meant I was heading for a fall...

Game 2: Loot (1495pts)

Yan Lai - Empire of Dust

• Revenant Horde
• Mummy Regiment
• Mummy Regiment
• Revenant Chariot Regiment
• Revenant Chariot Regiment
• Scavenger Regiment
• Scorpion Husk
• Bone Giant
• Cursed High Priest on Mount with Blizzard
• Revenant Champion on Mount

I really should take a photo of people's army lists before each game. I can never remember the details in terms of items. I'm missing 35 points here somewhere.
EDIT: Thanks to Yan's feedback we now know the Revenant Horde had Brew of Strength and the Revenant Champion had the Blade of Slashing. Thanks Yan!

During setup we established that the last time I had played Yan was at Axemaster. It was Warhammer 7th edition. So probably over 10 years ago. The people you run into...

There were more loot tokens over on the right, so I naturally loaded that flank a bit more. I might have underdone it on the left, really. Oh well, can't be everywhere. 2 tokens is enough for a win.

Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 1

So after more or less being in a state of hobby hibernation since Cancon, over the weekend I awoke from my slumber to attend Convic. Convic is one of the few 2-day tournaments left on the calendar, and I've been attending it nearly every year since it began as a Warhammer Fantasy tournament something like 15 years ago. The local Kings of War scene seems to struggle with multi-day events at present (with the notable exception of Cancon), and thanks to a number of factors, this year only saw a dozen or so players attend. This led to a very relaxed, community-style atmosphere that was really rather nice. It meant that with 7 games to play, you were more likely to play a given person than not, which was really rather funny - almost like a round-robin.

I had a bit of trouble coming up with lists for the event. I say "lists", plural, because Convic has an unusual format of 3 different sized armies - the games grow as you go along. This year the game sizes were 1495, 1995 and 2250 points.The multiple list format was not really what troubled me - I was just struggling to work out what army I wanted to use. I was mostly trying to stay away from armies I've used in previous events, in particular Ogres (which I have used twice at previous Convics). Whilst that still left me with a few options, the most likely were Dwarfs or Kingdoms of Men.

I'm still hesitant to use Dwarfs when I haven't gotten around to painting any Brock Riders, and a few of my units are under-sized which limits my options. On the other hand, friends were a little scathing of how bland KoM are, and it's hard to justify using them when you can field much the same stuff in League of Rhordia, but with more toys. But I have used Rhordia a couple of times, and really wanted to make a KoM list that would be worth running. I toyed briefly with nonsense like massed infantry flooding the field, but in the end the thing that caught my attention was the Beast of War. It had very solid stats, could add some moderate shooting in the form of a ballista on its back, and was something Rhordia didn't have access to. I decided to field plenty of Beasts of War, and went from there.

These were my lists:

1495

• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Regiment
• Pole-Arms Block Regiment
• Arquebusier Horde with Jar of the Four Winds
• General on Winged Beast with Blade of Slashing
• Wizard on Horse with Lightning Bolt, Bane-Chant and the Inspiring Talisman
• Beast of War with light ballista
• Giant

1995

• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Regiment
• Pole-Arms Block Regiment
• General on Winged Beast
• General on Winged Beast
• Wizard on Horse with Lightning Bolt, Bane-Chant and the Inspiring Talisman
• Beast of War with light ballista
• Beast of War with light ballista
• Giant
• Giant

2250

• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Horde
• Pole-Arms Block Regiment
• Pole-Arms Block Regiment
• General on Winged Beast with Blade of Slashing
• General on Winged Beast with Diadem of Dragon-Kind
• Wizard on Horse with Lightning Bolt, Bane-Chant and the Inspiring Talisman
• Beast of War with light ballista
• Beast of War with light ballista
• Beast of War with light ballista
• Giant
• Giant

No, the lists are not very imaginative. And it's slightly bizarre having more effective shooting in my 1495 list than the 2250 one. As soon as I was putting the Arquebusiers back into the box, I was wondering if I had done the right thing. Ah well, at least I had monsters!

I took plenty of photos during the event, although the first 3 games were a big of a juggling act given I was also using my phone as a chess timer. Hopefully the pictures will help tell the story.

Game 1: Invade (1495pts)

Tim Stewart - Orcs

• Ax Horde
• Ax Horde
• Morax Regiment
• Gore Rider Regiment
• Krudger on Ancient Winged Slasher
• Godspeaker on Gore with Bane-Chant, Inspiring Talisman
• Giant
• War Drum

Tim and I arranged a grudge match at the very last minute, because he hasn't played many games of KoW. He was still feeling a little shaky on the rules and was concerned he would instinctively revert to things like Warhammer movement. We decided playing the first game against someone who could watch for it and remind him might be helpful. As it happened, it really didn't come up. He seemed to have his head around things pretty well.

The tables were smaller for the smaller games (4 feet wide at 1495, 5 feet at 1995 and the full 6 feet for 2250). This meant even at the smaller size, the field looked pretty full.

Something stirs...

My poor blog, what has become of you? 

How can so much time have passed since my last update?

I believe I can do better.

Recently things have started to look up, hobby-wise. I've played a fair amount of Kings of War Vanguard, and still quite like the system. I've recently attended another tournament and taken enough photos to ensure I will feel obliged to post a tournament report. And in the lead-up to that, I was actually painting Orc archers/arrer boyz/skulks...

I've never actually painted an Orc archer before. I have plenty of them, but I've never loved the models (they're ridiculously huge, for starters. They simply don't rank up). And they've never felt like an important inclusion in my armies. But Tim was borrowing my Orcs for Convic and I told him I'd get some Skulks ready. Not many, as it turns out. But I'm happy enough with these that I'm now making noises about painting some more. A regiment of 30 would be great...

It felt good to be making progress with a paintbrush again, even if everything takes far longer than I choose to remember. But keeping at it and prioritising models over other things is also a step in the right direction.

The other thing that I really do need to do something about is that several people keep making noises about wanting to play Warhammer again. I also want to play Warhammer again. I'll keep you posted.