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!

Age of Sigmar Army Lists for OTT 2016

With only a few weeks left until Over The Top 2016, preparations have stepped up a few levels.

The player's packs are ready. The PDF version is available on-line, but I have printed them as booklets because they list the full set of scenarios being used. I have also prepared some scoring sheets and rule tokens.

We found the custom rule tokens to be very useful in our games, so I went ahead and made enough for everybody.

Last night I finished painting the army I will be taking to the event. With the two weeks remaining I hope to be able to get some new terrain pieces painted up.

The final field of AOS players at OTT sits at four. It was always going to be interesting to see what numbers would be like, but I was heartened by all the interest. In most cases the dates just didn't work for people. At one point we had 8 players wanting to come. I look forward to future events and seeing this number grow. Most entrants so far have not attended a gaming event, so I hope to keep the atmosphere casual.

There is still time to register if you are interested. Just flick me an email for more info.

On to the lists. We are using the UK Independent Pool Document  and Clash Comp rules for this event, which were just updated in the last few days. The basic idea is that we bring along up to 15 pool choices worth of models. For each game, we deploy up to 10 pool choices worth of models, which allows players to customise their force for each opponent.

Undead Deathrattle Horde

Dark Aelf Exiles

Aelf Highborn

Stormcast Eternals

The biggest consideration for the players writing the lists is the ability to hold objectives, as this is the main win condition. Single models cannot hold objectives, so there needs to be a good amount of 'rank and file'. The armies with shooting attacks have a big advantage over the Undead army, but this is tempered by the ability to regenerate. The Stormcast army is not taking the Thunderstrike Brotherhood Warscroll Battalion, which would have allowed them to 'deep strike' over objectives, in favour of just placing more bodies on the table.

With the four players we will likely play a round robin round, and then a final round to determine the champion. 

This weekend will see some practice games being played at the first of a series of regular AOS gaming events at our local store Gaming DNA. If you are interested in an escalating campaign, and can spare a few hours once a month, feel free to register. I will be posting more info on this blog.

Over The Top 2016 - WFB and AOS Player's Packs

Over The Top is the Hamilton Immortal's annual Games Workshop game system event, this year held on February 6th and 7th in Hamilton.

Brian and I were given the opportunity to organise the player's packs for the Fantasy event. The intention was do do something a bit different, while keeping to the theme of 'over-the-top'.  OTT has always been a no-comp event, and we wanted to keep in that tradition.

You can find info on all the events at Over The Top on the Hamilton Immortals website as the packs are finalised. In addition to Warhammer 40,000 and Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, there will be a two-day Warhammer Fantasy event and a single day Age of Sigmar event.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles

The recent proliferation of game systems in the NZ tournament scene makes it difficult to accommodate everyone's tastes and interests for wargaming events. Being a GW event, we decided to stick to the 'Old School'. WFB 8th Edition is still enjoyed by our club members, and the successful Tauranga Open earlier in the year showed that there are plenty of folks still interested.

In order to make this 'not-your-usual Warhammer Tournament' we also decided to include a lot of the End Times rules. We have included custom scenarios, based around a Hero of the End Times model for each army, giving the event some narrative value. In addition, a 'bingo' like meta-game will take place over the course of the weekend.

Hopefully this will provide a different set of challenges for veteran gamers wanting to add this to their gaming calendar, and a great excuse to 'get out the toys' for newer players. It would also make for a great send-off to the game system for those moving on.

Click to download

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

This is for those that are enjoying the new models and game system. I'm under no illusions that AOS is not for everybody. However, some of us are having a good time with it, and for those people we felt the opportunity to run an AOS event was deserved. It certainly fits the theme of 'over-the-top' in any case! To my knowledge there has not been an AOS event run in New Zealand yet, so this is a great opportunity for those who are interested to give it a go.

The open nature of the basic AOS rules has not proven a problem for us in casual games, but makes it unsuitable for competitive events. Overseas, AOS has been run as a tournament using the set of composition rules and a pool choice document used for the UK's Clash of Swords event. It is regularly revised based on feedback from every event that uses the comp. I have emulated those for Over The Top.

The game size has been scaled down so that players with just the starter set will have enough models to participate.

We have enough registrations already for this to go ahead, but if for whatever reason not everyone can make it on the day, there will instead be pick up games going over the course of the weekend, so come check it out if you are interested.

Click to download

Everyone who attends will be given a 15% discount voucher from Mark One Comics & Games. The Immortals have a special offer on this year whereby you can nominate one other player attending the event, and that chosen nominee will get an extra $5 voucher from Mark 1. So grab a buddy ( or more if you're popular) and enjoy some dice games.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these events. My contact details are in the Player's Packs.