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Newsletter October 2003 |
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Newsletter October 2003 |
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Next meeting:
Saturday October 11th 2003, at St. Johns Church Hall, Norrie St., Drury, starting at 9a.m.
Games arranged:
Morning session: 9.30 am to 1.00pm
| 1 | Bryan, Glenn, Arthur, Kevin, Rob, Leo | Napoleonic | |
| 2 | Bryan, Glenn, Arthur, Kevin, Rob, Leo | Napoleonic | |
| 3 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 |
Afternoon session: 1.30pm to 5.00pm
| 1 | Bryan, Glenn, Arthur, Kevin, Rob, Leo | Napoleonic | |
| 2 | Bryan, Glenn, Arthur, Kevin, Rob, Leo | Napoleonic | |
| 3 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 |
Copy for the news letter needs to be to me by week before we meet .- Kevin
Note from the Editor
Withe the Anrgy gnome in full rant ode (keep up the good work pete) this wee tome was getting really long as we have had some other contributions as well. so to make this work I have posted a seperate page with ther rest. The other page deals with Napoleonic's which has made a resurgence in the club of late (this is were we came from people). So to find out morechick HERE
| French Napoleonics: |
| 1 Complete French Cuirassier Brigade: $100. |
| This consists of two regiments of 12 miniatures each including command |
| figures, along with a mounted brigade general. |
| A total of 25 mounted miniatures. |
| Alright, that's another tournament over and done with. |
| An absolutely awesome time, managed to play a fair few games against some great opponents, overall it was a very enjoyable, if exhausting, experience |
| Now down to bid'ness |
| Club Insignia etc. |
| Well, basically, we don't have one. |
| If we'd had a Club Banner at Fields of Blood, we would've won something for being the Best Club (probably terrain or something) |
| Now, I think it would be cool if we had some things to give us a sense of identity, things to rally around and so on |
| Sort of like a brand or a tag... |
| I think it would be good if our club had its own emblem or logo, and a club motto/motif |
| Then, of course, there's the case of having a club Nicname which is easier to say than our official title of the South Auckland Miniature Wargames Club |
| And then, of course, a Club Banner would simply just rock. |
| Now, this is a Club thing, so it has to be supported by the greater number of Club members |
| I encourage you all to get behind this club stuff |
| I want any ideas you guys can think of, any submissions on things we can do, anything at all |
| When we've got a fair few suggestions we can probably make a collective decission about what to adopt as our club Emblem, Motto, Nicname, and so on |
| As for Club Banners, these are largely for use at tournaments, so it would probably be up to the Club Tournament Team attending the tournament in question to decide what the Banner will be |
| Any suggestions and ideas, give them to either Arthur, Kevin, Bryan, or myself (Peter) |
| I'll put all the suggestions in upcoming Newsletters, and some point down the track we'll start deciding what we think are the most appropriate ideas. |
| Please give this your support guys, it's about time we got a bit proud of our club |
| The Newsletter |
| Well, I'll keep this short and sweet. |
| The newsletter could do with some things in it to read. |
| Battle reports, opinion editorials/articles, game reviews, fiction, humour, pretty much anything |
| Just, send some stuff to Kevin and he'll have something to decide whether or not to stick in the Newsletter. Make it an interesting read. |
| The Points Ladder |
| This will kick in from the January Meeting onwards. |
| I'll probably be recording details as it's probably my responsability, unless, of course, someone thinks this responsability belongs to someone else, I'll be only too happy to lump the book-keeping off to someone else |
| As a re-cap, here's the basic framework of the Points List so far: |
| Each Arranged Game Played - 5 points |
| Winning an Arranged Game - 5 points |
| Drawing an Arranged Game - 3 points |
| Writing a Battle Report for the Club Newsletter - 15 points |
| Making a Newsletter Submission - 10 points |
| Absence from your Arranged Games without notification - 30 points reduction of your Score so far |
| Any tournaments held at the club will have points allocations seperate to the above profile, which will be decided by the person running the tournament, and approved by the Club Officials, especially those positions of Secretary (currently Arthur) as they preside over the clubs Gaming schedule, and by the Accountant (currently Bryan), who should be consulted in all matters relating to the club's coffers. Possibly approval by the Points Ladder Umpire (me, unless someone else steps forward to do this). |
| There will probably be added points in later submissions to the basic Points Ladder framework, to reward good sportsmen, dedicated modellers/painters, and other areas. |
| If anyone takes any issue with the above Points Ladder system, the points scores and categories so far confirmed, please let me know as soon as humanly possible, so any adjustments made, can be made and the club be notified of these changes before the new year begins (worryingly close if you think about it) |
| Also, the Points Ladder Umpire should be barred from any winning position on the points ladder, and any top score he may receive will be subject only to pride, rather than reward. |
| If anyone wants to take up the position of Points Ladder Umpire, and considers themselves dependable enough to keep track of this, please let me know, chances are you'll get the job |
| Otherwise, by default, I'll take on the job. |
| The rewards for winning the top spot on the ladder, and perhaps second and third, will more than likely end up with a decent wad of cash left over from our club expenses |
| This will probably be a 55%/36.7%/18.3% split for First, Second, and Third respectively. |
| IN ORDER TO EARN POINTS, YOU MUST PROVIDE THE UMPIRE WITH ALL RELEVANT INFORMATION! |
| When you play a game, that is arranged for the club (booked with the Secretary) inform the Umpire of the game just played by whom, and who won/lost/drew |
| Submissions for the newsletter will be noted, as will Battle Reports, so you have your usual one-month grace to do these things in (well, three week grace, in order to be included in the Newsletter, submissions should be in to Kevin at least a week before the next games club) |
| Big Battle! |
| To celebrate the fact that I want a big game... I'm having a big game. |
| Barry also wants a big game, so we're both having a big game. |
| Damien wants a big game, so Damien's our opponent for this Big Game |
| Damien's army isn't big enough, so we need another Big Bad Guy for the Big Game |
| If you think you are Big or Bad enough, then let Barry, Damien, and Myself, know |
| Or, if there's two Big Bad Guys, and another Big Good Guy, that too may work |
| Basically, each army brought will be roughly 5000 points |
| We'll discuss restrictions at the club |
| We want this game in November, because I'll be busy in December, having a... |
| Lord of the Rings Mini-Tournament |
| Yep, a Lord of the Rings Mini-Tournament |
| So far, Kevin, Arthur, Bryan, Damien, and myself are keen. |
| If anyone else wants to take part (we'll have to rope at least ONE more person into it!) just let us know |
| It's going to happen at the December meeting, and will count towards next years Points Ladder (which I wrote about above) |
| It's going to be fun, and smallish |
| If you want to buy yourself some LotR minis for the tourny, or borrow some, let us know |
| North Shore Inter-Club Tournament |
| Well, the guys from the North Shore wargaming club thingame want an inter-club tournament |
| They'll be popping down to our October 11th meeting to do this |
| As I don't think we have any major arranged games set up, for the most part, if you have a Warhamer Fantasy, or Flames of War army, consider giving them a game. |
| It'll be more organised next time 'round. |
| Warhammer Fantasy Battle Campaign: The Brorvarld Campaign |
| Kicking off in January, a Warhammer Campaign! |
| Anyone wanting to take part, please tell me NOW |
| I need to have a general idea of how many people are taking part so I know how big to make the map |
| So far I can almost gaurantee ME, Barry, John, and Damien |
| Anyone else wanting in? |
| I'm hoping to get a good sized tournament running. |
| The Tournament itself will be very low maintenance. |
| Each game you play will be almost completely a normal game of Warhammer |
| The only minor difference may come from 'staked' territory, which may alter your army list very slightly, or add a power dice to your power dice pool, or some other similar adjustment. |
| The tournament is one of conquest and land acquisition. |
| It will be played on a Hexagonal grid map, which you will all be supplied with. |
| Each player starting the campaign in January will start off with one Capital and two other, adjacent territories |
| Each little Hexagonal grid section is called a Territory, and has its own type (Forest, Grassland, Desert, River/Wetlands, Mountainous). Each time you gain a new Hex grid section, you will roll on a chart depending on your race and the terrain type of your new Territory. This will give you the properties of this new Territory (so, for example, an Elf player could gain a Mountainous Territory, roll on the appropriate chart, and end up with a Great Eagle Nesting Ground which makes Great Eagles a Special Unit) |
| When you play a Campaign Game, with your Campaign Army, depending on the Scenario you may be able to 'Stake' one of your territories. If you 'Stake' a Territory, you gain the benefit associated with it (the Special Great Eagles in the example above for example). Note that you can only stake ONE Territory per game, and as such, irrespective of how much Territory you control, you will only ever gain benefits from one Territory in any given game (which cuts on any major imbalance when some players win big and others... don't) |
| At the October meeting I might have a sheet detailing how scenarios and wins/losses affect the Territory you control, collectively known as your 'Realm' |
| There will be rules for veteran units and characters |
| Special Characters will be banned. |
| There's a whole lot more I should be saying but I've drawn a blank here. |
| Talk to me about it, I'll probably remember at some point the other important stuff |
| Anyway, basic story of this is: |
| It's not really the Warhammer World, more of a What If...? which is very, very similar, except for geography, thereby enabling me to make a really nice map for you guys =) |
| The major player, the arbitrary 'global' power at the moment of the start of the campaign is the enigmatic 'Cartel' |
| I'll be getting some fluff written up soon for all of this, and there will be a plot outline running parallel with the gaming side of things as the campaign progresses |
| The Campaign will conclude with a Thrilling Climax battle! |
| But, one thing I'd like you guys to do, is come up with some 'Dogs of War' Renowned Regiments/Special Characters (motivated by pretty much anything you decide) that we can add in for a spot of fun |
| If anyone has any ideas, forward it to me and I'll try and work it in =) |
| -Peter Colson |
| Club President |
| colson@xtra.co.nz |
Reflections on the Fields of Blood |
| Ooooooooooooooooooooh boy, THAT was a BIG Tournament that hit me |
| Fields of Blood, for those who haven't read the past 3 or so Newsletters but for some reason decided to read this one, is the New Zealand Games Workshop Grand Tournament for Fantasy and 40K |
| And for an only 2-day Tournament, it sure packs a punch. |
| The week after the tournament, I was still recovering, jaysus! |
| Well, how I fared... the story starts way back in the mists of time, at NATcon, Easter this year. |
| A dramatic tournament, where my mighty Knights of the Order Avermanni, heroes of the first peoples of Averland, led the Glorious Army of the Aver to victory after defeat after more defeat... |
| The valiant last stands of my General, Marcel Andreas, were legendary! |
| It was a stirring sight to see this valiant battler rally his troops around him whilst the rest of the army got seven shades of crap pounded out of them... it was enough to bring a tear to ones eye. |
| So, I heard about Fields of Blood and thought, well, why the hell not, lets give the stars of the show their own private outing, in an homage to their outstanding performance, and progress the story a bit from where it left off last time round. |
| So, I set about collecting myself an all-cavalry army, something I had never done before, and now, for once, had an excuse and desire to do so. |
| Unfortunately, my mind was still tainted with Infantry tactics of massed ranks and immovable units, so I designed an army that could withstand a lot of damage and hold out until the cavalry came... |
| Therein lay the problem, they couldn't wait for the cavalry because they WERE the cavalry! |
| So, after several defeats, I reduced the big units as much as I could, which, considering I'd modelled two models in file on the 4-inch Regiment Bases for one of the units, these smaller units were still quite big. Oh dear. |
| After suffering horrendous defeats at the hands of Damien, Jonny Glenn, and Rion, with only one victory to my name (against an MSU-oriented Dark Elf army) the army fleshed out to four knight units, three pistolier units, a Grand Master, BSB, Warrior Priest, and Wizard. I was anticipating lots of Vampire Counts and Chaos armies you see. |
| What followed was a rash of decent games where I fared reasonably well, and sort of got the hang of the All Cavalry army. |
| The priblem was, it wasn't a PAINTED All Cavalry army, and having submitted the army list, I found myself needing to paint the army up |
| In the two weeks before the tournament I REALLY set about it, painting for at least 16 hours a day in the three days immediately preceeding the Tournament, and enlisting the aid of Damien and a few others to paint horses and base miniatures, I ended up with a Badly Painted But Tournament-Legal Army to be not quite ashamed although definately not proud of! SUCCESS! |
| Well, the morning arrives, and the wonders of coffee take a hold of my central nervous system, which turned me into a scatter-brained mess by the end of the day, unfortunately, but functional none-the-less |
| First game I suffered through, my worst result in the entire tournament, was against the ghastly night goblins of Mr Paul Monk |
| I found myself, with a knight army, faced off against an army with 11 FANATICS spread through units accross his ENTIRE deployment zone! |
| After I regained consciousness I set about some damage control. |
| The simple fact was, it would take a miracle to win this game. If I concentrated all my force on one corner of his army, I'd suffer through fanatics, and then simply not earn enough Victory Points to break even, whilst trying to keep away from his other flank. |
| If I aimed for the centre, there were points to be had, but I would have to try to get there through the highest concentration of fanatics, three of which benefit from Mad Cap Mushrooms making them TWICE as deadly in their first hit (which is all I would last). |
| And then, I'd be sitting in the middle of an army full of fanatics, a sitting duck for any unit that easily walks to within 8inches, with all my force densely packed for maximum killing. Not good. |
| Then there was the Spread option, where I try and release all his fanatics at once. Unfortunately this would require every unit in my army. Not the sort of thing I would want to try. |
| So, I tried my best, and managed to suffer only a Solid Defeat |
| So, a severe drubbing for my first game (always the case) it was a worthy baptism of fire. |
| Entertaining game despite the overwhelming sense of hopelessness |
| Off to the next round, and it's another Greenskin army, helmed by Doug Rosendall (or some such, forget exact spelling... sure this is the guy though) |
| Now THIS was a REALLY, really mint Savage Orc army... soooooo nice |
| Forest Gobbos, Savage Orcs, Spider Riders, WETA CHARIOTS! |
| And the coolest thing, Trolls with MASSIVE crossbows as Bolt Throwers! |
| THE COOLEST! |
| The game was a sort of random Flank Attack scenario, where two units and at least one character enter at a random turn, from a randomly determined point on a random table edge (rolling a Scatter dice to determine) |
| I put my two biggest units, General and BSB into the 'reserves' list, leaving three pistolier units, Warrior Priest, Wizard, and two small Kngiht units to face the awe-inspiring might of the greenskin horde. |
| His reserves were the 'Spider' riders (spend a game with Fast Cav. in reserve? WHAT?) |
| So... a 5-man unit of knights charge the giant, stabbing it in the leg a couple of times, which caused it to shout and bellow a bit, making me lose by only 2. Break test passed. |
| Savage Orc Big Uns charge and kill two knights, and have LOTS of Ranks and outnumbering bonus and a standard... but the Giant continues to moan and cry about its poor stabbed and bleeding leg, and so the knights lose by 2 rather than HEAPS, and stick around. |
| THEN they ran, letting a Marksman and Warrior Priest (sole survivors of the unit after unfortunately accurate Bolt Thrower shots) charge the giant, smacking it in the leg several times, but failing to wound with all attacks! DAMNED INCOMPETENCE! |
| Then, Gorks Warpath miscasts, and 'accidentally' stamps on the Giant (probably to shut him up about his leg) causing five hits, wounding on threes, but only causing two wounds! Leaving him on one wound, DAMNIT! |
| The rest of my force fares rather badly, bar a unit of pistoliers who manage to destroy both Spider Rider units, a Shaman, over-running off the table in their exhuberance. More on them later. |
| The Knights and Characters arrive finally, and plow through several units thanks to EXCELLENT positioning in the rear of the Savage Orc formation (luckily panicking off the Bolt Thrower) |
| The General and his Honour Guard pursued a broken Savage Orc unit into a Chariot, then was charged by the second Chariot, and flanked by the Savage Orc Big 'Uns... |
| And won the combat by 7! |
| The Orcs and Chariots failed to inflict a single wound! |
| The Knights and Grand Master struck back with a vengence, destroying one chariot, wounding the other, and slaying the odd Orc with impunity. The one time in the tournament when the Laurels of Victory actually paid off! |
| The unit wisely pursued the Savage Orcs, cutting them down, whilst the returning Pistoliers (two of the five) raced over to the fleeing chariot, offloaded a couple of shots, one hitting and destroying the infernal vehicle! |
| Due to clever positioning where the biggest concentration of points were, I managed to pull off a stunning Solid Victory! |
| Third game was against Dwarfs. |
| So much shooting, and the only time I've seen worse rolling was in that one round of combat the game before (poor bastid) |
| These Dwarfs were so stubbornly dependable, and my performance, the rolling... oh Gods the rolling. |
| I managed a draw out of it, but I wake up in a cold sweat when dreaming of rolling that bad. The Laurels of Victory are useless if you can't HIT ANYTHING! |
| The resolve to paint stuff between days evaporated, leaving me content to eat, sleep, and wake up the following morning for GAME FOUR! |
| Khornate Chaos, FINALLY My Warrior Priest gets to HATE something! |
| Unfortunately his added Dispell Dice was USELESS against the Khornate Spell Of Non-Existence (damn that spell!) |
| My opponent, David Warfield, was awesome. Story behind his army, nice army list, exceptional playing manner, good for a laugh. The best game I had there. I've invited him along to the Games Club, whether or not he comes along is yet to be seen... |
| My performance was... unstable. |
| The general and his unit charged a Chaos Chariot and failed to inflict a single wound! Won only just, but the damn thing held! |
| The Chaos Lord then got stuck in, which made matters worse. |
| My Warrior Priest, who'd disengaged from his Pistolier unit, charged in valiantly against the Chaos Lord, and the Fear of Sigmar driven into that evil fiend forced him to Flee, followed by the Priest, who pursued into a Spawn, only to get flanked by Khornate Chaos Warriors and die horribly... but his sacrifice was not in vain. |
| A large BeastHerd was crushed by the attentions of my remaining knight units, whereas some of the Pistoliers decided they would get killed by Beastmen and Chaos Hounds. |
| A unit of Knights with the Banner of Duty attempted to lead the Khornate Chaos Knights on a merry dance of Wasted Time, but failed their re-rollable Rally Test, ARGHHH!!! |
| As the last turns neared, the remaining Beast Herd was over-stretched and found itself completely isolated from the rest of my army. |
| The Chaos Knights were charged on two fronts by Knights and Pistoliers, but not a single wound was inflicted, and even with my +something rank bonus and outnumbering bonus, I lost the combat! |
| Luckily I held, but because of the Chaos Knights stern refusal to run, I had to make do with only a petty Minor Victory |
| I WAS CHEATED! |
| 5th Game saw me against yet ANOTHER Greenskin army, helmed by Jochen Schreider, whom I'd voted Best Painted Army, due to the extensive work he'd done on EVERY single model (with a Greenskin army, that's a LOT of work!) |
| This game I struggled out a Draw. It was fairly back-and-forth, but there were no major notable points worthy of much mention. I'd started to play tactically, but it only went so far in this case. |
| Lastly there was, you guessed it, ANOTHER Orc and Gobbo player! |
| I was starting to make a habit of this, and my Warrior Priest was just a little bit redundant... oh well |
| This game was a bit of a blur for both of us, but a stupid mistake cost me the Prize for capturing the objective (which would've garnered me a Solid Victory instead of only a Minor one... DAMNIT!) |
| Oh well, next year there will be more sleep, less caffiene, and a nicely painted army! |
| I will be bringing photos from the event down to the club for you guys to look at |
| If we'd had a banner with us, we could've had a Best Club award... |
| Next year, it's banner time! |
| Well that's enough from me |
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
Peter "Evil Gnome" Colson is the Club President so any queries, problems, issues or suggestions about the club should go to him at colson@xtra.co.nz or deathloveswar2@hotmail.com (for e-mails with attachments only), monday-thursday, and all day friday and saturday (09) 298-7293