Adelaide Championships, more events!

Last weekend the Adelaide Championships went off like Hoff, and it was on like Megatron! 22 locals planted their butts and bases and fought it out for a ton of prizes, after having gotten an even larger amount in their player packs, and I hosted my best Warmachine & Hordes weekend to date.



Faces old and new riddle the 80+ photos I took across the two days, including two interstaters, one of whom walked away with the title. Beware Michael Blyth, vengeance will be ours if I can make it to Arcanacon 2012, Great Bears or not!




The side event on the sunday gave me a chance to test some of the Iron Arena style tables I've been planning for my campaign day, the End of the Iron Kingdoms. I've been running scenario and/or table special rules every now and then for years to great enjoyment of my players, this weekends test included a sea battle with converted Uncharted Seas vessels, a four player King of the Hill table, some opposed Grind Jacks on a table with a Grinder, and Vinter Raelthorne himself in the desert akin to the start of Wrath. Al were good fun, so I'm working where I can on planning the event, but unfortunately my work leave has been denied for Arcanacon next year where I was going to run it as part of their '2012 End of the World' theme, so I'll have to make do with the much easier to swamp with my stuff venue here, unless new employment appears.




In between working on more Morrowguard conversions and my recent forays into the WoW TCG, I'm planning the next few months of local events. Breast Cancer Brawl is on the cards for October, while the Journeyman league from PP should hit in September. Everyones chomping at the bit for another tournament, so I'm hoping I can fit something small in during September at Infinity Games, unless The Hobby Matrix un-cancel their tournament plans.




As mentioned I've rediscovered the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, and you'll note above I've had some nice luck with cards. This $190ish card that turns into a mount for World of Warcraft (online MMO) players is going straight to the loveliest girl in all the land, my darling Daniela, who has put up with the dreaded 'PressGangerus Overenthusiasticus' over the last few months leading up to the Championships. Between that, the flowers, and the repeated beatings she gives me (usually at games), hopefully I'm doing my main calling and priority as well as the others.

Strakhov, Championship plans

I'm slowly getting stuff ready, but the Adelaide Championships at Infinity Games on the 20th/21st August are looking like they're gunna rock. We've got 18 signed up, with a few more lurking about, a ton of stuff for the player packs, and enough tables & terrain sorted. I've been a tad tempted to drop to three rounds on day 1, giving us a possible 4 clear winners to send to day 2 finals while everyone else plays a 35pt side event, but we have several awards for day 1 and I want to give everyone an extra round at them, even if it means someone with a loss heading to finals.




That's one of the new terrain pieces sans paint, which is in my bag ready for some work this week. We've aldo got some new Trollkin huts, a Proectorate fort, and Candy Mountain (from Charlie the Unicorn, I'll let you find the links yourself). I'm working on a sweet Farrow fire pit too, should look great on our desert board.

Meanwhile we have the old Hardcore awards with trophies, some local flavour with the Troll Slayer, Power Player (aka Dire Troll Hulk) and Liberty Prime awards, and for the side event we'll be awarding some Warmachine & Hordes icons to players. Tough will be for the most successful Tough rolls, Commander will be the best Army Points ratio, and Weapon Master will be for the most damage dealt by a warcaster/warlock.




The other thing I got to do this week was pop out to The Hobby Matrix for some games with my new favourite asshole, Kommander Strakhov. Such a bad ass that he needs two different first names, I love this guy, he can Stealth a Gun Carriage, send Great Bears rocketing across a table, or shoot a Warcaster to death after they've been hit by Assault Kommando gas bombs. In the first game, above, Sentry let me get out five rough terrain templates, while said gas clouds & Kommando Carbines ended pHaley, who had the turn before been set on fire before the Flamethrower WA was blown up by my own Great Bears, setting them alight too.




In this game I put a lot of hurt on PG Butler, but mostly just messed with his head in true bastard fashion. Highlights were Gun Carriage shells landing dead center in Trench templates, and my promise I'd kill Gunnbjorn if he didn't do something very specific in his own turn. That thing was move to not be just inside el Grande Bearo threat range, I only got two of them on him but he'd left himself on no fury - one was enough.

Hobby Matrix is nice, it's much smaller than Infinity but it's great to play on a nice table I haven't had to make myself. They have a 35pt Steamroller in September I'm planning to attend, and I'm gunna play in both their and Infinity's Journeyman leagues ASAP. Here's what I used, and will take back for September.

Army Name: 35 Strakhov GC
Khador
35+6 points, 21 models

Kommander Strakhov +6 points
* Berserker 6 points

10 Assault Kommandos 8 points
* 3 Assault Kommando Flame Throwers 3 points
Great Bears of Gallowswood 5 points
2x Gun Carriage 9 points each
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point

Mmm, Bastardry.