Warhammer tournament schedule for 2010

The New Zealand Warhammer tournament calendar for 2010 is starting to take shape with a number of tournaments already announced, including the first of Pete Dunn's regular Wellington events. Getting to these is going to take some doing because of budget, work, sport and family constraints but I plan on going to as many as I can next year with the big focus being on the large national events BattleCry, NATCON and NICON.

Current events are:

January
30th-31st Warpfire - Wellington, NZ

February
20th-21st Battlecry - Auckland, NZ

April
2nd-4th Natcon, Lower Hutt - NZ

June
5th-6th Nicon, Tauranga - NZ

I expect at least 4-5 more events in Wellington over the period June - November as well similar to last years events. The event in January 'Warpfire' looks especially interesting as it sees the introduction of a brand new scoring and composition system for the New Zealand tournament scene.

WarpFire 2010

Army Lists and Composition
Standard format using 2,250pt lists played over 5 rounds using 7th edition books published in New Zealand within 1 month of tournament start date with no BOB lists, proxies or special characters allowed.

Armies are divided into 3 bands with a number of restrictions placed on armies in each band that are in addition to those contained within each army book. Restrictions seem to take into account tournament results in Australasia over last 12 months and appear to be a good way to balance out the various armies.

Band A
Daemons of Chaos
Dark Elves
Lizardmen
Vampire Counts

Band B
Bretonnia
Dwarfs
Empire
High Elves
Skaven
Tomb Kings
Warriors of Chaos
Wood Elves

Band C
Beasts of Chaos
Ogre Kingdoms
Orcs and Goblins

Band Restrictions

• Armies in Band A are allowed only 1 rare choice
• Armies in Band C are allowed an additional special choice.
• Rare choices may not be repeated, except for High Elves, where they can be repeated once per unit.
• Max, 2 of the same special choice.
• Max. 3 of the same core choice, except for ranked infantry without missile weapons and beast herds.
• Max. 3 units of chariots (incl. Characters)
• Max. 9 PD/10DD in an army (using ETC system whereby bound items count for 1+PD/DD depending upon item type).
• Max. 2 units of flyers (incl. Characters)
• Max. 70 shots per turn with range of 20"+ (not incl. war machines)
• Max. 5 war machines
• Max. 2 terror causers.

Race specific restrictions
Daemons of Chaos

• All greater demons count as additional hero choice.
  
• Herald BSB may take either daemonic gifts or daemonic icon not both
• Daemonic gifts not to be duplicated
• Horrors limited to 0-2

Dark Elves

• Ring of Hotek counts as 3 DD in each phase
• Every assassin counts as a hero choice
• Shades limited in unit size to 8 models
• Pendant of Khaleth counts as a hero choice.

Empire

• Steam tank and War Alter count as 2 war machines

High Elves

• Star Dragon counts takes an additional hero slot
  

Lizardmen

• Characters on stegadons also use the relevant special or rare slot
• Terradons limited to unit size of 3 models max
• Discipline becalming cogitation counts as 2 DD
• Temple guard count as a terror causer
• Skink skirmisher units cannot outnumber skink cohorts

Ogre Kingdoms

• A slaughter master can be taken without a tyrant

Skaven

• To be confirmed

Vampire Counts

• Darkenhoff banner, helm of commandment and skull staff all count as an additional hero choice.

Wood Elves

• Treeman counts as Treeman Ancient

Scoring
Battle points now worth 60% of total. With following additions:

• Player who captures the most standards gains an additional 100 VP.
• Table quarters can only be captured by a scoring unit. To qualify as a scoring unit, a unit must be: not a single model, non-flying, US 5+, have started the game worth 100+ VP.
• Battle points also vary depending upon what band the winning army was in, e.g., Band A armies must gain 500+VP to get a win, Band B 300+ and Band C 100+.

Changes look interesting and won't affect either my armies at all really. My Dwarfs never max out shooting as I restrict myself to 2 units of missile troops and at most 3 warmachines. My High Elves will include a Dragon Mage, not a Prince+Star Dragon combo which I think is too predictable and easy to take and play, I also only double up on Swordmasters so the unit restrictions won't hurt at all. Vampire Counts I won't be using at tournaments as I simply haven't played enough games with them, but as my list is based entirely around Skeletons and Black Knights, the restrictions don't hurt me there either.

And now I have a firm date for when the repainting of my High Elf army needs to be completed - January 30th/

WarKingdoms - Warmachine RPG

Had my first go at the unofficial RPG version of Warmachine on Friday. It was developed by a player over in the US with help from the online community as an simpler alternative to the Iron Kingdoms RPG version of the standard game.

Operated a lot like the Dungeons & Dragons I used to play as a kid about 20 odd years ago. Lots of fun and incredibly easy to get into. Just a pity that Privateer Press came down hard on the community and stopped development by withdrawing its unofficial support in the form of copyright infringement notices to the those working on it.

WIP Stage 2 - Female Vampire Count

Areas painted yesterday were the Hair, Red Robes, Armour as well as black shading on key areas.

Hair was Codex Grey base coat, Fortress grey highlight, Skull White highlight, Bleached Bone dry brushing, Ogre Flesh wash, Sunburst yellow highlighting. Had to make additional touch ups to face and chest due to run off from hair colour.


Black shading put in suitable areas such as tops of armor, between upper chest and hair, top of bodice, around bottom edge of helmet and between legs etc. Skulls currently WIP with only a layer of Bleached Bone, Flesh Wash, Bleached Bone, and Ogre Wash applied so far

Black wash added to armor areas along with Chain mail highlighting, still to be completed with Mithril Silver etc.


Red and Purple robes washed with Badab Black, Chaos Black then used within recesses and on folds etc for highlighting. Scab Red and Blood red then followed for highlighting.

WIP - Vampire Counts Female Vampire

My current project and one I am enjoying a fair bit after putting it off for some time. Had to ask my wifes opinion on what the various items of clothing were as I couldn't really tell what was what. Blue coloured bodice was also her idea. Completed Skin, Bodice and necklace last night - first model where I have focused on specific parts aiming to complete them individually rather than doing the whole model layer by layer.


Flesh colour was achieved with a base coat of Tanned Flesh followed by a layer of Flesh Wash (which is fast running out and is sadly no longer in production) then Dwarf Flesh, Elf Flesh and a few layers of Ogre Flesh Wash.

Heirophant warcaster attacment completed

Finally got this little guy done last night, was a must take solo unit in the old Mk1 rules and this has not changed under MK2. The glossy shine on this and the Seneschal is from GW Purity Seal. White cloak is slightly dirty for this model as I washed it with Sepia Wash several times.