Big Old Grudges Aftermath - Part 2

This is the second part of my account of the recent Big Old Grudges tournament. You can find the first part here.

Round 2: Drawn Battlelines (Strategic Locations 3; Baggage Train)
Michael Solari - Kingdom of Bretonnia

• Lady Élisse Duchaard
• Baron on Royal Pegasus, Lance, Shield, The Knight's Vow, Virtue of Heroism
• Duke on Hippogryph, Shield, Virtue of Knightly Temper, General, Barding, Ogre Blade
• Paladin on Barded Pegasus, Lance, Shield, The Knight's Vow, Banner of Chalons, Obsidian Lodestone
• 22 Knights of the Realm on Foot, Shield, Great Weapon, The Knight's Vow, First Knight, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, War Banner, Musician
• 12 Mounted Knights of the Realm, The Knight's Vow, First Knight, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, Monster Hunter's Tapestry
• 15 Peasant Bowmen, Defensive Stakes
• 15 Peasant Bowmen
• 3 Pegasus Knights, The Knight's Vow, First Knight
• 9 Grail Knights, Grail Guardian, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, Banner Of Swirling Wind

This list worried me a bit. There were a couple of characters who could really threaten my Stonehorn, and they flew...

We each lost a unit into reserve. I lost the smaller Mournfang unit, and Michael lost some Peasant Bowmen. Hardly seemed a fair trade... Anyway, I set up fairly warily in terms of the Stonehorn, trying to make sure that he wouldn't just get swept off the table cheaply. I possibly didn't give enough thought to control of the objectives, but I was more concerned about things that might just remove my units.

Big Old Grudges Aftermath - Part 1

Another tournament has been run and won, and as usual I'm here to provide my rundown of how things went for me. No, you can't stop me. And no, you don't have to read it...

Big Old Grudges took the place of what would usually have been the Old World tournament at Cancon. The organisers decided to run it away from the larger convention, at Jolt Games (a nearby game store with the capacity to host the tournament). As someone who travelled up in a group of 10 people to "attend Cancon", only for 2 of us to split off and spend the weekend somewhere... Well, I am opposed to tournament splitting off and running elsewhere. It's been done with other games before (Kings of War has been running offsite for a number of years now, and seems to be doing OK), but realistically those of us who travel to Canberra are often looking to be part of the convention, rather than only being able to drop in for brief appearances.

Having said all that, the venue was large and comfortable, the prize support was significant (one of the benefits of not having to fit under Cancon's umbrella, I think), and everything ran very smoothly. It was surely cooler at Jolt than it was in the big sheds at Cancon, with the weather maxing out at nearly 40 degrees Celsius on the second day.

The tournament was for 2500pt armies, with 6 games over 3 days. It allowed the Renegade rules for Legacy armies, and that (combined with the fact that I'd been meaning to give them some love for a long time) resulted in me deciding to take an Ogre Kingdoms army. Did I give great thought to what I wanted to use in the list? Well no, not really... But this is what I ended up with:

• Tyrant on Stonehorn with Tenderiser, Talisman of Protection
• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Illusion) with Butcher's Cauldron, Skullplucker, Spangleshard
• Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer with Armour of Meteoric Iron, Great Weapon
• Hunter with Sword of Might, Longstrider, Scout
• 8 Ironguts with Heavy Armour, Great Weapons, Full Command, Look-out Gnoblar
• 8 Ogre Bulls with Light Armour, Ironfists, Full Command, Cannibal Totem
• 4 Sabretusk Pack with Scouts
• 4 Mournfang Cavalry with Heavy Armour, Ironfists, Full Command, Totem of Wrath
• 3 Mournfang Cavalry with Heavy Armour, Ironfists, Full Command

It was not a lot of units, but at least having a couple of large Core units gave me a chance of contesting objectives. I had high hopes for the Tyrant with his Tenderiser catching up to something horrible at some point in the tournament, and also had the potential giggles of the Slaughtermaster always striking first with killing blow, possibly enhanced by Spectral Doppleganger...

Also full disclosure here, when I made the list I had failed to realise that Scouts can't charge in the first turn. I knew that they couldn't do it if they got the first turn in 8th edition, but they took that rule off Vanguard in The Old World (though apparently they added a similar rule back later). I think I just got confused. Consequently I did charge a couple of times in the first turn before someone queried it at dinner that night, and I realised I had been cheating. I can't say massive things came of it, but I apologise to my opponents anyway. Funny that my failure to apply the rules wasn't spotted by anyone until I was discussing my games with someone who wasn't even playing... We're all so clever. Anyway, I definitely won't be making that particular mistake again. I can find a new one. Gotta keep it fresh, you know?

Round 1: King of the Hill (Baggage Train)
Dylan Martin - Dwarf Expeditionary Force

• Burlok Damminson (General)
• Thane on Shieldbearers with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Master Rune of Smiting
• Thane with Battle Standard (Master Rune of Grungni, Rune of Battle), Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Rune of Fortitude, Rune of Passage
• Runesmith with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Master Rune of Calm, Rune of Passage
• Runesmith with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield
• 16 Rangers with Crossbows, Throwing axes, Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Champion, Standard bearer (Rune of Battle)
• 18 Thunderers with Handguns, Heavy armour, Shields, Expeditionary Marksmen, Champion, Standard bearer
• 18 Dwarf Warriors with Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Drilled, Champion, Standard bearer (Master Rune of Hesitation), Musician
• 16 Rangers with Crossbows, Throwing axes, Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Champion, Standard bearer
• Dwarf Cart (Bugman's Cart)
• Bolt Thrower 
• Bolt Thrower
• 1 Gyrocopters (Steam gun)
• 1 Gyrocopters (Steam gun)
• 16 Miners with Great weapons, Heavy armour, Champion, Standard bearer
• 12 Miners with Great weapons, Heavy armour, Champion, Standard bearer
• Doomseeker with Master Rune of Alaric the Mad, Rune of Wrath

This was one of those weird armies where Dylan only setup a fraction of his models before Scouts were placed, and all the Miners were hanging back until later in the game.

Empire Ogre Hobby Update

It's a new year, and very nearly not even the first month in the new year at this point. As usual, time is getting away from me. But that's OK, because I have hobby progress to show you! The annual pilgrimage to Cancon happened on the weekend just past, and whilst I am yet to put together my usual report of the tournament, I can show you the stuff I was rather frantically painting right up to the day before the event. I had decided I wanted to use the tournament as motivation to make some progress on my Ogres, and that's what I have to show now.

First up, I now have a Tyrant on Stonehorn! To my mind, this was an option I very much wanted if I was going to take Ogres to a tournament. He's big and scary. I don't know about competent, but you can't have everything, right?

Having decided that the things I was working on would be in the style of my Empire Ogres (rather than the similar sized force of more traditional Ogres I also have lying around), I needed a suitable rider. The Ogre is a mix of 3D printed bits from Infernal Miniatures (though the shield and pauldrons I sourced from some Bretonnians somewhere, and adjusted them to fit). The hammer is one of my old putty creations.

Late November Slow Grow

Well we're almost a third of the way through December, but I'm finally getting around to a post for November. The month was a bit of a mess in terms of my painting patterns.

First off, I needed to get some final work done on my army before the tournament early in the month. I needed a second set of Handgunner detachments, so decided that I'd essentially paint a "unit" of them with the extra champions I needed to populate the Nuln detachments. I basically grabbed whatever I had already undercoated and ready to go, as well as ensuring I had a couple of Hochland longrifles. Somehow that added up to 13 models...

Already on base adapters, in honour of most of them having been used in the event. The banner has not received any detail yet. I didn't have time to do anything about that. The previous bundle of Handgunners got purple details, so these ones got turquoise to go with the other set of Halberdiers.

Gaming Arena Nov 2025 Aftermath - Part 3

This is a continuation of my tournament report from the event at Gaming Arena in November 2025. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - Close Quarters (Domination, Strategic Locations (2), Break Point)
Thomas Smart - Vampire Counts

Before Tom had pulled his army out, he asked me how many magical attacks my army had. I had to admit that I had none, and then rather sheepishly asked if he was using Vampire Counts, and how many ethereal units he had. Turns out the answer to both questions was... Yes.

• Master Necromancer (Level 4, Necromancy) with Spell Familiar, Sceptre Of De Noirot, Cloak Of Mist & Shadows
• Necromantic Acolyte (Level 1, Illusion) on Mortis Engine
• Necromantic Acolyte (Level 1, Illusion) on Mortis Engine
• Tomb Banshee
• Tomb Banshee
• Wight Lord with Battle Standard, Charmed Shield
• 28 Grave Guard with Great Weapons, Drilled, Full Command, Charmed Shield, Drakenhof Banner
• 23 Zombies
• 23 Zombies
• Black Coach
• 6 Hexwraiths with Hellwraith

Right. So Hexwraiths, a Black Coach that can turn itself ethereal, 2 Banshees, an ethereal Master Necromancer, and he had the ability to turn something else ethereal with a spell as well... I had one magic missile that I would struggle to cast, and... a couple of units with some rank bonus and banners. This was not going to go well.

I had no idea how I was going to approach this game. I put the Outriders on the flanks, but they couldn't really hurt most of the things that mattered, and 3 Necromancers were likely to raise back the rest in a hurry. I put the Steam Tank in the middle, in the hope of bogging the Grave Guard.

Gaming Arena Nov 2025 Aftermath - Part 2

This is a continuation of my tournament report from the event at Gaming Arena in November 2025. You can find the previous part here.

I had already successfully avoided losing all of my games at the event, so now I could get on with the serious business of crushing hopes and dreams. Exactly whose hopes and dreams remained to be seen...

Game 2 - Drawn Battlelines (Strategic Locations (3), Baggage Train)
Lachie Mulcahy - High Elves

• Prince on Star Dragon with Full plate armour, Seed of Rebirth, Opal Amulet, Sword of Might, Dragon Helm, Pure of Heart
• Archmage (Level 4, Elementalism) with Sea Guard, Lore Familiar
• 27 Lothern Sea Guard with Shields, Full Command, Razor Standard
• 6 Silver Helms with Shields, Standard Bearer, High Helm
• 5 Ellyrian Reavers with Cavalry Spears, Shortbows, Skirmishers, Harbinger
• 8 Dragon Princes with Full Command, Loremaster's Cloak, War Banner
• 5 Shadow Warriors with Ambushers
• 10 Sisters of Avelorn with High Sister (Bow of the Seafarer)

The diagonal deployment saw Lachie hide his cavalry behind the hill near his table edge. The Sea Guard were in the forest and the Star Dragon might have been behind it, but then Lachie got the first turn and things shifted a bit. The Sea Guard teleported out of the forest with Travel Mystical Pathway, meaning they weren't wasting a turn of shooting by marching.

Gaming Arena Nov 2025 Aftermath - Part 1

As foreshadowed in my previous post, last week I attended a one-day Old World tournament at Gaming Arena. It was an opportunity to bring out all the Nuln stuff I have been painting, using the City-State of Nuln army list. My army was basically thrown together with a focus on using as much as I could of the things I've been painting. As a result, I knew the army was not really going to tick all the boxes. I made no effort to prop the army up with magic items, and even my general was waving around a pistol in combat instead of a proper weapon. That was OK, I was sure this would in no way come back to bite me...

• General of the Empire with Full plate armour, Pistol, The White Cloak
• Captain of the Empire with Battle Standard, Full plate armour, Great weapon, Shield
• Empire Engineer on Empire War Wagon with Grenade launching blunderbuss
• Master Mage (Level 1, Daemonology)
• 24 Nuln State Troops with Halberds, Light armour, Full Command
• 5 State Missile Troops with Handguns, Sergeant (Hochland long rifle)
• 5 State Missile Troops with Handguns, Sergeant (Hochland long rifle)
• 24 Nuln State Troops with Halberds, Light armour, Full Command
• 5 State Missile Troops with Handguns, Sergeant (Hochland long rifle)
• 5 State Missile Troops with Handguns, Sergeant (Hochland long rifle)
• 5 Outriders with Sharpshooter (Grenade launching blunderbuss), Musician
• 5 Outriders with Sharpshooter, Musician
• Empire War Wagon
• Empire War Wagon 
• Great Cannon
• Great Cannon 
• Steam Tank 

The plan for the army was to try to shoot things a bit, annoy characters with lots of Look Out Sir rolls from the Long rifles, and hope that the blocks of Halberdiers and War Wagons could save me from whatever got too close. I did not expect this plan to work especially well.

Game 1 - Chance Encounter (Special features, Baggage train, Break point)
Nathan Shipley, Cathay Jade Fleet

I'm not going to lie, my summary of this list is very incomplete. I think it's all the units, but even with a full load of items on the Shugengan and BSB, the army is nowhere near the points. There must have been items and magic banners all over the place...

• Shugengan Lord, (Level 4, Illusion), Great Spirit Longma, Some array of gear including +1 spell
• Lord Magistrate in Sky Lantern (Iron hail guns, Sky Lantern bombs) with Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman of Protection
• Gate Keeper, with Battle Standard, probably other gear that didn't really come up
• 24 Jade Warriors with Shields, Heavy armour, Stubborn, Full Command
• 12 Jade Warriors with Halberds, Heavy armour
• 10 Jade Lancers with Drilled, Full Command, Ring of Jet
• Cathayan Grand Cannon with Ogre Loader
• Fire Rain Rocket Battery with Ogre Loader
• Captain of the Empire on Barded Warhorse with Halberd, Twice-Blessed Armour
• 6 Empire Archers with Scouts

Cathay! This was exciting, I wasn't convinced there would even be a Cathay army at the event given the army wasn't that old.