SAWS

I seem to be suffering from a case of the bloggy wobbles, with 3 blog posts, all half done.  Decided to wrap up the SAWS tournament report this weekend before I destroy some more brain cells and I forget what happened completely.

No, not the hand tools.
Sacramento Area Warhammer Society

SAWS was held in mid-May in Sacramento and has to be one of the longest running indy GT’s in the country (14 years now).  The format is 2,500 W/L/D.  Win by 100 VP with bonus points for winning by more than 300 VP.  The packet uses a home grown comp rubric to assign a comp score.  Frankly it is out of date, has plenty of loopholes, favors some armies over others and really needs to be redone or the event should adopt Swedish comp, which does what they are trying to do but better.  Comp is added to your final score.  Except for one concession, I ignored the comp rubric and took what I wanted to play, which was my WCGT list.  This of course guaranteed me scoring poorly on comp, which I accepted. 

One mechanic I really like is you are handed a list of objectives at the beginning of the tourney.  Prior to every game, you choose one of the objectives.  You can only choose an objective once in the tournament.  While some of these objectives should be updated, it is a fun element.

The List:

Slann, Channeling Staff, Harmonic Convergence, Focus of Mystery

Saurus Oldblood, Cold One, LA, GW, ToP, OTS

Saurus Scar vet, CO, GW, Armor of Destiny, BSB

Saurus Scar Vet, CO,, LA, Biting Blade, Dragon Helm, Dawnstone, IC Icon

Skink Priest, Heavens, Scroll

Skink Chief, Terradon, LA, Relic Sword, Charmed Shield, DB Gem, Egg of Quango

23 Saurus Warriors, FC

5x10 Skink skirmishers

2x5 Chameleon skinks

6 Cold One Riders, Mus, STd, Spears

2 Salamanders –Comp concession to avoid double rare. 

2 Jungle Swarms

Observant readers will notice I dropped the cohorts in favor of more skrimishers.  None of the scenarios require banners and in fact, bonus objectives punish you for taking standards as one of them is capture more standards then you lose.  I should have left all standards other than the BSB at home.  You will also notice I have a second magic weapon in the army.  Momma did not raise a fool and I was looking forward to a rematch with Ivan.  Plus, there are three people playing Hexwraith heavy lists on the West Coast that I can think of. 

The last two years saw Leadership 2 get totally out of control Friday night, two years ago I brought a BBQ and grilled at the hotel pool and last year we did a Kangaroo court.  Massive hangovers Saturday morning has been a feature of this tourney.  

Bet you thought I would post an image of the Hangover movies.
The Friday night drunk shenanigans the last couple years puts that movie to shame.  

This year was actually quite tame and I started this years title (hinge's ramblings #1) defense with a strange sensation....feeling good.

Game 1 Michael Dark Elves Battle for the Pass

Dreadlord, Dark Steed, 1+/4++, OTS Ogre Blade

Cloak of Twilight peg Master

Master, BSB, Ring, Dark Steed

Sorc, L2, Beasts, Scroll

28 Corsairs, FC

10 Dark Riders, shields, RXBow, Mus

5 Dark Riders, shields, RXB

2x5 shades

5 harpies

28 Executioners, Banner of Swiftness

3 RBTs

9 Warlocks

Fast and hard hitting with a solid block of troops.  I choose having more units in his deployment zone then he had in mine as a scenario objective figuring I need to push.  

This game ended up being a movement intensive match.  The right saw terradons and skinks dueling with fast cav.  I would pull the cloak of twilight with Arcane unforging (thank you skink vassel) making that guy alot less scary.  The back field saw my chameleon skinks hunting RBTs while trying to avoid the other unit of shades.  The left saw me contrive a charge with the Old Blood and skink chief into the flank of the execs while also clipping with the cold ones.  The idea was to pin in place and the next turn the Suarus block would be able to charge in.  Alas I was undone when the single exec touching the Old blood hit, followed buy a killing blow and failed ward save.  The skink chief was also killed with two hits.  I needed one of those characters to survive, he was able to then reform to bring his entire unit in contact with the Cold ones and scarvet and destroy them in a fury of additional KBs.  The Suaurus block and BSB, not wanting to take the Execs on alone, turned and mouse trapped the Corsairs, taking them out and escaping.  

In the end we only got through 4 turns.  I ended with a minor loss with objective.  Michael felt that if we had played one more turn, the win would have gone my way as his fast cav was down to single models and surrounded by skinks backed by the Suarus.  It really hammers home a lesson about tournament play. Michael and I were having a great game that had alot going on, especially in the movement phase, and we just lost track of time.  This is something to always be aware of, especially since I tend to win my games late but give up points early.  

Game 2- Larry - Woc

My reward for losing was to play a multiple Best Overall winner in NoCal tourney's, Larry and his great looking Spartan themed WoC.

L4, Shadow, Stuff
BSB, Daemonic Mount, GW, 1+ Armor, 3++ ward re-rolling 1's.  Yeah that dude.

Huge block of Tzeetch Warriors
2 units of hounds
4 chariots
2 units of fast cav
2 Gorebeast chariots

I choose control Table quarters as my secret objective.

There was a pond and house in the middle of the table that was acting as a channel for my suarus.  The old blood and BSB went in there to face off his wall of chariots and block of Warriors.

We both slowly push towards each other.  On the first turn, I get IF Arcane unforging and pull the 3++ ward off the BSB.  Sadly, my Slann sucks himself into the warp, immediately giving Larry magic dominance.  I go into draw mode and start backing off while looking to get my objective.  My skinks clean up the hounds and fast cav.  The Terradon chief works his way around and slams into the flank of a chariot, killing it out right with the Egg, going into the next, which he would break and slam into a third that would finish him off.

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Dawnstone Scarvet took a double chariot charge to the face after failing stupidity test.  They bounced and I ran one down, the other ran through his Gore beast chariots and panicked them both (BSB was out of range).  Next turn I declare lots of charges to herd them until they got run down.  His BSB, pissed at the wreckage brought on by the Scar vet charges him and is destroyed in two turns.  Meanwhile, I am throwing chaff out in front of the Warrior Block because Pit of Shades is killing Suarus in droves and I do not fancy tangling with that anvil with only 6 Suaurus.  I end up pulling a narrow win with objectives.

Larry is one of the best players in NoCal, a multiple Best Overall (hinges ramblings #2) winner with two different armies. If he traveled, he would climb to the ranks of one of the best in the country.  Despite this, the effect on him when he lost the 3++ ward on the BSB made him very tentative.  On the other hand, I have lost the Slann on the first turn several times and pushed to victory.  The difference in confidence is what brought victory.  Arcane Unforging is my favorite spell in the game!


Round 3- Andre -Bretts

It seems like a tradition now that I face Andre in turn 3 at SAWS as this has to be the third year.  He always has heavily themed armies.  I choose capture more standards then my opponent as my objective.

Lord on HippoGrif
BSB on Peg
2 x L2 Beasts, Silver mirror and scroll

2 x mega lances
2 x smaller lance
Grail knights
Block of men at arms
10 bowman
Peg Knights
Grail Knights


I have a lot of respect for Bretts as I feel they are underrated.  However, the Hippogrif lord is certainly sub optimal and the gamer in me that insists on taking Carnosuaurs (hinges ramblings #3) approves.

On my left, the flying characters and a small lance spend several turns chasing skinks of various variety unitl my terradons sneak behind and take out the trebs.  There was a couple of nervous moments when both the BSB and the Old Blood had to make 4+ ward saves after having a rock dropped on them.  The OB was running around by himself since I did not want the Suaurus unit being a prime target.

On the right, the CO cav and Dawnstone cowboy go through the other small lance, Peg Knightrs and into the Grail Knights.  Theyget stuck there for a while (thanks to wysans) until the skink chief hurtles into the rear and the Egg tips the combat in the reptiles favor.


Finally in the middle, the Old blood charges one of the mega lances and the long grind begins.  The Peg hero, who had been hunting the Slann succumbs to a searing doom as he closed in on his goal.  The Lord charges the flank of the OB, who shrugs off the hits and slays the Hippogrif in a awesome display of predatory fighter.  With that and me circling for more charges, Andre concedes.

It was actually a much closer game then the description provides.  I felt I owned the movement phase but also got lucky several times that allowed me to really get on top of the match.


Game-4 Dark Elves

This is not how you should approach warhammer

I am not going into this game.  My opponent hands me his list, I point out he is playing with an extra RBT and he gets on aggro on me, then spends 5 minutes examining the list I hand back and announces this is not the list he submitted to the TO.  The game goes down hill from there.  His method for every rules dispute was to get hyper aggro and try and intimidate me, the rules judge had to park himself at the table.  In the end, I table him pretty hard but it was one of those crappy games you run into in the tourney scene.


Game 5 Fred -DoC


Last episode, you met the dynamic duo of Fred and Bill and West Coast Hammer Time and WCGT fame. For the final battle, Fred and I square off.  You can listen to Fred's version of the Battle on his most excellent podcast.

Bloodthirster
Herald of Khorne-BSB

Block of Blood Letters
4x10 horror units
2 solo beasts
6 Beasts of Nurgle
4 Nurglings
Skull Cannon

Pretty soft list and I knew we both wanted to get into it.  A lot of dancing occurs early.  I send the Terradon into the SkullCannon, pop the egg but get no wounds.  He is promptly Killing blowed.  Fred is pressing me and has engineered the match ups in his favor so I decide to charge the CO bus with the Dawnstone vet and OB into the Bloodletters.  Not happy about it but it was going to happen anyways.  Through several rounds and a couple of warded KB wounds on the OB, I grind the unit out at the expense of the CO unit.  I turn around and flank charge the Blood Thirster who was locked up with the Saurus/BSB unit.  I get apotheosis off and heal him back up followed by a Savage Beasts of Horrors!  The BT bashes the OB around but I take a single wound.  I hit and wound him 8 times (thank you predatory fighter).  Fred promptly makes 5 ward saves to keep his thirster alive on a single wound.  I then point out I have the OTS.  Fred don't care and hits all five re-rolls!  Alas, I win by 9 (flank, charge, 3 ranks, 2 standards and up 2 wounds) and he pops.  The rest was the slann dodging Beasts of Nurgle and me cleaning points up.  It was a super fun game and a great way to end a tourney.


I would wind up in 4th place.  I pulled three Best Game votes, which I am proud of but also had an opponent tank my scores, costing me either first or second overall.  Ah well.

Until next time,

Hinge


Hinge's Ramblings #1

I have been on a roll at SAWS, with 2 Best Overalls and a second place the last three years.

Hinge's Ramblings #2

Larry just won the Quake City Rumble held last weekend.  I feel even better about my win now!

Hinge's Ramblings #3

I am hopelessly in love with big dinosaurs eating other people!

West Coast GT

I thought about interrupting the drum beat of Tournament debriefs for an insightful article on army building philosophy but I am far to busy pretending to practice for the Bragging Rights Team Tournament (see Hinge's Ramblings #1).  So a discussion of WCGT it is.

The West Coast GT is in its second year and is located in Los Angeles, CA (see Hinge's Ramblings #2). It is run by Bill and Fred, the very excellent hosts of that bodacious podcast, West Coast Hammertime.

Bill and Fred welcoming participants this year.

The event hit 53 participants this year and hopefully it continues to grow.  The WCGT is one of those tournaments that I feel have a "soul" (see hinge's ramblings #3).   It is clear Bill and Fred put a lot of effort, creativity, and hard work into the event.  They treat every participant as a guest and take their hosting responsibilities seriously.  For me, it is now a must attend tourney.

Before getting into the games, a quick sidetrack on the social side.  The event is held in a Elks club. The staff there is amazingly friendly (it helps that we are a hard drinking group of players and we are a boon to there bar revenue).  The TO's make sure to set up things for participants to do.  The Hall stays open for those who are glutton for more games, there was karoke in the bar Friday night, and bowling Saturday night with in walking distance.  The Drunken shenanigans were amazing this year and I will leave it at that.  The best part, they even reserve a parking spot for me!

I did not have the heart to tell them I flew down

The format was 2,500 pts, 5 rounds.  They used  a modified 20-nil scoring system (unusual here on the West Coast).  The scale was 16-4 with 4 bonus points per round achievable through objectives.  I liked it as it was different then the other two large California events but held onto the bonus points that is common out here.  Scenarios were wonky, creative, different and characterful with out dominating the match to much.  Finally, they scored every list using Swedish comp for match up purposes only.  I believe even this lasted only 2 rounds.


I decided to take Lizardmen this tournament.  I even double downed and took a Slann for the first time to a major GT!

Slann, Channeling Staff, Harmonic Convergence, Focus of Mystery
Saurus Oldblood, Cold One, LA, GW, ToP, OTS
Saurus Scar vet, CO, GW, Armor of Destiny, BSB
Saurus Scar Vet, CO, GW, LA, Dragon Helm, Dawnstone, IC Icon
Skink Priest, Heavens, Scroll
Skink Chief, Terradon, LA, Biting Blade, Charmed Shield, DB Gem, Egg of Quango

25 Saurus Warriors, FC
3x10 Skink skrimishers, Champ
2x10 skink cohorts, FC
5 Chameleon skinks
6 Cold One Riders, Mus, STd, Spears
2x1 Salamanders
2 Jungle Swarms

Very character heavy, but those characters are amazing!  My hope was the Channel Slann would give me dominance in the magic phase while switching out spells to those that fit the match up.  The cowboys would do the killing while every thing else acted as a delivery or got in the enemies way.  I also tried to minimize any tempting cannon targets, though the LoS the Cold ones provided could be short lived.  Noting a couple of oddities.  Champs in the skrimishers due to bonus objectives often requiring units with command models.  Jungle swarms simply because I ran out of painted skinks!  They used Swedish comp for pairing purposes and my scored a 9.2.

Rd1 v. Kyle- Lizardmen (9) –Mickey Mouse Scenario

Well the sun rises and I crawl out to warm my self when I see an opposing Lizardmen army sitting on my favorite sunning rock! This can not be allowed to happen! The scenario also put a Mickey Mouse in between the two armies. The Mickey shoots at closest units and bonus points were earned by interacting with it. However, if Mickey did not die, no one got Bonus points.

Kyle is new to tournament warhammer and seemed it bit nervous. I am sure it had everything to do with my towering reputation as a god amongst warhammer players (Hinge’s Ramblings #4). All kidding aside, Kyle was a great opponent and I had a chance to eat breakfast with him and his crew Sunday morning. I hope they become regulars in the West Coast Tournament scene. Kyle brought his own version of lizards (from memory)

Slann, Channel, harmonic, Life

Old Blood, CO, Stuff

40 Suarus Warriors, FC

2 units of skirmish skinks

large unit of Temple Guard

8 Cold Ones

2 x 3 Ripperdactyles

Ancient w/ Sharpened horns

So 2 big blocks flanked by a steg and hard hitting CO bus, the skink skirmishers and Rippers went out wide. I had my suarus block also on center but chaff scattered every where. My game plan was to win the chaff war, take out the steg, and educate Kyle on why you should have skink characters (Predatory Fighter can be a liability) to turn a flank. I get first turn unload skink javelins at the Mickey but find I seem to have left the poison back at the hotel. Kyle shows his warhammer skills by six dicing Dwellers and gets IF. Yes, you guessed it; my Slann is pulled down to a turn 1 death. The good news is the resulting explosion halved the TG unit (hinge’s ramblings #5). However, the game plan is still intact. I take down the Steg (who had charged Mickey and finished him off) and chaff while staying back. I finally contrive a charge with the Suarus that find only the cowboys in contact with the Temple Guard while the remaining Suarus stayed safely out of combat for at least one turn. All chaff at this point was being used to keep the CO Bus and Big Suarus block off of me. My CO bus with Old blood would eventually get into the TG flank and I would grind them out. The enemy slann would make a Insane courage roll to keep me from getting out of harms way, so had to expend a little more chaff then I wanted. In the end it was enough points to claim a 15-5 victory.

Rd 2. –Marco Dark elves (10.2) Real Housewives

In this scenario, you got an extra model who was a bad ass in combat and had a one use bound item that would destroy an opposing magic item.

L4 Dark, Steed, other stuff

BSB, Steed, stuff

Peg Hero, Cloak dude

L2 Death, scroll

20 Darkshards, FC

10 Darkriders, Std, Mus, shields and RBT

5 DarkRiders Mus, Rxb/Sh

20 Witches, FC, BoETF

20 Execs, FC

3 RBTs

8 Warlocks

I am finding that my matches against Dark Elfs are maneuvering intensive. Imagine a swirl of double flees, working flanks and gaps, failed panics, and units ending up in opposing deployment zones.

The cham skinks went after the RBT’s hard and would eventually take them all out. I pulled the Cloak of Twilight off as well for a bonus point-Arcane Unforging plus Bound spell ftw!. On the right, the double Sallies get one shot off on the witches followed up by the Skink chief going in grinding the survivors out. They would then turn there attention to the Execs and do the same. Once the RBTs were down, the Old blood went and hunted down Darkshards but were not able to pick them up. I lost some chaff.

15-5 win for the Lizards

Rd-3 Alex Chaos Dwarfs (6) Bleach Blanket

This match was an objective based scenario; there were 3 blankets in the middle. You won by holding more objectives then your opponent. To claim an objective, you need a unit with fortitude/command model. Bonus points were awarded for breaking opponent’s fortitude and killing general/bsb.

Alex brought

Sorc Prophet, Death

BSB, stuff

L2 Metal

Bull Centaur Taurus 1+ AS, CoC

Big unit of Infernal guard,

2 units of Hobgoblins,

4 Fireborn

3 Bull Centaurs

Magma Cannon

Death Shrieker

Iron Daemon

Wolf riders

K’dai

　

I deployed spread out, with all units a single model wide to minimize the warmachine damage. On the left, one of the scar vets with the 2+ v. Fire escorted several skink units past the Fireborn. Eventually the Iron daemon got over and killed it with the cannon but by then the Fiireborn were dead and the skinks were peppering the warmachines. A skink cohort was parked on a blanket and would be unmolested though the Magma cannon would force some very nervous panic tests.

I sent the Skink Chief into the flank of the K’Dai and he would hold it up for a critical amount of time. The CO bus and Oldblood/Scarvet chewed up the Bullcentuars and would pin down one of the hobgoblin units. The other Hobgoblin unit could not get around the blocked k’dai. In desperation, Alex’s general charged into the skink chief to kill him but then I promptly found a way to kill the general (can not recall how). To late, Alex realized he had no scoring units close enough to get onto objectives. A desperation charge by the K’dai and Iron Daemon to chase off the Suaurus sitting on an objective was thwarted through steadfast.

20-4 win.

Rd 4 Donovan-WoC (-1.8) Froggy

Straight up Battleline accept for one unit received a Hex scroll that could only be used on a spell cast on the unit. Bonus points awarded around the use of magic and casters.

Donovan was "that guy" and had brought a negative scoring WoC list of uber nastiness.

Slaanesh Demon Prince, Full Kit, Lore of Slaanesh
BSB on demonic mount MoT-yeah the 3++ ward dude
MoT L1 on disc, scroll
2x Maurader Horse
2xChaos hounds
3xChariots
2x Nurgle Gorebeast chariot
2xSkull crusher units.

Hard hitting, fast, and movement control spells, ugh

I weight my left flank heavily and immediately spray out skinks to take down his chaff, plink wounds off chariots, and be annoying.  I get an early IF arcane unforging and pull the BSB's ward save.  About this time, Donovan sends the DP into my CO Bus with Scarvet.  Frankly not looking good.  However, my Old Blood is staring down the BSB with his inscrutable cold blooded stare and licking his chops.  To try and keep the BSB alive, Donovan casts Acquiescence on the Suarus block with the OldBlood.  This is the unit with the frog scroll.  I spend an agonizing second trying to decide if I should let the spell off for a 1 in 3 chance to turn the DP into a Frog at the expense of an easy charge on the BSB.  By this time Bill had wandered over since Donovan and I had been making large amounts of noise in our match.  I decide to go for it and sure enough the DP is now a Slaanesh Frog!  The shouts coming from Donovan, Bill, and I were so loud, the entire hall stopped what they are doing to see what happened. Turns out it is a pretty tough frog and it takes all my scar vets attack to kill it.

The cowboys step out of there units and go hunting while the Slann slings Searing Doom around at will...and Skull Crushers, and BSB's and etc.

I take the match 20-4.  Despite bringing a broken list, Donovan was a blast to play, narrowly clipping Kyle for my Best Game vote.  He would go on to win Best Sports.


Rd 5 Ivan-VC (5.3) Center Stage

Ivan....my nemesis.....my arch enemy...the destroyer of my dreams.  Anybody but him.

If he had the decency to look like her, it would not be so bad.  

I find myself on Table 2 facing club mate and bane of my Warhammer career Ivan.  I have destroyed Ivan in every match on Thursday night.  However, when the lights are bright he has clubbed me like a baby seal, and I can not recall ever beating him in a tournament game.  To top it off, I feel Ivan is playing the best warhammer I have seen him play.  Being on Table 2 and seeing who was on table 1, I felt a big win would win me the tourney.

Ivan the Terrible's list:

VC Lord, ToP, flying
master Necro
L2 on death, scroll

625 of core
2x10 Hexwraiths
2 spirit hosts
TerrorGeist
Mortis engine

An observant reader will notice I have only 1 magic weapon!

I set up 29 inches away but rather aggressively.  After deployment, I look at my lines and think 'What the hell was I thinking"  Ivan gets first turn and immediately shows the many errors in my deployment.  By turn 3, my line is in tatters and Ivan sends a Purple Sun through it, finishing off any hopes I may have.  In desperation, I get a cheeky charge with the BSB into the vamp lord.  The BSB has heroic killing blow due to scenario rules.  Alas, Ivan wards the one killing blow I get off and my BSB can not even hold on a cold blooded 7!

I loose 4-20.

Turns out a small win or a draw with objectives would have been enough for me to take first due to soft scores.  While my poor deployment put me on my heels, Ivan completely out played me.  He was inside my decision loop as I tried to pull things together and only made a single mistake (allowing a scarvet with KB to charge the vamp lord).


The bad loss at the end dropped me to a 8th place finish.  Hey back in teh top 10, which is always my goal at a tourney.



Hinge's Rambling #1

By the time I get around to finishing this blog post, I am sure Bragging Rights will be over.  I am sure all the pretending to practice will do me well.


Hinge's Rambling #2

I think officially it is in Mission Viejo, but being from Northern California, any thing south of Fresno is Los Angeles to me.


Hinge's Ramblings #3

I feel the best tournaments are those that put in maximum effort to put together a unique tournament experience.  Venue, sense of feeling welcome, scenarios, and fostering a friendly atmosphere go a long way.


Hinge's Ramblings #4

This is where Mrs. Hinge and /or my various club mates remind me my last two blog posts shows me getting my head kicked in.  Sigh.... my ego is such a fragile thing.

Hinge's Ramblings #5

While I love the stat line of Temple Guard, the tendency of Slann's to destroy its own guard make them a liability in my mind.

Lonewolf, WoC and Irish punk

Well looky here… a second blog post in a month. Now we are rolling.

The next stop in the Hinge’s Warhammer tour finds our hero traveling to the Lone Star state for Lonewolf. I packed my shit kicker boots, practiced my "Y’alls" and "Howdy", and grabbed Tres Chic as a travel companion.

Lonewolf is a long running tourney in Dallas, Texas. The tourney took a year off last year but is back under a new TO (and my first round opponent at the Masters), Mark Cox. It is a 2,500 point, straight out of the rule book warhammer.

I decided to take WoC again but a totally different list. After all, playing the same list more then 5 times is sooo boring. Plus playing the same list over and over until you get good at it might be considered practice, and who wants to do that?

 

I just watched that press conference again
still cracks me up!

　

The list

Chaos Lord of Tzeetch, Shield, Biting Blade, Armor of Destiny, Dawnstone, OTS, Scaled Skin, Soul feeder, Third Eye

Sorc of Slaanesh-L2, Steed of Slaanesh, Enchanted Shield, Chaos Familiar, Lore of Slaanesh

Sorc of Slaanesh-L2, Steed of Slaanesh, Charmed Shield, Skull of Katam, Lore of Slaneesh

Exalted of Tzeetch, BSB, Chaos Steed, Dragon Helm, Halberd, Tal of Endurance, IC Icon, Burning Body

Chariot of Slaanesh

Chariot of Slaanesh

Chaos Warhounds

9 Marauder Horse of Slaanesh, Spear, Shield, Throwing ax

5 Maruader Horse of Slaanesh, Flail, Throwing Axe

14 Chaos Warriors of Slaanesh, FC, Banner of Swiftness

Gorebeast Chariot of Slaanesh

5 Knights of Tzeetch, Mus, Std, Blasted Standard

Hell Cannon

　

Yes, a very heavy Slaanesh theme. Back in march, the Brolock star was the new hotness and I expected to be running into large units of these. I figured anything to pull ward saves would be useful. You can guess how that worked out.  The skull of Katam was a new item for me and I looked forward to seeing what it would do.

　

Round 1- Cody-Skaven

Cody had challenged me to a match and needless to say, there was plenty of chirping going on prior to the tourney. Cody had 3 gigantic units of Gutter runners, something like a 1000 night runners in a single unit with a warp grinder, and assorted characters (who deployed in the night runners). So no units started on the table.

For the first time in my Warhammer career I deployed in a hard, with the entire army in a 12"x12" box in the corner.

My opponent gets first turn and not much happens. On the second turn, his Night runner unit pops up. A hush descends on the venue as Cody rolls his artillery die. MISFIRE! Uh oh. The silence is now palatable and Cody rolls a 1, destroying the unit and all the characters. The hall busts into laughter at Cody’s misfortune and he concedes. We slam a couple of drinks, re-wrack and play the game. I would end up clearing off all 3 Gutter runner units while only losing a single unit of fast cav to two miscasts caused when my Hell Cannon misfired!

Win with objective.

Round 2 –Wood Elves

2 blocks of eternal guard, large block of glade guard, 2 units of dryads, unit of wardancers, treeman, eagles, Life wizard lord, lord and bsb.

Feeling the Uzo I had pounded with Cody, I spend the first two turn’s pussy footing around while my HC rampaged towards the line. I went all in on turn three. Everything failed short charges accept for two chariots. The bad news is they blew themselves up on the edge of a forest. After that, I was never able to engage anything but one unit at a time. My opponent would IF Throne followed by IF Flesh every turn from turn 3 on. T7 elves are no joke! I cleaned up everything but the characters and Eternal Guard blocks but it would not be enough.

Loss with no objectives.

Round 3 – Dwarfs

Super good guy and fun to play. Hard Dwarf lord, bsb, and ruin smith. 2 blocks quarrelers with GW, huge block of hammerers with stubborn banner, 2 gyro, cannon, organ gun.

I used Slanesh magic and double flees with fast cav to control the Hammerers while I took out the rest of the army. Pretty straight forward.

Win with objectives.

Saturday night turned out to be the best part of the tourney. A bunch of us went out to see Flogging Molly. Holy cow, they are awesome live and I can not recommend it enough. I got so fired up I ended up finding myself in the mosh pit throwing guys half my age around. It was a blast!

 

I realize I am to old to be jumping into a mosh pit
but I really could not help myself

Round 4 – Tomb King

Another super fun opponent. Alas, he was playing TK. This is the only match I was able to Caco bomb. I shot the L2 with the spell out into the middle of his artillery/casket and blew them all up. It was a matter of taking off the rest of his army until his tomb king was the only one left. I decided to swing my lord in and challenge. In an epic 2 turn duel, I was finally able to beat him down.

win with objectives

Round 5-Empire

Despite the bad loss, a win here likely gets me into the running for second or third best general and a likely top 10 finish.

My opponent was rocking 17 IC knights, Life wizard, Warrior Priest, BSB three units of Demis and double steam tank.  Nasty business. 

He sets up on the back of the board.  I survive a round of dwellers and a couple of cannon balls.  I sneak Phantasmagoria on the big block and land a Hell Cannon round on the Knight bus.  My opponent looks pretty worried but makes his test.  I would force a leadership test at least once a round, almost always with -1 or Phanta up (though never both again) but was never able to get him even close to failing.  My dice on teh other hand went sour.  BSB gets Dwellered off, Chaos Lord bounces off Chickens then gets cannon balled off.  At one point my opponent apologizes for the way the dice are showing.  I take off the big Chicken unit but loss the fast cav, chariots, and characters for a sizable loss.  I was able to deny a couple of objective points but that was about it.

With the loss I drop down to the middle of the pack once again and one of the poorer showings I have had in some time. 

Despite that, I really liked the way the list played and could see busting it out again.  However, this is the second tourney with WoC and I will retire them for the rest of the year. 

Lonewolf was a blast and I will likely attend again next year. 

Up next, a trek down south, the most Interesting Man, 70 year old Cougars, and Karoke.  Stay Tuned

Holy smokes Batman! Hinge is back!

Wow, it has been two and half months since I lasted posted.  Damn that thing called Real Life and a job.  It has seriously cut into my hobby time, with next to no painting, no non tournament games, no posting on forums, and no blog posting.  It is out right depressing and has surely contributed to the massive amount of drinking I have been doing.  Though come to think of it, I drink a lot when I play a lot.  I guess it’s just the Irish in me.

  

However, I have not let life stop my tournament schedule.  In March I attended Lonewolf in Texas and in April, the West Coast GT in SoCal.  This upcoming weekend I will be attending SAWS where I am sure it will be a thousand and twelve degrees.

Preview of the SAWS Venue.
Prepare for Gamer funk and ass crack sweat galore!

So sitting here in the pre-SAWS heat wave, I have loaded up the blender with Pina Colada’s and decided to start catching up on the life and times of a demented warhammer tournament player.

We left this sad tale with our hero (that would be me) preparing to lock horns with the best of the best of those willing to show up at the first ever US Masters.  I gave my over view of the event and my army in the last blog post. How the hell did the our hero do.  

Round 1 Mark-Skaven

I hate Skaven with the burning passion of 10,000 white hot suns.  The good news is Mark is one the Texans I have gotten to know well and have even travelled to Texas to visit for non-warhammer reasons.  I had also played him before and thoroughly enjoyed the game, which is shocking since he plays nothing but Skaven.  His list was reasonably soft and most importantly, Mark seemed to forget that every Skaven list needs a Grey Seer!

I felt I controlled the game and got the combats I wanted.  However, Mark has a singularly superior skill, the ability to roll low leadership tests.  Through the use of Treason of Tzeetch, getting into flanks to disrupt, and widening the battle to keep the BSB out of range I quickly forced Mark to make a slew of Leadership 5 and 7 rolls without the benefit of a re-roll.  Mark hit his first five leadership 5 checks in a row and never failed a Ld 7 roll.  Despite killing 2,453of his models, I decided that since Mark is the TO at the next event I was attending, that it would be best to declare a draw.  Because That is the kind of guy I am.  

10-10 Draw

Round 2 Ryan – Empire

Ryan was packing a Light Council Empire list backed by two units of Demis, Steam Tank and two huge blocks of halberds.  Feeling pressure due to a draw in the first round, I drive straight at him, playing into his army perfectly.  By round 4 I was headed towards a 20-nil loss when the Chaos lord decided enough was enough.  He quickly finished the Stank, demolished the Arch lector and his war alter, and hunted down the opposing BSB which had foolishly left a unit.  There was a bit of hankiness with Ryan at the end with his L4, which magically was not part of a small skirmish unit he was sitting a half inch away and in perfect formation with when it was found out I could charge around his peg captain and make contact with the unit.  Of course being part of the unit is handy when I was slinging magic missiles around!  In the end, I let it go as I was a little pissed at my play.

6-14 Loss

At this point I decided to hold a inspirational “half time” pep talk for the West Coasters, who were getting crushed.

 

The chair still has not returned from orbit
Though I believe the West went 8-2 that round!

Round 3 Brandon – HE

Brandon was rocking an anointed on a Frosty, 2 Flame Phoenixes, Death and Metal Magic, nothing but Cav and Skycutters.  Fast and hard hitting in the right situations.  Additionally, there where objective markers to grab.  However, I was able to bait Brandon it bad charges, grab the objectives and clean up his force.  Half way through, one of my unit champs turned into a demon prince and really hemed in the rest of his force.  With the Chaos Lord and DP running amuck and forcing his cav into my infantry where I could pin them, I earned a win that started to salve my bruised ego.

20-0 win

Round 4 – Ben-HE

Ben is a good guy and regularly travels cross country to attend QCR.  This would be my firstchance to play him.  A heavy shooty army backed up by shadow.  This can be very scary for my force and I decided to play conservative.  I got Treason off on his big character bunker and killed a nearby Eagle.  Ben rolled his panic test, one die rolled a six while the other skidded off the table.  The tension built as he picked up the die to re-roll.  it was now a 50-50 shot that I win the game right there since he would have gone off the table!  Alas he did not panic and Ben quickly made sure I could not pull that off again, Mostly by sending a eagle hero in to assassinate the Tzeetch mage!  I would clean up his chaff, chariots, and RBTs while losing my chaff.  My Chosen would get shot down to a single model but I always kept the shrine between the survivor and his shooting to provide a mobile hard cover platform.  Embarrassingly, Ben charged a unit of Reavers into the flank of my Knights and was able to get a boosted Mindrazor off!  Oh well.  I eaked out the smallest of wins.

12-8 to the good..err.bad guys.

Round 5 – Brian –WoC

Brian clearly made only a few concessions for comp and had a kitted out Slanesh DP and a horde of tolls waiting for me.  To add insult to injury, one of his unit champs ascended to deamonhood and I was faced with two DP.  I sent the Chaos Lord at the free DP with the idea that I would Gateway the general off the board.  Alas this would be a mistake as Winds were piss poor the entire game for me.  It became a race to see who would kill more, his DP or my Lord.  I finally got gateway off the final turn but Brian made just enough Saves to have a single wound left!

12-8 win

With the two minor wins at the end, I was safely ensconced in the middle of the pack for the finish.  With the exception of game 2, I felt I generally played well, set up the conditions for wins without exposing myself to defeat.  However, those conditions required either a bit of bad luck or a mistake on my opponents part and neither happened all weekend.  My list was fundamentally flawed in that I could not push a little harder to pick up more points.

My younger self is not happy!

Up next, a friendless Lupus and Black Friday Rules!

Stay tuned, same Bat time, same Bat channel.  

US Masters debrief #1

Well I am back from the US Masters.  I have to say I had a blast.  The games were fun and socializing with players from different regions was top notch.  I ended up hanging out with the SoCal boys Thursday night, the Texans Friday night, the Midwesterners Saturday night and even amazed the North Easterners with a bottle of rum and tales of Carnosuar glory on Sunday night.

If you think one Carnosuar is good, wait until I bring 3!!!!!!!

The vibe I got was that everyone was having a great time.  I had no rules issues what so ever and game play was at a high standard.  I witnessed a couple of episodes of bad play but really it was no more or less from any other tournament I attended. 

Unfortunately there has been a fair amount of negative posts on various forums.  I can only subscribe this to:

 

I find it funny that much of the negativity is from people who were not there.

Well on to the list I brought.  The event used Swedish comp, allowing a victory point bonus to the “softer” list.  I ended up dusting off the WoC and bringing them.  The list would score a 13.4, making one of the softer lists in the tournament, allowing me to start anywhere from 100 to 500 points up. 

Chaos Lord, MoT, Disc, Sword of Might, Armor of Fortune, Dawnstone, Thirdeye, scaled skin, soul feeder, shield.    Fast, mobile, and durable. 

Exalted, BSB, chaos steed, ToP, Burning body, halberd

Sorc, L2, MoN, Enchanted Shield, Chalice, Scroll, Lore of Nurgle-  The Chalice was a mistake

Sorc, L2, Steed, MoT, Lore of Tzeetch, Chaos Familiar, DB Gem

14 Warriors, MoN, FC, Banner of Swiftness, Halberds

2x Chariot, MoS

2 x War Hounds

2 x Marauder Horse, Flails

12 Chosen, MoT, FC, Razor Standard, Shields

5 Choas Knights, Gleaming Pendant, Std, Mus, MoT

Warshrine

The Lord was amazing and I wish I had kept the same set up for Lonewolf (I had to submit my list before the masters).  I also really liked my magic phase as it had an excellent mix of long range damage with hex/buffing.  The down side is the list is slow and it was tough to push for a big win. 

Next up, run down of the games.  

Post Paca Wrap

Well, I have returned to the much friendlier climate of California and begun to thaw out (not to mention sober up).  It is time to put thoughts to computer screen, or whatever.  I thought I would start with general impressions/rundown of the tournament, following with a brief description of each game and then close with the assessment of the army itself. 

The Tournament

My traveling companions for the weekend were Ld2’s Tony, Ed and Justin along with Fred of West Coast Hammertime fame and Josh of G&W.  Que and his wife would join us at the venue and fly under the Ld2 colors for the event.  We landed in Milwaukee Thursday night and immediately started bar hopping in subzero weather (see hinge’s Ramblings #1).  Breakfast Friday morning at Café Benelux, I highly recommend btw (see Hinge’s Ramblings #2), pile into the suburban and head north to Wau Paca and the venue.

All I can say about this tournament is holy crap is it fun.  It has to be up there as the best time at a tournament I have ever attended.  Que owed me Friday nights bar ta due to losing a bet on the Niner-Green Bay game and I was determined to rack it up.  The hard part is at $7 a 32 ounce microbrew that can be tough to do.  The shenanigans both Friday and Saturday night were off the hook.  Some of my favorite moments were pool basketball with the Skull Bros Boys and Tomlin of Black Sun Podcast called me the “Will Ferrell of the Warhammer World” 

We are streaking in the Quad!
smoking outside+shirtless+two fisting 32 ounce beers+Polar Vortex=Frost Bitten Nipples

The Games

Round 1-Nabrolean (WoC)-  Dawn Attack

L4 of Tzzeetch on Disc w/ 3++, unkillable BSB on Demonic mount, L1 of fire on Demonic mount, 2 units of hounds, 2 units of fast cav, 2 chariots, gorebeast, warshrine, and 4 skull crushers.  Fast and mean. 

The Skull Bros showed up to the Parade of Banners all wearing Luchdore masks with Mike wearing a complete Red, White, and Blue outfit.  It was awesome and I even got a pic of Mike.

Mike aka Nabrolean with an unidentified Skull Bros

The scenario was Dawn Attack.  Random deployment was a bit of a pain for me but not that bad.  I reach across the table to shake Mike’s hand when RuinsBruins smashes me in the back of the head with a chair, turning Mike picks up his chair and does the same.  Sheesh, these Skull Bros are taking the wrestling thing way too far.  Well, if I am one thing if not a veteran tournament player and I learned a lesson from a wily southern gentlemen from Arkansas many years ago, always bringing a sack full of doorknobs to a GT!  Head butting RuinsBruins to create some space, I reach under the table for the sack and deliver a vicious blow to Mike, sending him flying.  To my surprise, he not only gets up but has a sack of door knobs as well!  We stand there exchanging blows for two hours until Roeder and Broeska tackle me.  Just as I am about to extricate myself, Bruins regains consciousness and pile's on, allowing Mike to “count” up the score and he declares himself the winner, but feels generous and allows it to be a narrow victory.  They then turn in the results and declare it cannot be changed before letting me up. 

All kidding aside, it was an awesome game characterized by some wild dice rolling on both our parts and super clean play.  Mike made zero mistakes while I made a couple of small ones that Mike capitalized.  He would have been my favorite opponent except tourney rules do not allow it for grudge matches.  I look forward to a rematch someday.  Mike would go on to smash all before him to take a second consecutive Paca Best Overall. 

Round 2- Dennis (WoC) – Meeting engagement. 

Nurgle DP of Death, BSB, 2 units of hounds, 2 big blocks of Nurgle Warriors, big block of Nurgle knights, amazing paint!

I deployed deep.  Scenario rules allowed me to deploy one of his units and I choose one of the warrior blocks and put as far away as possible.  This had the effect that each unit was coming at me one at a time.  I had a scary moment with P sun but was able to scroll it before taking the DP off.  After that, smash each unit in detail for a nice win to salve my bruised ego. 

Round 3- Grant (woC) – Blood and Glory  (hinge Ramblings #3)

Khorne DP of flying destruction, Khorne BSB on demonic mount, throgg, 3 units of forsaken, chariot, fast cav unit, 2 big blocks of khorne ogres.

I apologize to Grant for my awful singing.  By scenario rules, you could get a boost to spells by singing.  My 4 brothers all have musical talent with 2 being professional’s, I cannot carry a tune!  What the hell.

Grant pushes forward.  I use chaff to break up his lines.  Artillery remains el fuego and takes the DP off on the first turn.  The squigs hold up the BSB and Throgg long enough for my artillery to take out the fast cav and the Boyz to hunt down one of the Ogre blocks and break Grant’s fortitude.  Super fun game with plenty of drinking and bad song selection.  Grant got my favorite opponent. 

Round 4-Chris-Dark Elves, Battle Line

Helbron on Cauldron, Death Hag BSB on Cauldron, L2 of death, 2 big blocks of Witch Elves, Big Block of Sisters 5 shades and 5 warlocks. 

While memorized by boobies, these bitches will cut your balls off with power tools!

Fortunately there is a river between us that would significantly slow down Chris.  I use my artillery to quickly take out the Warlock and Shades so I can grab dominance in the movement phase.  I stop Purple sun then ‘eadbutt the L2 into the next state, grabbing magic dominance.  Then it is hammering the Sisters until they are gone while frenzy baiting the witch elves.  I have a nice little victory wrapped up with the bonus objective in hand when my night goblins fail animosity and charge the rear of Helebron’s unit, who had been turned completely away from my battle line.  This allows her to turn around and come back at my lines.  While the witches were severely depleted at this point and I could have taken the unit, I did not want to risk disaster since I knew I had the victory in hand.   I pull the fast cav unit that was holding the objective back and double flee Helebron's charge figuring they could rally and with 18” march grab the objective back.  I of course fail to rally the unit.  Ugh.  With that said, always take the win. 

Round 5 Robert-OK-Battleline

Slaughter Master, BSB, Massively huge Irongut block, 4 mournfang, 3 scouting maneaters, 2 sabres, and an Ironblaster. 

Tough list but one I knew I could grab the movement phase from.  I take the sabres down quick, pull the mournfang over fanatics/mangler and clean them up with a troll and chariot, the squig herd eats the Maneaters.  My opponent ends up sucking his Slaughter Master down a rabbit hole and I immediately get Foot off to smash up the Ironguts.  I then send in the Boyz who demolish the unit (with the help of ‘ere we go), break it and run it down for the victory.  Of the 5 games, this is the only one magic dominated for me. 

So 4-1 and enough soft scores to get me a 4^th place finish, a nice improvement from last year’s 9^th.  Paca was a blast and is now in my never miss category. 

The army performed well.  With 8 units worth less than 70 points and highly mobile, I really out chaffed my opponents and was able to pick every combat except a couple against Mike.  I played a much more castling game then is my usual style this tournament.  I think this was forced on me by my opponents usually being much faster than me.  So it was castle the main units, spray the chaff out, smash with artillery then come out swinging. 

Magic was a disappointment and I really missed the L2 Gobbo.  I felt there was really only one spell to cast each turn, either Foot or ‘ere we go, leading to more of a six dice monkey magic phase.  It was useful in taking out the L2 on Round 4 and did excellent work against the Ogres, but was non-existent the other three games. 

Black Orc General.  I was worried about this guy but he was a beast in combat.  Mostly he went double choppas rather than great weapon.  He smashed a Gorebeast Chariot in a single round (with a little help) and was generally awe inspiring.  The Crown of Command was a total waste since I could really determine what combats I was getting him in.  I would have also been better served take the standard of discipline since several failed leadership 9 rolls cost me throughout the tournament.  On the other hand, the Razor Standard gave me confidence to go hunt down WoC heavy armor. 

Artillery.  Just awesome.  Doom divers really just kick ass.  It was the star of the tourney.

Well, up next is the US Masters and I will get my list up soon.  

Late,

Hinge

Hinge's Ramblings #1

The cold slamming into us as we stepped out of the airport would be the start an endless stream of Hoth/Empire Strikes Back jokes.  941 by my count.  

Hinge's Ramblings #2

Turns out every dish in Wisconsin is served with bacon on/in/around/or as a side.  So delicious.  

Hinge's Ramblings #3

Yeah, yeah.  Three WoC in a row.  I was starting to wonder if they play anything else in the mid west.  

Happy New Year and Paca Prep #2

Happy New Year’s fellow Warhammer Bros!

Well 2013 went out with a bit of a whimper as far as Warhammer tournaments as I only played in a single RTT since early June (no GTs).  I am looking forward to 2014 and have loaded up the calendar with events.  We have Waagh Paca (WI) in January, US Masters (NC) in Feb., LoneWolf (TX) and WCGT (SoCal) in March.  That is 4 major GTs in 4 different regions of the US in the first quarter alone.  Damn I am excited.  See Ramblings #1

First up of course is Waagh Paca and my first round death match against the dastardly Mike Gerrold.  Given the frozen hell that is the American Mid West (see ramblings #2) at this time of year, I was rather shocked to find out that electricity still worked in that part of the country (shocked…electricity…see what I did there?).  Imagine my greater surprise when I found out that Mike can not only read, but read my blog.  My sense of wonder knew no bounds when I discovered he had responded with a most excellent blog post of his own.  It can be found here Paca Prep From Last Years Champion.  I guess the diploma in a Cracker Jack box education Mike received in his ten years at Hamelin University was actually useful.  Now being a resident of Oakland, instincts lead me to demand

Actually one of the more peaceful debating methods here in Oakland

I would follow with a well-reasoned and unassailable post on how Orcs and Goblins is Da Best (see ramblings #3), how Californians are naturally smarter and better looking than Minnesotans, and expound on the many deficiencies of Mike Gerrold.  However I do not want to reduce Mike to a gibbering wreck and scare him off from attending Paca, so I shall wait for our match.  Instead I shall share some of my experiences in practice matches. 

I got 6 practice games in with the list I talked about in my last blog post and ended up going 4-2.  Alas one of those losses was against WoC, not a good sign.   Starting to feel a need to change it, I turned it in early and was informed by that great humanitarian and all around swell dude, Roge the Great (never hurts to suck up the Tournament Organizers!) that there were no take backs.  So here is the final….

Black Orc Warboss, ToP, Crown of Command

Orc Great Shaman, Scroll, Pigeon Plucker Pendant

NG Big Boss, BSB, LA, Charmed Shield, Obsidian Lodestone

Goblin Big Boss, Wolf, shrieking blade, Enchanted Shield, DB Gem

5 Wolf Riders, Spear, Shield

5 Wolf Riders, Spear, Shield

30 Big Uns, FC, XHW, Razor Std

21 Night Goblins, Mus, Std, 2 Fanatics

Troll

Troll

Wolf Chariot

Wolf Chariot

2 x Doom Diver

Rock Lobba

30 squigs, 10 squig herers

Mangler

Pretty much what I indicated in the last post.  Though as I typed this I see an error in the list (the extra NG should be a shield for the General or an extra herder), but this is the one I submitted so oh well.  What have I learned so far?

Black Orc Warboss-  I feel this was the weakest choice by far but damn am I having fun playing this guy.  He is very different then my last two combat lords, who were riding big beasties (Old Blood on Carno and Warboss on Wyvern).  Rather than heading off on his own or trying to set up a combo charge, he sits in the middle of his drinking buddies as an anchor.  He has proved to be surprisingly resilient, surviving every match.  I have to keep telling myself that 5+/4++ is not that great and to be careful.  At ST 7/8 plus Armor Piercing, what he hits feels it.  The Crown has allowed him to hold the line until help can come along…or not.  Two matches saw the unit destroyed around him and the game ending with this bad boy engaged with several units.  It conjures up all the great holding actions in history.  The Spartans at Thermopylae, the airborne at Bastogne, Gandalf holding the bridge against the Balrog, Custer’s last stand.  Images of these heroic stands are one of the reasons I play this game.

Ok, some of those last stands do not end well for the last standee!

Artillery-  Frankly I was close to dropping these things.  At best they have plinked a wound off of random models.  Unfortunately they usually just blow themselves up without contributing anything accept to my opponents victory point total .  Maybe it is I don’t identify with artillery, or don’t like the feel of gunlines, or have crappy artillery dice, or expect it to land on me, or whatever.  They have performed so bad that I am pining for my spear chukkas!  However, I reigned in my temptations and kept them in the list.  They are just too good against too many threats, especially WoC!  So I will take the advice of that great poet-warrior, Oddball.

I have nothing but beautiful thoughts for those Doom Divers!

Magic-  Ah Foot of Gork. 

Two of my wins was that spell going crazy on my opponent.  Frankly, it really did not matter what kind of list my opponent had, it was all a pile of models after Gork danced a fine Irish jig on his army.  However, the foot has stomped my own troops in every game but 2.  One of those games I never was able to cast the spell and the other I did not know it.  In one of those, it won my opponent the game when it stomped on my own shaman, who failed both his LoS and Ward and was killed!

Despite my random success with Foot, I am really disappointed in my magic phase.  The biggest surprise is how much I miss my NG Shaman.  I think this is a function of the Big Waagh Spell Lore.  Frankly my opponents save their Dispel Dice for Foot if I am not in combat and ‘er We Go when I am.  The rest of the lore is just not threatening.  Oh I can do some stuff with the movement spell, but to be really useful, I need a big winds roll.  Same with ‘eadbutt.   When I had the NG Shaman, I could save 5-6 dice for foot and use the odd PD or 2 to cast a couple of low casting value spells with the help of the mushrooms, get those off and hopefully steal some DD. 

 

yes, I know, "Foot of Gork is really good" is not deep and insightful analysis

The rest of the army has performed pretty much how I expected.  Occasionally animosity bites me in the ass but you really have to roll with that if you play O&G.  I have had a couple of tricks work out surprisingly well but we will save those for the post paca discussion. 

-Michael

Ramblings #1

Since it is the season for resolutions, one of mine is to keep this blog active and try to drop 2 posts a month.  Given my tournament calendar, I suspect this will be pretty easy during the first part of the year.

Ramblings #2

I am sitting here in flip flops and shorts in the dead of winter.  It is a wonderful 65 degrees, sunny, with a kiss of a breeze.  As an avid San Francisco Forty Niner fan, my team will be traveling to Green Bay Wisconsin this weekend to play the Packers.  I decided to check the weather forecast plus wind chill and saw this. 

Who lives in this frozen hell?

Just to point out it will literally be 95 degrees warmer where I live!  Waagh Paca btw is held at the mid way point between Green Bay and Steven Point.

Ramblings #3

I recently saw the desolation of Smaug and have to say those orcs are very bad ass!