Ok so it's been a very long time between posts. This is mostly because I was working on the above two entries into the Crystal Dragon painting competition at CanCon this year. I feel very lucky to have achieved a bronze for both these entries and had a blast both painting them and at CanCon.

Crystal Dragon

Primarily I went for this competition. I didn't enter in any other events, mostly because I wasn't sure I was going until a few days before, but I got to observe one or two and they looked like great fun.

Entry 1 - The DUELIST

MOM Miniatures is a small miniature company out of Spain that produces great miniatures if you love Kings of War or The 9th Age. I got a bunch of stuff from them, including this guy. While their casts are poor, I do love the character of their blanks and was keen to paint one up. He took quite lot of cleaning and fixing to make him presentable, lots of bubbles and bad joins, but in the end I was happy. The Non Metallic Metal steel is the same formula I've been using for a while, but I added some Iraqui Sand into the gold as well to make it more yellow and pop out a little more. You can see my other blog posts for how to do the basing, it's the same as the halfling unit.

Entry 2 - Smug Sniper

Demigods Evolution is a miniature line I stumbled across when looking through a gaming store. They looked like fun, 48mm, so I bought a couple. This is the first of two, and he looked fun to paint, so I did him first. I liked the smug look on his face, the armor and gemstones in the model. The cast was good, though the hands were lacking detail that I had to paint in. The base was just a carved out wooden block and the NMM was done int he same fashion as the Duelist. A lot of this model was done in monochrome and then glazed into colour (the pants and straps, the undergarments), which was a new process for me and I liked the result.

All in all they were both super fun and I'm super chuffed with the results. Here's the album with both entries

Clash of Kings

I was lucky enough to get a drop out position and late entry just 1 week out from the comp. Massive thanks to the TO and his posse for putting this comp together, it was amazing fun.

Game 1

Nick Prosser was first up with a 10 -10 draw against one of the nicest guys I've played in a while. We were within just a few points of each other and a really fun way to start the tourney. Forces of Nature are very hard to kill!

Game 2

Played Drew Mclean's beautiful goblin army with custom white cloaks on each of the models and a while lot of hand made modelling. I got lucky with the win tying on victory points but killing more stuff. Great opponent and fun game.

Game 3

I got Traished. Jeff Traish is a great player. His undead army, while simple, just posed questions I didn't have answers for. He wiped the floor with me 19-1 and then humbly congratulated me on a good game. Really enjoy playing Jeff, one day I'll beat him though.

Game 4

Nothing like finishing up the first day with two massive losses. Lost to Jay Neilson 18-2. Not a great way to end the day, but a humble and excellent opponent out played me as I made several mistakes against his elite Varungar army.

At the end of day 1 I was 48th of 62. I'd like to note that my brother rocked up for the last 2 games to watch and I still blame him for my losses, he is terrible luck. He made up for it by buying me the most awesome miniature from one of the stands.

Game 5

Ok no chance of placing so time for some fun. We had a member of the rules committee at the game and I got to play him and the TO's beautiful Scibor Dwarf army. Loot scenario and very little was killed as we stalled each other. In the end I sacrificed most of my units to get the tokens and wondered off with a 13-7 win. Quiet guy, Sami, but great sport and a fun opponent.

Game 6

Ogres in control. I don't usually do well against Ogres, especially not the standard shooters, boomers, warriors and 2 boom wagon list. But my opponent made a deployment error and I blew up a wagon 2 inches from 3 of his units. He also charged my chaff screening for my doppelgänger unit and let me have a front charge on a warrior horde with them. I also needed a double 6 to break his goblin unit, with a reroll, and got it. The dice were just coming up trumps for me. Cleaned him up by the end of turn 5 for a 19-1, but he took the loss well and was a great sport.

Game 7

Last up was Darren Holme and his Ogres. Basically the same list as my last opponent but kill and pillage instead. Close game, really fun trying to jostle for position on the tokens. In the end he gave me a flank on his siege breakers with my doppelgänger unit and that made the difference. Dead even on kill points but I got more tokens for the overall win.

Ended up 24th of 62, which I was very happy with after the first day, and most importantly had a ripper time.

Final Thoughts

I was never in contention for a placing and, other than Jeff, none of my opponents were either so each of my games was relaxed and fun. I played Ogres twice, and twice prior to this tourney in the last tourney and I'm a little disappointed to see that every Ogres list is largely the same. 1 unit of shooters, 1 unit of boomers, 2 (or 3) boom wagons, Wizard with lightning bolt and one or two hammers (Horde of warriors once, Seige Breakers and Bezerkers the next, chariots once too). The good thing is that I know how to beat it now, but some variation would be good to see. Maybe the new tournament pack will help with that.

Armies on Parade

I'd like to finish up this post with a video I made on the Armies on Parade. I might be biased, but I think that the Kings of War tournament had the best showing of hobby of all the other miniature games. So much effort went into the armies and each army I played was very impressive. At lunch on the first day was a small event called "Armies on Parade" where people could display their armies if they wanted for others to vote on a as best painted. I took a small video for my own memory, but thought you might enjoy it.