Empire in Flames (Results/ Thoughts/ Photos)

Well I just got back from the Fantasy half of the Melbourne in Flames tourney. Run by kick ass painter and general, Chris Cousins, on a tight time frame and with pro ease. The event ran smoothly and was held in very nice digs. It was run at the Realm of Legends shop/bunker in Croyden (spelling?). While the shop is fairly far from Melbourne (especially on public transport) it has more than 50 professional grade tables (many of which have come straight from GW). Every table I played on over the weekend was a work of art. I highly recommend heading out there for a game or three sometime.
(Here are a few pictures of my Rats in action)

Anyway. I took skaven. Since my list is generally built to 2000 points I had to do some reshuffling to get it up to the 2400 mark. I dropped my weapons teams and added 27 storm vermin and 6 rat ogres (more on these later). With a grey seer, a plague priest on furnace, warp lightning cannon, plague claw catapult, 2 units of 40 slaves and 2 units of 25 clanrats I think I generally deserved the comp of 4 out of ten. It was a hard list... Too bad I still haven't really gotten the hang of skaven. I had not played fantasy in so long that in my first game of the event my opponent and I reversed the order of shooting and magic in our turns... Oooppppss. and I played 30 models down as I had not counted how many models actually fit on my movement trays. Double oooopppss.. Despite these setbacks I think I did alright. I really should have prepared by playing a game or two which is my own fault. I won three games and lost three games... One of the losses was huge (I kicked the stuffing out of a bretonnian list and dropped his big busses to one model each BUT could not wipe them out). One of my wins was huge, I successfully cast plague three times on a high elf player in a game where my war machines didn't misfire once.

The skeven were lots of fun to play but I spent my whole weekend pulling models off of and returning models to their movement trays. I know it is fantasy but I have never played with so many models. I didn't get a break between games to eat or relax or anything else. it really ramped up the pressure. I tried putting casualties in groups for easy regrouping as they were pulled off the board and that helped but man, no breaks for the wicked.

(My "looted" Plague Claw Catapult)

My Grey Seer detonated himself with miscasts constantly the whole weekend (even when rolling with two or three dice).... It was crazy. In one game he miscast 5 times before killing himself in turn 4. Ouch! The warp lightning cannon was similarly cursed and blew itself up on the first shot of the game twice and killed itself in almost every game. The Catapult lasted far longer and killed a lot over the course of the weekend. Strength 2 is not so hot but ignoring armour saves is pure gold.

Rat ogres didn't do much over the weekend but I killed my own unit with death frenzy. :) Oooopppss.. Speaking of death frenzy. DF on stormvermin is the best way to kick people out of the watchtower with this list when I don't roll cracks call as a spell.

The furnace is pure gold as well. I really need to add more plague monks than 23 as they were too easy to target. Putting the plague banner on this unit is key and really helps in the first round of combat.

Anyway... Here are the results. As you can see I ended dead middle of the pack.

Rank Name Army Total
1 David Duriesmith Wood Elves 144
2 Chris Penwarden Orcs and Goblins 141
3 Ben Leopold Skaven 140
4 Greg Johnson Empire 134
5 Nick Hoen Warriors of Chaos 127
6 Peter Spiller High Elves 124
7 Sean Davis Warriors of Chaos 123
8 Brendan Slade Orcs and Goblins 120
9 Lachy Mulchay Dark Elves 120
10 Nick Cook Orcs and Goblins 120
11 Aaron Gruneklee Dwarves 119
12 Phil Tuck Wood Elves 119
13 Craig Cussans Vampire Counts 114
14 James Brett Empire 113
15 Brad (ME!) Skaven 109
16 Michael Blowfield Dwarves 106
17 Aaron Harrison Warriors of Chaos 105
18 Craig Dillon-Gibbons Daemons 103
19 Mark Skilton Empire 103
20 Jon-Hollis Hill High Elves 101
21 Brenton Shaw Dwarves 100
22 Shaun Hogan High Elves 99
23 Andrew Noakes Ogre Kingdoms 99
24 Leigh Callahan Brettonians 97
25 Chris Grace High Elves 97
26 Lachlan McKenzie Lizardmen 96
27 Trent Phelps Lizardmen 96
28 Adam Reynolds Dwarves 93
29 Kieran Blain Skaven 66
30 Andrew Williams Empire 60
31 Nick Gentile High Elves 55
32 Mark Brand Lizardmen 52
33 Josh Claridge High Elves 49
34 Baron von Gumby High Elves 39

Best Sports - Nick Gentile
2nd Best Sports - Aaron Gruneklee
3rd Best Sports - Andrew Noakes

Player's Choice - David Duriesmith
2nd Player's Choice - Greg Johnson
3rd Player's Choice - Nick Hoen
Best Unit - Andrew Noakes
Best Model - Greg Johnson

Best Newcomer - Lachy Mulchay
Best Newcomer's Army - Shaun Hogan
Runners Up Best Newcomer's Army - Chris Grace and Jon-Hollis Hill

Club Challenge Winner - Mark's Monday Night Crew