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| Looking forward at the year to come |
2011
was a pretty busy year for me. It was my self-proclaimed Year of the
Empire, which saw me focus (almost) exclusively on Empire in
tournaments, as well as in terms of painting. By the end of the year I
had gone from having a couple of painted units to a quite large painted
army. I had also played in 4 tournaments, which saw me qualify for the
Australian Masters in December, and added a 5th tournament to the tally.
I say “almost”
because there was a tournament where I did not use Empire last year.
That event was the Victorian Inter-Club Championships (VICC). A
tournament with a twist, it included 2 rounds where members in the team
paired off and played together in a 4 player game. This, combined with
all 3 other members in our team taking Forces of Destruction, saw me
pull out the Orcs and Goblins for a last hurrah with their old army
book. Given the unusual nature of the event, I figured this didn’t
really count as a violation of my Empire resolutions – it would have
looked pretty odd having Empire and Beastmen lining up side by side.
Hampton went on to win the Warhammer Fantasy section of the event, as
well as the Warmachine and overall titles. All in all, it was a quite
productive year.
With all my
resolutions wrapping up at the end of 2011, I was a little bit
rudderless at the start of this year. Logic would dictate that I declare
2012 to be the Year of the Ogre, or Year of the Orc, or something
similar. After all, it worked rather well with the Empire. However, I
wasn’t keen to be locked into a particular army for another entire year.
There were also a couple of main considerations that confused things:
The ETC
This
year I will be in Australia’s team at the European Team Championships
in Poland. Those of you with a sound understanding of geography will
realise that this makes little sense, however it seems that the ETC is
gradually becoming more of a World
Team Championships. Last year for Warhammer Fantasy there were teams
from Australia, New Zealand and the US facing off with 25 teams from
around Europe. With each team consisting of 8 players, it’s a massive
event – over 200 players for Warhammer Fantasy, and then there’s the 40K
event alongside it, which is much the same size…
The ETC runs a system
of hard caps, targeting the worst abuses of the various army books and
trying to keep a lid on things like lists spamming 20 power dice per
turn. Within those restrictions however, anything goes. Soft comp would
never work at such an event, and the general approach is to field the
nastiest list possible within the rules provided. It’s exactly the sort
of environment we are trying to avoid when we elect to use soft comp
rather than hard caps, but then this event is rather different. For
starters, everyone who is attending surely knows what they’re getting
themselves into. You won’t get rank beginners turning up for a bit of
fun at the ETC – they will be experienced players looking to do as much
damage as possible to further their team’s progress. The other thing
that sets the tournament apart is that each of the 8 players in a given
team must choose armies from a different book – so each team may only
have 1 Daemon army , 1 Skaven army, etc. This means the army books don’t
need to be perfectly balanced against each other, because a team can’t
just choose 8 of the same army. This is why the system works at the ETC,
and also why it should not be adopted for regular tournaments.
For me, the ETC will
be a departure from my regular approach to tournaments. I can’t remember
the last time I looked at a set of restrictions and set about trying to
make opponents weep within the specified framework (it was probably 5th
edition). Whatever I end up using, it will doubtless look nothing like
the lists I normally take. I’m not yet certain which race I will take,
given the rumours abounding of a new Empire army book around the middle
of the year. The ETC is in August, so a new army book could be a factor.
Kislev
My
sights are still firmly set on recreating the Battle at the Gates of
Kislev. Owen has been madly painting Chaos Warriors as well as starting
to produce some suitable terrain for the game, whilst everything I’ve
been painting should be of use as well. But that is the problem – I need
to paint a whole lot more if I want to make the game work the way I’d
like. My planning for the first few months of the year revolves around
trying to get most (if not all) of my Empire cavalry painted, because at
the moment the mounted relief force is looking a bit thin. The timing
of the game will be a balance of making it happen versus ensuring I get
all the stuff we need painted. It will definitely happen this year – of
that I am certain.
VICC
Hampton
will be out to defend our title at VICC in March, however I think this
time I’m going to sit it out. I enjoyed the event last time, but we have
a lot of Fantasy players at the club and only a limited number of
spots. Besides, there are plenty of tournament throughout the year as it
is, and coupled with travelling to Europe for the ETC, I feel like I
might be suffering a bit of burnout from tournaments if I don’t take it
easy.
Year of the Empire 2.0?
I’ve
already entered one tournament this year with my Empire, and I have to
say that it would be easy to keep doing so. The versatility of the army
list means I can shift things around pretty drastically and keep it from
getting stale. And I plan to keep painting them, with both the Kislev
game and my mad Ogre crossover ambitions to help drive me onward. I
don’t think I’m ready to focus my attention on a different project when
this one still feels half-finished. It may yet be that this year will
simply be a continuation of 2011, and the sequel to the Year of the
Empire. We shall see…
just do what i do and have 7 or 8 projects on the go at once
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