KWC Open Day: WHFB in the Doldrums

Uncertainty in the Warhammer world reflected by KWC Open Day 2015

Sunday saw the 4th Open Day at KWC. Unlike other years there was a decided lack of interest in Warhammer Fantasy. This probably reflects the great unease that has settled over the NZ Warhammer scene over the last 6 months. The rolling out of the End Times and the looming uncertainty about what 9th Ed Rules may bring has dampened the enthusiasm for WHFB this year.
I for one have not had many games or built anything GW since NZTC.

So this was also reflected on our open day. A great Warhammer table with incredible terrain. And nobody interested in  playing. Visitors came from out of town to play X-Wing and FoW.

40K was popular, as was the Warmahordes table. But ouch...Warhammer ? No enthusiasm from club members. How can you promote a game where you don't know if the rules are about to explode in your face.

   Dwarfs spent the day languishing in their tray

So people voted with their feet. I hope for the game as we know it in NZ's sake that it isn't the tenor everyone feels. Otherwise it will soon become just a game with toy soldiers for bored boys with parents with deep pockets and a butterfly interest in the game. Well, maybe it is where the money lies. Not with veteran gamers with disposable income and a 20 or 30 year commitment to collecting.

I at present have a whole row of Chaos Knights, a Greater Daemon of Khorne, and even a Daemon Prince sitting unpainted on my workbench, not knowing if the changed rules are to affect how they should be based. I have spent the last 6 months on my Flames or War Armies. Even Pete is painting  and posting on historicals...

More photos (Clickies): on my WW2 Wargaming blog : Wargames Obsession
and on the Kapiti Wargames Club Blog

I never thought I'd see the day when dust starts settling on a row of new $100 models. Likewise there is a unit of Dwarf Irondrakes just sitting there in base coat. To be honest, if I am quite apprehensive about it all.  Not to speak of Luc (my son's) unbuilt Lizard heroes and monsters that he bought in London with his hard-earned cash last year.

For me End Times was an interesting diversion that I chose not to really buy into. (Learning from the Storm of Magic experience? ) So waiting to hear if our armies have become obsolete at the stroke of a pen is getting tedious now. Like being on death row. I think GW is doing themselves a great disservice by how this has all been handled. Can't say I have mustered a great deal of enthusiasm for the Age of Sigmar as yet.

I found it sad, for a club that was essentially formed to play Warhammer...

NZTC 2015 Photos and Winners

Warhammer Fantasy Battles New Zealand Team Championships 2014

The Kapiti Wargames Club fielded 2 teams: Legion of Doom and Pants Off!

Day 1: Gloves off, or was it shirts of and pants off?
After a brief kerfuffle to find a replacement player at no 99 when Rex took ill, Team Legion of Doom (LoD) arrived to take on the big guns of the NZ Warhammer world.

Roundly tipped to take the wooden spoon, as we had come close to in the preceding years, we proceeded to do battle.

Many thanks to Lockie Reid who stood in for the incapacitated Rex, ably fielding his Wood Elf army!
Hope you're feeling better, Rex! You missed a great tournament!

Not much time to do a write-up of my experience or the event (I will do it next week)
I am now hurriedly packing to go off on a school camp at the crack of sparrows tomorrow...

So, this is really not much more than a photo-dump.

May thanks to Pete and Tim for a fantastic event!

And no, we (LoD) did not take the wooden spoon either!

For full results check The Fields of Blood.

Pete and Tim, feel free to right-click and use my photos for your blogs
(It would be nice if you linked back to my blog or acknowledged some way)

Apologies for poor quality of Day 1 photos- taken with my phone

And the gaming is on!

The Field:

Artful Dodgers

DILF

Grumpy Old Men

Legion of Doom

Nice Team

Not Afraid to use Comp

Pants Off

Petes Pot Luck

Shirts Off

Stonesfall Massive

Team Bucketheads

Weekend Warriors

Heroic stand of my Corsair Master in my first game - Team DILF

Druchii Civil War.

Kapiti Teams Comparing notes after the first clash

And then we're off again

Some lovelies that caught the eye...

The Nice Team. Tane and Luc doing battle

Ironblaster in hard cover

Team Pants Off (Also from Kapiti) going hammer and tongs...

Day 2: Artful Dodgers fist up: 

Then Weekend Warriors

And Grumpy Old Men...

Ladies and Gentlemen: Tim announcing the winners:

Aesthetic awards:: 

Best Sports:

Not Afraid to Use Comp

The Inaugural Van Trapp Invitational Trophy 

(Sorry Pete, you've got yer eyes closed: but it's the only shot I got)

Third place

Second Place

And Overall Winners: Team DILF (with a Phoarrr)

Very relieved that the Wooden Spoon passed Team Legion of Doom by (again)!

You will notice that it is a slotted wooden spoon...

 To represent all those attacks allowed to come through!

Kapiti Wargames Club Swap Meet Tomorrow

Reminder: KWC's Annual Swap meet is on again tomorrow 

(11 October 2014)

Hugely successful in previous years, the KWC brings you the 3rd Annual Swap meet:

Saturday 11 October 2014 

at the Paraparaumu Community Centre (Click for map)

 Ngahina Street, Paraparaumu

From 10 am onwards. Bring, swap or sell: any gaming related items: Mini's, rule books, paint, any scale, any system, any condition. Your trash is someone's treasure. Bits and sprues are usually particularly sought after.Bring what you've got. Chances are the will be a buyer or swapper!

Games workshop, WHFB, 40K, Flames of War, Warmachine, WW2 20mm, 15mm wargaming, Ancients and Moderns, Magic The Gathering, Kits and models, paints and brushes...

I am bringing to swap or sell: Tau Kroot and Fire Warriors (Metal and plastic, based and counter-weighed w 10c coins.) Painted to reasonable table-top standard (And one box untouched and unbuilt); 15mm Medieval Army (metal); Skaven, High Elves, High Elves Current Rule Book. Surplus O and G Wyvern, a whole box of (mostly GW) stuff...

Civil War at KWC

Civil War Erupts at KWC

Druchii take on Druchii, Ogres turn on each other and DoC descend on the Denizens of Athel Loren
Good night's gaming last night. Got there late as I was on call. Actually was not intending to go, but when I arrived home after 7 pm the Aspiring Champion of our house was ready to go, Ogres all packed.

Gulped down me tea, grabbed the closest prepared list without really looking at it, threw all the Druchii in the car; and set off down the Road to Paraparaumu to join the fray, stopping briefly for a hot chocolate.

By the time we got there everyone was already engrossed in games. All sorts going down: Wood Elves taking on Chaos Demos at Rex and Dave's table, Nick havin' a game of Memoirs 1944 with one of the junior players, and likewise Sam having a game of Magic. Jack and Jayden had a 40K clash of Necrons vs alternate Imperial Guard (In this case, the British Empire) Just love those Red Jacket figures, Hayden!

Anyhow Sam eventally emerged from his Magic card game, and then Civil war broke out between his ogres and Luc's!

The unlikely watchtower scenario.. as if Ogres cared about things like that. Anyhow, king of the castle, or the maw, or wathever... I think Sam triumphed in the end, getting control of the tower and holding it.

Nick brought up his Druchii and a pitched battle followed with my Cold-one bus vs his mobile strike force with a hammer of executioners. Good use of terrain and outflanking with fast moving cavalry saw him negate my punching power, and forcing me to engage my Corsairs against his Dreadlord- wasn't going to end pretty, low borns taking on a high born on a pegasus, buffed to the teeth, and out of reach of the BSB and Generals sphere of influence...

Pretty much a draw, and time limited, as we only started around 9, and Nick had to be in time for the last train home. He did succeed in routing and killing my Lvl 4 Sorceress, who sat in a the bunker of Corsairs/ May put her in the Cold-one bus next time, rather than the Lvl 1. Interesting to see an assassin deployed too, did a wee bit of damage. I've always questioned the amount of points invested in them vs possible gain.

I believe the DoC triumphed over the Denizens of Athel Loren. Had an interesting discussion about the value of taking a Soul grinder (or not) as artillery with Dave.

Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day: First photos

D-Day at Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day.

KWC had its 3rd open day on Saturday 10 May 2014. Reasonable attendance, but a bit down on previous years. Good gaming though, with great games of WH Monster mash, 40K, WHFB, D-Day Landings FoW (20mm), Ronin (Samurai warfare) and Warmachine going down.

Hobarts Funnies making their way ashore

Blogs with more photos:

• Wargames Obsession
• Kapiti Wargames Club
• Red Dog of War
• Dressing the Lines

Kapiti Wargames Club 3rd Open Day this Saturday

The 3rd Annual Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day

Saturday 10 May 2014

Paraparaumu Community Centre

Ngahina Street, Paraparaumu

10.00 to 16.00

Our open day features display and demo games of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40 000, Warmachine, Flames of War and other genres played at our club. 

Open to the public and other gamers. 

Entrance Free

Operation Overlord: This year we are marking the 70th Anniversary with a large scale 20mm D-Day Landing game, depicting the British and Commonwealth Sword Beach in Normandy.

The purpose of the open day is to promote wargaming as a pastime and hobby as a whole, and introduce the public and officianados to different game styles and genres

Flames of War in 20mm Battle Report from Sunday

FoW in 20mm: Battle Report:
My Falschirmjaeger get creamed

Kapiti Wargames Club had it's second open day last Sunday. We had a great turn-out, and I took the opportunity to play a 20mm scale FoW battle against my son Luc and a friend, Cameron

More photos on my WW2 Blog:

Wargames Obsession

Deploying before battle

(photo Jack Penman Photography)

Fly my pretties...Nurgle Plague drones take to the sky

My Nurgle Plague drones take to the sky for the first time

Fly, my pretty rot-flies!

I finally got my plague drones painted up and ready for the table (well, sort-of) the basing was not yet completed, but I couldn't resist tabling them in the KWCs big daemonic incursion on Saturday (see a separate post on this later) Limited points, so we each only got 1200. Didn't have much to spare, and didn't expect to have to go up against ogres. Would have given them deaths heads (shooting attacks) and poisoned attacks/venom stings.  

Split them into 2 units of 6.One ran into lead belchers before slugging it out with Mournfang and Bulls before being annihilated. The other carved their way through 2 Mournfang cavalry, and survived.

Anyhow, her they are, bursting forth in their corpulence:

Happy with the paint scheme, looks better now they have been based with yellow-ochre gravel, same as the rest of my daemon armies.Ranking up is an issue with all those legs and wings, and the legs and wings are quite fragile, and transport may be in issue in future. Had to give 2 of them longer stems to raise them above the others as to rank up a little better.

Alas, alack, no Daemon on Daemon action

Alas, alack, no Daemon on Daemon action

After my enthusiastic post about "Pandemonium"  coming last night I got a text from Sam asking if I could give Fern and her Night Goblins a game, as she was preparing for Natcon, and needed more games to practice. 

(Having played against his Daemons a lot, she needed another army to face off against) 

Last night also saw the start of a Mordheim campaign at the Kapiti Wargames Club.

I stood firm, as I have too many things on the boil at the moment, and had resolved not get sucked into Mordheim, much as I love the game. (WHFB Daemons and 20mm Flames of War Armies being built)

From the looks of it everyone was having a grand ol' time. Almost got tempted to join in.

So my Dark Elves stepped up to the mark, and my Daemons continued to languish on the shelf, and the DoC Army Book glowed red-hot in anticipation.All for the common good...

I played my DE list from NZTC with the exception of swapping the Death Hag's Manbane for the Sacrificial Dagger, and both mages running Lore of Shadows this time round. NatCon rules, so limitations of numbers of dice, shooter numbers and number of Hydras.

Took a while for Fern to prise herself from Mordheim, as one of her sons was just having so much fun in the last scenario being played. 

Waiting for her allowed me to continue with my assembly of Rot-flies, so I'm not really complaining.  We finally got underway, and the vagarities of playing greenskins once again added much entertainment. Pretty gutsy on her part,  I think, taking a goblin only army to Natcon. Fielded 4 trolls, 2 doom divers and 2 rock lobbers, 2 mangler squigs, 2 units of bowmen, 2 squig herds, 2 huge phalanxes of spearmen bunkering lvl 4 mage, and characters. I had 2 units of 16 and 15 ea Xbowmen, 30+ bunker of corsiars w my 2 mages, 2 repeater bolt throwers, Dreadlord on Black Dragon w Pendant, Magic Weapon (halberd) and Hydra. 2 units of 6 shades each.

Dang, I do hate mangler squigs and fanatics!. Thank goodness for multiple shot crossbows and DE bolt-throwers.Could have made a real mess of my closely packed units! Only lost a unit of Shades.Nice conversion in the making there!

No significant misfires the whole game. Got dangerously close to taking out my Hydra. Lack of leadership proved a problem, with several failed panic tests and her Goblin General Falling to the Daggers of Death Hag and her retinue. Winds of magic not exceptionally potent throughout the game, and no really spectacular spells getting off. 

Maybe a small exception in casting pit of shades with small template on her large spearman unit.

Gobbos held the Dark Elves pretty well, and may have done more damage if their hordes had got in to swamp the crossbowmen and corsairs earlier. Sea serpent standard and hatred, with an extra attack granted from the Cauldron equates to an absolute hail of attacks. Low Ld on the Gobbos proved to be an achilles heel once the General was gone, and they were out of range of the BSB. 

Failed panic test ? Wonder why. 

(Didn't play any cold ones this game, but this looks suspiciously like Malus Darkblade on Spite)

We finally had to abandon the game at the end of turn 3, (just before 12 midnight)  as time had run out (and brain fatigue was also setting in) Think I won by a narrow margin having killed her General. Very enjoyable game. 

Santa's Error: The Delightful Chickens

Santa's Error: The Delightful Chickens

Theodore Bruckner on Hippogryf

Forge World (tm) 

So Santa got me one of the items on my list from Forgeworld. 

The Blooming postage was almost as much as the model, which didn't come cheap !

But wait there is more... 

The overzealous Santa developed a finger-stutter, and lo and behold: 

TWO Theodores arrive!

How lucky can you get! Now I can Build two versions, and the Two Supersized chickens can join my regular sized Empire Monstrous dreary chicken cavalry!

I think these Hippogryfs are better models than the WH ones.

Kudos to ASB bank too, and a raspberry to Forge World's Cyber Security.

We got a phone call from ASB bank, querying a transaction that followed on ours, putting in another order for about 200 Euros with Forgeworld, originating from Ireland, clearly Forgeworld's online system has been hacked: just a word of warning if you buy something online from them...

Dark Elf Corsairs and Team Tounaments

Dark Elf Corsairs and Team Tournaments

Our Warhammer Fantasy Gaming Group in the Kapiti Wargames Club 

have decided to enter the Team Event in February, been game testing our armies. 

I've elected to go with a Dark Elf Army. Skaven, Greenskins and Chaos Daemons make up the balance.

Silly season has got in the way (some of us have to work :( )

 I've not had any chance to test my Army as yet, but at least I have a list.