Arc in the Old World 2026 Aftermath - Part 2

This is the second part of my report of the recent Old World tournament at Arcfest. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2: A Chance Encounter (Special Features, Domination)
Ben Hallett - Jade Fleet

• Shugengan Lord (General, Level 4, Illusion, Lore of Yang) on Great Spirit Longma with The Monkey King's Wisdom, Scrolls of Wei-jin
• Shugengan General (Level 1, High Magic, Lore of Yang) on Great Spirit Longma with Celestial blade
• Gate Keeper (Battle Standard Bearer) with Celestial blade, Heavy armour, Shield, Banner of Swirling Wind, Sigil of Smoke & Powder
• 25 Jade Warriors with Shields, Heavy armour, Drilled, Stubborn, Jade Officer [Spirit Lantern], Standard bearer [The Jade Banner], Musician
• 8 Jade Lancers with Cathayan lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Barding, Ambushers, Drilled, Jade Lancer Officer [Ring of Jet + Charmed Shield], Standard bearer, Musician
• Cathayan Grand Cannon with Ogre Loader [Gunpowder bombs]
• Cathayan Grand Cannon with Ogre Loader [Gunpowder bombs]
• Cathayan Sentinel with Granite Sentinel
• Sky Lantern with Sky Lantern Crane Guns

This was only going to be my second game against Cathay, but I can't say as I was feeling very optimistic with 2 Grand Cannons that could double fire once, a Shugengan Lord that could easily kill a Dragon in a turn (maybe even without casting Spectral Doppelganger), and a Sentinel that could hit me with Monster Slayer... After a big win in the first round, this felt like it was likely to be a correction.

Last tournament, this deployment absolutely wrecked me. I had nowhere near enough room, my army was ill suited to it, and I had no idea how to approach it. This was a little better, although I realised after deploying the Dragon Princes that my opponent had cannons, and I might not get the first turn...

Arc in the Old World 2026 Aftermath - Part 1

It seems there's an Old World tournament every month at the moment, and on the weekend it was a 2 day, 6 game event as part of the Arcfest convention. There were hundreds of people playing 40K downstairs, but in the end we only had something like 14 registrations for Old World. In the end this turned out to be fine - the whole thing had a real small community vibe, which was fun.

After the debacle that was my last tournament outing with a dubious High Elf list, this time I decided to make use of the relatively relaxed restrictions (just the Grand Melee and Combined Arms rules from the Matched Play guide), and fielded a silly Caledor themed army:

Yes, that's the whole army. It's tiny.

• Blood of Caledor Noble (General) on Sun Dragon with Full plate armour, Shield, Lance, Seed of Rebirth
• Blood of Caledor Archmage (Level 3, Illusion) on Sun Dragon with Full plate armour, Dragon Helm, Burning Blade, Seed of Rebirth
• Blood of Caledor Noble (Battle Standard Bearer) on Sun Dragon with Full plate armour, Shield, Lance, Seed of Rebirth
• 25 Lothern Sea Guard with Thrusting spears, Warbows, Light armour, Shields, Full Command, Razor Standard
• 6 Silver Helms with Heavy armour, Shields, Barding, Lances, Standard bearer [War Banner], High Helm (champion) [Charmed Shield]
• 6 Dragon Princes with Full plate armour, Shields, Barding, Lances, Drakemaster, Standard bearer
• Merwyrm

Gaming Arena March 2026 Aftermath - Part 3

This is the third and final part of my account of the recent one day tournament at Gaming Arena. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Game 3 - A Chance Encounter
Nicolas Hellstern - Bretonnian Errantry Crusade

Duke on Barded Pegasus with Heavy armour, Shield, Crusader's Lance

Lady Élisse Duchaard (Level 3, Elementalism) with Chalice of Brionne, The Staff of the Elements

Paladin Battle Standard Bearer on Bretonnian Warhorse with Heavy armour, Shield, War Banner, Crusader's Clarion

12 Knights Errant with Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Barding, Full Command, Banner of Châlons
12 Knights Errant with Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Barding, Full Command
12 Squires with Longbows, Scouts
12 Squires with Longbows, Scouts
5 Pegasus Knights with Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Barding, Full Command, Errantry Banner

6 Grail Knights with Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Barding, Full Command, Crusader's Tapestry

There must have been another item or two in there, as that's not quite the right points total. But it's close enough.

I had enormous difficulty with the deployment in this scenario. The strange, narrow shape of what is effectively the "front" of the zone and the impassable terrain everywhere (including the special feature in the middle) left me feeling like I couldn't deploy anything where I wanted it. I compensated for this by deploying very badly, with units overlapping and blocking each other, and generally not thinking well enough ahead. Didn't help that I wasn't sure how I was going to face an army that could get through the gaps, charge further than me, and mess my units up... Nicolas placed a scouting unit behind me, near the baggage train.

Gaming Arena March 2026 Aftermath - Part 2

This is the second part of my account of the recent one day tournament at Gaming Arena. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2 - King of the Hill
Lachie Mulcahy - High Elves

• Prince on Star Dragon with Full plate armour, Shield, Sword of Might, Seed of Rebirth (maybe...)
• Archmage (Level 4, Elementalism)
• 30 Lothern Sea Guard with Thrusting spears, Warbows, Light armour, Shields, Full Command, Razor Standard
• 5 Silver Helms with Lances, Heavy armour, Barding, Shields, High Helm
• 6 Dragon Princes with Lances, Full plate armour, Shields, Barding, Full Command
• 21 White Lions of Chrace with Chracian great blades, Heavy armour, Full Command, The Loremaster's Cloak
• 10 Sisters of Avelorn with Bows of Avelorn, Light armour, High Sister (Bow of the Seafarer)

That's not exactly right, but it's pretty close. This was the second one day event I've attended at Gaming Arena, both of them organised by Lachie. And for the second time, I had run into him (and his Star Dragon) in the second round. An unfortunate pattern...

Behold our illegal deployment! Turns out you can't go within 8" of the short edges during deployment in this scenario. Serves me right for losing my Matched Play Guide and trusting the TO...

Gaming Arena March 2026 Aftermath - Part 1

Another one day Old World tournament has been and gone, and I'm here with a bit of a report of how it went. In keeping with the pattern of never taking the same army to an event twice, this time I dug out my High Elves. Truth be told, I expect that pattern will end - not because I've run out of armies, but rather because I'd like to give my old High Elves some love and attention, and using them in more tournaments will probably help with that. Anyway...

The list I decided to take was pretty bad, and basically thrown together from the stuff that I had that was mostly presentable (I told you, they need some love and attention). I did paint up a Caledor archmage for the occasion, which just goes to show you how silly I am. The tournament was 2000 points, however characters were capped at 33%. This wasn't great (I realised very late), but I persisted with my rough plan and just trimmed important things off my characters. What could go wrong, right?

• Prince with Warden of Saphery, Sword of Hoeth, Armour of Caledor
• Archmage (Level 4, Illusion) on Barded Elven Steed with Blood of Caledor, Full plate armour, Meteor Hammer, Dragon Helm
• Noble on Griffon with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield
• 20 Elven Spearmen with Full Command, Monster Hunter's Tapestry
• 10 Elven Archers (Detachment)
• 16 Lothern Sea Guard with Standard bearer, Musician (no shields)
• 5 Silver Helms with Champion (no shields, see below)
• 6 Dragon Princes with Full Command
• 16 Swordmasters of Hoeth with Drilled, Full Command
• 1 Tiranoc Chariot
• 5 Sisters of Avelorn with High Sister (Bow of the Seafarer)

Note that neither the Sea Guard, nor the Silver Helms have shields. This is because I was using Maiden Guard as my Sea Guard, and they don't have shields. And it's because I stuffed up with the Silver Helms. I think I flicked them in and out of the list so many times that I ended up missing the checkbox. I played them as though they had shields, so I cheated by 5 points. It didn't matter; they never did anything...

Game 1 - Encirclement
Max Piccione - Dwarfen Mountain Holds

• Burlok Damminson
• Runelord with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Master Rune of Balance
• Thane with Handgun, Full plate armour, Shield, Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Rapid Fire, Master Rune of Bursting Flame
• Thane Battle Standard Bearer with Full plate armour, Shield, Master Rune of Grungni, Rune of Confusion
• 25 Dwarf Warriors with Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Full Command, Rune of Battle
• 18 Quarrellers with Crossbows, Heavy armour, Shields, Full Command
• 16 Hammerers with Great hammers, Heavy armour, Shields, Drilled, Full Command, Master Rune of Hesitation
• Grudge Thrower with Rune of Reloading
• Organ Gun
• 14 Irondrakes with Drakeguns, Full plate armour, Drilled, Champion (Cinderblast bombs)
• Dwarf Cart, Bugman's Cart

The battlefield had 4 objectives as well as baggage trains. Note that I managed to lower the vibe significantly by forgetting to bring anything to represent these, so I was just using sad pieces of paper until Nick showed up to at least give me something to sit on top of them. I deployed my Chariot and Sisters over to the left, put the Sea Guard next to the hill with the Archers on it, then had the Prince leading the Spearmen (which was the general plan for the army), the Swordmasters in a silly squeezed formation due to space (but at least they had Drilled), the Silver Helms and finally the  Dragon Princes.

Nuln Army and the Slow Grow

It's been a while since my last Slow Grow update, but that doesn't mean it is over. The push for Cancon derailed me a bit, but eventually I regained a little focus. What should have been easily completed in February managed to bleed over into March, but eventually it got done.

First up, I have added 2 Volley Guns. I figured it wouldn't be a Nuln army without some, and somehow this still only brings my overall Empire army up to 3 or 4 in total.

Big Old Grudges Aftermath - Part 6

This is the sixth and final part of my account of the recent Big Old Grudges tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

Round 6: Upon the Field of Glory (Strategic Locations 3; Domination)
Matt Hinton - Chaos Dwarfs

• Sorcerer-Prophet (General, Level 4, Elementalism) with Tome Of Spellcraft, Mantle of Stone
• Black Orc Warboss with Great Weapon, Levitating Shield, Trollhide Trousers, Effigy Of Mork
• Infernal Seneschal Battle Standard Bearer with Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, The Lammasu's Beard, Charmed Shield, Arch-Lightning Rod
• Bull Centaur Taur’ruk with Great Weapon, Charmed Shield, 2x Mantle of Stone
• 19 Black Orcs with mix of Great Weapons, Shields, Boss, Standard Bearer, Monster Hunter's Tapestry
• 18 Hobgoblin Cutthroats with Shields, Boss
• 10 Infernal Guard with Hailshot Blunderbusses, Shield, Drilled, Deathmask, Standard Bearer, Overseer's Sigil
• 5 Bull Centaur Renders with Great Weapon, Bull Centaur Ba’hal, Standard Bearer, Rampaging Banner
• Iron Daemon with Steam Cannonade
• Iron Daemon with Steam Cannonade, Hellbound

Going into this game, I was aware that I had crept up the tables and was now in 5th place. This meant I was probably within reach of the podium if I somehow ended up with a good win. Obviously this was a very bad position for me to be in...

Yes, this is after we had both finished deploying. I was definitely out-deployed. Matt was able to buy a little time before committing by placing the Hobgoblin units, and I had to place important stuff early because I had no throw-away deployments. By the time it was apparent that he was going to stack things on my right flank, my deployment was pretty much done.