First on the workbench is the Harmonic Theatre kit from Knights of Dice that I bought back in 2015. It has been sitting around unfinished for ages as I ran out of steam/inspiration part way through the base coating stage. I have now completed the base coat and I have started applying washes. This is still a WIP and is far from finished.
Once that is out of the way I have a few more miniatures to complete and that will be all I need for ROBIN. Or will it ... I placed an order with TTCombat for a few more items yesterday and they would be good to take with me as well (they should be pretty quick to paint up too.
In other news I took my goblins to Altibash 3 on Saturday. Alitibash is a Kings of War tournament run by the nice chaps over at Altrincham Games Club. I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it so my preparations for the event were quite limited. I took the same army as I used at the tournament in Stockport back in September.
Game 1: Michael Roberts (Kingdoms of Men with Varangur allies) - Invade
Michael had a very nice Kingdoms of Men army and added in a couple of units from his Varangur army to round things out. The army was largely based around hordes and was mostly infantry. I think this may have been a bit of a bad match up for him as my troll hordes made a bit of a mess of some of his units. I also had some lucky rolls and ended up killing everything apart from one wizard (who refused to run away).
Result: Win
Game 2: Andy Ransome (Goblins) - Loot
Andy's orange goblins are probably familiar to many people of the KoW tournament scene but this was the first time we had actually played each other IIRC. At this point in the event goblins were placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th! I made some silly mistakes during this game which I can probably put down to being out of practice and this together with some disappointing dice rolls gave Andy the upper hand. At the end of the game I thought I had lost but it turned out I had misunderstood the scenario rules and a last gasp overrun from my trolls had captured a vital loot token giving me a lucky draw. If memory serves Andy was ahead on attrition by some margin so I was pleased to come away with a draw after a very hard fought game.
Result: Draw
Game 3: Sam Barker (Orcs) - Control
Sam set up an intimidating wall of orcs in one corner of the table. Luckily I guessed his deployment plan and set up accordingly. Unfortunately being a little out of practice I still ended up with my trolls slogging across the table and attacking in an uncoordinated fashion. Elsewhere I had some early game luck with wavering some of Sam's units slowing his advance a little and giving myself a tactical advantage with my choice of charge moves. Sam's Krudger on slasher could have been very nasty indeed but ended up only routing a sacrificial mawbeast troop before being war tromboned and lightning bolted to death over the course of the next few turns. As the game drew to a close my dice started to play up and I found I could only manage to waver his units rather than routing them which was frustrating. The final result was a draw but had been so close to being a win. In retrospect I should have shot up his war drum when I had the chance as this would have made a difference to those key rout rolls.
Result: Draw
Game 4: Andrew Sharp (Goblins) - Dominate
Goblins for the second time in the event fielded by another Andrew! By this time I was seriously flagging and needed a coffee to revive myself - it was been ages since I have played so many games in one day. This was to be a game dominated by errors. First to blunder was Andrew who overreacted to my troll regiment gambit (which hadn't worked in the game against Andy R) and advanced his troll hordes into my charge range. I dully pounced and the game became dominated by a big scrum in the centre. This didn't seem to bother Andrew too much as his war trombones and wizzes were positioned to provide support and poured wounds on to my trolls and giants. Elsewhere it was my turn to blunder and I made some very dubious decisions meaning I stalled my own advance trying for turn after turn to rout a pesky mincer which was blocking my path. With some slightly less stupid play I would have had a good chance to roll up that entire flank. When the game ended on turn 6 I was surprised to find that I had one. My army had been pulverised but the legacy of the initial scrum in the centre was that I still had enough points remaining there to win the scenario whilst Andrew's surviving units were more to the flanks.
Result: Win
When the final standings were announced I was pleased to find that I had ended up in 3rd place overall (tied for tournament points with the chap who came 2nd). It was a fantastically well run event and I had 4 fun and challenging games. Well done to Altrincham Games Club.
There are more photos from the event here:-
http://imgur.com/a/49Rl6
