Mike Mudd Tournament Signups

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Mike Mudd Memorial Tournament

Date: Nov. 09 2013
Start Time: Doors open at 8 am first game starts at 9 am

Entry fee : $25
Army rules
1750 pts
Allies Allowed
Fortifications: Fortress of Redemption Banned. All others allowed
Supplements Allowed
Forge World : Only things stamped with the 40K approved. You must be able to provide a copy of the rules at any time during the day. This must be a legitimate copy no photocopies or pdf print outs.

Sign ups can be done at our forums at http://stratfordgamingunion.proboards.com/ or send an email with your name to stratfordgamingunion@gmail.com

Mike Mudd Memorial Tournament

Mike Mudd Memorial Tournament

So, we've got our hall booked and paid for so we have our date.  So the 5th Annual Mike Mudd Memorial Tournament will be held on November 9th, 2013.  So for those that don't know what the MMMT is, it's a tournament that us at the Stratford Gaming Union put on every year (for 5 years now) that is put on in memory of one of our members that passed away at far to young an age.

We put the tournament on and all the proceeds from the tournament go to support our local OSPCA.  Mike Mudd's parents attend every year to help us hand out the prizes.  For the past few years we have raised well over $1000.00 for the past few years in honor of our friend.

This year it will be held in the same hall we had last year.  The Stratford Army & Navy at 151 Lorne Ave E, Stratford Ontario.  It'll be 1750 points and we'll be hammering out the rest of the rules as we get closer to the event.

Huge! Dark Eldar Update, tonnes of PICS.

Skari here from Skared Podcast with another Dark Eldar hobby update:

I have been gearing up for another tournament with the awesome power of the Dark Eldar. You can see the army list preview on my youtube channel. WYSIWYG is a requirement. Painted is not, but having your army painted gets you points, hence the work I am doing on the rest of the army to get it up to 3 colour minimum.

Here is an army shot (there have been a few tweaks since this picture):

The Incubi:


Their venom and gunner:




I also did some work on the wracks:



And lastly, I finally got to putting magnets onto the razorwing missiles, so the kit is complete!


Anyhow, this is what I have been up to in the bowels of the Dark City!

Cheers!

Skari - Out

Skared Podcast - EPISODE 3 - Tournament Recap and more

Episode 3 is up! (35 mins)
- Tournament Recap, Spellbinder 40K 1850.
- Law of Nines, 40K list building strategy.
- Upcoming Events - Black Knight Games 2K 40K tourney Dec 17th.

Check it out:
www.skared.podbean.com

Cheers!

Da Wulf Boyz

     So, the first day of the experiment is over. I took my Wulf Boyz to my first tournament today. It was a four game tournament at 1500 points. So I took my 1850 point list and trimmed it down to 1500 points. It made for an ugly list but I wanted to take it to start the year long test.

     So the first thing I did was talk to the tournament orginizer about the army. I brought two armies just in case there was an issue with the army I would have a back up army. The tournament orginizer had no issue with me bringing the army so the first hurdle was passed. Though this was a local tournament so I didn't fear the rejection.



     So random pairing put me up against the store ringer army played by the tournament orginizer. So already knowing he had no issues with the army we didn't go into the army to much. He made fun of me a little just to bust my chops but said he personally had no issues with the army.

     I massacured the ringer army and that put me up against a fellow Stratford Gaming Union member Bob. Bob has a big Nid army. Now he has seen pictures of the army just like everyone but he hadn't seen the army in person or on the table. He mentioned he really wanted to see the army in person. Bob is a Stratford Gaming Union member that is very much into the painting and conversion side of the game and his opinion on the models would mean a lot to me. He was very impressed with them. He has faced another players Space Wolf army enough that without me telling him anything about the army he was able to tell what everything was. I tied that game and so far 2 games, two people that had no issues. However both of these people have seen the army at least in pictures before hand so it was to early to tell.



     So, game three. After lunch I played a player Simon, local to the store we were playing in. However this would be the first true test. Simon has never seen a picture of the army nor has he seen anything about it till it hit the table. So Simon plays a very Raider/Venom heavy army. So I tried to hold out as best I could but the weight of fire just was to much and a few key failed saves ment he won the game.

     So onto his thoughts on the army. Now I will say I have played Simon before in a few games at tournaments but he is not part of my local group. But he does know me. I didn't describe anything about the army to him to start. I put the models on the table and without having to answer any questions other then Space Wolf rules questions he never asked me what each model was. The only model he didn't totally know was my Arjac. He knew it was a Wolf Guard in terminator armor, so when he asked I let him know it was Arjac, not just a no named Wolf Guard.



     So game four would finally be a total test. I played against a Player by the name of Shawn. Shawn is a player I know of but I have never met him nor have I every played against him. So finally a player I don't know and doesn't know me and has never seen the army or heard of me. Lets see how this goes? Not to go into to many deatails, Arjac and my Wolf Lord ate most of his army but at the end of the day he never asked me anything about the army, he knew what everything was. In fact when he was going to charge his librarian into a grey hunter squad he knew to move around the squad because the closest model to him at the time was the power fist model and the power weapon model. He never asked me where those models were, just knew to look for them and avoid them. He really liked the look of the army and said he would have been happy to play against it if it wasn't the second time he had to play against a Thunder Wolf list (Sorry Shawn).

Da Wulf Boyz

All Dresses Up With No Where To Go!

The Full 1850 Point Army and Display Board

     Well Last night I finally did it...I planned out an 1850 list that while not being a very competitive list would let me showcase a lot of very cool conversion ideas for my Counts As Wulf Boyz. Last night I painted the last model for the list. I included a lot of HQ models and a lot of different units. So this list was far from the usual redundancy lists that work so well in tournaments. Now I didn't care because this was a labor of love for me. Last year I went to the Warmasters Challenge, a 100+ person tournament in our area and while there I saw a lot of cool ideas and conversions. The coolest to me anyway was a Nid army that was based on a Zombie theme. So there were Corpse Carts, zombies, ogres and giants to represent various units. It was beautifully painted and I thought it was a very cool idea. So when I went home from the event last year I started planning my own Counts As army. Now I knew that the term 'Counts As' it seams is more and more becoming a dirty word in our hobby as far as tournaments go. It seems as tournaments get bigger and competition in these becomes more contested, and prize pools build that it seemed to me that taking a 'Counts As' army to an event would be like walking in with the plague.

Wolf Lord and Fenrisian Wolves

     So I went about planning my army out to mitigate as many problems as I thought I might have. One of the biggest issues usually with 'Counts As' tends to be a models size and footprint on the table. People are worried that others are modeling for advantage. So I made sure that every model I used was the same size or slightly bigger then what it was to represent. For my Rhino and Razorback I actually just ork'ified up the Rhino and Razorback models so they keep the same table presence. Each of my infantry is the same size as a space marine (although wider). My models are all on the bases they should be including the Thunder wolves. My Thunder Wolf Lord is the same size as Cainis who at the moment is the only Thunder wolf model to compare.

Arjak, Rune Priest and Wolf Priest

     For my troop, to keep confusion down, only models with special weapons look different. Meaning, if a Grey Hunter has a power weapon, it is a two handed weapon he has over his head and it has a blue tint to it. Where as every other Grey Hunter only has one handed weapons. The Melta Gunner is the only model in the Grey Hunter units with a two handed gun, as well his Melta Gun has a bright yellow 'danger' tank on it. The Banner guy sticks out and my Mark of the Wulven guys all have Cybok body parts. My Blood Claws all have Swords, No Helmets and yellow and red markings, all the Grey Hunters have helmets, axes and red and black markings. As well each Wolf Guard has Yellow and Black markings (all these marking colors are right out of the Space Wolf Codex for those units). So I matched everything to the Space Wolf codex where possible. My Long Fangs all have Rokkit Launchers in place of Missile Launchers and they have White and Black shoulders. The whole army is painted in a Shadow Grey, just like a Space Wolf army.

Long Fangs

     This being said, I made an 1850 list, painted to it and submitted it to the Warmaster Council for approval to bring my Counts As army to their event. Seeing some of the stuff last year I had no worries when I submitted my request. Little did I know there was a lot of back lash from last years events over 'Counts As' armies being confusing. So Da Wulf Boyz were judged to confusing for the event. The Council's request was that the Slugga's aren't Bolt Pistols and request that I change out about half of them per squad, along with any Shoota's to Bolters and the Rokkits to Missile Launchers. If I did these and a few other things I could bring the army.

Grey Hunter Pack and Rhino

     This brought a question to me, is my army that confusing, or have tournaments moved so far from the hobby aspect of the hobby we are in that counts as is dead in the tournament world. I decided I won't be making any changes to the army, I won't be attending this event I built the army for. I will however be conducting an experiment with the army. I am going to spend the next year, July to July, taking this army to as many events locally as I can. As well I am going to shop the army around to various big tournaments. I am going to e-mail the army to the various TO's of the big events (Adepticon, Nova Open, Astronomicon, ect...) and see if the army as it stands would be let into these events. I want to know is counts as dead to the tournament world? Along with this any event I go to I am going to speak to each of my opponents before and after each game with the Wolves and record their reactions to the army. I want to know is it as confusing as I have been told it is, did I spend a lot of money and time building a cool army that won't be able to see the light of day on a major event table?

Thunder Wolf Cavalry Lead The Charge

     Follow me on this Blog this year as I try to find out if Counts As is truly dead in the tournament world. I'll be updating this blog with my progress over the year. First stops, talking to the Nova Open guys as well as a tournament on the 9th here in a local store.

Da Wulf Boyz

DA WULF BOYZ IZ DED!



Well that statement isn't totally true. I have been working on this army for a long time now. This army has been a labor of love and at times pain. It is a counts as army but I had been doing everything in my power to see to it that everything was not confusing for people. For those that don't know I have been planning and building this army almost for a year and the reason for building it was to attend one of the largest events in the country. Here in Ontario there is an event called the Warmasters Challenge. It is a two day event with a double tournament on the Saturday and a Singles event on the Sunday.

Warmasters Challenge Web Site

Last year the doubles had 104 people for 52 teams involved. My Partner and I managed to get Best General in the event losing Best Overall by two points.



After seeing all the people and the events, the singles had over 100 people as well I was inspired by some armies I saw to work on a cool conversion army to take to the event this year. So over the past year I have spent a lot of money and time working on Da Wulf Boyz which you have seen here. I submitted a package to the staff of the Warmaster event letting them know what I am bringing and what everything is. With pictures of everything it ended up being an 8 page document detailing everything from why I started the army, to what I used to convert everything as well as reasons I chose different things.

However after sending that in I have received word that the army will not be aloud into the event. Reasons being it would be to confusing. The main points of contention are that I used Sluggas instead of Bolt Pistols (both of which have the same profile in game terms). The fact that I used Rokkit Launchas instead of Missile Launchers (Again both have the same profile in game terms). My one bolter that I have in the army is a Shoota (admittedly these do have different game profiles). And my Wolf Priest has a Maul for his Crozius. Now I have 3 power weapons in my army, all three look totally different then the other weapons because they have a blue color on them that sets them apart so anyone looking can see which is powered and which are not. As well the Wolf Priest is the only one in Black Armor so he is easy to pick out. Lastly were my two Meltaguns which are converted and I will provid pictures they are the only weapons built from scratch but they are the only two models carrying a two handed weapon. As well as their weapons have big yellow 'danger' tanks on them to signal them as Melta.









Now the council for the Warmaster event have said that if I converted some of these things over I would be able to bring the army. I will admit I was toying with the idea but time would be a factor as the event is 5 weeks away and in those 5 weeks I have 2 other 2500point tournaments I need to get armies ready for as well as a two week vacation with my family to put in there. However a comment I was sent about the army really put me off my want to change anything. One of the Comments I got back was and I quote from an e-mail "That is proxied, power-gamed shenanigans" Now lower you will be able to see my list which includes 13 Blood Claws on FOOT. only one, yes you read that right, one Long Fang Pack. As well as only two tanks, one Rhino and one Razorback. So for those counting my only anti-mech is one Lascannon and five Missiles in 1850. If this army list I post is considered power gaming I'll eat the whole army with salt. I was told this is a competitive event and they didn't want anyone confused by the army and complaining, later to be told that this was power gaming? As well I have provided a size comparison picture here you can see my stuff is the same size if not bigger then what they are representing.

1850 Pts - Space Wolves Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1849

HQ: Wolf Lord in Power Armour (3#, 270 pts)
1 Wolf Lord in Power Armour, 250 pts = (base cost 100 + Storm Shield x1 30) + Wolf Tail Talisman 5 + Wolftooth Necklace 10 + Thunderwolf Mount 45 + Frost Weapon x1 25 + Saga of the Bear 35
2 Fenrisian Wolf, 20 pts = 2 * 10

HQ: Wolf Priest in Power Armour (1#, 115 pts)
1 Wolf Priest in Power Armour, 115 pts = (base cost 100) + Wolf Tail Talisman 5 + Saga of the Hunter 10

HQ: Rune Priest in Power Armour (1#, 100 pts)
1 Rune Priest in Power Armour, 100 pts

Elite: Wolf Guard Pack (3#, 264 pts)
1 Wolf Guard Pack, 0 pts
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour, 38 pts = (base cost 18 + Power Fist x1 20)
1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour, 38 pts = (base cost 18 + Power Fist x1 20)
1 Arjac Rockfist, The Anvil of Fenris, 188 pts

Troops: Blood Claws Pack (13#, 195 pts)
13 Blood Claws Pack, 195 pts = 13 * 15

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (9#, 200 pts)
7 Grey Hunters Pack, 150 pts = 7 * 15 (base cost 15) + Mark of the Wulfen 30 + Wolf Standard 10 + Meltagun 5 + Power Weapon 15
1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen, 15 pts
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 195 pts)
4 Grey Hunters Pack, 105 pts = 4 * 15 (base cost 15) + Mark of the Wulfen 30 + Wolf Standard 10 + Meltagun 5 + Power Weapon 15
1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen, 15 pts
1 Razorback, 75 pts = (base cost 40 + Twin Linked Lascannon 35)

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (5#, 370 pts)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 0 pts
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 85 pts = (base cost 50 + Melta Bombs 5 + Storm Shield 30)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 80 pts = (base cost 50 + Storm Shield 30)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 105 pts = (base cost 50 + Storm Shield 30 + Power Fist 25)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 50 pts
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 50 pts

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (6#, 140 pts)
5 Long Fangs Pack, 125 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Missile Launcher x5 50
1 Squad Leader, 15 pts

Validation Report:
c-1. File Version: 1.20 For Bug Reports/www.ab40k.org; b-1. Roster Options: Special Characters; a-1. Scenario: Normal Mission; 1. Chapter: Space Wolves
Roster satisfies all enforced validation rules

Composition Report:
HQ: 2 (1 - 2)
Elite: 1 (0 - 3)
Troops: 3 (2 - 6)
Fast: 1 (0 - 3)
Heavy: 1 (0 - 3)

Created with Army Builder® - Try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com


















Needless to say I will not be converting the army for this event nor will I be attending the event. I will be taking a 1500 point version of the army to a local tournament this weekend and just having fun with it.

Lastly a little preview of the second banner (wolf standard) I am making for the second Grey Hunter squad.

Da Wulf Boyz, Display Board

Well I have been a bit burnt out on painting boyz so I thought since I need to keep pressing to get the army done, each day I need to get something done.

So today I did a bunch of work on the display board. I built this one out of the same foam as my other one for my Blood Angels. Which means that it can fit in my modular board in place of hte Blood Angels if I want.

So I painted this one first in black, then it has a dusting of two different greys on it.

Then I added the snow. In the picture I have just added it, and I'll have to wait a few more hours will I can knock off the excess snow. Also in the picture you can see the Ork Mek hut I am building for the board. It'll be painted up like a nice ork building when I am done with it. So here are some shots of it in the modular display board and then some WIP pictures.

Here is a picture of the Blood Angel board in the display board.



Next is a picture of the Blood Angel board out of the display board and the Ork Board in.



So here are some WIP shots of the Ork board.

20 Games With TK: Tourney Pt2

2 More games to report, the last two from the tournament a weekend ago, (later I will have another game from thursday!)

Game 3 of the tourney saw me pitted up against Lizardmen. I will keep this one short. Mission was blood and glory and I broke his army in 4 turns. I felt slow played and had quite a few arguments with my opponent after a dodgy declare charges phase that included some shady pivots and moves. Needless to say, I won the game, but did not have a good time. The things that worked still, tomb guard were awesome. The light cav pulled some skinks from the main battle line, the colossus exploded after a horrible set of rolling when into some saurus... and the carrion held up an entire flank (20 skinks and a salamander pack).

So, after that sportsmanship disaster I went on to have the best game I had all day, against who? Another fellow tomb king! His list:

2 Kings
3 lv 2's
2 units of 45 archers
casket
warsphynx and 2 colossi.

All in all highlights from this game were:
My casket was awesome, killed his warsphynx and pulled a lot of his dispel dice. My bows peppered away one colossus while the other exploded against the HW/Sh skeletons. The TG rocked one unit of bowmen in the center and killed all the characters within 3 priests and a king... My light horse went up against his casket and won. At the end all I had lost was the HW/Sh skellies and the prince that ran with them. All he had left was the remainder of 45 archers and a king (blade of antarak).

We had tonnes of fun, and my opponent was very keen to mold his army up more in tune to the style that I was playing :D.

So, that was the tournament, I placed 9th out of 11... But did learn a lot. As soon as I got home I built another 50 skeleton spearmen and went about building a 2500pt list with all the tactical changes and knowledge that I had gathered from the tournament.

I was able to take all this to the table on thursday, when I got to play 2500pts... who did I play? Dwarfs. So I was up for a tough game. On my next post I shall discuss my list, his list and the mission we played as well as other notes.

Cheers!

20 Games With TK: Tourney Pt1

Ok, so.

Game 1: Against VC. His list, from memory:
400+ pt lord vamp (nasty nasty)
BSB
Vamp with book.

30+ Graveguard
4 units of ghouls

And thats about it. A very in my face army, the ghoul units varied in size but were about 25-30 strong.

We played the diagonal deployment battle with a modified tower "king of the hill" scenario. I had my chariots in reserve he had everything on the table. He had 2 units of ghouls and book vamp on to my left, facing the skelly horde with prince. And then the other two units of ghouls and graveguard deathstar on the right side.

Anyway the game started well for me, with turn 1-3 going my way. until I charged the TG into the graveguard! And found out that that unit had an 8 combat res standing still :O. +1 for each vamp (gen and BSB), then BSB with a warbanner, and a standard and 3 ranks! So my TG lasted for a bit... but ended all dying. It was in this case that I wished I would have kept the BoUL on the TG... because the combat was away from the support of the priests... I also made the mistake of going into horde with my TG... but then he did the same to get more GG attacks.
On the far flank, suprisingly I had my colossus and carrio tie up a large unit of ghouls for about 6 rounds of combat...
On the other side I had 5 horse archers tie up another unit of ghouls until the chariots charged in and wiped them out.

In the end he had 3 units to my 2 units within 6 inches of the building in the middle, and he took the primary, secondary was to win by 300vp... and he had that ( I had only been able to get one unit of ghouls! (my TK almost killed the uber vamp, and I was unable to KB the BSB after all those rounds of combat :(.)

So a sound loss, to the TK.

Game 2: VS Dwarfs, gun line... his list:
Lord
Runesmith
BSB Thane
20 HW/Sh warriors
20 GW Warriors

2 x 10 handgunners
2x 10 crosbowmen
2 x grudgethrowers
2x cannon
2x bolt throwers

Mission was dawn attack. He had most of his things in the middle and to my left.

I scouted the horse archers to the right, the TG in the middle deployed in two lines to mitigate fire and the other units on the right...
This mission was me moving up and him shooting... the casket was great this game! Killing dwarves left and right... the LH and carrion got into the backfield and tied up the warmachines... But turn 3 it all changed! i charged my colossus into the handgunners up front... and killed them, overrunning into the lords HW/sh unit... the lord had the rune of double str against tough opponents... so my giant died horribly! He then proceeded to take out my prince with the 40 skeletons... The TG failed a key charge on a double one... and were unable to make an impact on the game. regardless... It was quite the game untill my hiero then died... killing the carrion and the horse archers to crumble and then the catapult.

This is what I took away from that-
- Make the hiero bunker bigger... so that there is always 5 R&F models for LOS.
- once again the BoUL was missed, the TG usually stray away from the main bubble.

So, two losses under my belt and I went into round 3 after lunch. My opponent? Lizardmen, finally a matchup that I have played before... sadly my worst opponent of the day.

Cheers!

20 Games with Tomb Kings: Tournament!

Ok, so first things first. My list. The tournament had a 3 colour minimum and this shaped my list, due to the time I had to paint things up and what I already had painted. I also made some last minute changes that in the end I regretted, but this will become more apparent as we move along.

2200pts:
Lords/Heroes:

Tomb King- GOlden Mask, Armour of FOrtune, GW, Shield, Dragonbane

Liche Priest (hiero) Lv 2 Talisman of Preservation
Liche Priest (tk lore) Lv 2 Scroll, Ironcurse

Prince GW, Shield (yes i know the shields are redundant, but I needed sorta WYSIWYG), Armour of Destiny

Herald BSB Flaming Banner (the odd one out, I was sure that we would play a kill the BSB scenario... but we did not... so points wasted)

Core:

41 Skeletons, HW/Sh Full Command

2 x 10 Archers with mus.

3 Chariots mus

5 Light Horse

29 Tomb Guard FC

3 Carrion

Screaming Skull

Colossus with xtra HW

Casket


I was confident that it was an ok list, and I was able to give battle to some very competitive builds. My lack of experience and generalship did show at times, but all this will come with time. After the games and considering my list a few things did become very apparent:
- Small archer units are useless if the enemy shoots at them at all... as soon as they drop below 5 your priests are in danger!... never leave home in a unit of less that 15-20.
- I needed a third "block"... in most games my opponents out blocked me and were able to dictate the pace of the game, having a second horde of skellies would have given me more field control, this is reflected in my 2500pt list.
- I missed my level 4! 2 level 2's were great... but to reliably get off any of the un-boosted spells I was having to roll 3 dice. With a lv4 you can get away with 2 dice, increasing the number of spells to cast.
- Casket was awesome, every... single... game!
- Horse archers were awesome!... need to take 10 so that they can hold their own in the backfield.
- Tomb Guard need the BoUL!... they tend to get into combats away from the spell bubbles. Sometimes you just need some dedicated raising on them, during the tournament this would have helped a lot against a few of my opponents!

Anyway this is just a tidbit to get you going. And here is an army picture, the display board is not mine, just something that I used for the day because mine is not finished yet.




Cheers!