Newsletter December 2001

Newsletter

December 2001

Saturday December 8^th 2001, at St. Johns Church Hall, Norrie St., Drury, starting at 9a.m.

If you can't make any of these games let me know - Kevin 2670319

Copy for the Newsletter

Club membership fees for 2002

Club membership fees for 2002 are now due and payable. Please complete the membership form enclosed with this newsletter and return promptly with your payment. The fees are used to pay for the hire of the hall, to pay costs associated with the newsletter and to provide prizes for various tournaments we hold throughout the year.

Membership is $25 if you are 18 years of age and older, and $15 if you are under 18.

The Forum

Anything pertaining to opinion expressed in this forum, being anything except hard facts, is that expressed by not-so-humble freelance editor Peter Colson... although the opinions expressed may not necessarily be held by him either... and the South Auckland Miniatures Wargames Club, and any organisations with any linear or lateral association with said organisation, are unaccountable for what is said here. Club members, or those wishing to become club members, may submit materials to the club Newsletter, to be placed in this section, and the opinions which they express are their own and, if differing from mine, wrong.

Submissions, advertisements, fan mail, death threats, and marriage proposals may be sent to me at colson@xtra.co.nz

I appolagise for the oversizing of last months additions, this month I'll be keeping to the point. Soooooooo...

Okay, I want the tournament to run smoothely, and to run fairly. Unfortunately, this means I have to get hardline, whilst still attempting to remain friendly and personable, so if you see my face alternating between dark scowls and open smiles by the minute, I'm (probably) not having a nervous breakdown, just trying to keep the thing running smoothely.

The Tournament is happening at the January meeting. This is set in stone, this will not change, you can bet your gluteus maximus and minimus on it!

To be eligeable to play, or at least play with any chance of being rewarded for your efforts, you MUST provide your $30 Club Membership Fee... the membership fee may be cheaper than this, I'm not too sure, but I'm fairly certain it's $30 this year. You'll be told before it's due how much it's going to be.

For convenience sake, to keep gameplay going fairly quickly and so as not to penalise your opponent, PLEASE bring some sort of movement base for your units. Games Workshop sell their green movement trays for $14, if you are wanting one of these, although a piece of cardboard cut to the right size works just as well for considerably less (well, maybe not with the way food prices are going up today). Please do this, because moving miniatures individually takes up a lot of time, and if your opponent brought along movement trays, your individual miniature moving penalises him, and you benefit from him having a movement tray. I may have a spare movement tray or two, but I very much doubt it, so bring something to move your miniatures quickly on.

The tables will have their terrain pre-set impartially by me (it's impartial because you can't blame your opponent for a crappy terrain set up unless you are playing me) and terrain cannot be shifted during the tournament, it has to stay roughly where it is, to keep it fair for everyone else using that table before or after you.

Oh, and please bring along some Fantasy terrain for use in the tournament, as there may be up to 7 tables to fill up adequately, and completely featureless plains make for rather boring battles. I will make every effort to make sure that your terrain is not damaged in any way, and is easily recovered (please label it in some way if you can)

The Tournament will be split into 3 turns, or rounds, or phases... whichever descriptive word you are most comfortable using. Each Tournament round will be two hours long. The first 15 minutes of the Round are spent setting up for the game, notifying your opponent of whatever you are obligated to tell him (this Dwarf is wearing a considerable amount of armour with a fetching fur cape, so he's got Heavy armour, not Light armour... that? That's a great big bloody axe, most definately a Great Weapon, that's what it says on my army list anyway, it's up to the dice whether it's all that great or not...), rolling up spells, and generally doing the sort of stuff that needs to take place before a game actually starts. If you want to let your opponent proof read your army list, you may let him, but you are in no way required to show him anything until after the game. Now that I think of it, it would be considerate and sporting (and really convenient) if you notify your opponent of any special rules and their effects during this period also (such as the Dwarf Relentless rule, the Lizardmen Cold Blooded rule, the huge list of Undead rules, and so on).

After you have finished all this preperatory stuff, you get to sit back and look at the pretty models in front of you and chat to your opponent until everyone else is done getting ready. When EVERYONE is ready, then I will announce the start of the game. This is so that it's fair on everyone, so that the only reason games would differ in length is people finishing early.

15 Minutes before the conclusion of the two hours, any games still in progress will be called to a halt. After the game has been completed, either by the 6 turns being played, or by time running out, the conclude and check things phase begins. This means, firstly, players total up their Victory Points. The Victory Points Chart is on page 198 of the Warhammer Fantasy Rulebook, and I'll also bring along a few sheets with it on if you, for some shameful reason, do not actually have either a rulebook or a copy of the Victory Points Chart yourself, can use so that people with games still in progress don't have to lend out their rulebooks.

Also, in this conclusion period, you will, on a nifty gamesheet I'll provide for you, in the appropriate place, mark down the scores you will be giving your opponent for his Sportsmanship, Generalship, Army Painting/Appearance, and Army Composition.

PAINTING/APPEARANCE: This is basically how well painted and well modelled your opponent's army is. An army that is barely assembled, and completely unpainted would recieve a score of '0'. An army that is really well assembled, with maybe a good conversion or two, or just well modelled, but unpainted, would probably recieve a '10'. This would go up to about a '20' if it is undercoated. If some units, or maybe some models from most units are painted, but not too well, a '30' would be reasonable, or maybe a '40' if the paint job isn't too messy. If an army is mostly painted, with some parts of the army unpainted or only undercoated, and the paint jobs, although not spectacular, aren't sloppy, then a score of '50' isn't unreasonable. '60' if the painting is fairly good, with well chosen colours and good continuity throughout the army. '70' is good if the army is mostly painted, and highlighted/shaded to some extent, good continuity and colour choice throughout. '80' if almost everything is painted, and to a good standard. '90' is alright to give to an army which is really quite well painted with no unpainted models and some fairly dramatically posed/converted models, with a good cohesive look to the army. And the '100' score is for an absolute legend army, with many beautifully painted models, no ugly pieces, nothing unpainted, awesome conversions, even some 'Eavy Metal class miniatures. It's unlikely any army will be given this score, maybe Brian... If you are using borrowed pieces in your army, or have some things that someone else painted, please notify your opponent, as these pieces are not to be judged. The tournament is about how skilled you are in the hobby, not how rich you are.

SPORTSMANSHIP: Essentially, is your opponent a good bloke, or a right bastid? There's not really any hard and fast guidelines for this. Does your opponent promote an enjoyable game and friendly spirit? If your opponent can laugh at his own misfortune and not gloat like a prick over his good fortune, sympathise with your bad luck without patronising you, or accept your good luck with only mild threats of revenge, he's a pretty good opponent. If every little bad thing displeases your opponent, and he starts getting angry or gloomy, and makes you uncomfortable for his unsavoury disposition, he's not that good an opponent. Basically, if they help to make the game more enjoyable and you enjoy playing in their company, the better it is, the higher than 50/60 their score, but the less enjoyable the game is made by your opponent, the lower than 50/60 their score is. Someone who doesn't particularly do much to make the game more enjoyable, but doesn't really do anything to make it less enjoyable, should probably enjoy a score of about 50.

GENERALSHIP: This is how good a general or tactician your opponent it. Consider this carefully, because it's not that easy to be completely fair in scoring this. If your opponent is a tactical genius and you had little chance of beating him because he out-thinks you, then give them a high score. If your opponent wouldn't know 'tactics' if they jumped up and bit him on the nose, and doesn't think about his attack/defense at all, then score low. But be careful, your opponent may be trying to appear foolish in his tactics to guide your actions, or he may look like a genius with his manuevres but really be a complete half-wit; and if your opponent loses it might be bad luck and his tactics might actually be quite good, or good luck might hide bad tactics... or perhaps he has good tactics, but you didn't pay attention because he was also really lucky. Be careful, I leave this up to your better judgement.

ARMY COMPOSITION: After the game, you get to look at your opponents' army list (don't worry, there's no chance of playing the same opponent twice, or even on the same table twice), and your opponent gets to look at yours. You will be judging your opponent on how good their Army Composition, or the choices they have made, is. Take into account their favoured tactics, where characters went, effectiveness of units, fairness... If your opponent skimped on his compulsary Core units to max-out his Special and Rare options, this is extremely bad form and should be penalised. If your opponent went for the horrendously obvious, and not particularly balanced or versatile, Hammer Of The Gods trick of putting all his eggs in one basket, or rather, lots and lots of points and characters into one single monsterously huge unit, with a couple of other units to fill out the compulsary unit choices, then this is stupid, and won't earn much points for Army Composition. If your opponent made an illegal list and it somehow got by me (I don't know EVERYTHING about EVERY army so I may make one or two mistakes here and there in the pre-check) or can't add up straight (again, I may miss this in the tense moments before the tourny starts) then this is not going to do him any favours whatsoever. If your opponent has a real sad list, then, again, it's definately not going to do him any favours (again I say, be careful with this, just because it's effective doesn't mean it's fair, and just because it's weak doesn't mean it's fair, if it's effective it's smart, if it's weak, it probably isn't smart). If your opponent has a versatile, balanced force that, army composition wise, looks as if it will perform well on the field, this is to be rewarded. If every unit taken is useful, and open to tactical flexability, and can perform good tasks, this is to be rewarded. If the army is fair, or looks to have a good theme, then again, this is to be rewarded. Up to your discretion and judgement, and try to be fair.

Now you will be writing down what scores you give your opponent in these fields on YOUR tournament sheet, and your opponent must not learn what score he has been given until the end of the tournament. I will NOT have the sportsmanship bribery so disgustingly prevalent in the previous tournament. If I overhear ANYONE discussing these scores with their opponent, then both they and their opponent will lose any and all chance of placing in the tournament (no chance to get any fabulous prizes)

Please, mark fairly and consistently on these four aspects, lets try to keep the tournament as fair and consistent as possible. It's already somewhat off by many people contributing opinion-oriented scores to the players, but I hope this will even out and still be fairly indicative of the abilities of the participants, still be fair and impartial mostly.

One other possability may be awarding an extra hundred points for the army nominated as Best Army, due to having a really good theme, being painted really well, or something else that just makes the army that much more notable than the others in the tournament. A player who has had his army painted/modelled by someone else will recieve no nominations for best army. THis feature is not definate, it's just something I'm thinking I might include. I'll look for feedback at the December meeting whether it's a yay or nay

With the 15 minute pre-game period, the game itself, and the 15 minute post-game period, each Tournament Round lasts 2 hours.

After the first round there will be a half hour lunch break, before starting the second round. The third round starts as soon as the second round finishes. So at 9:30 first round starts, 11:30 Lunch, 12pm round 2, 2pm round 3, and at 4, I get to count up all the scores and announce the winners and so on

Now, your armies stay exactly the same throughout the tournament, NOTHING changes from game to game.

Armies are to be chosen to 1,500 points, with all the standard restrictions and options. The Albion Campaign Magic Items ARE NOT ALLOWED. Dogs of War are NOT ALLOWED unless you have a Dogs of War army. Special lists (at the back of each Army Book except the Dark Elves one) are not to be used unless you notify me and I give approval.

If the Warhammer Armies book is available for your army, that is to be used for the making of your list. If a White Dwarf update list is available, then that is to be used (Lizardmen and Brettonian armies, if you haven't got these white dwarf articles, see me and I'll provide you with the list). Otherwise, armies are to be chosen from the Ravening Hoards list.

The rules are to be followed, from the rulebook, BY THE LETTER. Even the stupid rules.

Anything written in White Dwarf is to be ignored, except for the afforementioned army lists, and the rules clarifications and Ravening Hoards Errata. Just because they said Vampire Bats have a 360degree charge arc in a battle report doesn't mean that WE will ignore the rules, White Dwarf is prone to be mistaken, trust the Rulebook. Page 106, bottom of the first paragraph under the heading AERIAL MOVEMENT... don't trust White Dwarf.

During the course of the tournament, any fuzzy situations or disagreement of what the rules are should be worked out by those playing, otherwise ask me if neither can resolve the rules discrepency satisfactorily, and I will make an unbiased judgement which is final and absolute, and deduct ten Sportsmanship points from both players for not resolving it themselves (guys, resolve it fairly yourselves, READ THE RULEBOOK FIRST, don't be penalised for not reading the rulebook).

There will be NO HOUSE RULES. We'll be playing it by the book, but don't get overly competative, just play by the rules and enjoy yourselves

I think that's basically all the important bits you guys need to know, if you have any concerns or questions or there's something vitally important that I am yet to mention, please notify me at the December club meeting, or e-mail me, or even ring me on (09) 298-7293

And finally in our thrilling informative session on the Tournament, the FABULOUS PRIZES!!!

As it stands, it will most likely run as a $50 first prize, $30 second prize, and $20 third prize

Remembering that to be eligeable to participate in the tournament you MUST provide the $30 membership fee, but you need to do this anyway every January (or maybe sneak it in quickly in December) so essentially the tournament is free... but no membership fee, no membership, no membership, no tournament, no tournament, no wonderful prizes.

Depending on how many people will be participating and handing in membership fees on time, the prize money might even be boosted to a higher amount (isn't that delicious? =)

I'm also trying to get Heather Locklear (sp?) to come and stand in front of the fabulous prizes, but there's no gaurantees for that...

Kevin Carberry (Assyrians) Beat Arthur Young (Macedonians) - The Assyrians set up with infantry to the right and cavalry to the left to avoid the Macedonians elephant. The Assyrians concentrated their attacks on the Macedonians cavalry and skirmishers and once they where dealt with they could the deal with the hoplites by flanking them. The highlights for me were the elephant which broke on first contact and fled and trampled lots of his own side and the charge of the king which broke an undamaged phalanx and then ran them down. Assyria for ever

Kevin Carberry (Assyrians) Beat Ken Snow (Saracens) - I have never seen so many horsemen !!!!!! with hit and run style fighting tactics this army was fast. and very hard to pin down. in fact in the middle of the game I thought I was completely lost as my army was scattered spread out and surrounded. But Assyrians are tough nuts to crack and better than Saracens in hand to hand so won the day in the end.

The boys did their job with the Repeaters, the Warriors held the lines, but we lost most of our army, our Cold One Knights and the sorceress in the mean time" spoke the recently promoted general.

"I see... we need to improve our ways, we seem to be losing too much of our own, lately" the Lord speaks.

Sergeant was ripping off the **** (it's too painful to type -Peter) of some I.G. veteran with his trusty chain-sword, with another Guard cuffed to his right.

Distracted by a scream, he saw another Guardsman, falling a 15 yard drop

This was the moment to cuff them all for interrogation.

This was a relatively quick, and bloody battle. Both sides new to the game, but with suitable flair, not a bad beginning.

Nicks army, ranked left to right, consisted of a unit of Dwarf Warriors, heavily armoured, standing to the left of a unit of Iron Breakers, who in turn were flanked by another near-identicle unit of Warriors to their right. A battle-line solid as the dense thing between an Aussie's ears. behind his lines sat two Stone Throwers.

Marcelle faced off against this with two 12-man units of Chaos Warriors in the centre, a chariot on the left, and some flamers of Tzeentch to the right (testament to the selling skills of G.W. staff, who claim that they'll be part of the Warriors list in the future)

Unsuprisingly, Nick opted to sit back and play the defensive, and equally as unsuprising Marcelle decided to advance

The warriors and the chariot plodded forward, whilst the Flamers floated around Nicks left flank

Nicks Stone Throwers showed a dogged determination not to kill anything, and we suspect that the crew will no longer be allowed to join the pre-battle drinking party

Marcelle prepared to charge everything in, but disaster struck, as his warriors were just out of range, and all that ended up charging in was his chariot against the Dwarf Warriors on the left, and the Chaos Aspiring Champion and the flamers (who got a nice flank-charge) on the Dwarf Warriors on the right (left from Nicks point of view)

The Chariot couldn't break the Warriors with its charge, which spelt doom for it. On the other side, things were even worse for Marcelle, as his Aspiring Champion chickened out and ran away from the solid defence of the Dwarf Warriors. Luckily the flamers remained. One unit of Chaos Warriors got a charge in where the Chaos Aspiring Champion had failed, and the other unit crashed into the ranks of the Iron Breakers

The Chariot was offed by the Warriors eventually, who followed up by charging the warriors engaged with the Iron Breakers, eventually causing a rout in them

The Dwarf Warriors facing off against the other unit of Chaos Warriors, and the Flamers, fought with an iron will, but were venetually forced back by the forces of Chaos, and were wiped out to a man. THe wariors then charged a Stone Thrower, but were unable to put away any of the crewmen. Dwarves are HARD!

At the end, only one dwarf units, and two Stone Throwers, remained on the Dwarf side, and the Chaos Warriors were left with two heavily reduced Warrior units and a smattering of other tid-bits left over from the abuse they found upon contact with the Dwarf line.

A hard-fought draw, with only the very slightest of advantage to Nick

Peter (Mutants) Versus Manoj (Ecclesiarchy) unresolved game (Inquisitor)

"Brutus, the Kin have escaped, I think we should do the same. A rearguard would achieve little, and we can lose those accursed churchmen in here. We should go" the thin man said. Lank hair tied back tightly, dressed in baggy trousers and some rags covering a wound on his arm, his greyish skin and taloned fingers on his right hand gave him a cold and malevolent air.

"Right Romanos" the heavy-set and twisted form of Brutus, the Kinfather, agreed in a deep, rombling voice. Scaled and heavily muscled, with sharp teeth, a pointed tongue and reptilian eyes, Brutus was a fierce and fearsome looking leader, much at odds with his gentle manner. Even now, though, that maner was changing, being forced to change, for the survival of his adopted Kin.

"Romanos, take Cardane and Sabastian and head for the west ways, it's unlikely that the churchmen will sully themselves by passing through the Slum-wall. Sebastian, Constance, come with me, we're taking the east"

Creeping silently around the west, passing through the ruined streets of the Slums, the three mutants advanced in darkness. Ahead, Sebastian spied the faint glow of a forcefield of some sort. Unfortunately, the source of that faint glow, a holy man bedecked in rich and extravagant robes and other religious trappings, noticed the mutant and opened fire, hitting him in the abdomen and the leg, causing substancial damage to the leg, but thankfully nothing overly serious.

Romanos, homing in on the faint light of a Flamer tip, roared in anger as he charged toward a religious fanatic, cutting him down with his talons, but failing to take the man out.

Cardane moved up in support, the smell of blood making him salivate with desire to drink

On the eastern side, Brutus, Antikles, and Constance crept through a massive ruinous building.

Rushing out into the open, Brutus was gripped by a blood rage, racing headlong towards a gnarled old zealot brandishing a shotgun. The normally gentle Brutus just couldn't keep a clear head, hatred and supressed rage welling up in him

The old zealot levelled his shotgun, taking careful aim, and tagged brutus in the leg. However, the damage done was absolutely pitiful, and brutus just shrugged it of, raching the now fearful zealot.

Constance shuffled quickly through the ruin, making his way quickly to the Slumwall, only to be confronted by the business end of a PLasma Gun, and, suffering a devestating shot to his stomach, blacked out.

Antikles crept forward, leaving the safety of the ruins in order to claim a clear line of sight to the advancing churchmen...

That's as far as the game got, unfortunately, due to a lot of organisational type things it could not be completed, but it was quite good while it lasted.

Club Information

This newsletter is edited by Kevin Carberry so anything you would like included in the newsletter should be sent to me at 48 Beaumonts way, Manurewa, South Auckland. Phone 2670319, kevin@profax.co.nz

Robert "Dictator" Davies is the Club President so any queries, problems, issues or suggestions about the club should go to him at 14 Grebe Street, Manurewa. Phone 2670899.

1	Nick Williams vs Peter Colson	WHFB campaign
2	Damien Neems vs Marcel Scholz	WHFB campaign
3	Antony Hurndell vs Manoj Parsot	WHFB campaign
4	Graham vs Wade Mitchell	WH40KCityfight	1500 points
5	Stuart Burton vs Jaymesh Parsot	WH40K	2000 points
6	Kevin Carberry v Arthur Young	WHAB	2000 points
7		WH40K	1000 points

1	Peter Colson vs Wade Mitchell	Inquisitor
2	Damien Neems vs Antony Hurndell	Inquisitor
3	Marcel Scholz vs Manoj Parsot	Inquisitor
4	Nick Williams vs Jaymesh Parsot	Inquisitor
5	Kevin Carberry vs Brian Osbourne	WHAB	2000 points
6	Arthur Young vs Paul Chaffe	RAPIDFIRE	1000 points
7