NiCON 2016 - Age of Sigmar Tournament Info

Announcing the North Island Convention (NiCON) Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Tournament!

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Click here for tournament info and registration form.

Over the Top 2016 Tournament Results

Warhammer Fantasy

The mission was to hold an event that was a little bit different, reflecting the theme of 'Over The Top'; to bring back some of the Warhammer insanity that had been lost from events after several years of comp and 'Net listing', and to allow some amazing models to reach the table that you just don't normally see.

The Glottkin leads his Plague-ridden troops to a greater destiny

I wanted to add a narrative element to the games, so each scenario was meant to tell an ongoing story of a Hero (or Villain) and their army. Each player was asked to bring a single model to represent this Hero, which became part of the objectives in each scenario.

In the first game The Duel, the two opposing Heroes were set up in the middle of the table, and their epic duel would inspire nearby troops to greater deeds, but injure them if they got too close. In the second game, the armies fought to put down the opponents Hero on the rise to crush their resolve. In the third game, the Heroes attempt to rescue barrels of Bugman's Finest to keep the armies going (or deprive the enemy). In the fourth game, the armies must clash whilst suffering a bad hangover. Game five had the Heroes try to capture objectives which would help them determine a site of great power, and in the final game they attempt to capture this site, allowing wizards in their army to cast powerful End Times spells.

The full player's pack can be viewed here.

The 'Carnage' scoring system was used, so only VPs scored by counted toward the final standings. This encouraged some incredibly bloody battles. The terrain was set up using a variety of those from the rulebook, in some cases providing big bonuses to certain armies.

In short, it was over the top.

Here are the final standings:

There was only 81 points between first and second. McCrae's Elves used massed shooting to bring down his monstrous foes. Nick M had rampaging daemons enlisted the help of sinister Skaven gadgetry. Andy Hudson had painted his entire army in the weeks prior to the event, and Morbidex Twiceborn and his Nurgling buddies did a great job and grossing out his opponents.

Andy's Nurgle army

Tom brought Malekith and a small number of elite units. The Eternity King caused a few headaches, but seldom survived a game. In one match, I witnessed him disappear into a vortex on the first turn, having failed a re-roll on the Miscast table! The poor guy just can't win.

Full army lists can be found here.

Best painted army went to Ethan, who I understand spent many a late night getting the models ready. The amazingly realistic sludge on his bases were cause for concern early on, until it was confirmed they were just modelling effects, and not in any way 'organic'.

Massive thanks for Brian, who helped organise the event and provided the use of his scratch-built terrain. Brian wrote a bingo card for each player, personalised to the army they had brought. It added another layer to the games, as players tried to tick the boxes off. 

Feedback for the has been positive, it sounds like despite the craziness most (if not all) had a good time. Thank you everyone for coming! I have a collection of photos on the event on the Tronhammer Facebook page here.

Age of Sigmar

The Age of Sigmar event was smaller than I had hoped after the initial interest. Due to a player withdrawing from the WFB event at the last minute, one of the AOS players was kind enough to join them to make even numbers - thank you Nick J! That left three of us for AOS, so we had a round robin event with a bye.

We were using the Clash Comp Pool system and scenarios to choose our armies and set up our games. We scaled down the size of the armies, as this was a one-day event. Player's pack can be found here. Full list of models we brought can be viewed here.

The Stormcast Eternals struggled to make headway against the High Elves, and despite almost taking down Eltharion the Grim, could not win the war of attrition.

The Stormcast then went up against Krell's Undead Horde. They took down the powerful Grave Guard unit early on, but could not capitalise on that to force the Undead off their objectives.

The final game was between Undead and The High Elves. The Archers and Bolt Thrower took a huge toll on the Grave Guard, but Krell and Konrad made miracle charges in the second turn to nullify the ranged attacks. However, Eltharion had been sitting in reserve, and in a single turn he killed both Deathlords. Accompanied by the Dragon Princes, Eltharion then marauded across the board and rescued the last objective from the Undead, winning the battle and the event.

Byron utilises the 5th Edition Starter Set Red Thwappy Stick to great effect

Congratulations to Byron for winning NZ's first Age of Sigmar event!

A full set of photos can be viewed here.

With NiCon coming up I hope to run AOS there. With so many options for Fantasy Battles now, I am not sure at this stage who will be running the square-based game, or what game system they will use. Stay tuned!

Warhammer Army Lists for OTT 2016

Tomorrow is the big day. All lists are in, and final preparations are being made. We ended up with a field of eight players for Warhammer Fantasy on the Saturday, with Nick and I joining on Sunday.

Follow the link below for a collection of army lists for the weekend:

OTT 2016 Army Lists

Here are some of the more interesting participants:

• Morbidex Twiceborn
• The Glottkin
• Festus the Leechlord
• Asrai and Druchii getting along
• Orghotts Daemonspew
• Malekith the Eternity King
• Valten, Luthor Huss and Arch-Lector Kaslain
• Daemons with Doomwheels

The Player's Packs

It seems that only Chaos and Elven races have managed to survive the End Times this far, with Valten and the Cult of Sigmar standing defiant. I am looking forward to witnessing the resulting carnage, and seeing these great models out on the table - for the first time, in many cases, but hopefully not the last.

Valten with Ghal Maraz

A big thanks to everyone who is bringing down terrain. I have been painting a few pieces over the last few weeks but was unable to get it all done in time.

I will post some photos form the event over the course of the weekend. See you down there!