Cramping your style

I mentioned in my Axemaster report that my first game was played upon an unusual table, constructed out of the modular cave sections we have at the club. The caves were built years ago, however their use in Warhammer has been limited for a couple of reasons. The first problem was that under 7^th edition, the precise 12” squares made it extremely easy to gauge distances, effectively rendering that side of the game redundant. The second issue was that for all that we have at least 36 sections to choose from (giving us a bit to play with, given you only need 24 for a 6’x4’ table), we were still restricted in terms of the possible layouts. Our collection favours corridors and dead ends more than is ideal for a game of Warhammer. The ability to measure whatever you want under 8^th edition effectively eliminated any concerns about the modular sections making estimation too easy, so the only problem that remains is the possible layouts. So we bit the bullet and decided to use the caves for a tournament.

A couple of us (with consultation from a few others) had good fun during the setup for the event, fiddling with the different sections in an attempt to produce a workable table. As I say, we’re better at walls than open spaces with our collection, so trying to create something that was open enough was a challenge. From memory, the layout we had to settle with in the end looked like this:

A rough layout of the caves as used in Axemaster. I deployed diagonally in the bottom left corner.

My sketch is very rough, however it gives you a general feel for how closed up areas were. The dark areas are solid rock walls, assumed to go all the way to the cave ceiling. Generally speaking, every gap was at least 5” wide, and we agreed that anyone playing on the table should ignore the 1” rule when it came to the walls. This meant units could fit through where they needed to go, but obviously things were a lot more restricted than your average table. We put a very small, low hill and a “forest” of mushrooms in the largest of the table’s caverns, just to add a bit more interest.

The two of us who set the table up then agreed to fight a grudge match in the first round on it, to prove to others (and ourselves) that it would work. I did take a couple of photos at the start of the game, and although I showed them in the tournament report I will include them here again so you get a feel for what we were looking at.

I do not pretend that the table we setup was perfect. Even with gaps at least 5” wide, units can find it hard to wheel in tight spaces. If I had based my army around horde units, I probably would have been gnashing my teeth in frustration. However, it was still fun to be able to make use of the caves, and it made the game slightly more challenging. The real question now is: are tables like this appropriate for tournament play?

Living on the edge

I get the impression that GW are currently pretty happy with the current range of armies available in Warhammer. It has been a long time since I heard any real rumours about a new race being introduced to the game. To a certain extent, this is understandable – there are currently 15 full-blown races to choose from, and GW seem to be in perpetual catch-up mode to re-release the existing armies in order to try keep things fresh and players interested.

When you think about it, 15 distinct races, each with their own model range, is a lot for a single game. It must be a constant headache trying to juggle them all and ensure that everyone gets their time in the limelight, instead of being forgotten in a dark corner. I’m sure most players feel that GW don’t always (or ever, depending upon how jaded you are) get these things right. For all that I get frustrated too, I do sympathise. However, as bravely as GW might juggle all these armies, there have been victims along the way.

In the time I have been playing Warhammer, there have been 2 full-blown armies that have been introduced and sustained for a while, before falling by the wayside. There have also been a fairly long list of “temporary” armies that were created as part of campaigns or other devices, and which have outlived their usefulness. And I can think of at least one example of a list that was somewhere in between. All of these things are, for all intents and purposes, dead. But they once lived and deserve more than being forgotten.

Victims of the cycle

The latest rumours doing the rounds of the internet are suggesting that the next 3 Warhammer army books to be re-released will be Empire, Vampire Counts and Dwarfs. I saw this at Fields of Blood, where it came from Tronhammer, where it came from Warseer. What a wonderful tangled web these things weave…

Anyway, these are a bit of a change from what I had heard previously, and it’s caught me by surprise. For starters, let me say straight out that I’m glad the Vampires are in the list. I have stated previously that the list needed help, as of all the lists (apart perhaps from the Tomb Kings, which have already rectified), the Vampire Counts suffered with the introduction of 8^th edition. They need a breath of fresh air, so the suggestion that they are on the horizon is welcome.

I am less certain about the Empire and Dwarfs. They are two of the oldest army books (the only older books are Bretonnians and Wood Elves), and they are two of the most popular in terms of collectors and the core imagery of the game. However, both army books work quite well as they currently stand. They are also both armies that I own, so I have more of a vested interest in them. I’m not entirely sure that I’m ready for a new book for either.

Upsides

When your army book is obviously weak or unbalanced and you are consequently dissatisfied with it, it is easy to look forward to the army being re-released. You stand to lose very little, and who knows what sort of goodies will be included in the new book? As a general rule you know GW will not release a much weaker book than those around it (there have been exceptions, most notably the previous Ogre Kingdoms book), so you are almost certainly going to find the new book an improvement in terms of your army’s competitiveness. 

In the past, the general rule of thumb was that each new book would be more powerful than all the ones that came before it. This “power creep” was a generally accepted phenomenon – one that left players of older books frustrated and a little sad. It’s possible that games designers enjoyed the fun of making a list packed with more tricks and toys than all those that came before it, however the driving force behind the pattern was most likely sales. Even with a shiny new model range, it would be difficult to push sales of the revised army if the book made it uncompetitive. On the other hand, if the army is the biggest, baddest thing on the scene, that alone will appeal to some players and will generate sales in its own right.

Thus far in 8^th edition we have seen the power creep phenomenon largely arrested. Three armies have been released at the time of my writing this article, with Orcs and Goblins, Tomb Kings and Ogre Kingdoms all receiving shiny new hardback books, all of which seem to be about on a par in terms of strength. This is far preferable to the arms race we used to be faced with, and Warhammer will be the better for it if we see it continue. The fact that the new books saw a relatively minor change to Orcs and Goblins, but a huge revision for Ogres is indicative of how varied the previous lists had been.

If the current pattern we have seen so far in 8^th edition continues, where each army book seems to be on a relatively even keel, it will be interesting to see what happens when we get to the stronger army books from the previous edition. If GW truly have arrested power creep, armies like Daemons potentially stand to lose out when their book gets revised. The community as a whole would love the power levels of all armies to be roughly level, however I am not so certain that the owners of these armies would be delighted to find that their new army was not as potent as the one it replaced.

Along with the new army book, each army sees a swathe of new models accompanying the release. This is normally an exciting thing for most players, as the quality of models in the game generally improves. Occasionally it can prove problematic for someone who has not yet completed his unit of older models, however with certain exceptions, the older range tends to go on sale and appear far cheaper in the second-hand markets, so it’s normally a win-win situation. Many of us are guilty of purchasing the new model for something we already had covered with the older range, so even players with extensive collections are not immune to the Shiny New Model Syndrome…

A new army book generally presents the player with a whole new experience using his old army. It is rare for the dynamic of the army to remain completely unchanged between books, and even rarer to see the power balance between units within the list remaining exactly as-is. Spells and magic items change, new units are added, and existing units that were considered unworthy in the previous list tend to get a boost (or a price drop) to make them tempting once more. It can almost be like collecting an entire new army, without the financial outlay and painting that that involves. A new book is a breath of fresh air, and given some books can take 5 or more years to be re-released, players are often well and truly ready when the revision arrives.

Army books come and go..

Sketchbook Adventures

I realise that most people who do serious amounts of modelling tend to sketch up their plans first. It seems to be inevitable that people who model well are also able to draw. I doubt this is a universal truth, but it seems a common thing. Anyway, I have often seen concept sketches from modellers and sculptors, both professional and otherwise. It is not something I have ever really tried, however - even as I have started to branch out and become more adventurous with my modelling and converting.

I have decided to change this. My decision is partly due to the fact that I am stuck at work for 40 hours per week, often with not a lot of work on my hands (seems to be the case at the moment, anyway). This feels like time terribly wasted when I want to be at home modelling, but that can't really be helped. Some of my wasted gaming energy has been going into this blog, which makes me feel slightly better about things. However, I recently decided that getting a sketch book and pencil might help me to plan my conversion work a little better, and therefore help me save time when I actually get to sit down at home and get to work.

It has been a really long time since I drew anything. I liked drawing when I was a boy, however I have really only picked up a pencil a handful of times since then. Since getting the sketchbook last week my efforts have been relatively limited, however I can already feel that this approach will be useful to me. Especially given my plans to use Instant Mold and basic master versions of things in order to produce a variety of parts for my Ogre unit fillers. Planning here is a worthwhile thing.

The first page in my sketchbook, which has plans for building Ogres to match the Leopard Company and Ricco's Republican Guard

Axemaster 2011 Report

As discussed in my post yesterday, Axemaster is over for another year. This means it’s time for another tournament report. Here we go…

The Tournament

Axemaster is a 2500pt tournament, making it the largest regular event in the Melbourne calendar. 2400 seems to be the new tournament standard though, so it’s not terribly different in the scheme of things. The tournament runs without restrictions on army lists, however it uses panel comp. We also played with all the rules as written in the rulebook (no tampering) – something I am a massive supporter of. I believe 8^th edition works (especially with comp thrown in to prevent deliberate manipulation of perceived flaws) and I am not afraid to say so. We also tried something we had not seen done before, and declared we would be rolling for the scenario at the start of each round (again something as per the rulebook, and previously recommended by GW for tournaments). The TO retained the right to overrule the result in case something silly happened (such as if we got the same scenario 3 times in a row).

Shortly after we announced the details of the tournament this year, it became apparent to us that we had not made comp worth enough of the total marks at 30 out of 200 (or 15%). Players were talking about the filth they were going to bring, and things were clearly heading in the wrong direction. We took emergency action and doubled the value of comp up to 60 out of 230 (or 26%). This was clearly communicated and we received no complaints (it was still early days), and it appeared to have the desired effect on the armies players were fielding. To allow for the huge comp scores that were going to be added, we opted for the “comp-battle” approach, where a sixth of the player’s comp score was added each round. This was the correct decision as it meant players knew where they stood (rather than being shocked at the end) and prevented the situation where a player with moderate battle results and huge comp leapt the whole field and claimed the title (a result most would find undesirable).

My Army

I was originally going to shift away from the all-cavalry Empire army I used at Book of Grudges, however I got distracted by assembling knights in the lead-up to when we had to submit our armies. I decided I should use this energy and included said knights in my list, rather than stomping on my enthusiasm and forcing myself to work on infantry instead. The extra 250pts I had at my disposal compared to Book of Grudges and a bit of reshuffling meant I was able to add a third block of knights, this one Inner Circle with lances. They got a bonus bare-bones Captain with a great weapon to give them some more long-term grinding power. I lost my unit of Outriders, a couple of knights off each White Wolf unit, and the Standard of Discipline (which I felt slightly rude about using anyway).

I’ve posted both my list and a picture of the army before, however to save you going looking, here they are again:

Arch Lector of Sigmar Ulric @ 244.0 Pts
     General; Barding; Prayers of Sigmar; Shield; Warhorse
     The Mace of Helstrum [60.0]
     Dawn Armour [35.0]

Wizard Lord of the Amethyst Order @ 270.0 Pts
     Magic Level 4; Lore of Death; Warhorse
     Talisman of Preservation [45.0]

Captain @ 132.0 Pts
     Barding; Full Plate Armor; Battle Standard; Warhorse
     Charmed Shield [5.0]
     Talisman of Endurance [30.0]

Warrior Priest of Sigmar Ulric@ 129.0 Pts
     Prayers of Sigmar; Great Weapon; Warhorse
     Armour of Meteoric Iron [25.0]

Captain @ 159.0 Pts
     Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield; Pegasus
     Dragonhelm [10.0]
     Crown of Command [35.0]

Captain @ 76.0 Pts
     Barding; Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor; Warhorse

12 Knightly Orders @ 339.0 Pts
     Barding; Full Plate Armor; Great Weapons; Standard; Musician, Preceptor; Warhorse

12 Knightly Orders @ 349.0 Pts
     Barding; Full Plate Armor; Great Weapons; Standard; Musician, Preceptor; Warhorse
     Banner of the Eternal Flame [10.0]

13 Knights of the Inner Circle @ 404.0 Pts
     Barding; Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield; Standard; Musician, Preceptor; Warhorse

Steam Tank @ 300.0 Pts

5 Pistoliers @ 97.0 Pts
     Brace of Pistols; Light Armour; Musician; Warhorse

In all but the last game, I deployed my BSB and Warrior Priest in the unit with the flaming banner, the Arch Lector and Wizard Lord in the other White Wolf unit, and the great weapon hero in the Inner Circle unit. This changed in the last game when the BSB and Warrior Priest had to join the hero in the Inner Circle knights because their regular entourage decided not to show up for the start of the game. Otherwise I was consistent in my approach.

And now we get to the games. Bear in mind that these lists are basically from memory, so may not be perfect.

Imperial Progress XIV

As promised in the previous post, here we have a few shots of the "finished" Knights Snow Leopard. In truth, they are not finished. They don't have any leopard markings on their cloaks and I have not put any freehand detailing on the banner. Both of these things looked like they would be time-consuming, and by 11pm on the night before the tournament, I decided to call it quits.

The Knights Snow Leopard, basically completed

Another Aftermath

Well, Axemaster is done and dusted for 2011. It's the last full-blown (2-day, 2000pt or more) tournament in Melbourne for the year, which means it presents the last chance for players to grab serious rankings points before the "tournament season" winds down.

The tournament in full swing

Axemaster is hosted each year by our club (Hampton Games Club) at our usual venue at the community centre. This means it was a weekend of setting up and packing up after the event, as well as playing. In the end we had 35 players, which is slightly down from last year, but still a decent field, and probably at least as strong as Book of Grudges, which boasted closer to 50.

The hall from the other end

Drew McLean was running the tournament this year, and managed to keep things ticking smoothly. We tend to rotate TO responsibilities, and Drew is one of the club stalwarts and has run a number of events in the past. In the end, the results were as follows:

Axemaster 2011 Results