First up COLOSSALS!!!

PP announce their next BIG expansion for war machine, called Colossals, which introduces Massive new warjacks to the system. These warlocks will sit on battle engine bases & are 3 times the size of normal warjacks.

Check out the video

Next up is Iron Kingdoms

“It is a land like no other, a place where steam power and gunpowder meet sword and sorcery.

The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a tumultuous future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains. Immerse yourself in the detailed world of gritty conflict and sorcery with the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Unleash the power of mechanika, the fusion of magic and machine. Take on the persona of unique character classes, like the gun mage who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms or the steamjack-commanding warcaster. Travel through a fantastic world that takes classic fantasy concepts and gives them a new twist with a high-octane rush of steam power and industrial engineering.

Prepare yourself for an experience like no other.

The world of the Iron Kingdoms awaits!”

The role playing game that spawned Warmachine and Hordes, is relaunching this summer with a whole new rule set, based on 2d6 mechanic similar to whats used in the tabletop game. I for one can’t wait for this, there will be plenty of powder kegs for all!!!

Check out the video

Last but not least, War Room

PP’s new war machine app for building lists, tracking damage & keeping up to date with rule changes

• Army Creation Workshop: Players can select their faction and game size and then choose their warcasters and warlocks, warjacks or warbeasts, units, solos, and battle engines to create valid lists, all within the War Room application.
• Full Card Display: Model stat cards are shown exactly as they are printed, so players can reference them easily and with the same confidence as printed cards.
• In-Game Status Tracking: In-game damage and status tracking will give players immediate and easily accessible information on every fighting model in their command.
• In-Game List Sharing: Lists will be sharable between every player using War Room in the same game so they can quickly access each other’s model status and abilities, allowing players to keep their focus on the tabletop action.
• Turn Clock: This optional player-initiated feature allows players to keep individual turns fast but fairly apportioned.

The base app is a free download and contains cards from all current WARMACHINE and HORDES starter products.

Full faction decks for both WARMACHINE and HORDES will be available as additional downloads for $6.99. Every deck will include all currently released stat cards for that faction as well as new model updates for the life of the current rules set.

Very interesting idea about instant update to rules & errata! Cant wait to check it out

Check out the Video

An Infinity tournament will be run on the Sunday at the University College Dublin RetCon games convention.

Details below.

For anybody who might be interested and doesn’t know, 250 points is a 30 euro starter box, plus two of the higher point value 9 euro blisters . So it can be reasonably done for 50 euro if you want. Here’s a guide to starting Infinity for anybody considering it - http://infinity-ireland.org/node/13

All available from Gamers World on Jervis street of course.

Quozl

RETCON Infinity tournament – Sunday April 1st.

2nd member tournament of the 2012 All-Ireland Infinity Cup.

Free to enter – however you need to pay in to the convention, 7 euro for the day or 10 euro for the weekend.
250 points.
5 SWC.
Beginner friendly.
Scenario based.
Painting NOT required – minor bonus for fully painted forces of +1 to willpower for starting roll.
Space for 12 players – maybe more, TBC.

Rules are as per the Infinity cup rules – available here http://www.dragonslayers.org.uk/images/files/infinity%20cup%20rules.pdf

With two minor changes:
Sign-up email address is ‘events at infinity-ireland dot org’ (replace at with @, and dot with .)
Players can sign-up on the day as well as in advance. Spaces will only be held for those who have signed up beforehand until official tournament start time.

2012 is of to a great start for Warmachine and Hordes, a great turn out for Warpcon’s war machine tournament & a big congrats to Neil Kettles & his Retribution of Scryah army  for taking the win in his first Irish tournament, great stuff.

But whats next? Well the next 2 tournaments coming up for Warmachine are just around the corner:

February 12th in Gamers World – 50 Point Tournament, SR2012 – Starts at 10pm for registration & costs 10 Euro entry - Details

Looks like its going to be a busy couple of months, can’t wait!

Hope to see you all there!

Ciaran

As promised …

Gamers World will be offering a 5 round 1000 point 40K tournament on Saturday February 11th. Capacity will be max 32 players.

There is no reservation of tickets for this event. Tickets are available on a first come first served basis for those who wish to purchase them.
Tickets are available after 10:00 Friday 13th January 2012 and can only be secured by following the instructions in the rulespack.

The rules-pack is available here …

The TO reserves the right to update rulespack based on questions received.

Any queries you can PM me or email me at warriorviii@gmail.com

Hey all!

My name is Daire and I am the chairman of a new wargamming club called WarSoc set up in Thurles, LIT Tipperary.
WarSoc are running “Conquer”, a one day Warhammer 40k event in Thurles, on the 18th of February. The tournament will be held in the college campus of LIT Tipperary Thurles. It will be a 1000 point tournament with standard force organisation rules. It will be €5 entry on the day and five games shall be played. There will be a maximum capacity of 32 players for the tournament.
Conquer will be our first event and we hope to share it with ye all, mostly we want to just have some fun! See ye all on the 18th!

http://w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2459

The Warmachine/Hordes Irish Masters will be taking place at Leprecon 33 on March 3rd and 4th.

The format for the Irish Masters will be:
35 points (+7 points of Reinforcements per list)
5 rounds
10 minute turns, one 5 minute extension per round (relaxed timing)
3 Lists Required, each list must be used once and no list may be used more than twice
Characters Restricted (Note: Epic and Non-Epic versions of the same model count as separate characters)
Steamroller 2012 Rules: http://privateerpress.com/files/SR2012Final.pdf

Entry will be 20 Euro at the door or 17 Euro if you pre-book online.

Alternatively players will be able to pre-book in person with me for a discounted rate of 15 Euro (which is entry to Leprecon, basically making the Masters free). I’ll try and state times when I’ll be available to take pre-books. The first time will be at Warpcon in Cork I’ll post other times and places in this thread when they arise.

http://w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2455

Following Barry Lynch’s victory at the inaugural event in 2011, King of the Gnoblars returns for a second year this March. The Wargaming Association of Cork invites Warhammer Fantasy Battle players from all walks of gaming life to come and compete for the title of 2012 champion.

The event will run in UCC on the 3rd and 4th of March and will cost €10/person or €40 for a team ticket of 5 people.

Neil vs. Lorcan: 35pt battle report

Bonjour folks!  As promised (threatened?) last week, I have a second blog entry for you.  Sorry if last week’s battle report was too tedious to read all the way through… but there were *issues* with the photographs.  This time I’m going to practice my HTML skills (hah!) and link the pictures from somewhere like Flickr or Photo-bucket.  The plan is also to fiddle with them a bit first, and have annotated notes for each game-round.  You never know, it might even work!

The Army:

As much as I really want to play Lord Arcanist Ossyan (only recently painted), I’m still not as comfortable with Kaelyssa as I’d like to be, and consecutive games with her seem to be the best way to learn her various tricks.  Soooo, I’m gonna tweak last week’s list instead:

1. Kaelyssa (+7 Warjack points)
2. Phoenix (10 points)
3. Manticore (8 points)
4. Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2 points)
5. 2*Arcanist (2 points)
6. 10 Mage Hunter Strike Force (8 points)
7. Mage Hunter Commander (2 points)
8. Soulless Escort (1 point)
9. 10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)

10. Officer and Standard (2 points)

The Theory:

I was very tempted to substitute my second Warjack from last week’s list for some brutal melee solos (of which the Retribution has more than a few), but despite the general advocacy of one ‘jack per ‘caster on the Scyrah Forums, I like giant robots.  Besides, the more targets for “Witch Hound” the better.  In the end, I swapped the Hydra for a Manticore and a second Arcanist; Sentinels for the ever dependable MHSF (acronyms rock!); and Lanyssa Ryssyll for a partisan-mercenary who actually has a function.

Lorcan’s dudes:

I met Lorcan at Connolly Bridge Burger King, and we talked sh!t at each other through mouthfuls of hot meat(!).  He told me he’d brought two Khador lists (not Circle Orboros then?); one super-competitive, the other *just for fun*…  I never asked which one the Epic Butcher was when he deployed it across the table from me:

1. Epic Butcher (+6 Warjack points)
2. Beast 09 (11 points)
3. Juggernaut (7 points)
4. Yuri the Axe (3 points)
5. Manhunter (2 points)
6. Doom Reavers (6 points)
7. Greylord Escort (2 points)
8. 6 Winter Guard Infantry (4 points)
9. Officer and Standard (2 points)

10. Rocketeer (1 point)

11. Winter Guard Mortar Crew (3 points)

Scenario:

We went for a rulebook scenario, and I rolled a 6: don’t remember what it’s called, but there were two 10” circles in the centre of the battlefield, and you won if by the end of your turn (starting 2^nd player’s third turn) you controlled both zones.  I won the roll, and decided to go first.

Round One

A fairly predictable opening salvo!  Roughly what went down is this: 

1. The MHSF advanced on the left-hand zone
2. Houseguard Halberdiers advanced in “Shieldwall”; had “Banishing Ward” cast upon them
3. Kaelyssa cast “Arcane Reckoning” on herself
4. Manticore gave some “Covering Fire”
5. Beast-09 had “Fury” cast upon him… because he totally needed it
6. The Mortar Crew went for a wild shot on Kaelyssa.  Missed

Round Two

I tried to be clever (You’d think I’d know by now that that NEVER works), but poor judgement on my part meant I came out of this round worse off than Lorcan: 

1. Actually, the MHSF did OK and murdered two Winter Guard
2. The Halberdiers charged the Doom Reavers, killed two; then got PWNED in the retaliation
3. I was half an inch short of “Rift-ing” the Manhunter’s face off through the Phoenix’s Arc Node.  At least the AOE drifted and disrupted the line somewhat with Rough Terrain
4. Kaelyssa popped her Feat, denying the charges that would have utterly destroyed both of my Warjacks.  Go me!

Round Three

This time it was bad luck that did for me, on two specific rolls (grumble grumble RAEG)…

1. …except for the MHSF who did great; murdering the remaining Winter Guard apart from the Officer – who then failed his test!  Woot!
2. My super-duper powered-up Manticore f@cking MISSED Beast-09 with his Combo-strike…  Don’t think I need to tell you what happened next (that Wreck Marker ain’t there for decoration)
3. My wall of expendable dudes in front of Kaelyssa evaporated in the face of eButcher, and proved Rage Tokens for his guys to shuffle up a bit
4. The Phoenix failed to Combust Yuri to death by ONE point of damage, despite boosting the roll

Round Four

Panic mode: 

1. The MHSF took a run/charge Order; finished off the Winter Guard with a Combined Melee Attack, and scooted over to help Kaelyssa
2. The Phoenix FINALLY Combusted Yuri (and two Doom Reavers and my Halberdier Standard Bearer) to death, only to be wiped out by the remaining Doom Reavers
3. Kaelyssa ran away with full FOCUS

Round Five

I think the picture says it all!  I made the mistake of trying to paper-cut eButcher a little with the MHSF (obviously to no effect whatsoever) before shooting him with Kaelyssa.  What I SHOULD have done, however, was shoot the already damaged Beast instead: I would a) have had a much better chance of damaging him and b) Lorcan *might* have taken the bait and moved Beast towards the MHSF with “Hyper-aggressive”, thereby opening up a charge-lane.  Kaelyssa would have had a marginally better chance stabbing eButcher than shooting him, but in the end took him for about 12 points of damage between spells and bullets.  He responded by casting “Boundless Charge” on himself, and splitting my Warcaster down the middle with his initial swing. 

I lose!

Now, I know I said last week that I’d try to keep it down to 1000 words next time, and so far I have.  So far…

Game 2: Neil vs. Mark

There was time for a second game, AND a new opponent willing to beat my face in!  I decided to try out Ossyan after all, and Damien helped me build a list on the fly:

• Lord Arcanist Ossyan (+6 Warjack points)
• Phoenix (10 points)
• Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2 points)
• 10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
  • Officer and Standard (2 points)
  • 10 Dawnguard Invictors (10 points)
  • Officer and Standard (2 points)
  • 4 Stormfall Archers (5 points)
  • Eiryss (3 points)

I liked it!  Had good shooting, and a couple of excellent targets for “Quicken”.  Fewer Warjacks than I would normally like, but that left room for more great units.  Mark had Cygnar, and was proxying Greygore Boomhowler for the new Ogrun Assault Corps.  I think it went something like this:

• Siege Brisbane (+5 Warjack points)
• Grenadier (5 points)
• Defender (9 points)
• Squire (2 points)
• 10 Trencher Infantry (10 points)
• Officer and Standard (3 points)
• Rifle Grenadier (1 point)
• 3 Ogrun assault Corps (6 points)
• Captain Jonas Murdoch (2 points)

Mark won the roll-off, but gave me first turn.  Basically I just shoved everything as far up the board as possible; casting “Quicken” on the Halberdiers so they could advance 11” in Shieldwall, and running the Invictors so that they benefitted from “Defensive Line”.  Mark responded by “Cautiously Advancing” and pinging my Phoenix for a few points of damage, and taking out one Halberdier and Invictor.

I upkept Quicken for free thanks to Sylys, and charged the Halberdiers into the Ogruns and Trenchers, using their “Follow Up” move to engage the survivors.  Ossyan then cast Quicken on the Phoenix, moved forward and popped his Feat.  The Invictors blew up the Grenadier; the Phoenix walked 8” and Combusted on more Trenchers!  The Stormfall Archers did a whack of damage to the Defender; and Eiryss “Disrupted” Siege like this:

Mark was able to kill off most of the Halberdiers, and even do a bit of damage to the Phoenix with “Assaulting” Trenchers (although he later felt dumb for giving me more Combustion targets; he had in fact prevented me from stabbing Siege with the Phoenix’s Thermal Blade next turn by clogging me up).  Quite spectacularly, Siege then blew up all the Stormfalls with a “Ground Pounder” attack, and under his Feat the Defender was then able to take Ossyan DOWN TO THREE HEALTH with a single shot.  Ouch!

The Phoenix burninated four more Trenchers, and the Halberdier Officer hit-but-failed-to-damage a Trencher that was blocking LOS to Siege.  Eiryss had to kill him instead, and then I went for the assassination with Ossyan and the five Invictors who could get range (I’d popped their mini-feat a turn too early).  When the smoke cleared and I’d spent all my Focus, Siege had THREE HEALTH LEFT; and the battlefield looked like this:

I lose!

Oh well – two fun games and a bunch of lessons learnt!  I do like the Retribution’s latest Warcaster, and that list was a blast to play!  I’ll bring it along next week for my game against Nick’s Skorne.  I’m going to leave Kaelyssa for the moment though, and bring a variation of my Garryth list in case of a second game.  I think they’d be a good pairing for Warpcon on the 28/29^th.

Until Next week!

Neil

]]> http://w-ired.org/blog/2012/01/14/the-retribution-of-neil-part-2/feed/ 0 http://w-ired.org/blog/2012/01/11/substitute-soldiers/ http://w-ired.org/blog/2012/01/11/substitute-soldiers/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:05:26 +0000 Mandragoran http://w-ired.org/blog/?p=979 Using alternative miniatures in your games!

- by James Carey

Time has passed since the early days of miniature gaming, when Games Workshop effectively stood alone in miniature gaming. Since the early days of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader and the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play Mass Combat game, many things have changed. For one, Games Workshop are now a commercial juggernaught. Still a leader in their field and turning profits in a recession, there are so many mainstream commercial enterprises which are falling on hard times (HMV) or as we all know too well are gone altogether.

While GW has undoubtedly changed in the last fifteen or so years, so have many other things in gaming. Other companies have surfaced some have come and gone while others, like Privateer Press, Corvus Belli, Mantic games, Rackham, Warlord Games, and Mongoose Publishing to name a few have surfaced. Some have had a massive impact on the hobby on a world-wide scale, bringing something new and special to the hobby, for the benefit of all! Maybe doing GW the favour of providing some healthy competition. Unfortunately, some have faded into the mists of obscurity for all time*.

So with many other companies, new and old, producing models in a varied range including historical, fantasy, science fiction, and alternative history, the modern gamer has a wide amount of choice for alternative toy soldiers to really personalise their own armies.

Personally, I have always liked to use models from the same company, regardless of game, in my armies for conversions or even simply alternative models. Over time though, this has changed slightly, but my own reason for doing so was because I felt the consistent look with the same scale and sculptors across the ranges, primarily with my GW armies seemed somehow more fitting. While I have become more lax with this on account of more products being available to me I still retain this mentality with Privateer Press games, mainly because that particular line and gaming world is so unique. In contrast, you could easily use some generic sci-fi soldiers or even WW2 models as Imperial Guard regiments for Warhammer (if the scale is right, in my humble opinion…), it is very hard to find an alternative for Cryx Bonejacks or Cyngar Stormblades.

Now, we come full circle. The tournament scene in Ireland has exploded in the last few years. People are travelling to more events, the internet has become a very useful communications tool for advertising tournaments and interaction between gamers who normally would not get the chance to talk all that much. While I miss Games Workshop running tournaments in Ireland, I think it is a very good thing that there are independently run tournaments by gamers, for gamers. A major problem I always had with the Games Workshop tournament pack was models had to be GW. This used to be the model having to be at least 50% GW. I heard recently that this percentage has increased. ‘Terrible’ is the word I would use to describe this rule.

I remember a few years back a GW tournament in Limerick where a local (at the time) from the Gathering used a Feral Ork army, using large dinosaur models as his Squiggoths and converting them. He had two in the army if I recall correctly. Long story short, he was told he couldn’t use them as they were not 50% GW, and part of them were scratch built. So, this cool, unique army was not allowed to play! I don’t know if this guy stopped playing because of this, but within a few months he had stopped visiting into the shop, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him at a con or a tournament since. I’d imagine that these two things are related. I could be wrong, in fact I hope I’m wrong but due to this silly rule, a unique army has been lost to the gaming scene, and now Ireland is down one gamer.

Anyway, let’s try and keep it positive, and less about anger at big businesses and their brain-dead policies. Mantic games have released their Space Dwarves**, and they are very, very nice. What the hell, they are awesome. Buy them, use them as Forge Fathers in Warpath, and get friends in your gaming group interested by getting the local Space Ork player to bring along his models to use as Warpath Orx***, so nobody else has to spend money if they don’t want to. Then, use your Space Dwarves as Space Marines, in independently run tournaments, where it will be allowed. So now, you have saved money with less expensive models, have an army for two games, and in one game, a very unique looking Space Marine army.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and hope it didn’t come across as a jumbled mess with no direction in its writing, or a shameless plug of my own political opinion/agenda. Vote Republican! Gingrich 2012

Remember: Violence is never the answer, unless the question is ‘What is not the answer?’

*Rest in peace, Starship Troopers. Your time with us, though short, is fondly remembered.

**Pronounced ‘Forge Fathers’

***Pronounced ‘Orcs’

The Retribution of Neil

Preamble

Bonjour and welcome to what I hope will become a weekly fixture.  I’m 27 (nearly 28), and currently studying a Masters at UCD.  I’ve been obsessed with model soldiers for AGES, but only ever played the various flavours of Warhammer until quite recently.  Warmachine always looked pretty kewl; but it wasn’t until the advent of mk-II in 2010 that I finally took the plunge.  Three continents later (I got the bug half-way through a Working Holiday in Australia, and my dudes have since battled in British Columbia as well as my hometown of Edinburgh), and I’ve never looked back!

As far as models go, I have *most* of the Retribution of Scyrah, a fair chunk of Protectorate of Menoth and some Thornfall Alliance.  All of it is painted using the rather fabulous Army Painter products (in fact, my Protectorate and Retribution armies look practically identical; both are primed with “Skeleton Bone”), and transported in two rather nifty Battlefoam cases.  Alas, I could only bring one case to Dublin on the plane, so after much hand-wringing I elected to bring just my Angry Elves.  Maybe I’ll swap them out when I next go home.

For those of you that don’t already know what “Warma-hordes” is (Hordes is a separate, but wholly compatible game published by the same company), I’m afraid you’re about to be subjected to some seriously spurious analogies as I try to explain the mechanics of the game and its setting within the Iron Kingdoms.  If you’re already a convert, then please skip down to this week’s battle report.

Depending upon who you ask, there are between 9 and 11 factions across the two games; but while each one has *general* defining characteristics, it is more appropriate to say there are over 100 different “Warcasters” and “Warlocks” to choose from (about 10 per faction).  These guys are all unique characters with their own back-stories and spells, and are the starting point for every army-list.  A game of Warmachine is probably best described as a “what if?” scenario, fought between two such mighty personalities of Western Immoren during the current climate of Serious Sh!t Going Down.

Although there are usually specific objectives to complete in each game, you can always win by “assassinating” your opponent’s Warcaster or Warlock.  In this regard, he/she is a bit like a King in chess, if a little more proactive!  In Warmachine, you get so many FOCUS points every turn which you can either “allocate” to your giant steam-powered robots (the Warjacks) to make them even more badass, cast your own spells, or “camp” to buff your armour for a turn.  The FURY system in Hordes is similar; but rather than automatically receiving the points each turn, they have to be generated by poking the hopped-up monsters under your Warlock’s control (that’ll be the Warbeasts, then…), and then “reeving” their latent energy.  In addition, all Warcasters and Warlocks have an individual “Feat” – a once-per-game ability that can turn the tide of battle if timed well.

A player-turn consists of activating each model/unit in any order that you wish, and performing a “move” and then an “action” with them.  Models fight individually, and combat is worked out by adding 2D6 to the relevant statistic of the attacking model’s card (such as “MAT” for melee attacks), and comparing the result to the corresponding statistic on the recipient’s (such as “DEF” for defence).  The game is all about pulling off dirty combinations, but the rules are so tightly written that you can rest assured the designers expect nothing less of their players!

But enough of my rambling – it’s time I got on with this week’s battle report.  If you’d like to know more, I strongly recommend you visit the Privateer Press Website and check out the Warmachine and Hordes galleries.  The nice folks also provide free basic rules for both games here and here (scroll to the bottom of each page).

Battle Report

The format for these will probably change every week until I settle on something I like.  At the moment, my current feelings are that narrative battle-reports are silly, and that detailed blow-by-blow accounts are tedious (I’ve written both in my time).  Edited highlights are the way to go, and illustrative photographs are Full Of Win.  Feel free to send me your suggestions – just don’t be offended if I ignore them…

I decided to base my first “Irish” list off a Garryth list I’ve had reasonable tournament success with… but with a different Warcaster that a) I needed practice with, and b) ought to be a better fit for the list anyway.  I also swapped some things around to fit in a second Warjack.  Bizarrely, I ended up supplying my opponent’s list too, because I hadn’t actually organised a game, just turned up at Gamers World with a hopeful expression on my face.  Paul took pity on me and consented to a quick game – but not until he’d rather spectacularly ripped apart Pearse’s Blood Angels with his brutal Necron army (bless ‘im).

First and foremost I hope that the New Year finds you all well, that you’ve gotten lots of gaming and fun in over the festive season and that you’re all geared up for a bumper year of dice throwing!

You’ll probably have noticed a good amount of changes on the Wargaming Ireland forum recently, with new mods (like myself) new sections and generally a lot more activity. We’ve also upped our social networking game with our facebook page being lovingly nurtured by Mr. O’Mahony and our Twitter feed keeping you up to date on the spot at tournaments around the country and beyond. Basically speaking things have been ticking along nicely and now that wave of change is here to sweep through the blog.

The grand plan is to have w-ired as your one stop shop as a wargaming resource, from blog articles about grand international gaming ongoings right down to forums for your local club banter. Here’s hoping you can join us and get involved with the burgeoning community.

On that note lets kick things off with a friendly visitor to our shores Mr. Neil Kettles telling us all about his adventures in Warmachine

PQ

I wanted to touch base with everyone to let you all know what we have been up to!

The European Team Championships, to me, are an extension of our love for our hobby. A chance for us to demonstrate what a great gaming scene we have in Ireland and allow us to make friends with gamers from all over the world.  As captain, it’s my privilege to put together a team that represents the best of the Irish gaming scene. Great Gamers, who love a bit of banter(read also beer) while playing for their country. Pretty Cool!

With all this in mind I’ve assembled a panel of people from all over the country to help get the best team going and support this team in any and all ways possible.

• Held a number of small-scale fundraising events at  events around the country including range guessing at Conspiracy, Dominicon’s arena of Death and Moocons raffles
• Submitted our own mission pack for consideration for use at the event itself!
• Secured sponsorship for the team from a number of quarters to make sure that our teams are supported as much as possible in going to the event in Poland. The IGA in particular must get a call out for their support – Thanks again guys
• In regards to making sure that the Irish team all look the part we held an open design competition to help Team Ireland “look the part” in Poland with the coolest looking t-shirts around (you’ll be able to vote on the finalists soon so watch this space)
• Identified a supplier for Team Ireland Bags
• We will also be looking for Dice designs pretty soon
• Accommodation for the team is sorted in both Poland and UK
• Analysis, List design and rules querying really kick off in  a big way in the new year.

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the time and effort of the panel and there’s still a whole lot more to be done.

If you want to offer help sign up here – http://www.w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1958  and tell us what you’d be interested in doing.

Also, if you see me or anyone else involved with the panel at events, make yourself known! Part of my goal as captain is to ensure we utilize the talents of everyone in our community to make sure that YOUR team is the best it can be.

This is a small gaming community so we are really going to need an army of list play testers in the coming weeks once the rulespacks are decided upon.

Keep an eye out for some team tournaments in the new year too! Rumours of events in each of Dublin/Cork and maybe even Galway abound so stay tuned… team events add a whole extra level of fun. Nothing like being able to pat a team mate on the back for saving your bacon ‘cos ”that  dice just kept rolling 1’s”

Lastly to let you know what’s coming up in the new year.

• ·Expect to hear from me a little more often as we get into crunch time!
• We have the final few rounds of qualifying so if you want a space on the team make the best case possible!
• Team announcements will  be made in early April
• The inaugural border shield will  be on the 7^th April as we host Team Northern Ireland
• The 6 Nations (now including Belgium) will be held at the end of April

Anyway folks you’ll be hearing from me from time to time about what we have planned, how its all progressing and how you can help us. Until then take care and heres to rolling the dice for team Ireland in 2012!!!

Mike Tangney

Captain, Team Ireland 40k

From the press release -

• Pure Kolinsky Sable Hair bristles.
• Chrome plated Brass ferrule.
• High Grade Aluminium Handle (no swelling as per wooden handles).
• Excellent snap & ample volume hold.
• Extremely light and well balanced for those long painting sessions.

And the really interesting bit -

• The handle itself can be unscrewed from the tip, becoming a cap for the brush. Due to it being threaded, your brush will not come apart when done up. No moisture trapped due to small ventilation hole in the end of the cap/handle.

Storage and transport of brushes is usually a bit of a pain. These brushes sound like they could be a good option and the prices look pretty decent as well

Campaign Night 1
War had come to the ancient island of Jaipain. Armies were already being mustered on the plains. In the High passes the Dwarves and Elves prepared to march, grumbling over their uneasy treaty. Along the beach scores of halberdiers lofted their weapons shoulder high like a forest of willowy steel pines. In the forests and the dark places of the island the Beastmen crept into the sunlight braying at the winters sun. And from the sea mightiest of them all The God King Heff stood at the prow of his flagship girding his well-endowed loins in the wind and slapping the faces of the gods themselves with his manhood.
The Empire and the Dwarves were first to clash forming up in blustering lines on the western shore. Threats were hurled, mothers were insulted but in the end like two strutting peacocks both forces limped away after their empty posturing.

More to the north the God king Heff was the first of his people to set foot on the golden shores. Spreading his feet wide he placed his muscular legs upon the sand and proclaimed to his men “I have led you to the promised land now bow before me and you shall receive my salty blessing”. The ignorant natives having seen this display of power bent the knee also and began calling him Godzilla after their elephant God.

The battle however did not go as well. Taking advantage the beastmen hordes erupted from the nearby forests. Caught completely unawares only the tactical brilliance of the God King allowed his men to make a tactical treat. As Ste-Gor prophet of the Stumpty Orphan God shook his fist and hurled his faeces at their departing backs.

Well the first night of games went well. Spurred on by a brilliantly written scenario in which one side had to force their way into their opponent’s deployment zone two epic games of warhammer were played.  In the main game my mighty Chaos army limped into action against Steve’s beastmen hordes. Unfortunately due to extreme luck and a dodgy last turn stubborn roll I was robbed of victory giving Steve the bonus points for the mission and went down 17-3. Not the first time I ve gone down with this army and it probably won’t be the last time I go down… but still it left a dirty taste in my mouth.

The second game beside us descended into farce and quickly became one of the most boring and pussiest games of warhammer I’ve ever seen. Like two tramps without a can opener and a tin of beans they stood staring at each other for most of the night with not a clue what to do. Some models moved forward and some moved back and that was about it. The only highlight of the game was Fergus continuing soiling himself as they both played out a dull 10-10 draw.

So after the first week Steve has lucked himself into the dominate position…something, judging from his John Wayne like walk, he is completely used to. Next week should see Steve take on the might of the Scully’s pick-and-mix army. Jolly old saint Nic will be the campaigning virgin trying to protect his modesty and Bretonnians from hoary old Fergus.
Till then bye.

As recounted by the Heff from the Underground Gamers on the Wargaming Ireland forum

Less than 2 weeks to go!!!

Irelands First 50 Point Warmachine/Hordes Tourney Sunday 12th Feb Gamers World

50 points of metal crashing against beast!
Unleash the full might of your army on your foes!

This will be the first tournament of this size being run here & will run the finalised steamroller 2012 rule set.

When – 12th Feb 2011
Where – Gamers World, Dublin
Cost – Euro 10
Prizes – 1st, 2nd, and a variety of others/spot prizes
Players – Max 20
Rounds – 4 rounds
System – Steamroller 2012

Pre-booking available – email me/pm me and i will send on the details

A very handy set for how many troops are down in a squad

numbered 1 to 13 to make it really easy

They also do tokens for the characters

Look they have cute little crowns and stuff

I really like these ones for keeping track of which vehicle still has it’s shields up

I'm guessing the broken shield is bad

What: Steamroller 2012 Beta Tournament (SR2012 Beta Rules (PDF); NOTE – these rules are beta and subject to change. They will be removed from the site after the tournament.)
Where: Gamers World, Dublin
Date & Time: 10/12/2011. 11am hard start, registration begins at 10:15 AM.
Entry Fee: €10.
Points: 35 points, two lists (optional). Lists must be written. If taking a theme force, players are required to bring a copy of the theme rules. Note: Reinforcements will not be used in this tournament.
Restrictions: Models or Units with FA:C cannot be in both lists. For the purpose of regular versus epics, epic models are considered to be different characters than their regular versions.
Timing: 10 minute timed turns (standard for 35pts is 7 minute timed turns, but I’m relaxing it for this one)
Tie-breakers: For the tournament, if there is no outright winner, Control Points will be tiebreaker. Second tiebreaker will be Army Points.

Prizes will include best general, 2nd place and a few spot prizes.

See you all there.

Owen

Wet pallet

The first thing you need to prepare before you start a blending, actually in my opinion before you start any painting at all, is a wet pallet. This is basically wet tissue paper with baking paper on top. What does a wet pallet add to your painting? While water evaporates from the colour and dries
down your colour quickly the baking paper acts as a membrane and delivers water to the colour at the same. Thus it keeps your colour in ideal consistency for much longer. This is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary for blendings where you paint over a long period of time with thinned and self-mixed colours. If you can close your wet pallet, e.g if you prepare it in a box of tubba-ware, you can even keep it over night.

An example of wet pallet, mainly shades of grey for silver NMM

Classic blending

The blending what you normally see is based on the following principle. You start by mixing up different shades of colours, e.g. black to white in 8-10 shades using chaos black, codex grey, fortress grey and skull white for Silver NMM. You need to thin them by 1:4-1:10 with water or colour thinner and you should use a wet pallet (baking paper on wet tissue on a plate does the job). Then you apply layers starting with the darkest colour going up to the brightest. The important thing with blending is, that you keep the brush parallel to the gradient and move it away from the dark colour. Also you do not use the tip but the flat side of the brush. Normally you would apply a couple of layers on top of each other but leaving out a little bit more of the painted area with each step. I think the picture explains it. There is three different blendings just to show you the effect of adjusting the number of layers and the transparency (i.e. the dilution of the colours). Top is a poor blending with few layers and comparibly thick colours. Middle: Colour thinned out. Bottom: Colour thinned out and more layers applied. I think you can see the improvement of the blending with each step.

In order to obtain an even better result you can use very thin colour to smooth out the gradient by applying wave like brush strokes along the intersections of two shades.

There is a bit more behind blending, but because I do not use the “ideal” blending I wouldn’t go into more detail.

Fast Blending

My approach to blending is much faster and explained in the following. But I have to point out that it’s rather fake blending than real blending what I’m doing.

The basic principle behind the blending is fairly simple. Instead of applying many different layers with straight edges I apply less thinned layers (typically 1:1 or 1:2 colour:water) and with the tip of the brush I prepare uneven intersections between the different layers. Something like this:

It’s up to you to find the right settings (thickness of the brush strokes, dilution of the colours, amount of layers etc.) to obtain the correct effect. Normally I need only one layer of each colour to get a more or less smooth blending. Too sharp contrasts can be smoothed out by using thinner colours and paint in a wave like manner along the intersections of two colours (just like smoothing out with normal blending).

The more often you do the smoothing, the better the blending will be. But obviously it also takes more time and since I want to get a decent blending in as short a time as possible I try to minimize the extra effort.

Well, that’s it for Blending. I think it’s mainly a matter of training to get this technique straight. Good shapes to train blendings on are coats, cylindrical shapes such as armour plates on legs and arms and straight areas such as armour plates on vehicles. Generally it is good if the area is of medium size
rather than too large (e.g. on LARGE vehicles) or small (e.g. frames of gems). And the micro-shape shouldn’t be too confusing in the beginning.

The Test model is done up for for my first venture into square hammer & I’m fairly happy with it so far.

What do you think?

Test Ogre

I’ll put more photos up as i go along

QUB Dragonslayers will be hosting a special Wargames Event day and Miniatures Bring & Buy sale on Saturday 20th August 2011.

This event “Exchange Of Arms” (EOA) has been set up with the aim of getting wargames players of all systems to meet one another and gauge interest in holding regular games and tournaments for the Irish gaming community. If you’ve been trying to find local players for your preferred system (infinity, Warmachine, Hordes, Heavy Gear, Blood Bowl, Malifaux) but don’t know where to start, this event will provide the opportunity to do so. Bring down anything and everything you want to play, we want as many people from as many different clubs, organizations and groups to come down and see who’s playing what.

All tables and terrain will be provided for the event and we hope to have demo games and mini-tournaments of various systems on offer to new players. Anyone interested in running demo games or tournaments at EOA should e-mail info@dragonslayers.org.uk with details of the game system, rules (where applicable) and format.

EOA will also have a Miniatures Bring & Buy sale giving attendees the opportunity to sell their excess minis and perhaps find some bargains to replace them. Stall’s are open to individuals not commercial trade operations.

Stall tables for the bring & buy sale must be arranged in advance of the event by contacting the Dragonslayers Committee at info@dragonslayers.org.uk

Stall holders will be responsible for the transport and security of their items as well as all cash handling at the event. Stall tables will be given out on a first come first served basis so we advise you to get there early to ensure your place.

Any questions or queries about the bring & buy sale should be e-mailed to the Dragonslayers Committee in advance of the event.

For more information visit the Drgonslayers website http://www.dragonslayers.org.uk

Event Details:

Where: “The Space”, 1st Floor Queens University Students Union, Belfast

When: Saturday 20th August, 10am-10pm

How Much: Entry is Completely Free and open to members of the public.

Important Information:
EOA is open to attendees under 18 years of age, however anyone under 18 will be required to leave the Students Union venue by 8pm sharp in accordance with Students Union guidelines. Anyone under the age of 12 will have to be accompanied by a legal guardian while at the event and will also have to leave the venue by 8pm. In line with Students Union guidelines we will be enforcing a strict over 18′s only policy for anyone staying after 8pm ID WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THOSE WISHING TO STAY

Entry to the event is free for all attendees however some games or tournaments may charge a nominal entry fee. In this case a prize will be provided by the game organizer. Anyone wishing to run a game or tournament where an entry fee should be charged should contact the Dragonslayers committee in advance of the event.

The event organizers reserve the right to refuse entry to the event and to eject any attendee for unruly or disruptive behaviour.

This year Conspiracy will be the staging ground for the resurrection of the Irish Grand Tournament!

This tournament, to crown the best of the best in Ireland, will be using the missions being used at this year’s European Team Championship, a mixture of primary and secondary mission conditions using the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. The higher standard of play required to master these missions will allow only one victor through to the top but prizes are available for runners up also.

Terrain is kindly being provided by different sources and we welcome all and any input people may have regarding this tournament.

Questions and comments should be sent to irishgrandtournament@gmail.com

The submission deadline for this event is: 9th September 2011

The Rules pack can be downloaded here.

Rules packs and more information to follow.

Sign up thread see http://w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1725

If anyone is interested in attending, throw your name down here and I’ll add you to the list!

Merlin.

For more information see http://w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1667

Road to Glory II : The Revenge – Saturday September 3rd, Gamers World Dublin, 10am. 1000 points Fantasy. 4 games. Non-ranking. €10.

Road to Glory III : Mercury Rising – Saturday October 1st, Gamers World Dublin, 10am. 1250 points Fantasy. 4 games. Non-ranking. €10.

All welcome. Please note that players may attend as many or as few of the Road to Glory events as they wish. Free doughnuts will be provided (I’m not making that mistake again).
Entry fees break down as follows – €5 to the shop for tables. €3 for prizes for the current event. €2 retained for overall series prizes.
Full rulespacks with composition systems will be posted soon. One event will have very little comp, the other will have more.

Rules pack and registration for Road to Glory II : The Revenge see http://w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1739

Entry For tournament will be £6 and will include:

Unlimited Tea & coffee,Orange Juice
and Biscuits

Held at: Magee University, MF Building (beside the bottom car park), University of Ulster – Magee, Derry (Londonderry)

For more information see http://w-ired.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1729

I am pleased to announce the first annual (hopefully) BannerCon!

Tournament Information

Cost: 20 Euros
Capacity: Places for 52 players
Points: 1,750 points
Rounds: 5 games over 2 days
Location: Auburn Lodge Hotel, Gort Rd., Ennis, Co. Clare
Date: Weekend of the 13th and 14th of August
Other: This will be a Ranked Event with Prize Spport

James

Ciaran here, just a quick note to anyone thinking of trying Warmachine & Hordes, Owen Conlon (a fellow Pressganger) and myself will be running demo games in Gamers World, Dublin on the following days:

Tuesday 2nd August from 4pm

Wednesday 10th August from 6pm

We will have a mix of all the different factions, so you don’t need to bring anything. Though if you have a battle box already that you’d like to try, bring it along.

I have some copies of the Quick Start rules, which you can also get here -

Warmachine:

Hordes:

Let me know if you’re interested. Spread the word!

Ciaran

Welcome to the first Warmchine 101 Blog. My name is Ciaran and I am a Pressganger for Privateer Press, basically a volunteer to promote the game, and run demo’s and tournaments. I was recently asked a couple of questions about getting into Warmachine and Hordes so i though i would put them up here for anyone else that may be interested.

Q1) Which book is used for building armies? We noticed there are several profiles for the same units in say the Forces books, the Wrath book, and the Prime MkII book (though there are some units in some that aren’t in the others). So which one do we use?

A1) Unlike 40k/fantasy, Warmachine & Hordes doesn’t use codex’s for armies. Traditionally all armies are updated at the same time with a major book release, ie wrath for warmachine & the upcoming domination for hordes. There are army books out for all the factions, but this was done to update all the mark 1 model rules to mk2 & to consolidate all the old books into easier to manage/transport books for players. With regard to what books to use, its quite easy as you can use any of them in any combination, as long as you follow the standard allocation rules found in Prime/Primal. For people starting off I would try to keep it simple and use either Prime or Primal for unit choices until you get to grips with how the system works & then you can experiment with any of them

Q2) What is the standard points people play? None of us are likely to play on the tourney scene any time soon but starting on the same footing as everyone else would be handy.

A2) Standard games are either 35 (most of the tournaments i run ~ 1500pt 40k game) or 50 points (larger & more toys ~ 2000pt 40k game). Best thing to do for starting off is play 15 point games – which conveniently is what the battlebox/starter sets are worth. After that try add in a unit or 2 & play 25 point games to build yourself up. The game scales quite well & there are tournaments designed around starter set size games

Q3) Where can we find the points costs for each unit? For all the profiles found across books, we didn’t see any points values or anything similar system.

A3) Point cost is on all the model cards & should be in all the books. Generally your warcaster is free & gives you free points to spend on warjacks/beasts (usually between 5-8 though there are exceptions). Units cost between 5-8 points, solos cost anywhere from 1-4 points, and medium and heavy jacks/beasts cost 4-12 points. If you have an iphone/ipad/itouch/android device, go to the app store and look up ibodger & you will get the free Warmachine/Hordes army building program

Hope this helps & anyone has any more questions about Warmachine or Hordes on the forums, my username is madrab

Talk to you soon
Madrab

I will be running a 35 Point Warmachine/Hordes Tournament on 28th August in Gamer’s World Dublin. Full details are:
Steamroller 2011 Rules (can be found here: http://privateerpress.com/files/Official%20Steamroller%202011%20Rules.pdf )
35 points
2 lists allowed
10 Minute Turns
Registration begins at 10:30 am
Entry 10 Euro
No painting requirement

Prizes will include best general, 2nd place and a few spot prizes

I hope to see some of you there, it should be good fun. Spread the word to anyone i may have missed,

Ciaran

Vampire Lord – General – LV3 (Lore of Vampires) – The Flayed Hauberk – Talisman of Preservation – Helm of Commandment – Dark Acolyte – Forbidden Lore – Summon Ghouls

Vampire LV1 (Lore of Vampires) – BSB – Armour of Fortune – Black Periapt – Master of the Black Arts
Necromancer – Vanhel’s Danse Macabre- Dispel Scroll
Necromancer – Vanhel’s Danse Macabre – Power Stone

40 Crypt Ghouls
35 Crypt Ghouls
30 Crypt Ghouls
20 Skeleton Warriors FC
20 Grave Guard FC – The Banner of the Barrows

4 Cairn Wraiths
With the list decided I submitted it for Brocon and all was well.
Well so I thought, as I tried to get my Ghouls ready in time, I realised if current rumours are correct this would be the last fantasy tournament I’d be attending before an Ogre update, all going well and if Conclave II was at a similar time to last year,  the ogre update would be tournament legal.
Having played through 7th edition and into 8th I surely couldn’t give up on Ogres at this stage, it just didn’t seem right, so I quickly wrote out my standard list and sent it Brocon to replace my filthy Vampire list.
As Brocon quickly approaches my Ogres step once more and perhaps finally as the bottom tier army in to the breach, looking not to get beaten about the place. Although, there’s a saying in poker,” Look Around the Poker Table; If You Can’t See the Sucker, You’re It”. So I’ve looked at the sign up list so far for Brocon and I can’t seem to find the Bunny!
Should I be worried?