Hello MoD’ers,
It has certainly been a while since my last post. It has been quite a busy period for me, a lot of non-wargaming stuff going on. Having just attended the Bexley Reapers 2 day event, ‘Shroud of the Reaper, A new hope’, I felt inspired to put finger tip to keyboard and put out a quick post about my gaming exploits in 2024, so far.
In January the year I attended Matt Gorham’s ‘Stane of War 4’ in Surrey. My first opponent of the day was Stephen Stead with his ‘Halfling’ army this was a close run thing to be fair, and many Halflings were laid to rest following the fighting, however their strength in number proved to be my downfall and victory went to Stephen.
Next up was Robert James with his rabble of ‘Rift Forged Orcs’. It all seemed to be going well up to turn 2, when my dice turned on me, and Rob could roll no wrong, needless to say I was tabled with little impact upon Rob’s forces.
Lastly I faced Mark Cunningham and his ‘Ratkin Slaves’ An army that if you have little shooting to relay upon, you are more likely to damage your own troops than your opponents, I had only one shooting unit and consequently crumbled as soon as the units met in Melee. These poor results saw me collect my first wooden spoon of the year, although this did bag me a rather fine Mantic sculpt of ‘Rhordin the Dwarf’. I was also lucky enough to draw 2nd place with Andy Marshall for Best painted army, thank you very much to those that voted for my ‘Forces of Nature’ army.
March saw my annual trip to Hemel Hempstead for Kings of Herts 18, an event planned and organised by Paul Roberts and Mat Green. This is a Fundraising event that helps to raise money for the primary school where the event takes place. I had three really fun games against Matthew Rose’s ‘Empire of Dust’, Matt Pope and his ‘Ogres’ followed by Lee Ashby with his ‘Honorable Undead’. All three games really were close are really enjoyable, especially during the 2nd game where Matt Pope’s ‘Ogres’ devastated my ‘Centaur Hunters’, and went on to double 1 the unit twice, enabling them to be a thorn in his left flank for several rounds. My record for the day ended in 1 win and 2 losses over all. Despite the largely losing record I enjoyed all three games. No hobby awards this time, but to be fair with the level of painting skills on display at these events, it is always really difficult to choose any as a favourite, they are all very different and really, really good. Ben Hart-Shea’s beautiful ‘Herd’ army was overall winner this year.
As this is a fund raising event there was a raffle with some really cool prizes on offer, I was incredibly lucky to win an ‘Artis Opus’ series D paint brush set.
This May bank holiday (4th/5th) saw my first two day event, this was the ‘Shroud of the Reaper, A new hope’, which was run by Mark Cunningham and Grant Alexander of the Bexley Reaper wargaming club. I do like the Reaper events, which are set in ‘Freemantle Hall’, in Bexley village. My first game was against Julie Stevens and her ‘Northern Alliance’ which included two regiments of the new ‘Frostclaw’ flying cavalry. Things were quite even until turn three, when my dice started being nice to me, miracles can happen it seems. This resulted in a 6 – 1, victory which would later prove to be my downfall.
In round two my luck took a serious nose dive, as I drew Chris Lynch and his three giant, cavalry heavy, ‘Kingdoms of Men’ army. Chris would prove to be the eventual tournament winner, and is a player who really know how to maximise his list and get the best out of them on the table. I had set up with a ‘Castle’ style formation, with the intentions of holding tight, and surging any of the numerous flying units that came my way. However I had seriously underestimated the speed of his army, which was upon my ranks by turn 2, where his slayer boosted giants started to lay my warrior to the ground. The game ended in a 7-0 victory to Chris.
Having taken a trouncing, I thought I would be due to face someone more near my level, but found myself drawn against another, top tier player. Richard Miles, a very friendly player to be fair, who really knows his way around the gaming table. Event with some friendly pointers during the game, his ‘Abyssal Dwarfs’ pounded my elementals into submission. Another 7 – 0 loss to me.
Thankfully this was the last round of the day, and I could retire to me hotel room. Later on in the Thai Restaurant in the back of the Kings Head, Bexley, I had an enjoyable chat with Stephen Stead, Mark Cunningham, and Warren and Julie Stevens.
My 1st opponent for day 2 was Tony Ringrose a player and fellow ‘Seal Cow’ member. Tony is at a similar playing level to me, and we had not played each other for a while. He was using the revamped ‘Abyssal Dwarfs’ and sadly the army that I had selected could do little against his list packed with Regeneration, Fury and Vicious, and it was a slow grind of a game, and Tony played really well. My dice reverted to showing utter contempt for each strategy I employed. It was not a complete white wash however, the game ended 4 – 2 to Tony, and a good third of my army remained on the table.
At this point with a 1 – 3 record, I believed that I might draw another player at my own level, and at a glance of the rankings table, it looked like I might draw Ian Whipp and his very eye catching ‘Salamander’ army. In fact we had even already looked at our appointed table, and were chatting about the approaching round. However, due to some draws meaning that some players were facing an imminent rematch, Mark rejigged the playing order, I was still facing an ‘Ian’ but this time it was the really talented Ian Sturgess and his ‘Ratkin Slaves’ (Arrgh more bloomin Abyssal Dwarfs…). Unlike a lot of the top tier players, Ian does not mess about measuring angles and distance and/or playing attrition to the maximum,
his troops were straight in to my ranks, which meant a lot of melee. This lead to really fun game for both players. Ian did win, but not as large a victory as he should/could have had if turn 7 had rocked up, I think the final result was 1 – 0 to Ian.
Play wise I did actually meet most of my goals, I had fun, I was not tabled in any game, I actually won a game, and I did not get the wooden spoon. So a very successful weekend. The awesome cherry on the cake was my ‘Darth Star’, special character being votes as best Reaper by the other players.
My next tournaments will be ‘Brighton III’ in the ‘King and Queen’ pub at the end of May, and the ‘Southern Crown’ in High Wycombe at the ‘Table Top Republic’.
My own tournament ‘Roll out the Barrels 3’ a 1 day, escalating, Kings of War themed event. Three games. Increasing point levels. Allies mandatory, held at ‘Dark Sphere’ in Shepherds Bush, London, on Saturday 3rd August 2024. Please come along if you looking for a fun day of Kings of War-gaming.