Game night

Warhammer: Saturday night was a game night at the Daily Planet. I showed up with the same list I took to the Hombre, and played two games.

My first game was against Mark Burr, and his Dwarves. I've always found Dwarves to be a fairly good matchup for my Elves, as their low mobility means they have trouble reacting to my dancing. Basically here, I was able to isolate a few units, hit them with multiple units, and avoid getting stuck in. Of course, the fact that Mark's Anvil killed itself first turn might have had something to do with it.

My second game was against Tom Dixon's High Elves. This is a fairly standard Cavalry heavy list. I parked all my magic far, far away from his Ring of Corin, and put a trap on one of his units of Cavalry. That went well, killing his big mage. However, things started to go south for me with that unit, as several things bounced off of it. In addition, I pulled a real bone-headed move, and ran my Treeman out in front of both of his bolt throwers. He dropped 11 wounds on it that turn, killing it outright. The game turned out to be a draw, with mistakes on both of our parts. I have classically had problems dealing with the super-fast Cavalry, but lately I've found them to be less obnoxious. Had I dropped my free forest, and run my Treeman in it for protection against the bolt throwers, I could see this as having gone a different way.

Game of Thrones

Board Games: Ed hosted a Game of Thrones board game night. The players were 4 gamers (Bryan, Gideon, Ed and myself), and 1 relative non-gamer (Sarah). Sarah was not overwhelmed the game, having control of 3 or 4 cities at the end of the game (the victory condition). Ed and I were tied at 4 (or was it 5) for the win, but his having greater control of supplies won the tie. Had I spent more time in my order selection there was a chance I could have won. But that's just bitter grapes.

All in all the game was quite fun. Strategic, without suffering from analysis paralysis. The simultaneous laying of orders means that you're not bored while waiting for people to decide what to do. I also somewhat enjoyed the completely non-random battle system, but it also led to a highly defensive game, as you know that your +1 attack will probably not defeat his +2 defense, unless you've got the characters and support to win.

Back in town

Warhammer: Well, I got back from Nashville yesterday. It's good to be off the road for a while. Those 4 hour+ car trips were getting old. I did manage to squeeze in one geek moment while I was in Nashville, though. The guy I rode down with and his wife were going out to eat at some underwater-themed restauraunt, and since I'm on this diet I elected to browse the mall while they ate. I happened across a Games Workshop store, with a couple of guys playing a game, and the kid running the shop watching. I asked for Wood Elf stuff, and they pointed me at it, but there was no chance I was going to buy anything at full price, so I watched them play for a minute, and then left.

You know, at a lower price point, I could see buying stuff directly from a Games Workshop store. Particularly if they were running any kind of sale. As it was, I was being asked to pay $35 to $40 for 6 models. Plastic Models.

Once again, I have to wonder at people who buy a new army each year. Even with a 20% off discount, a 100 model army still costs around $500. I just can't see spending that on something I have to assemble and paint myself. I really should spend some time looking around for alternate (read: cheap) models for another army I'd like to play.

Hombre

Warhammer: I went to the Hombre in Killeen Texas last weekend. Basically this consists of riding in a car for 9 hours, playing 5 games of warhammer, and then getting back in the car for another 9 hours of driving. As fun as this sounds, the driving in Texas makes it even worse, as there are apparently no hills or trees in the entire ten billion miles between Little Rock and Waco.

The games were mostly fun, and I was moderately satisfied, having gone 3-2. I lost my first game to David Cochran's Forest Spirit army. Having taken the Wood Elves myself, the last thing I want to see is a mobile hard army. That's my shtick. His Alter Noble's Hail of Doom Arrow took out my entire unit of Wild Riders in the first turn, and then we played mexican stand-off on the left flank. The right flank showed some bad shooting for me. All in all, a dancy game where I blinked first, charged in some stupid ways, and got pwn3d.

My secod opponent was Ira Lamping, who brought a fairly tame Dogs of War army. There were several Regiments of Renown, but nothing savagely over the top. He spread out his deployment and let me take the initiative, which is a recipe for disaster against the Wood Elves. I danced with my Dryads and Wardancers, walked my Treeman toward a big batch of pikes, and ignored the entire left flank, except for my rapidly retreating glade riders, and my two units of bowmen. The game was a solid win for me.

My third opponent was a Tomb King's player, and by the third game of the tournament my ability to think clearly and remember things is gone. I'll have to review my notes (which are over 300 miles away) in order to find a name for this gentleman. This scenario really kicked me in the shin, as my level 1 with two dispell scrolls died of thirst before the game started. My opponent then proceeded to magically move all his units in front of his previously unguarded heirophant. This was a great exercise in grinning and bearing it, as I got waffle stomped by the magic.

That night I played in two rounds of a $5 buy in Hold'em tournamet. I placed 4th and 2nd, basically getting my $10 back out of the game, plus a 25 cent tip from Marcus Martin for playing dumb heads up. Woot for profit.

Some time on day two I wound up winning a box of Golfang's Ogres as a door prize, the closest I'll come to a prize any time soon.

My 4th game was against a really good sport who played with Ogre Kingdoms. He played a fairly tame list, with lots of hand to hand goodness. I danced, and overwhelmed the right flank, leaving the middle again mostly ungaurded, except by my archers. This was a win for me

My 5th game was against Isaac Guiterrez, the fellow who won best sports. He played a very pretty ice-themed Cult of Ulric army with lots of knights. This is typically a bad match up for me, but he wasn't aggressive, and allowed me to overwhelm two of his units with Dryads, Wardancers and my Wild Riders, while the other two units were tied up with my Terror causing Treeman, which managed to Strangle Root them down to a manageable point. Again, the center was my two 10 man unit of archers, who perhaps were the mvp of the game. They dropped his Cannon Crew in turn one, before it was ever fired. He then ran one of the crew members from his Mortar to pull the trigger, but it misfired, destroying the unit. That was fortuitous.

All in all, a fun time. None of my opponents were bad sports, and I only had one teeth-gritting game because I got stupid and started my level 1 with two scrolls outside of a unit. The Poker was fun, and I met a few new people.

My low placement is primarily due to my completely underwhelming paint job. I need to strip everything off, and start from scratch. I've got some Simple Green, which I hear does a good job. I'll also be looking for some Brake Fluid, which apparently strips off paint like nobody's business. Perhaps I could grab a theme, and do a few conversions before the Hillbilly.