My experience at Axemaster 2014 Day 1.

So before the Tournament I set myself  some goals for Axemaster listed in order of my priority.

1. Have a lot of laughs
2. Meet new gamers
3. Have a fun weekend
4. Score 30 battle points
5. Win 1 game

So with these five goals in mind I headed down to Melbourne, I arrived at the Hampton games club about 30 minutes early and snagged a good parking spot, then wandered off to find some food, Started the day with a fresh bread roll still warm from the oven and a coffee so I had a breakfast of champions and I was all set to test my generalship and my fortune against 39 other hopefuls.

Game 1
Opponent:Josh 
Army : Ogre Kingdoms
Deployment: Battleline deployment

His Army from what I remember was
Slaughtermaster
BSB
Firebelly
Gut star
Leadbelchers
Ogres
4 Mournfang cavalry
2 stonehorns
2 x 1 sabretusks

The Ogres deployed.

My Shadow weaver and the glade guard that went into the realm of chaos with him.

The remnants of my Army.

Notable occurrences of the game.

• My Shadow weaver  General miscast on my 1st turn with an attempt at withering and dimensional cascaded into the warp, onto the back foot but still in with a chance i thought at this stage.
• Treeman and Mournfangs kill each other in a grinding match.
• The unit of Lead belchers that was protecting his Flank swift reformed no less then 4 times on their basic leadership of 7 and destroyed my flank, it felt so much like this.

The game finished on turn 5 due to the fact that I was tabled, so off to a 0-20 start, and over lunch I learned a new term ' Submarine-ing'  : To lose your first game on purpose and fly ahead of the pack from round 2 because of softer match ups, ( If only I had that tactical acumen.)

Game 2 
Opponent:Viv  
Army :Vampires
Deployment: Battle for the pass deployment

His Army from what I remember was
Caster Lord on nightmare Lv4 with 4+ward and black periapt
Mounted BSB
Mounted vamp
Necro on foot
Black night bus
Ghoul Horde
Zombie Bunker
2 units of 5-6 Varghiests
Hexwraiths
Fellbats

My Army in all its glory at the start of the Game.

Viv moving his army closer to its victory

The Black Varghiets that die to arrows, Ghoulkin ( Fellbats) that die to Crumble test.

Treekin and their Insane courage, with Varghiets and Blacknights .

The Ghoul horde that I had no counter to, and that my army just could not deal with.

 Notable occurrences of the game.

• His Vampire Lord miscast on his 1st turn with a bubble vanhels and dimensional cascaded into the warp, so i had a 600+ vp head start, not much crubled fellbats is about all. But my focus changed to killing his necro (which I did not manage) the only other caster with lore of vampires.
• I managed to kill both units of Varghiests, one with shooting and the other with close combat from my archers.
• Treekin rolling Insane courage in last round of CC of the game.

Another loss however but this time it was 14-6 so I was on the board now with battle points(Thank you Treekin.)

Game 3 versus 
Opponent:James
Army :Vampire Counts
Deployment:Meeting engagement

His Army from what I remember was
Heinrich Kemmler
Krell
Vampire bsb of foot
Vampire on foot
Zombie bunker
60 strong ghoul horde
1 unit 12 vargiests
Varghulf
Black coach

• James deployed all his characters into his Ghoul horde and i think i failed to kill anything of his that he could not heal back.
• Suicide charge of my treekin into the Ghoul horde resulted in almost killing Kemmler, I was one wound shy, but it was not to be.

Ghoul Bus with all the Characters in it.

Deployment at the start of the game

Another loss this time it was 20-0 , the game was over by turn four, so not a great showing for the first day.

 I retired to the hotel I was staying at , having decided that with my cold I would be no fun at the Drunken shenanigans and resolved to get some sleep and be prepared for Sunday.

Anyway I have rambled enough.

Cheers

Lupus

Axemaster: The painting push

Well with my list submitted now it is the painting side of the army that needs focus, the painting scores for Axemaster are either 0 or 20 depending on your army.

You score 20 if your entire army is painted  and based this includes movement trays.

You score 0 if any one of your figures or movement tray are not completely painted and based , so it is a yes or no question, at this stage my army is a NO, but I am aiming for a YES. So with 12 days before the tournament I have the following that I need to paint and base.

1. 9 Wildriders
2. 1 Treekin unit filler
3. 6 waywatchers
4. 10 scouts
5. 1 glade captain battle standard bearer
6. Ferastella mounted glade captain.
7. Citadel Wood
8. Make Movement Trays
9. Base the entire army

So not a huge amount with 28 figures and movement trays only time will tell.

Cheers

Lupus.

The road to Axemaster- May it be gentle and kind.

It has been many years since I last attended a tournament, the last one I played at was Axemaster in 2003 or 2004 anyway I think it was, details are sketchy for one as old as I, why is this important you must be asking yourself what bearing does this have?

The Breathless Host and I shall be attending Axemaster this year.
Cue cheers from my wife and groans from my painting desk, I intend to take my Wood Elves and I may have convinced a mate to take his Dark Elves( By convince I mean that I mentioned to him that I was going and he is jumping on board supposedly).

So what does this all mean, well it means that the painting schedule for Duelling Gamers is about to be supplemented by another 500 points of Wood Elves and that my completion date has moved closerby a little more than a week, this is excellent as I have been slack of late with my painting and as I have paid for my spot I am committed and properly enticed to complete my army by the 19th of September when I should be ready to go, and I may even have time to play a practice game or two in theory.

The only real question that is left is what tasty treat shall I make the TO to bribe an extra couple of bonus points out of him.

Anyway enough rambling I have painting to do.

Cheers
Lupus.