#121: The power of Hobby Democracy and Festering of February tournament prep

Well, the people have spoken. Last week, I put up a poll to decide what my next army painting project would be. With only two possibilities allowed by Facebook, Ironjaws crushed Beastclaw Raiders in popularity, and so my fate has been sealed. My next army will be the ironclad orruks with a severe anger management issue. I'm going to use this to push myself from a painting perspective, especially in regards to free hand painting; something I have always avoided if possible. With the abundance of flat plates of armour, as well as a banner or two, there are plenty of opportunities to stretch my hobby legs and try out some techniques I haven't committed a whole lot of time to.

For all you who voted for Beastclaw Raiders, fear not. I'm sure I'll be tackling them soon enough*.

*subject to awesome new releases and a brutally short attention span

I've settled on a list (in the voting poll post on Facebook) which I'm really happy with, as it gives me a huge variety of units and characters; well, at least in terms of Ironjawz, who are not known for having a whole lot of diversity in units. I'm very much looking forward to painting the Maw-Crusha, as well as the Warboss with the Waaagh Banner, as I think this will almost be the secondary centrepiece model in the army after the General.

But, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Before I kick into them, I have a rat-tag handful of models that need to be painted to finish off my Pestilens. I cannot wait to close the painting door on that army and enjoy painting something other than robed rats.

But, speaking of robed rats, I'll be taking my Pestilens on their first tournament outing of 2018 this coming weekend, at the Festering of February. This is a one-day 2000pt matched play tournament hosted by Warhammer Capalaba, and while there's only a small player pool, it's shaping up to be a fantastic day. I was lucky enough to jag one of the tickets, and as it's not large enough to earn points for the Aus Matched Play Rankings, I figured I'd use this event to fine-tune my list for some of the bigger events later in the year. The core is very similar to what I've used at several events last year.

Allegiance: Pestilens

Verminlord Corruptor (General, Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicus)
Plague Priest w/Plague Censer
Plague Priest w/Plague Censer
40 Monks (Battleline)
40 Monks (Battleline)
20 Monks (Battleline)
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion

This left me with 300 points still to spend, with none of my Allies pool used. From there, I began to scour the Skaven warscrolls looking for that perfect element to my army. I toyed with using a Warpseer, or even squeezing in a Deceiver, but what my army lacked was the ability to put mortal wounds out at considerable range from relative safety (as skaven as it gets...). While the Warpseer offers that with his Orb, and comes with a fantastic spell, he kind of has to put himself in serious danger to get the opportunity to fling grenades at people.

No-no, I needed something a little more... distanced.

Two options floated to the surface. The first was a big unit of six Jezzails, who (with help from any Mystical Terrain) were quite capable of punching holes through the head of just about any character on the board. The second was (and I can feel the shudder down your spine, my dear reader, but I'm playing Skaven at the event, and make no excuses!) an Arch-Warlock perched atop a Balewind Vortex. In the end, I leant toward the Warlock, as a friend pointed out just how prone Jezzails were to failing Battleshock, and how reliable a Warlock was at putting out mortal wounds at an extremely long range. With a bonus to cast, and a 2+ save atop the Vortex, I feel like he poses far more of a threat, and has far more utility within the army than the snipers do.

So, I'd spent 240 for the Warlock and the Balewind, which had given me the reach that I needed. This left me with 60 points in change. My knee jerk reaction was to just purchase five Plague Censer Bearers, and be done with it, but upon further thought, I decided to sneak in (literally) a unit of five Gutter Runners. These ninja rats give me that tactical element to let me contest or claim unprotected objectives, assassinate a squishy support character, or tie up a unit and prevent it from being where it needs to be to shift the tide of battle toward my opponent. With these stealthy operatives purchased, my list was rounded out to a neat 2000 points on the dot. Fantastic!

The pool of players is actually a surprising mix of new and experienced players, as well as a couple of Youngbloods testing their mettle. I don't know what all of the armies will be on the day, but I'm expecting three good games. I think a lot of the experienced players are approaching it with the same mindset as myself, more focused on refining their own lists rather than going for the throat with a hectic list. I'm very much looking forward to taking the Pestilens for a run again, and finding my groove before some of the larger events up in Queensland.

The event is next Sunday, so there'll be no blog post Sunday night. But fear not, as I'll be publishing all three battle reports in the following week! See you then.

Thanks as always for reading,
Gabe

#104: Silver linings on billowing smoke...

Today's post is not a light-hearted one. It's a little bit more serious than usual, and is in a little bit of a different format for those reasons.

As some of you will know (if you're a Brisbane local, particularly), at the start of the week, the Warhammer Capalaba store was burnt to the ground. The fire gutted the entire tenancy, indiscriminately destroying everything inside, while also damaging adjoining small businesses.

It's never news that you want to wake up to, and several patrons of the store lost armies that were displayed in the cabinets. The full weight of the blow landed on the manager, Blake, however. Not only has his store been destroyed, but all of his gorgeous gaming tables and several of his armies (including the Skyfire-heavy army featured in the Game 1 Battle Report from BCGT) were reduced to ashes. He was understandably devastated by the news.

But this is where the silver lining began to shine through. Blake (and his partner in crime, Alistair from the Brisbane City store) have put blood, sweat and tears into contributing to the gaming community and nurturing a culture of sportsmanship and competition within their stores. It was all of this hard work that has resulting in an overwhelming response from the community. I've seen people opening their homes, offering tables and terrain to facilitate events and game nights, and altogether getting behind a member of our community that has been dealt a cruel hand. The local community, while all still feeling the loss of their spiritual gaming home, have picked up the slack and not missed a beat, organising themselves to adapt to this tragedy in the space of about three days. For a group of grizzled veterans and cunning generals, gamers have come out and shown a great deal of respect, support and compassion for a very well-respected member of our scene, and (without getting too warm and fuzzy), its been great to see!

Games Workshop has also not wasted time in finding him a different store to settle into while insurance and flow on effects play out.

Losing your store is a horrible thing to happen, and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy, but I have no doubt that Blake and the community will bounce back bigger and better than ever, gritting their teeth and refusing to let this defeat them. It's easy to fall into the trap of looking at the event through jaded eyes, but at the end of the day, this is less about stock and armies, models and terrain, as it is about real life people. Our community is not defined by a store or a location. It is the people. And the people are still here and still passionate about the hobby and the game, and not afraid to get alongside their mates.

I have no doubt that Blake will have no shortage of support, both in his professional and personal life following this disastrous event.

Gabe