June Tides of War Tournament

The June Tides of war tournament was held recently in the Bristol independent gaming centre. This was a 4 game kings of war tournament with 50 minute chess clock rounds.

 As I haven't quite got my undead list ready for action and there is still a few units to paint I decided to take my goblins to the event.

I had put together a variation of the goblin listing had been using in the league and it looked like this :

Sharpsticks horde
Spitter horde x2
Mawbeast regiment
Troll horde with brew of haste
Fleabag sniff regiment
Mincer x2
War trombone x2
Giant
King on chariot
Flaggit with the boomstick
Wiz x2 both with bane chant and one with inspiring talisman

After the initial introductions etc I was directed to my first opponent for the first game . This was a loot scenario against night stalkers.

My opponent deployed to try and take the two counters on his left flank and leave me the one on the right.

His army was shooting heavy with a few hordes of what i think was the large cav. I am not too familiar with the nightstalkers and all their different units but had a fair grasp of what everything did.he also had some goblin allies in the form of a troll hhorde and  war trombone .

I lost this game pretty decisively and could have secured a draw with some better roles from my shooting on a unit with a loot counter atthe very end of the gsme.
The stealth rule of the nightstalkers and the fact that I had taken too much shooting did not help with this. It was a fun game and we both had a fair bit of time leftover on the clock so it was nice to not feel pressured.

Next game up was against a kingdoms of men army in a dominate scenario.this list had a bit of everything with a beast of war,heavy pike block,some cavalry,ballistas,some chaff troops and a bezerker regiment as well as some dwarven allies in the form of a greater earth elemental and an elemental horde with a stone priest as well as a few other bits and pieces.

This game went well with me destroying his chaff through shooting,his war machines didn't do a great deal of damage and I secured my right flank while some u it's held up the centre.on my last turn on the final turn pile in I had a lot more in the 12 inch radius than my opponent but my clock ran out of time so all my units were routed as a result and snatched a defeat from the jaws of victory. It was disappointing to lose on a tech locality and by this point I as regretting all the shooting I had brought in my list due to it being both ineffective and time consuming.

So after two losses we headed to lunch and my place atthe bottom table was in the bag.not quite how I had envisaged my goblins to perform to say the least.

After lunch I was paired up against an empire of dust army  for the Pillage scenario.we rolled up give counters and deployed them across the table.the empire of dust had a couple of skeleton hordes and a regiment as well as some archer troops and regiment,some monstrous creatures and characters with breath weapons were also in the mix.on top of this there was a bone dragon,two units of carrion and a Pharaoh with wings.

The game started with me overwhelming the left flank while my opponent dominated the right with his flying circus. In the end it was a draw with a slight kill point advantage to my opponent. This was another game that was tight on time with my opponent running out of time and the tournament organise coming over to hurry us along.

Final game was against a varangur army that went on to take best painted. It was very nice to look at and had a couple of mounted hero's and three big hordes of footsoldiers. There was also a chaos troll horde,two magus conclaves,a chimera with wings and a troop of cavalry.

 We struggled for time again which was unfortunate.this one started with a lot of action on my left flank where I held up the enemy main line while I managed to advance on the right and take out the magus conclaves putting me in the enemy half. This one ended in a draw as I didn't quite get the 200 point difference in forces on the other side of the board.

All in all it was a fun day, the opponent's were all good and very sporting and many dice were rolled.

I think the fifty minutes per game made things a little too tight. This was made worse when you consider the amount of shooting I had. Overall my list was a bit pants,the shooting not powerful enough and the rest of my army too varied.

I think getting rid of one or both of the spitter hordes ,the king,the troll bruiser and the trolls and adding more wartrombones mawbeasts and another giant would be a good idea as well as maybe a flying king for disruption of shooter hordes and war machines.

Next tournament it will be time for the undead to make an appearance. They are almost done with a few soul reaver infantry to be painted another horde of skeleton sand one individual characters.

Some completed painting projects

Progress on my undead army is coming along nicely now. As usual the first units to be finished are the characters and interesting models rather than the arduous task of finishing off rank and file troops.

I have tried to make the photos a bit better despite them being taken with a camera phone. First off we have a necromancer. I went with a dark green at the bottom and then black at the top blend for his robe and gave him a red collar. I went for strong highlights on his cloak and also put in the ethereal paint scheme for the skull in his hand and the one on the base to give it the impression that he is reanimating them.

Next up is this mounted vampire. I went with the same paint scheme for the horse barding and then used the red on the cloak.

Undead standard bearer 

Finally we have the fully completed vampire on 

dragon with his base now painted and a few different tufts stuck here and there.

Undead conversions from the bits box

A mini post here on a few new undead recruits that have been summoned forth from my box of undead bits.

First up we have a standard bearer. This undead lady is carrying a rather impressive banner made out of nagash's staff some what I think are mortis engine bits and a standard skeleton banner from gw Skellies.

Up next we have a vampire on horseback. I am not quite sure what this model is or his horse but they are both gw minis and I gave him a shield from the bits box that I believe is from a blood knight.

These guys have had a primer sprayed on and are ready for the paint table.

Mini review - Gamers grass

Today on the blog we have a mini review of some gamers grass products that I purchased recently.

These are to go on my undead army bases for a barren wasteland effect and I brought quite a few different ones to give me a good variety.

In the past I have used battlefields tufts by army painter, mininature and silfor tufts and found them to be good quality and easy to use. As a result the gamers grass product would have to be something pretty special to beat the other tufts I have used.

The shipping was very quick from Portugal and came in a small package with some bubble wrap inside.

I ordered the following tufts:
Beige 6mm wild
Beige XL wild
Dark olive shrub
Lavender flowers
Dry tuft 6mm wild
Dark moss 2mm wild

The wild tufts are an assortment of different sizes and shapes which I thought would be handy and save time pulling apart tufts and sticking multiple tufts together to create less of a uniform look. 

I mean come on what army marches to war on bases where the tufts all look identical?

Let's get on to the photos now so you can see what they are like.

From top to bottom we have the beige 6mm the moss, olive shrub,dry tufts,lavender flowers and the xl beige tufts.

Close-up of the xl beige tufts

 The lavender tufts here look superb.

 These olive shrubs will look great at 28mm

 Moss in various different shapes

To conclude this mini review I would say that I am really pleased with this product and it is very good compared to the others that I have tried.

As you can see from the Pictures they are great looking tufts.

The lavender flowers and the olive bushes look really unique and I'm sure I will get lots of compliments on these once they are attached to the bases.

The moss is really good as well,although not quite as realistic as the lavender flowers and olive bushes they give a  bit of extra variation on bases that adds to the overall effect and also could be stuck onto buildings and bits of wall etc.

The total cost of all these tufts was around £18 including shipping and I think they offer good value for money when you consider the quality and detail involved.

Overall I am very happy with these tufts and will get another post up so.etime soon with them on finished bases.