NCBB Windless Wastes Night 3, And 3000+

So thats Windless Wastes week 3 over at North Cornwall Beasts and Bionics.
As usual all the info on the Shattered Ground leagues and live maps can be found here - Privateer Press Events

Last week left the standings like this
Col - Cryx - 43
Andy - Cygnar - 40
Steve - Cryx - 40
Cal - Minions - 31
Benn - Khador - 30
Ian - Mercenaries - 26
Claire - Menoth - 24
Rich - Khador - 24

Unfortunatly Rich and Claire couldnt make it this week. Which meant the games were only played between 6 of us.
After alot of games on the night the league ladder had upped in points dramaticaly

Col - Cryx - 69
Andy - Cygnar - 67
Steve - Cryx - 64
Cal - Minions - 52
Benn - Khador - 48
Ian - Mercenaries - 43
Rich - Khador - 24
Claire - Menoth - 24

Once all of the map points were counted and reported we had -
Icebrand Lakes - Minions 2, Cryx 2
Ulden Point - Cryx 1
Southeren Scarsfell - Cygnar 1
Thelborn - Mercs 3, Cygnar 1

The territories didnt change much but afew %s did.
Icebrand Lakes saw the gathering Minions stay in the lead and go from 19% to 20%
Ulden Point was still under Cryx control and they went from 28% to 29%
Souther Scarsfell was still under the strong grip of Cygnar. Going from 23% to 24%
Thelborn stayed controlled by the Legion of Everblight.
But my Merc Pirates had a slight inpact by keeping us in 3rd but gaining another 2%

Next week will be our last week now after deciding not to carry on after the international league has finished.
As a final night we will be having a visit from the national team at Rygas Roughnecks / Iron Kings in Exeter
This means the results could go anywhere on the last night.

More than likely we are going to see 1 of 2 Cryx forces or Cygnar win at our location.
Cygnar are also looking good for the worldwide win on the map aswell.

If that doesnt make Cygnar players happy then this might.
The new Storm Strider Battle Engine that has been preveiwed by PP this week.

Very Tesla looking if you ask me. Which is a great thing.
Could even tempt me to get an electric themed Cygnar army at some time.

And to finish off todays post, take a look at the bottom of the page.
Tales of a PP Press Ganger has just hit OVER 3000 VEIWS!!!!!!
Yay!

And in celebration my wife has given me a nice little present.
Being a pirate obssesed wierdo I recieved this

I do love my wifey.
This will also come in handy on our Steampunk Voyage aboard Captain Nemos Nautilus in April that we will be going to.

Until next time people
May the dice gods smile upon you

NCBB Windless Wastes - Night 2.......and stuff!

Right then,
We have now played night 2 of our Shattered Grounds: Windless Wastes league at North Cornwall Beasts and Bionics.
Full details of the league can be found here - Privateer Press Events

The current standings at the start of thie night were-
Col - Cryx - 18pts
Steve - Cryx - 18pts
Andy - Cygnar - 16pts
Cal - Minions, Blindwater Gators - 16pts
Benn - Khador - 12pts
Claire - Menoth - 10pts
Ian - Mercs, Talion Pirates - 10pts
Rich - Khador - 10pts

The new rules that had been put inplace (from the last blog post) worked really well. Everyone enjoyed them selves and got all of thier games in.

After 4 hours and 12 games the league table had shuffled a little. And the points shot up!
Night 2 results were-

Col - Cryx - 43pts
Andy - Cygnar - 40pts
Steve - Cryx - 40pts
Cal - Minions, Blindwater Gators - 31pts
Ben - Khador - 30pts
Ian - Mercs, Talion Pirates - 26pts
Claire - Menoth - 24pts
Rich - Khador - 24pts

This gave a nice amount of points to enter onto the league map here - http://www.privateerevents.com/immoren/details/windless_waste

The map points were won for
Icebrand Lakes - Cryx 1
Nyerek - Cryx 3, Cygnar 2, Khador 1
Thelborn - Cryx 2, Mercs 1, Khador 1, Cygnar 1

Didnt make any major changes to who controlled which territories but it did change a couple of the %s for the scoring Factions.
Nyerek stayed under Protectorate control
Icebrand Lakes were still the tribal grounds of the Minions and
Thelborn was still being opressed by Everblight

So thats the results for night 2. Leaves us 3 nights left.
On March 3rd we are getting a league challenge from Rygas Roughnecks and the Iron Kings from Exeter.
Should be fun taking on a team that plays in international events.
And the plans are coming together for the THUNDERDOME game on the final night aswell.
A 6'x6' board with 8 players and a total of 24 Warcasters and Warlocks on the field at once!

Onto the other STUFF.

At the moment the Press Gang (me) will not be at the South West Model and Engineering Expo in Shepton Malet at the end of April. Due to costs that have arisen and just cant be covered. Were not told about these when applying for a stand so going to look into being there next year now we know more about it.

But we will be going all out at Legionary in Exeter on May 7th, the weekend after.

My own forces are growing!!!

The MercTalion Charter Pirates have gained some new recruits.

1 x Mangler, 2 x Mules and 2x Min Press Ganger Units

An the Minion Blindwater Congregation Gators have begun at last.

Bloody Barnabas, Calaban the Grave Walker, 1 Bull Snapper, Viktor Pendrake and a Totem hunter

Cant wait for it all to arrive. I need more things to build!

Thats all then, Im off to do some more painting. (Got lots to do)

Until next time ..... and stuff

NCBB Windless Wates changes

After reporting back on our first Windless Wastes night we have made a couple of changes for the good of the players.

1 -  The first 3 games count towards your score. Not the first 5.

This is due to the manicness (is that a word?) of the games on the first night. A couple of players enjoyment was abit spoilt and that not what the league is about. Its all about having fun and community building.
I also think thats it fairer to have the winner as the person that does the best. Not the person that manages to sqeeze in the most games.
Most people managed 3 games on the night so this will now be the set limit.

2 - Best sportmanship gets 5 bonus points

This will be added to the final scores. And will be voted by all of the players in the league.
(Cannont vote for themselves though)

3 - The final night will be some bigger games.

To finish the legue of by having abit if fun. There will be 2 x 4 player games to start with. Using the Team scenario #5
This will be followed by an 8 player WARCASTER THUNDERDOME!!!!!!!!!!

4 - If 2 players cant make it to a club night, or dont get to play 3 games due to running late, they may meet outside of club hours to play 1 game of upto 50pts

Do you think this is fair?

Thats all for today folks.
Unless I think of something else anyway.

New Ways to 'Play Like You've Got a Pair'

Courtesy of Lost Hemisphere and GDAYBLOKE
We have new little game to play with your Warmachine and Hordes forces.

Thunderdome!!!!!!!!!

Warcaster Thunderdome is a 4-player format.

Each player’s army consists of three Warcasters/Warlocks from the same faction. Each Warcaster/Warlock choice can only ever bring one model to the table. No Halfjacks, no Keg Carrier, only one Coven member, Goreshade has no feat, etc. Yes, this makes some casters a bad choice in the format.
The Warcasters are considered to be each others battlegroup.
The field of play is 36" on each side. Deployment zones are a 10" bubble at each corner. There is a 12" hill in the center of the board, and an 8" impassable wall extends from the center of each edge toward the center of the board.
Models cannot be healed and cannot regenerate power fields in any way. Once damage is inflicted, it cannot be removed.


Warlocks use the mechanics for Focus instead of Fury– they gain their full Fury value at the start of the turn, and overcharge instead of transferring. Warcaster Thunderdome is intended to be a very fast format.
While there are no timed turns per se, players should be punished with badgering and verbal abuse if they play slowly or waste time strategizing. Plan on your opponent’s turn– when it’s your go, GO!

Mutators (Optional)
At the start of the first player’s turn each round, roll a D6, and immediately execute the according mutator:

1- Immediately push each model 3" toward the center of the table (closest models first to avoid logjams).
2- Models generate two additional focus/fury this round. Immediately put two focus/fury on each model.
3- Each player selects one warcaster/warlock he controls. That model may use its feat this round without “expending” its use of the feat, even if it has already been used.
4- Upkeep spells have no effect this round (though they remain in play and can be upkept).
5- Models gain one additional initial attack this round, ignoring rate of fire.
6- LOS is restricted to 8" this round. Models cannot ignore LOS when attacking.

So, What do you think?

We are also trying to work out our own points system on a format created by another Press Ganger
'Achievement Unlocked'
Instead of just play and win points there will be a whole sheet of different things.
Everything from 'Win 1 game using scenario' to 'Make all Power Attacks in a turn'. And a couple of more obscure silly ones.
Each will have its own points value if acomplished. Gives a whole new way to win a tournament!

Finally for today.
Looks like there might be a Warmachine + Hordes Steamroller Tournament at PAW next year.
Run by us!
Will keep you posted on that one.

NCBB Windless Wastes - Night 1

Shattered Grounds : Windless Wastes is now here.
Its a map based, international league played at different venues with all the results entered online to determine control of the different territories and an overall winning Faction. The first of 4 over the year.
All info can be found here -Privateer Press Events

There is a backgound story for each league and 1 new model rules cards for each Faction each time.
Adding characters, Warjacks, Warbeasts and more out of the story to use.
All of this can be found in the above link.

At North Cornwall Beasts and Bioncis (our local club) we are running this as our first Shattered Grounds. I think its also the first SG league ever run in Cornwall aswell. Maybe even the south west UK.
For taking part you recieve a Battle Journal to track your wins and acomplishments.
These total up on a 'Strategems' page one by one to give you bonuses that can be used in game.
The more you get, the more options you have.
You also get a participation patch that builds up over the 4 month long events into a Cygnar rank symbol.

The overall winner of each location also gets thier hands on the league coin.
The Windless Wastes coin is the first one pictured below. And the back is the last one.
They are alot bigger than they look aswell. About the size of a Warjack or Warbeast base and quite heavy.

During the league there is a running points ladder for all the players. When a match is set, the lowest scoring player gets to choose which location on the map they will be fighting in. And the winner adds 1 point to thier Faction on the online map in that area.
Both players can choose an area controlled by thier Faction to have the force arrive from. This will also give them bonuses for that area. Be it +1WJ point, 1 free Merc model or a selection of other nice things.
As you may guess, the Faction with the most points at the time controls that area. And the final winner is the Faction that holds the most area.
All can be seen LIVE on the Privateer Events page. (click link)


Our NCBB Windless Wastes event has 8 players. And the randomised ladder started like this.
Andy - Cygnar
Cal - Minions
Steve - Cryx
Claire - Menoth
Col - Cryx
Me (Ian) - Mercs
Rich - Khador
Ben- Khador

Over the course of the night quite afew games were played. Each player gets points for playing a game and bonus points for winning.
The results of night 1s games ended like so -

Col - 18
Steve - 18
Andy - 16
Cal - 16
Ben - 12
Claire - 10
Ian - 10
Rich - 8

Being the event organiser I cant win the league or the coin. So to make things abit more interesting I gave any Bonus Win points back to my opponent. And I will do the same for each person I play.
The Merc Map points are mine though!!!!

The Map Points were then totaled up
Nyerek - Minions 1, Cygnar 2, Menoth 1, Cryx 1
Thelborn - Mercs 2
Ohk - Cygnar 1, Cryx 3

When added the map didnt change that much.
Nyerek still belonged to Menoth
Ohk was still under Cygnar control
But Thelborn had changed. Legion had control before I entered my points.
But then, Mercenaries took it!

It was only for afew hours until Legion claimed the area again but they wont stay there for long.
The best part though was that my own games actually made a visible difference to the map. People all over the world playing but a bloke down in Cornwall UK changed a result!

Thats all for now though people. Getting ready for night 2.

May the dice gods smile upon you.
And all your territory points be where you want them

Cheers all

Ian

PAW 2011 ....... and stuff!

Hi there all,
Lots going on to report including a 2 day gaming convention so here goes.
Will be inserting images of the weekend all the way through.

PAW 2011

Day 1
For those that dont know about PAW here is thier page to give you a starting idea of what its all about.
PAW 2011
Its a quite large wargames convention in the south west UK. This year was the first time I had been but Im sure now that it wont be the last.

A couple of days before the event we found out that the planned tables wernt going to be ready. PANIC!
Buy luckily my wonderful wife had some time off. After a couple of late nights we had a new fully painted and terrained snow board.
Sat 8AM - PAW is about 1 hour away from us so we needed to head of early. Andrew (club council), Coleen (my wife) and myself sent off after trying to cram all of the gear into the car.
Arrived at the location just before 9AM. The main hall was huge! There were around 12 traders around the edges and the centre had roughly 15-20 game tables. A second hall held 3 large tourneys that would run over both days,
We were placed almost in the middle. This turned out to be a great thing.
Most of the other gaming tables were your usual green. Light, dark, both, but still green.
Right in the middle was a huge great table with a big bright white board on it! This was one of the factors that pulled people in and intreaged them from all over the building. People were even heard talking about it in the overhead canteen. Think we may keep this one!
The layout-
A nice big selection of rules, books, mags and info on both Warmachine and Hordes

And the games-
Khador v Cryx on a ruined battlefield and Legion v Circle on a snowy wasteland

Unfortunatly abit of the snow terrain gained some battle damage and we didnt have the paints to repair with us. But once the games started nobody noticed anyway.
Afew of the traders and other gamers came over right away and the demos began rolling.
Than at 10AM the doors opened to the public. It went mental.
Games, games, books, rules, games and it went on. We totaled just over 30 demos in the first day! Even between 3 people with 2 boards it was still alot.
I tried to catch everyones names and make sure I had time to chat to anyone interested. But at times I just couldnt get around to all of them. Thats where Andy and Col were the best resources I had with me all day.
Time for afew in demo shots I think

Alot of people ended up taking cards for local Privateer suppliers or going over to the Cross Swords trade table that had almost the whole PP range. There were new Battleboxes, Forces books, Prime/Primal books and mini blisers appearing everywhere. I think the interest grew 10 fold from when we started to the end of the day. Exactly what we wanted. More players = more fun for everyone! 5PM came and it was time to go home. All the scenery and books were stored under the table and we headed home to crash out for afew hours

Day 2
Once again we were on the road early. But this time we had some extra toys in the car. Grind and Monsterpocalypse!
Before hand I had been told that the second day would be quieter. It was. But not by much.
Over all we ran over 20 demos on day 2. More interest and more players. And again there were people buying minis and books all day. Cross Swords even ran out of some of the Forces books and Battleboxes!
Went for a bit if a layout change on Sunday. A couple of the kids couldnt quite reach the middle of the boards so we moved them to the table edges and displayed everything else in between.
Added alot more of our own models for display to give peopel a chance to look at the quality and detail of the ranges.
Like this -

The day started to slow down in the last hour or 2. Time to have a game between ourselves and try to drag the few people left over.
Monsterpocalypse ended up being the game of choice seeing Col hadnt played before and wanted to learn.

After that the public had cleared otu and it was time to pack up.
All in all it was amazing. I thought it went really well and I was so lucky to have 2 great people to help me through it. Cant wait for the next convention. (End of April)
The end of the day wasnt the most pretty sight though.
One very tired PressGanger

Shattered Grounds
Its day 1 of SG: Windless Wastes today. The club will be starting properly on Thursday.
The Mercs/Minions are painted and things are being made for the first 2 commendations.
We are running a terrain comp for the Combat Engineer. 2 small or 1 large terrain piece and the best wins 2 yes TWO Factions patches of thier choice.
Outside of the club I have been given a very nice post for the league. Leftennant of the Talion Charter for Mercenaries on the PP forums. Time to stir up some trouble in those 'Factions'
For Boold and Coin! Yaaaarrrrrr!!!!!!!
I will report on the progress from both positions over the next 4 weeks of Windless Wastes.

New Faction Time - Hordes Edition
I have been looking into a couple of Hordes Factions recently. My original plans never really came to and its time to get some new big Beasts on the go. The choices were
Legion - Arch enemy Andy has started them.
Circle - Already 3 armies at the club or
Minions - Blindwater
Picked up Forces of Hordes: Minions at the PAW show and all the bits are in place to get the Blindwater Congregation into the fight. More underdogs to go with my Mercs.
On a (vaugely) related note I found a very nice place about 30 miles from me in North Cornwall

Now I know where they are from. Its not Immoren at all!!!!!!!

Cheers for now then people.
And prepare to bow down to the forces of the Mercenaries for the next 4 weeks!!! ( I hope)

First Finished Merc, PAW 2011, Windless Wastes + Theme tunes!

Just a quick one today.
To start with, I have just finished the test scheme for my Talion Charter force.
I have only painted a hand full of minis before this. (maybe 9?)
A Mercenary Buccaneer light Warjack

What do you think?
No need to be polite. I would love input to help me improve and find out what people really think of my painting so far.

PAW 2011 is almost here. Only 3 days away now.
Warmachine + Hordes Demos with a range of models and books to take a look at. And FREE rules to take away with you.
Everything is organised and ready to go. Cant wait! First convention as a PGer. Forst convention ever actually.

Shatter Grounds : Windless Wastes is soon aswell.
The pre-league event is a scenery comp. 1 large or 2 small pieces of terrain to fit the Iron Kingdoms settings.
Comendations for all that enter and a Faction Patch for thier chosen army for the winner.
Just waiting for the last players books to turn up and then ready to go on Feb10th.
Guess what Im using!

Finally we are running a Theme Tune comp at the club finishing this week.
You pick your favourite army/faction.gang/ect and a song that best fits them.
All will be played on the night and the best one gets a £5 voucher for Mad for Miniatures
Im going for Alestorm- Heavy Metal Pirates!

Lots more updates coming soon. PAW, SG:WW, terrain, tunes and more.

Cheers for now