Monster March! - Week 4 - The Painting Part 3!

Greetings!

Welcome to the next update on the progress for #MonsterMarch! We are almost at the end of the journey, with just a few days of March left and a few more until the end of the week. Some of the participants almost finished painting their wonderful models! There is still time to add a bit more to what you have done so far so don't stop! In the meantime, let's have a look at the updates from the last week!

The Valley of Kings 1 - Twilight Kin - 2017/03/22

Greetings! 

In the round 3 of the Valley of Kings tournament I had a chance to play against the army I have never faced before - the Twilight Kin! I was very excited as it meant I will have a game with a civil war theme. These are always very close and bloody! 

Andrew, who commanded a beautifully painted army of the Evil Elves, is also a new opponent for me so I was very happy to play against a new player with a new army at the same time!

I was very intrigued by Andrew's army because it was a combination of units that seemed to be a copy of some of my own and those that are unique to the Twilight Kin army:

Twilight Kin - Army List

40 Crossbowmen, Horde, Heart-seeking Chant

- 10 Shadows, Troop

- 10 Shadows, Troop

- Bolt Thrower, War Engine

- Hydra, Monster

- Dark Lord, Hero, Scarletmaw's Fenulian Amulet

20 Reaper Guard, Regiment, War-bow of Kaba

- 10 Blade Dancers, Troop

- 10 Blade Dancers, Troop

- Bolt Thrower, War Engine

10 Dark Knights, Regiment, Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar

- Hydra, Monster

Monster March! - Week 3 - The Painting Part 2!

Hello!

My sincere apologies for a small delay in updating. I hoped to do so over the weekend but a few things happened and I did not have enough time to do so. However, I can assure you that the painting is going very well and people keep sending their pictures! 

Here are the updates from the Week 2! Enjoy!

The Valley of Kings 1 - Dwarfs - 2017/03/17

Greetings!

In the round two of the 1st Valley of Kings tournament I got a chance for a re-match against Matt and his fantastic looking Dwarf army, almost entirely composed from Sciobor's Miniatures.

Not only we were paired against each other again but it seemed that our armies have not quite changed since the last game. It was thus very interesting to play again when certain tricks may not work anymore! :)

Here is the army list Matt used for the reminder and easy reference:

Dwarfs - Army List

40 Shieldbreakers, Horde, Blessings of the Gods - 240

- 10 Berserkers, Troops, Fire-oil - 130

- 10 Berserkers, Troops - 130 

- Ironbelcher Organ Gun, War Engine - 85

- Warsmith, Hero - 85

20 Ironguard, Regiment - 160

- Ironbelcher Organ Gun, War Engine - 85 

20 Ironguard, Regiment - 160

- Ironbelcher Organ Gun, War Engine - 85

10 Berserker Brock Riders, Regiment, Maccwar's Potion of Caterpillar - 230

- Berserker Lord, Hero, Mounted - 150

10 Berserker Brock Riders, Regiment, Brew of Haste - 225

- Sveri Egilax, Hero - 240

The Valley of Kings 1 - Night Stalkers - 2017/03/13

Greetings!

In the first game of the Valley of Kings 1 local event in Canberra I had a great pleasure to play against Lawrence. He decided to participate in this tournament as he wanted to learn the game as he has played 2-3 games so far. However, Lawrence is one of the wargaming veterans and as he told me he was playing a lot of wargames through the years, often picking up the first editions of the particular system. I wish I had more time between the rounds to hear more of his incredible stories!

Lawrence decided to try Night Stalkers army and his approach was to pick a bit of everything so that he can learn about the abilities of as many units as possible. His army consisted of the very old school models I haven't seen before! Here are the details of his army list:

Night Stalkers - Army List

40 Bloodwarms, Horde

- 10 Spectres, Troop

- 10 Spectres, Troop

- Horror, Hero, Bane Chant

40 Bloodwarms, Horde

- 10 Reapers, Troop

- Planar Apparition, Monster

- Shade, Hero, Kaba's Holy Hand Granades

6 Butchers, Horde, Blessings of the Gods

20 Doppelgangers, Regiment, Brew of Strength

3 Nightmares, Regiment

20 Phantoms, Regiment, Pipes of Terror

Monster March! - Week 2 - The Painting!

Hello!

We are about to enter Week 2 of the challenge and today I would like to present some updates from the participants. If you have some delays in painting don't worry! I will update your entry whenever you have something done!

If you are reading about Monster March for the first time, here are the links to the previous posts:

Monster March - Introduction

Monster March - Week 1 - The Beginning 

Let's check the first updates :)

The Valley of Kings 1 - Introduction

Greetings! 

Before I managed to finish all the reports from Clash of Kings Australia, yet another local tournament was organized and I was very glad I could attend! 

It was the first of what is hoped to be a bi-monthly event in Canberra, organized by Matt. Tas and Three D6 store. Although the Clash of Kings 2017 Book was not released yet at the time of the event, we used some of the new scoring system that involved Unit Strength, some artifacts were not used and the changes to the rules for certain units were also in place. Adepticon rules pack was thus adopted for the tournament:

The Valley of Kings 1 - Rules Pack

I decided to keep the army list I have played with so far. I know it may be a bit boring but I prefer incremental changes, if at all. And I'd rather play with the same army against variety of opponents and factions under different settings. Besides, I was happy with the army at the Clash of Kings so why fix something that was not broken? :)

Here is the list for reminder:

Outcasts - Army List

3 Drakon Riders, Regiment - 175
- 5 Silverbreeze, Troop - 145
- 5 Silverbreeze, Troop - 145
- Drakon Rider Lord, Hero, Large Cavalry - 160

3 Drakon Riders, Regiment - 175
- 5 Stormwind, Troops - 140
- 5 Stormwind, Troops - 140

 - Army Standard, Hero, Mounted - 65

3 War Chariots, Regiment - 140

 - Army Standard, Hero, Mounted - 65

 

20 Palace Guard, Regiment - 150 

- 10 Palace Guard, Troop - 105

 

20 Sea Guard, Regiment - 170
- 10 Palace Guard, Troop - 105

- Elven Mage, Hero, Inspiring Talisman, Bane Chant(2), Fireball (10) - 120

Clash of Kings Australia - Summary

Greetings!

I would like to wrap up the series of reports and overall experience from the first Clash of Kings in Australia in this short post. It was an amazing event and once again, many thanks to Matt and Tas for organizing and running such a great tournament! I am very glad I could attend!

There were 62 players attending and all of them showed up on day 1. I think there were only a few drop outs which, unfortunately, can always happen. In any case it was the biggest Kings of War event in Australia to date and I hope there will be more spots for Clash of Kings in 2018!

All armies were represented too! If I remember correctly, no faction had more than 6 players which, again, shows how nicely varied the armies were.

Ok, let's have a look at a few aspects of the event in more details! 

Monster March! - Week 1 - The Beginning!

Hello!

The time has finally arrived to officially begin #MonsterMarch challenge! The idea is to assemble and paint that one big model of yours that you always wanted to paint and make it the center piece of your army or collection. I briefly outlined the details in the introduction:

Monster March - Introduction

My initial idea was to collect pledges from the participants  that could fit the theme of "Monster" type of a model. I received a nice number of replies and I am happy to announce that people decided to bring a very nice variety of models. What is more, I didn't want to be too restrictive and "Monster" theme is treated in a very relaxed way. It is also first time I am hosting such challenge so I wanted as many participants as possible. 

In my opinion the diversity of models pledges is amazing! And here is the list of participants, in the alphabetic order. You can see what kind of models they pledged but I also added some links to blogs or twitter accounts of the participants so that you may follow the progress on their own sites too!

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here are our #MonsterMarch participants!

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 7 - Kingdoms of Men - 2017/03/04

Greetings!

Time for the game 7, the last game of the Australian Clash of Kings! After game 6 I was talking with my good friend and frequent opponent, Michael aka Darth Sabre, about our adventures so far and we joked it would be fun if we were paired with each other for the last game. And it actually happened! I was very happy because of that as although we played against each other often (you can check games 4, 6, 11, 24 and 38 in the Reports section) it was the first time when I could play against Michael and his beautiful army in real life, not online. 

Michael practiced with and refined his army over many games and quite a number of the tournaments. He is constantly searching for the perfect balance but the main theme and core units are still present. The army looks fantastic and for me it is the archetype of Kingdoms of Men force with number of units from troops to hordes and very nice variety of types too. Here are the details of the army list Michael brought to Clash of Kings:

Kingdoms of Men - Army List

40 Foot Guard, Horde, Brew of Strength (+1 CS)

- Ballistae, War Engine
- Mounted Scouts, Troop

- Mounted Hero 

 

40 Arquebusiers, Horde, +1 to Hit 
- Ballistae, War Engine
- Mounted Hero 
 

40 Polearms, Horde
- Wizard, Bane Chant, Lightning Bolt (3)

20 Militia, Regiment
- Wizard, Bane Chant, Lightning Bolt (3)

20 Militia, Regiment
- General on Winged Beast, Brew of Haste
 

20 Bowmen, Regiment
20 Bowmen, Regiment

10 Knights, Regiment, Pathfinder

Clash of Kings Australia 1 - Game 6 - Ratkin - 2017/03/02

Greetings!

In the game 6 of Australian Clash of Kings I faced vile Ratkin commanded by the veteran Warlord - Clint. He was another member of the merry band of Queenslanders who made it South to Canberra for that event.  He is a very active tournament player and it is not a surprise to find out that he was playing at the very first Australian Masters in December. In fact, he is currently Number 1 in the Rankings! 

I had a great pleasure to play against a very experienced player (Clint also plays with a variety of armies) and to learn from him during the battle. Clint brought vile Ratkin this time and that posed an additional challenge. Not only I was about to play against currently the best player in Australia but also against the army I have never faced before! 

I tried not to feel intimidated and come up with some plan regardless :) It was, after all, an excellent opportunity to test my skills! Here are the details of the army Clint commanded that day:

Ratkin - Army List

40 Shock Troops, Horde, Blade of Slashing
- Death Engine, Monster, Vile Sorcery
- Weapon Team, Storm of Lead
- Daemonspawn 
 

40 Shock Troops, Horde
- Warlock, Scarletmaw’s Fenulian Amulet

40 Shock Troops, Horde
- Warlock

40 Blight, Horde, Brew of Strength
- Enforcer

40 Slaves, Horde

20 Slaves, Regiment

20 Slaves, Regiment