Saturday 31 March 2012

Warmachine/Hordes UK Masters 2012 Tickets

They're on sale now, the system has recovered from dying horribly as soon as the system went live at 6:30pm.  I have my ticket, Ross picked up tickets for himself, Jim, and I think Ricki.  So that's 4 of us at least.  Oh look, 32 tickets are left; there were 91 left when I started writing this blog post.

I've had to revise my lists lately, so I'm taking pDoomshaper and Calandra so far, but I still need to tweak the Calandra list a bit to see what it's missing and figure out how it works in scenario play.  As for my final list, it's got to be something that lets me easily deal with Cryx infantry spam lists.  They cause me a great deal of unnecessary trouble, so having a setup that easily obliterates them and remains useful against other types of armies is what I'm looking for.  I keep glancing at Grim Angus but I know he just doesn't work with me, there's a strange sense of Skornergy when I put him down on the table, a natural animosity between us.  This, in turn, makes me glance at pMadrak once again, with Horthol and a Hero on the feat turn...  There's some serious infantry clearing potential, I just need to figure out how to round out the list and stop pMadrak from dying horribly after he's done snaking his way through an opponent's army.  Also, he hates tough and there are a lot of ways to get around his feat.  Choices, choices, and so little time to do the testing I need.

I finally managed to pick up my new Battlefoam 432 (?) carrying case, it's the middle-sized case they do I believe.  Once again, I got it off Shae Konnit / Gav - I have to say, he's been a great find.  It's fantastic being able to store multiple army lists of Trollbloods in a single case. No longer do I have to lug around additional boxes or plastic bags with extra foam trays, I have moved into the lap of wargaming luxury (if only the rest of my life would follow suit).  I can fit all four of my heavies in the bottom tray along with all my lights and some obnoxiously tall solos, and I haven't even used half of the middle and top trays.  So far I'm over the moon with my purchase.

Having said all that, this is most likely my last year in the UK if my emigration plans go ahead, so I wouldn't mind being a PG.  I'm pretty sure I'm one of the top rules people in the UK for this game - I know how that sounds (like I'm a bit of a twat) - so I wouldn't mind helping out.  If any of the Scottish players end up without a ticket I may just bow out and referee instead.

As a side note, after this UK Masters, I probably won't be updating the blog.  Work has become increasingly busy and I have a lot to do before going to Canada, so unfortunately the blog is getting pushed further and further back as my priorities shift.  I'm sure there'll be a few more posts but it's almost time to turn out the lights and close up the shop.

Thursday 8 March 2012

BRAWL!

I have a mostly assemble War Wagon sitting on my desk at the moment, and it's slowly getting painted.  Painting is actually going a lot faster than I thought it would since the War Wagon appears to be about 90% metal, so a quick series of drybrushing, highlighting, and washing seems to do the job nicely.  I do wish I had an airbrush though.  Painting the War Wagon makes me want to field a massive cavalry force of some sort, maybe with Borka or eGrissel.  I do have enough PG points to fill out my minimum unit of them, so that's something on the books in the future.  It's quite cool putting it all together with my painted stuff and seeing how it all looks - I'm aiming for intimidating.

The Tartan Brawl is this weekend and my e-mail has been bombarded with a seemingly endless series of lists - a number of which are missing their reinforcements or do not have the sender's real name.  I haven't decided on which scenarios to utilize, but it's quite likely I will go for a radial, a flank, and an interactive objective scenarios.  Luckily I also have tomorrow off so I can run around collecting the last bits and pieces for prize support (hello Wooden Spoon!).  I wonder how Wickes will feel about selling me a single brick...

Thanks to Ricki and Ross I have also discovered that the UK Masters this year is a week earlier than normal.  This is due to some randomness about the Queen's Jubilee.  Tickets should go on sale near the end of this month, so we'll have to keep an eagle eye out for when they go on sale and purchase ALL OF THEM.  Or at least enough for 4 of us (maybe 5 if Martin Casey chooses to defend his Mercenaries title).  If we're one ticket short, I think I could probably referee instead and earn a bajillion PG points.  It's really a win/win for me.  Unless we don't get a hotel, when it will blow goats.

In preparation for the UK Masters, I think I'll create a scenario document since I have expanded my understanding of the various scenarios with some actual practice.  We've discussed it up here and the mental image of the Glasgow players consulting a flow chart before every game is an image that makes me chortle just a little bit inside.