UK Nationals - A good show!

Two weekends ago was the UK Nationals, a good Warmachine event for players of all levels. I went last year to play and did okay by my standards, however, a year on and a lot's changed. The meta's shifted, the rise of a new faction or two have come to play properly, and Barry has evolved into "TO Barry".



I went to Nationals this year, not to play, but to help the team run the event. I travelled up on the Friday morning, having booked the day off work, in order to get a 300 point game of Warmachine in. Afterwards, I got ready to muck in and help set up for the weekend's event. This was really good fun and I'll put some pictures in to show off what we had going.
Around 5 pm, the team (who've been running Nationals for about 12 years now) arrived and I had some introductions followed by a good curry. After going out for the meal, getting to know everyone and eating more than I should've; we went back to the venue and started rolling out mats. There were 88 players attending Nationals, which meant setting up 44 tables. For one person to do this would've taken hours, but thankfully we had a team of 6, as well as helpers, which certainly made the process much faster. I believe the last pieces of terrain were laid around 10:30 to 11 pm and we allowed the bar staff to lock up and go home. I turned up the next day around 8:30, to set up scenarios and finish off the terrain that looked a bit off. Not too long after, the arduous process of registration began. Each player at Nationals had to be booked in, given a raffle ticket, and receive their participation bonus prize (this year, a battle-box a piece). Once I'd finished with terrain, I hopped behind the desk and helped by handing out battle-boxes. At the time, it suddenly struck me how many people I know by name from other events. It really showed me how close the Warmachine community is and how friendly everyone is as well.

Once we'd got everyone registered, it was on to announcements and getting the show rolling. After the obligatory Health and Safety announcements from the venue (I often forget these at my own events, I should really start doing them properly), there was a short announcement saying that I would be handling pretty much all the judge calls for the weekend as practice for my future attempt of the judge's exam. Then the event was off and rolling, clocks all started on time, with a 2 hour round time and only 15 to 30 minutes late (it's hard to keep track of actual times when you're busy doing a whole bunch of stuff).
Over the weekend I had a few easy, a few moderate and a couple of tricky judge calls, with most of the trivial ones regarding terrain or interactions between two rules.

The trickiest judge call was, in fact, the difficult decision on awarding a game loss. These are a rare occurrence (this being only the second one I've had to issue in the last year) and are, usually, only for either unfortunate accidents that influence the game greatly or for poor player conduct. Both the ones I've issued have been the former. The judge guidelines provided by PP are great for identifying how to resolve issues that get to this level. In this case a player had accidentally hit the reset button on the clock instead of the pause button. Sadly, neither player could agree to the time remaining on their clocks and the player who hit the reset button had to be awarded a game loss. It's important to note, that had they been able to agree a time, no game loss would have been required and they could have finished their game.

The semi-finals tables and finals table are always a source of interest and this isn't exclusive to players, these tables are usually given a closer watch by the judges than the others, for obvious reasons (these games are quite important to those of us playing toy soldiers). I was assigned to these tables to provide judge calls for them (and the rest of the tables) and to monitor the play in general for mistakes and anything that might not be above board. Thankfully, there was nothing odd or strange occurring and the finals went off without trouble.

Overall Nationals was a really good event, run by some really good people. It was a breeze to judge and very interesting to learn from. I got more valuable experience judging and I feel like it has taken me another step towards the judge's exam and being a better TO.
Shout out to Rob "The Punning Man" McCormick for some a-grade proof reading.x

Tournament Rundown : Wargames Store UKISS qualifier 28/07/18

This is the first of a few tournament reports from a player's perspective, I've been to a couple of nice tournaments lately and thought I'd give them a review.

The first of the three tournaments I went to was a UKISS qualifier, for those that don't know, the UKISS is a national event being held towards the end of the year, which aims to bring together players from the UK and Ireland and find the best players, with a secondary goal of bringing together the UK and Ireland's Warmachine and Hordes communities. If you're interested there's more information about the UKISS here : http://wmhukiss.co.uk/

This event was a qualifier for the regional finals in the North West, held in the small village of Brimstage in the centre of The Wirral at Wargame Store. The store itself has a great selection of stock which is very nice as I often find I'm more inclined to purchase models at an event. The upstairs of the venue is a little cosy but houses at least 10 tables big enough for Warmachine, making it a great place to run an event.

This event was a sixteen player event with the top four qualifying for the UKISS Regional final, held two weeks later in the same place.

The tables used at the event are fairly accessible, though due to the eaves of the building sometimes swapping sides at round start can be quite awkward. The tables themselves are good, set up before the players turned up and each table had a plastic wallet of terrain and zones, enough to make a suitable table set up from each. This makes it easy to find all the zones you need for the scenario and not have to harrass the TO.

Round timings are very relaxed, with one hour deathclock meaning that there's a more relaxed atmosphere and there's plenty of time between rounds to relax and browse the store downstairs. This does mean that the event ends around 6:30pm, however as the event is on a Saturday this doesn't seem so bad.

The venue puts on lunch for the tournament, usually a chili or other similar all-in-one meal which can be heated all together. Along side this there is also a free bottled drink of your choice and a piece of fruit. The food is always very tasty too!

The last thing to mention is that the prize support is brilliant. There are raffle tickets awarded to each player for attending, fully painted armies, and both lists played (in a D&C 0 tournament) along with others I'm sure I'm forgetting. These raffle tickets then enter you in to a draw for store credit to spend in the shop downstairs. The best thing about this is that the wonderfully patient shopkeep will regularly stay open afterwards to allow you to spend your vouchers there and then!

Overall I would heartily recommend any tournament at the Wargame Store as they're always good, relaxed, fun, and very well organised. Big thanks to Chris Young as the organiser and Mark Ellis as the judge!

Also thanks to Rob "He would've proofread this but he's in Canada on holiday and Barry didn't want to bother him" McCormick for his support as always.

Good Practice

Practice is big in Warmachine. Whether its getting games in with your lists, practicing a matchup or even practicing unpacking a list on your kitchen table; it's a big part of getting better. Practice is just as important for TOs, but it's a bit more difficult to come by opportunities to get it! Possibilities exist though. I find club nights are a great time to practice some TO skills, for example. Our local club has at least five games being played almost every week which usually makes for a few rules questions over the two games we play an evening. At first, in the time before TO Barry, rules questions tended to be an open forum where the question was asked to anyone stood near the table, with it spreading across the room until someone responded. Now the response to "How does this/that work?" is "Barry!". This is often an inconvenience for my opponent as it means I have to step away from my own game to go sort them out, but it buys them some off clock thinking time, so it's not all bad for them. Generally, the club members know tis will happen and I try to inform new comers of the possibility. This means I can go to the game asking the question and sort things out with minimal disruption of my own games. This makes for great practice of TO skills in an informal environment, which translates to good performance in more formal tournament settings. Helping out other players at club night will also help reinforce to your local players that you know what you're doing, making them trust you more in actual Steamrollers. As a side benefit, it also tends to spread to the rest of the community through word of mouth too.

On the topic of practice, I have just picked up a third faction in Trollbloods. I started playing trolls because I thought they looked cool and would suit my play style, but as an added advantage, playing them expands my knowledge of the game too. I was mistaken on how a few of the Troll abilities worked, which has now been fixed by playing them. Not everyone can just wander out an start a whole new faction, but you can look through cards you've not encountered much. For example, I should probably look through some Convergence models as we don't have any locally. As such, my knowledge of them is patchy at best. Other methods of practicing TO skills are watching battle reports on the internet (Youtube, Twitch and similar) and picking up on model interactions and mistakes made in play (everyone makes one or two when playing a game as complex as Warmachine). You can watch two other friends playing at the kitchen table, even discussing lists can often bring up some interesting rules interactions! The rules forum on the PP forums are also a good place to skim through to pick up on the way rule wordings work. 

Thanks to Rob "Pundamentalist" McCormick for proof reading my ramblings..

16th June Midsummer Brawl

This weekend Adam Bailey and I had arranged two 16 man steamrollers in one venue on the same day. Planning to gather 32 Warmachine players for a tournament. It was a great event with a lot of players and the first 32 person event I've helped arrange and run (I helped to run the 64 + 32 man events at Bonescon without arranging anything so it's not quite the same).

My weekend started on the Friday night as I drove up to Stockport where the event was being held in the evening, mainly because I didn't want to get up at 6am on a Saturday. After a stop over at the infamous Britannia hotel I drove the short distance to the Element Game store and met up with everyone, had a nice chat until the venue was opened and then went in with all the gear. I had a lot of gear as this wasn't my home venue, I'd had to bring terrain, zones, and a stream set-up with me as no-one else familiar with our stream could make it. This added a small level of stress to the day, but nothing TO Barry couldn't handle!

Setting up the room and stream was a little delayed due to me trying to multitask and do both, however we got started only a half hour later than we should have. We lost time after most rounds due to the unexpected amount of work required between rounds to reset tables and sort players out, this could be improved next time with a stricter enforcement of round time starts.

Overall there were very few difficult judge calls and no particularly difficult games/players that needed our attention. A brief rundown of the judge calls we had are; Do models out of formation contest, and can they have friendly spells cast on them  (no and no for reference). Can you reave fury if a transfer from a caster kills a warbeast (no), Can you make vengeance attacks if staggered (I believe yes, though I think I'm going to ask on the rules forum about this because I'm not 100% on it), can you boost a mount attack (yes, impact attacks are specifically not boosted, but mount attacks do not have this restriction),and then several line of sight and throw/least disturbance rules.

Overall it was a good day with positive feedback, only marred by our slipping schedule, which we are going to tighten up for the next brawl we organise.

Mini Rules Primer #1 : Arc Nodes

Today I'm going to run through a mini rules primer on Arc Nodes and Channeling.

Arc Nodes and Channelers aren't available to everyone, but everyone should understand how they work. Lets start with an excerpt from the rulebook:

Some models, known as channelers, can act as passive relays
for spells and extend their effective range. The most common
channelers  in  WARMACHINE  are  warjacks  with  the  Arc
Node   advantage.  A  spellcaster  can  cast  spells  through
any channeler in its battlegroup that is also within its control
range.  The  spellcaster  is  still  the  model  casting  the  spell
and, if the spell is offensive, the attacker, but the channeler
becomes the spell’s point of origin (p. 40). This means that
eligible targets and the spell’s range are measured from the
channeler and that the channeling model must have line of
sight to the spell’s target. Channeling a spell does not require
the  spellcaster  to  have  line  of  sight  to  either  the  channeler
or  the  spell’s  target.  There  is  no  additional  focus  cost  for
channeling a spell.
A channeler that is stationary, knocked down, or engaged by
an enemy model cannot channel spells. A channeler can be
the target of a non-offensive spell it channels, but a spell with
a RNG of “SELF” cannot be channeled. A channeler cannot
be the target of an offensive spell channeled through it.
Make a magic attack for a channeled offensive spell normally.
The spellcaster can spend focus to boost die rolls.
Remember,  the  channeler  is  just  a  relay.  Being  used  to
channel  a  spell  is  a  passive  effect  that  occurs  during  a
spellcaster’s activation and has no impact on the channeler’s
own activation. A channeler’s focus points cannot be used to
pay the spell’s COST or boost its rolls, for example

Channelling a spell does not require the spellcaster to have line of sight to either the channeler or the spell’s target. There is no additional focus cost for channeling a spell. A channeler that is stationary, knocked down, or engaged by an enemy model cannot channel spells. A channeler can be the target of a non-offensive spell it channels, but a spell with a RNG of “SELF” cannot be channeled. A channeler cannot be the target of an offensive spell channeled through it. Make a magic attack for a channeled offensive spell normally. The spellcaster can spend focus to boost die rolls. Remember, the channeler is just a relay. Being used to channel a spell is a passive effect that occurs during a spellcaster’s activation and has no impact on the channeler’s own activation. A channeler’s focus points cannot be used to pay the spell’s COST or boost its rolls, for example. As usual, that's a lot of text to explain something intuitive. As with all games, this is to give us a tight set of rules, with no room for interpretation or argument (unlike with art, in this case more that one interpretation is a bad thing). Lets start breaking it down. If we want to use something to channel spells it must have Channeler, or the Arc Node advantage. Most of the time warjacks will be the channeler. However, there are a few warbeasts and warlocks that can access channelers (for example Minion's Blindwalker warbeast, or Skorne's Dominar Rasheth). Now that we know we can channel through a model, we have to determine if the spell is legal. So first process is to determine line of sight. A channeler (i.e. the Arc Node/model that's being channeled through) must have line of sight to the target of the spell. This can be blocked by clouds, terrain, other models. So, for example the channeler has true sight then this will allow you to ignore clouds for line of sight (Note: this also means that if the caster has true sight, but the arc node does not then you cannot ignore clouds). Another example is stealth, the channeler does not need true sight to ignore stealth as it can still draw line of sight to the model with stealth. Either the caster requires true sight if over 5 inches from the target, or the channeler must be within 5 inches of the target. This is due to the arc node being the point of origin for the spell, and how that interacts with the wording of Stealth (I.e. attacks originating more than 5inches away automatically miss). Whilst things that prevent channeling are usually self explanatory (abilities like the spell Chasten will normally specify that they prevent channeling and where that effect takes place), I will mention about everyone's favourite Cygnar Arc Node, Thorn. Thorn has a bond with Haley. It states that he can be channeled through, even if he's engaged. This is relatively simple for Haley 1 and 2, but a little more complex with Haley3 due to the presence of her Echoes (which have, as part of their rules, the ability to channel through Haley 3's arc nodes). Thorn is bonded to Haley 3 herself (Major Prime Victoria Haley) but not to the Echoes (Haley Past, and Haley Future) this leads to some interesting interactions. Haley3 can arc spells through Thorn if he's engaged, but the echoes cannot arc through Thorn if he's engaged (as he is not bonded to them). Also note that an Arc Node must be in CTRL range of the model casting the spell. This means he must be within 8 inches (or 12 inches the turn that Haley feats) to be a valid arc node for either echo.

Conquest in Review

Back in January a group of 6 midlands players including myself took a trip to Oslo Norway for a Warmachine convention called Conquest. It was a three day event hosted in the Anker Hotel near Oslo City Centre, by a team of dedicated Warmachine players. It was a really good event to play in, and I thought I'd give a brief review of the event from my point of view.

The first thing to note is that the event was held in a hotel, this is amazing for players that are staying in the same hotel. it meant that carrying models to and from our room to the event was very easy, and it was only a short trip if you needed to charge devices and such.

We arrived on the Thursday evening before the event and found the guys setting up the room for the event in the morning, this was very nice as they graciously let us play a few games using their terrain before they went to bed. Infact the room was already fully set up for the event when we came down for breakfast in the morning.

The next thing I really liked was the Conquest booklet (sadly I have misplaced mine now so can't share here). This was a short A4 document which contained everything you needed when taking part in the tournament, including blank list sheets and a very clever terrain set-up guide. The booklet was broken down in to 6 scenarios and 4 "maps", a map was a display of the table with terrain pieces laid out in an interesting and game play relevant manner. At the start of every round the scenario and map we declared and shown on the projected screen, making it nice and clear to all players what the board should look like.

Also contained in the booklet was a timeline of which events were on when. Another smart setup was that the tournaments were staggered by a round, So a 5 round masters was started at 9am, with a 4 round steamroller arrange to start just after 11am allowing anyone who lost in the first round to drop and get into the steamroller starting just after. This is good for very competitive players who want their best chances to get to finals.

The tournament itself was handled through Tiebreak, which allowed for quick and easy table display again on the projected screens, and very clear rankings which can be returned to after the event which is nice for those who wish to keep their own records. Two tables each day were also setup with a camera to stream to anyone who might want to watch the games online (This was done by Warroom.pl ) this is a nice addition to any tournament I think, provided the venue can accommodate such a thing.

It's difficult to think of things I disliked about the con, in fact I've asked others who went with me and they also can't think of any bad things either, except some tables might have been a bit too close together. Overall it is a very good weekend, and I would recommend it to all who consider going in future.

Powerfist 13th May event

Today I'm going to give a rundown of a tournament I ran here in Stafford on May 13th, I'll just give a brief overview and a little chat about what did and didn't go well and some of the things I had to deal with on the day. 


The day didn't start well as I was late getting to the club, arriving at half eight. I'd been hoping to arrive earlier to give me a chance to set some of the hall up, before players started arriving. Unfortunately though, I was late (my own fault really, for being lazy and disorganised). Once we'd got in, and everyone had settled, I handed out list sheets due to most of the players forgetting theirs. (as I mentioned in another article... that happens a lot!). I made another small error here, advertising a three list tournament and printing off 2-list list sheets, oops!

 Planning ahead for this tournament, I selected four scenarios that have similar placements on the board. In the end, I went with Standoff, The Pit II, Spread the Net, and Recon II. I chose these as it involves taking away one zone between round one and two, then another zone between round three and four. This means you don't have to hand out additional zones over the tables, which makes for a small time saver. 

Once I'd gotten all the tables setup, scenario laid out, and pairings done we were into the first round. I started the day with an odd number of players, so round one and two had a bye which for round one was randomly chosen. One of my players had to go to work after round two so that resolved my bye issue for the other two rounds. Once round one had started, I got some painting I'd brought with me to keep me occupied and set about that. 
Round one was uneventful with only two judge calls, both pertaining to line of sight. The players finished their games as the round progressed and they handed in their completed list sheets. Small note here, some players will forget to write either their name on their sheet, or they'll not write the name of their opponent. Check this as they hand sheets in because it's hard to work out after the fact. 

Round two was also uneventful, one judge call regarding the spell Terminal Velocity on Lich Lord Venethrax (it still affects the jack if it charges out of control range). Unfortunately, due to starting late, the round finished later than it should have. In order to catch up, I had to shorten lunch to a half hour from forty-five minutes. Thankfully, the players were all okay with this. 

In round three I had to get a bit harsh on start times, because I was still running five or ten minutes late. I explained to the players that the clocks were starting at 13:35 regardless of where the players were in their discussions. Once the clock struck 13:35, I went table to table starting the clock on whichever player was going first. This was necessary to get the round finished in time. The players weren't happy about this, but understood the need for it. At the end of round three two players dropped (dropping in pairs is very helpful as a TO, because it'll leave you with no bye if you still have an even number of players). 
Round four started just 5 minutes later than it should have and ran without issue, leaving us with an overall winner and finishing just a little late. We did a prize ceremony after I'd worked out the rankings (strength of schedule was not too difficult to do manually here in a 16 player tournament). We rounded out the day with a short prize presentation and a photo of the top three and I. 

Finally we packed up the room and were away just a little later than expected. On the whole a good tournament, if a little frantic in parts (the start of round three in particular). A solid tournament, which I can improve by starting the day off without being lazy! Don't forget to ask people for feedback after the event too, as this will help you improve for future tournaments.

Thanks as ever to Rob "Pun one, Pun all" McCormick