Escalation League 2013 Results

Eli's High Elves face off against Ryan's Chaos Dwarfs

Escalation League is over, and the winners are:

League Champion:  Ryan Odam

Issac Guzman Award:  Chris Born
Favored Opponent:  John Evans
Master Tactician:  Steele Hull

Congratulations!

Here is the final overall scores:

Rank	Player	Games	Total Score
1	Ryan Odam	8	112
2	John Evans	8	104
3	Taylor Flesch	7	99
4	Chris Born	7	74
5	Ben Sathrum	5	63
6	Eli Kem	4	58
7	Austin Roberts	4	51
8	Chris Bailey	5	51
9	Steele Hull	3	50
10	Dustin Boyd	5	50
11	Paul Willworth	3	40
12	Michael Carter	4	35
13	Josh Baughman	2	29
14	Tony Bathke	1	6

BEST GENERALS          1.  Steele Hull 2.  Taylor Flesch 3.  Eli Kem

MOST PAINTED          1.  Chris Born 2.  Eli Kem 3.  Dustin Boyd

BEST SPORTSMEN 1.  John Evans 2.  Steele Hull 3.  Ryan Odam

And now we look ahead.... to THE BRAWL!

Week 8: Blood and Glory and Big Freaking Monsters!

This battle will be fought as a standard Blood and Glory scenario with the addition that Monster units each add an additional endurance point.
League bonus points +1 point for each surviving, non-fleeing monster in your army. +1 point for each enemy monster that is dead or fleeing at the end of the game.

Hope to see you all tomorrow as it is our final gaming week. Looking forward to a good night of gaming.

Escalation League 2013 Week 7 Results

Looks like I missed a week, sorry about that!  Here's the latest after last nights' games.

Rank Player Total Score  1 John Evans 95 2 Ryan Odam 92 3 Taylor Flesch 84 4 Chris Born 72 5 Ben Sathrum 63 6 Chris Bailey 51 7 Austin Roberts 51 8 Steele Hull 50 9 Dustin Boyd 50 10 Eli Kem 43 11 Paul Willworth 40 12 Michael Carter 35 13 Josh Baughman 29 14 Tony Bathke 6

A kamikaze Scar Veteran

Next week is the final week to get in an official escalation league game.  Join us!

Escalation League 2013 Week 5 Results

Rank	Player	Total Score
1	Taylor Flesch	69
2	John Evans	67
3	Chris Born	61
4	Ryan Odam	57
5	Austin Roberts	51
6	Ben Sathrum	51
7	Steele Hull	50
8	Eli Kem	43
9	Dustin Boyd	40
10	Chris Bailey	37
11	Paul Willworth	30
12	Josh Baughman	29
13	Michael Carter	21
14	Tony Bathke	6

Escalation League 2013 Week 4 Results

Rank	Player	Total Score
1	Taylor Flesch	60
2	John Evans	56
3	Austin Roberts	51
4	Steele Hull	50
5	Ryan Odam	45
6	Chris Born	44
7	Eli Kem	43
8	Ben Sathrum	40
9	Dustin Boyd	40
10	Chris Bailey	37
11	Paul Willworth	30
12	Michael Carter	21
13	Josh Baughman	14
14	Tony Bathke	6

2000 Points next week!

Week 4 Scenario: Get the Treasure!

Mobes, the Lord of Dane, was once known in the Borderlands as a fierce warrior, but he met his doom somewhere in the deep marshlands of that area.   His body was never recovered, but lately trinkets that bear resemblance to his affects have been showing up around the realms.   Eventually the location of his final battle has made it to you.   The time has come to reclaim his artefacts and use them to carve your own throne in the borderlands.

This battle is played as a meeting engagement battle with the following additions.

Before deployment, each player will place 2 swamps on the table.  These swamps will be khemri quicksand and will be placed in the following manner.  Players roll off.  The first player will place his anywhere on the table as long as it is 18” away from a table edge.  The second player will then place his piece at least 12” away from that one and then the first player will place his or her next piece at least 12” away from those two and then the fourth piece will be placed 12” away from the other two.

During the combat step if a unit is occupying the marsh and unengaged in combat, they may search the marsh for treasure.   All models on the marsh immediately take a dangerous terrain check.   Then roll a d6 and consult the chart below.

1: Nothing but muck and bugs.  

2: Danes Shield..  (armor)  +1 to armor save and gives bearer 5+ ward save

3: Danes Hammer:   (weapon)   +2 Strength.  Multiple wounds 2

4: Eye of Time:   (enchanted item)  Bearer gains Always Strikes first

5: Cloak of Starmetal (Talisman):  Bearer gains MR 2

6:  Blue Drops of Power:  (Talisman): Bearer becomes a level 2 Heavens wizard.  Roll for spells immediately.  May be combined with Cloak of Starmetal.  

If a result is rolled that has already been generated, then treat that result as a 1 instead.   Any character or champion in the unit that searches may equip the found item.   If a unit that has one of these items is beaten in combat and run down, the unit that destroyed them takes possession of the items.  

Bonus points:   +1 for each item your army has in its possession (additional +2 if all five items are in your possession)

Escalation League 2013 Week 3 Results

Rank	Player	Total Score
1	Taylor Flesch	52
2	Steele Hull	50
3	Austin Roberts	44
4	Eli Kem	43
5	John Evans	41
6	Ryan Odam	38
7	Dustin Boyd	38
8	Chris Born	35
9	Paul Willworth	30
10	Ben Sathrum	25
11	Chris Bailey	23
12	Josh Baughman	14
13	Michael Carter	11
14	Tony Bathke	6

Escalation League 2013 Week 2 Results

Rank	Name	Points
1	Steele Hull	34
2	Taylor Flesch	34
3	Austin Roberts	30
4	Eli Kem	28
5	Ryan Odam	28
6	John Evans	25
7	Chris Born	24
8	Chris Bailey	23
9	Dustin Boyd	23
10	Paul Willworth	15
11	Ben Sathrum	10
12	Tony Bathke	6
13	Michael Carter	4

See ya next week with 1500 points!

Escalation Week 2

Hey everyone. Hope to see you all tomorrow as we pit our 1000 point forces over a battle for the Blood Forest.

Rules for the Scenario are as follows: 
Armies deploy as if playing a Battle Line game. In the center of every table will be a Blood Forest. 
Play proceeds as a standard battle line with the following bonus point conditions available:
Have a unit in the blood forest at the end of the game: +1 point per unit
Have the most points worth of models in the blood forest: +2 points.
(Calculate how many points are left, not how many the unit started with)

See you at 6 PM.

Escalation League 2013 Week 1 Results

Escalation League has started!  Here are the results after the first night.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Taylor Flesch	18
2	Eli Kem	16
3	Ryan Odam	16
4	Austin Roberts	16
5	Steele Hull	15
6	Paul Willworth	15
7	Dustin Boyd	13
8	Chris Born	12
9	John Evans	11
10	Chris Bailey	10
11	Tony Bathke	6
12	Michael Carter	4

The scenario details for Monday will be posted soon!

Get Ready For Escalation League 2013

It begins in just 1 week!  Come down to Borderlands Monday night October 21st at 6pm and help us kick off the Order of the Black Sheep escalation league for 2013.  We will be starting off at 1000 points and building up to 2400 over 8 weeks.  Don't forget to keep your schedule open for December 16th as well, when we will hold awards night.  Champions will be declared, the raffle will take place, and as always, all who battled in the league will receive a special gift.

Check out the rules packet here for more details.  Start building those 1000 point lists!

OFCC Fantasy 2013

Another OFCC has come and gone.    

For those unfamiliar, the OFCC is the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge, and is a 2 day Warhammer Fantasy Event with teams from all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada.   This year there were 20 teams of five players for a total of 100 participants, the largest in Fantasy OFCC history, I believe.   The Order of the Black Sheep brought two teams, of which I captained Team Merino.   My team consisted of John Evan’s Warriors of Chaos, Steele Hull’s Empire, Wiley Kinyon’s Tomb Kings, and Eli Kem’s High Elves.   This year I took an all Nurgle Daemon list and did pretty well with it.  

Round 1 was versus Team Ordo Omega.  This was the first of our challenge rounds.  I had a grudge match going in against Evan, a friend from Vancouver who has consistently stomped me in every tournament we have faced each other.   This time he was fielding his dirty little skaven, an army my daemons have historically had troubles against.   The scenario for our grudge match was Mr. Lucky.  This was a fun one for me as it allowed us to choose a champion to be Mr. Lucky and as long as he was alive the player could re-roll one dice a phase.  

From the start, it felt like this game was going to go my way.  My army list was definitely in a higher power class than Evan’s and the end results showed it.   The only points Evan was able to score off of me by the end were my unit of furies, while the only unit he had left was his gutter runners.   His Mr. Lucky champion was in the unit of plague monks, who were wiped out by my unit of 3 beasts of Nurgle, which really swung the final part of the game, as I was able to mitigate some random effects with the re-rolls.   The final game score was an overwhelming victory 20-3.  

Evan was an awesome opponent and my games with him are always fun.   He was upbeat throughout the ass beating and earned my Favorite Opponent vote for the tourney.   I can’t wait until our next game where maybe our lists are a bit more on the same level.  

Round 2 vs Points Piñatas.   
My opponent was Canadian Mark playing Vampire Counts.   I played Mark during my very first OFCC and had an epic game of King of the Hill where I pulled out a win by the skin of my teeth.   I called him out this year to give him a chance at vengeance.   Unfortunately for the undead, vengeance would have to be delayed.  The scenario was Fulcrum Fight where our wizards would battle it out over superpowered magic fulcrums.  The game progressed with my chaff fighting his chaff on the flanks and the bulk of our forces converging in the center.   His grave guard and my Great Unclean One ground it out the whole game with big poppa winning the battle while holding onto a single wound.   The beasts of Nurgle eventually collapsed his flank and added their might to the middle.  By the time the game was over,  the daemons were the victor.    It was a pretty close battle at the start, but once I began to gain an advantage, he couldn’t recover.   Mark was an awesome opponent and gracious in defeat.   Hopefully we get another chance to throw dice against each other in the future.

 

Round 3 vs Team Chop XXX.  My opponent this round was Scott Greene playing Ogres.   I played one of Scott’s teammates last year and recieved a pretty epic beatdown and this was my chance to get vengeance against one of those wily Canadians.  

I went into this game having played ogres a bunch with my list and knew that I had a good chance against them.  Scenario was Reserves, which featured a random deployment.  Most of my units deployed where I needed them though Scott’s were slightly out of position.   Scott’s army had a pretty vicious unit of Maneaters, a cannon, and various other goodies.    

The game started pretty even at first though the cannon was pretty ineffectual.   The maneaters got dug in with my smaller unit of plaguebearers and his Mournfang tried solidifying a charging position on my right flank.  Eventually I was able to remove the maneaters by grinding them out with the plaguebearers and destroyed the Mournfang with magic, which allowed my army free reign on those flanks.  Scott managed to take out Big Poppa, but the game ended up a victory in my favor.   Scott was a good opponent and put up a good fight but had some bad luck which I was able to take advantage of.  

I did feel bad because I made a serious rules gaffe in this game.  I played a rancid visitation on a unit of his mournfang who had their toughness dropped to 3.  I kept doing a ton of wounds and he kept failing the toughness test until the unit was wiped off the board.   Unfortunately this is where I screwed up royally as I mistakenly believed that Rancid Visitations did not allow an armor save.   Luckily Scott clarified with his teammate and told me that I was playing it incorrectly.  I felt horrible about it and Scott was rightly upset.   As we hadn’t moved past the phase, Scott rolled his saves which helped him a bit, as instead of losing the whole unit, he lost three of them.   It was enough to cripple that unit though and fulfilled the same purpose.    I really don’t know why I thought that the spell didn’t allow saves, but I apologized to him and he was pretty good about it.   I seriously hate it when I screw up rules.   I really do.  When that was pointed out to me, my stomach just dropped.  The worst part about it, I think, is that this was the only contact I have ever had with Scott and feel bad about him leaving with a bad taste in his mouth about the game and me as an opponent.   It just reminds me to play smarter in the future and avoid such stupid mistakes.  

Other than that unpleasantness, the Chop XXX guys were pretty great opponents and managed to beat us 3 games to 2.   Hopefully they show up again next year so we can try to get some payback.

Round 4 vs. Dice Age Games.  Opponent was Ed who was playing Tomb Kings, Scenario was the Coin Hunt.   Like most of my previous games, the game started pretty even, but as in many of my games, once the pendulum begins to tip in my favor, I began to gain the upper hand.   The most epic battle was his horde of Tomb Guard who mixed it up with my giant unit of plaguebearers.    We ground each other down to pretty much nothing at the end of the game, but not wiping so that neither of us gained points.   It was a pretty fun game and I really enjoyed playing Ed.  He ended up giving me a favorite opponent pin and I wish I had an extra I could have given him.  

Round 5 vs Gamers Haven.  The final game of the OFCC was against Brian Butler’s Orcs and Goblin in a King of the Hill battle.   I got the first turn and move a bit getting ready to take the hill.   Then my magic phase happened and the reign of chaos roll ended up hitting a bunch of his units, wiping out a couple and causing panic tests in others.   In the end it emptied his right flank.   The look on his face was pretty depressing as it sucks when you lose a good chunk of your army with nothing you can do about it.   At that point I decided to play in fun mode and began rolling on the Temple of Skulls every turn.   I ended up losing my Great Unclean One, my BSB, and my other wizard all in the first two turns.   I realized that I was now playing the game in hard mode and tried to make the most of it.  Unfortunately he got foot of Gork off a few too many times and winnowed out my plaguebearer units.   My Beasts did some damage to his back field but in the end, he got the win, though neither of us took the hill. 

Overall I went 4-1.   I could have gone 5-0, but decided to play that last game off the cuff.   Our team took 3^rd place in Sportsmanship which was pretty awesome.  The other Black Sheep team took 1^st in painting.   We finished 10^th overall and the other Sheep took 9^th.  

It was a great event with awesome opponents, fun games and great times. The Ordo guys did an amazing job as always.   

Norse for 8th Edition

Recently, the Norse army for Warhammer Fantasy produced on Warhammer Armies Project was updated for 8th edition.  Since then, I have put together an army and played many games and a 5 round tournament using the new book.  The army seems to play well, and has a nice balance of options to take.  I think you could do many viable and quite different looking army builds.  Based on the units I've chosen to try out so far, here are my thoughts on how the Norse stack up in battle.

My assembled force of Norse, a Baersonling war hird.

Special Rules

The Norse army has three special rules, Berserkergang, Counter-charge, and Shieldwall.  They also have a completely unique character ability worth noting here as well, the Skald songs.

Berserkergang is my favorite of these.  It lets a Norse unit get frenzy for a turn when it charges.  It's not over the top powerful, and very fitting.  The one thing that seems questionable about it is how to deal with overruns.  It seems like when you overrun into another unit, you should get to test for berserkergang again the next turn since it is considered another charge, but it's not totally clear.  But hey, this isn't the first unclear thing to crop up in Warhammer!

Shieldwall is pretty cool too, I find myself using it here and there mostly to give units that I don't need to be marching forward right away a little extra protection for ranged attacks with the plus one or two to armor save.  Sadly, I have not had a chance to utilize the counter-charge ability with success yet.  It's fairly rare that my opponent fails a charge against one of my units led by a king or jarl, and the few times that has happened, the D6 forward for the counter-charge hasn't been enough to make it connect.  Perhaps time will prove out the potential of that one, we'll see.

I've saved the most powerful ability for last.  The songs of the Skald can turn the tide of battle for the Norse.  Being largely just simple humans with little more than a extra weapon skill or different weapon option to give them a boost, the well timed bonus of an unstoppable buff makes all the difference.  A Skald can give his unit +1 attack, stubborn and immune to psychology, or +1 to hit and wound for a full game turn.  The first two seem appropriately powered, and require some tactical thought to go with them.  The plus one to hit and wound is devastating though.  In most cases this gives the unit a ridiculous advantage, almost guaranteeing victory in combat except in the worst of situations.  Should the army have such an ability?  Probably not, but then again, it's not always a game changer.

Artifacts and Lore of Seidr

The array of artifacts available is good enough that I can see taking one or two things from it in each army.  It is most focused on some epic weapons, but also has a few other trinkets.  If I had to pick a least favorite, it would be the magic banner.  It makes the unit cause fear and gives all friendly units within 12" immune to psychology.  This is kinda cool, but unfortunately doesn't not play well with the counter-charge ability since you can never have a reaction other than hold with that.  At 75 points, I can't see that banner ever making it into a list.

The one artifact I've actually tried out is Gungnir, the Swaying Spear.  It is a spear that hits on a 2+ with all attacks and has the heroic killing blow ability.  The spear can also be thrown like a javelin 18 inches in the shooting phase.  It's 85 points which can be tough choice to take on your king, but it is worth the cost.  The pure epicness this item can bring to your army is wonderful.  I found myself in some battles to have the primary goal of killing the mightiest thing on the table with Gungnir to bring glory to my king.  An ancient stegadon and great unclean one both fell to it's might at the recent tournament, Ordo Fanaticus' Club Challenge.

The seers of the Norse army have access to a special magic lore, the lore of the Seidr.  After playing with a level four Vitki using this lore for many games, I have found it to be quite a worthy lore with only a couple things that seem off.  Flight of Sylra allows you to move one of your units within 18 inches with a 10 inch or 20 inch flight move.  In the hands of a good tactician, this spell can be devastating.  It almost seems overpowered, but to really take your opponent by surprise, you usually need to cast the big version that casts on a 14+.  Another spell, Taldur's Law of Peace, seems mostly useless.  If it was clarified to include any damage done by the unit or to the unit instead of just "attacks", I could see using it to make my opponent think twice about using a certain unit for shooting or spells, but as it is now, it seems to only be intended to apply to close combat.

Units

The units that I have had a chance to get some experience with are, giant wolves, bondsmen, marauders with great weapons, snow trolls, reavers, ulfwerenar, and valkyries.  The warleaders, wizards, and skalds all seem appropriately costed and useful.  I really like the monstrous beast mounts available, and took a Fenrir Wolf mount for one of the Jarls in my army.  Running him with a group of Snow Trolls makes a formidable unit.  It is really hard to fit in all of the heroes you want in the Norse army because you really need to take some Skalds.  That eats up your hero points and makes it hard to fit in many Jarls or to take many lower level wizards.

For core troops, I really like the reavers and marauders.  They are barely more points than bondsmen, and they give you options and a little more skill in combat.  Bondsmen are still Norse though, so if you need to squeeze a few points out of a list and take them, they can still go berserk and get buffed by a Skald to be exceptional.  In the "chaff" section, I have only tried the giant wolves, but I can see different army builds using Norse Horsemen or Slaves effectively.  I liked having more wolves in my army, and the unit is almost always fast enough to get where I need it to be.

It is very difficult to choose what special units to field from the army list.  This is where you can really vary your build and pick an interesting theme for your army.  Almost all of the units seem worthy of being picked and each brings a cool aspect of the Norse lore to your army.  The units that I would be least likely to field are the Norse Hunters and Berserkers.  I've tried the Norse Hunters a few times, and they just don't have a good place in the army, tending to be ineffective.  Berserkers are fun, and I think they are a great unit to have for the theme of Norse, but might not be the most reliable option.  I have not gotten a chance to try out a unit of Eihnerjar yet, but I suspect they may be the strongest combat choice.  They are an unbreakable leadership 10 unit that automatically regrows itself every turn, and is actually affordable points-wise.  I'll surely try them out once I find some suitable models for them.  Huscarls, Shield Maidens, Sons of Thor and Half Giants also seem like solid choices that I have yet to find good choices for models.

I have been impressed with what a unit of 12 Ulfwerenar can do.  They are a powerhouse, and my opponents tend to underestimate what they can do.  Their main downfall is the occasional time when they may be led around doing useless things because of their frenzy.  This unit is fun, and again I like wolves, so this was a good fit for my army.  If I did not take them though, I really like the idea of taking a nice big block of Huscarls instead.  They are about as elite as the basic man sized Norse infantry get, and are stubborn to boot.

Coming to the rare section of the Norse army list, you are posed with more difficult choices.  There are really useful units here to fill much needed roles in the army.  The Valkyries can fly over take care of much needed business behind enemy lines, or hold up key units with their etherealness.  They do seem to be rather expensive though considering how quickly they die to spells.  Being able to take them in units of 1 would be very nice.  Snow trolls almost seem like a steal at 40 points, especially when you've got a character running with them to keep them on task.  Both the frost giant and war mammoth are choices I would like to try some time, as I think they would both prove useful and lots of fun too.  The ice drake is cool, but seems a bit expensive for it's limited abilities.

The 8th edition Norse army book is full of rich awesomeness in my opinion, and I'm really impressed with it's quality.  I think it succeeds at being a mid-level power army amidst the official Games Workshop armies.  Perhaps eventually I will get to playing with some of the special characters provided, but at this point it's enough to have to explain lots of special rules for an army that most of my opponents are not familiar with.  If you are interested in the process of selecting and assembling a Norse army, keep an eye on my army build photo album.

Battle Royale

Deep within the mighty tome that is the big rule book of 8th edition Warhammer lies the Narrative Battles section.  Here you will find many scenarios that can provide a novel twist that you may find worth considering instead of the old Battleline or other basic scenarios.  One of these scenarios is called Battle Royale.  It goes beyond simply providing you with a new two player scenario and offers a completely altered turn structure which accommodates 3 to 5 players.  So, one day me and 4 of my fellow Black Sheep find ourselves ready to play some Warhammer, and a Battle Royale with 5 players commences.

Initial setup - a large part of the Daemon force is not visible due to being deployed in the elven tower (Plaguebearers).

In this battle, a Daemons of Chaos force is in the center of the battlefield, surrounded by Lizardmen, High Elves, Warriors of Chaos, and Vampire Counts.  Each player has placed a gravestone on the table and controlling gravestones and killing enemy generals brings victory.  While the player who rolls lowest and has to deploy in the center is at a disadvantage due to having enemies on all sides, as a consolation they get first opportunity to take action in each of the phases of the game.

In turn one, Warriors of Chaos started off true to their nature, engaging enemies on 2 fronts, rushing into the Vampires on one side and the High Elves on the other.  Lizardmen mostly held still, but sent the stegadon and salamader forward to seek out some opportunistic shooting.  The daemons appeared to be most upset by the presence of lizardmen on the battlefield and the soulgrinder and great unclean one rushed forward over the river to smash them.  They did not much like the High Elves in the distance either and sent the beasts of nurgle off through the forest to harass them.

Soon, the great unclean one was engaged with saurus warriors, and the soulgrinder with a stegadon slowly grinding away the lizardmen.  Warriors of Chaos were taking many casualties from overwhelming numbers in close combat from the vampires and being peppered by shooting from the high elves on the other side.  Besides shooting, the high elves sent a phoenix off to put some heat on the approaching beasts of nurgle and find other targets to engage as well.

As the hour grew late, forces made desperate attempts to take out opposing generals with the lizardmen sending a cohort of skinks and kroxigor on a long charge across the river to engage the vampire general.  The phoenix made his way amidst the melee between the daemons and lizardmen and engaged the lone Slann Mage Priest!  A combination of devastation high elf magic and the unending hordes of undead continued to dwindle the beset Warriors of Chaos.

The high elf dragon is being proxied as a Flamespyre Phoenix here, because the battle took place on the same day as the new high elf models were released.

The vampire and his host of crypt ghouls proved to much for the skink unit, while the phoenix killed the Slann Mage Priest and the daemons wiped the rest of the Lizardmen core force off the table.  The rest of the high elf force was emerging from the forest to secure objectives as the game approached the end, while other armies also sent their mobile troops to nearby objectives.  In the end, most armies managed to come away with 1 or 2 points, but the high elves won the day with 4 victory points.

When setting up a battle royale, it's a good idea to think about the terrain setup to help equalize the engagement for each of the armies that will be deployed.  We provided a border of terrain features around the center deployment zone to help with this, but did not think much about ideas for terrain around the edges.  It might be a good adjustment next time to ensure each corner is either clear or has some screening.  It's impossible to make it perfectly balanced, but the scenario plays well, and is fun on all sides.

There are also other subtle effects that you discover about how the scenario plays that you have to keep in mind.  For example, spells that last until your next magic phase are a little weaker because they only last for one combat phase.  In the movement phase, depending on where you are in the player order, you have to consider all the players who have not moved yet and could still charge you depending on where you move.  It's an interesting twist and I recommend trying it out.

Norse Build Update

Back in 2011, I started putting together my Norse army.  Since then, I have pretty much assembled all the models I want to play with.  Recently I decided to make this year the one that I bring my Norse army to the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge, so lately I have been diving into trying to get them painted while at the same time, playing several games with the army to try and finalize an army list.  I'm keeping photos of my build and painting progress in this album, but here I would like to share some thoughts on what I've learned about how the army plays from my recent games.

Norse vs. Tomb Kings

A couple weeks ago, I got a game in against some Tomb Kings, led by Wiley Kinyon.  While I was able to do pretty decent against the big bad Sphinx's I had to deal with, it was hard fought battle and I just pulled out a tie thanks to a golden opportunity I got to crumble the general near the end of the game.  In this game it was glaringly clear that I am still having trouble getting used to "normal" leadership rolls instead of Lizardmen leadership rolls.  I let a casket cast go off that could have stopped that ended up jumping to my Ice Drake and causing 4 wounds.  I was lucky to roll well on the Valkyries it hit first.

Speaking of Valkyries, I probably should have done worse than I did, but luck was on my side it seemed whenever the snakes' magical shooting attacks came at them.  I was also quite lucky to see little damage from the screaming skull catapults.  All this luck did not overcome my learning curve though.

In a later game against a new Warriors of Chaos army led by Josh Baughman, the army was wiped out.  In the picture below, you can see the beginnings of my slow demise.  The Ice Drake in combat with a chariot it eventually loses to, the horde of marauders with a Daemon prince in one flank and a Chimera in the other.  Valkyries in stalemate against small units of Chosen, and Norse Hunters about to be pummeled by knights.  At least I held it together until turn 6 or near to it, unlike another game against a different Warriors of Chaos list with two Daemon Princes.  But we won't talk about that!

Norse vs. Warriors of Chaos (Daemon Prince and Chimera)

In a later game against another Warriors of Chaos army led by Ben Sathrum, I learned how to lose a little less badly!  I switched over to using Lore of Beasts for my Vitki (level 4 mage), and I really like how that works with the army.  I think I used my units well for the most part, but Ben is a master of maneuvering, so I couldn't help but get in some situations I didn't want to be in.  In the end, I got away with a minor loss.  I could not get any help in for my marauders to stem the tide of death that ensued when Ben's large unit of Chosen started doing what they do best.  That combat is near the center of the table pictured below early on.  That chariot getting in their flank the turn after the picture was taken helped seal that deal too.

The main thing I learned from this game is that I should be more careful with my Valkyrie units.  One of the units I was careless with and let it get charged by some marauder horsemen which held them back from doing something useful.  Eventually they even died to the horsemen by a fluke combination of my forgetting to reform off the flank and getting run down.  The other unit of Valkyries I played well and used them as critical support to help my Reaver unit break some Chaos Warriors and move out of the way of my marauders which saved them getting charged by the Chaos knights.  When playing against such superior troops as Warriors of Chaos in combat, supporting units in flanks are a must to win.

Norse vs Warriors of Chaos (Chaos lord and big chosen unit)

I'm almost starting to think I might get the hang of this army soon.  I'm looking forward to some more games in the near future to see how that goes.  I started out thinking the Norse list is quite under-powered when pitted against other armies, but that thought may have been exacerbated by my learning curve.  Although they may be inflexible with their lack of any kind of war machine, combat cavalry or very elite rank and file troops, perhaps I will learn to use their special abilities and strengths well enough to start winning with them here and there.

Full Results for 2013 Black Sheep Brawl

The tournament organizers all had a great time this weekend along with the 25 players.  We got lots of pictures of the armies that showed up you can check out in this slideshow.  As posted before, Moses Jones took home the grand prize trophy, the Black Sheep Stein.  Here is a full list of overall rankings:

Rank	Player	Overall Score
1	Moses Jones	75
2	Eric Weber	70
3	Bronson James	68
4	Stephen Gingell	60
5	Dustin Kane	57
6	Ben Sathrum	54
7	Ryan Odam	54
8	Chris Born	54
9	Tim Mote	53
10	James Peterson	53
11	Jeff De Remer	49
12	Maurice Maynard	46
13	Taylor Flesch	45
14	Michael Case	44
15	Steele Hull	43
16	Dan Jones	42
17	John Evans	42
18	Shane Obrien	41
19	Aine Anderson	38
20	Dustin Boyd	38
21	Vincent Shaw	38
22	Josh Caldwell	37
23	Wiley Kinyon	34
24	Chad Robertson-Jones	31
25	Chris Bailey (ringer)	21
26	Michael Sauermilch	16

Winners in each of the four categories were:

• Master Tactician: Stephen Gingell
• Brush Master: Eric Weber
• Honored Opponent: Ryan Odam
• Grand Storyteller: Bronson James

A couple rounds of a champion skirmish battle were also held, with Michael Case emerging as the winner.  Michael Sauermilch took home the littlest lamb trophy.

Black Sheep Brawl 2013 winners

We would like to thank everyone for playing in this years Black Sheep Brawl!

Category scores by player:

Player	Sports Score	Painting Score	Narrative Score	Generalship Score
Aine Anderson	18	5	5	10.2
Ben Sathrum	19	12	8	15.3
Bronson James	19	13	21	15.3
Chad Robertson-Jones	15	4	2	10.2
Chris Bailey (ringer)	9	0	2	10.3
Chris Born	17	13	12	12.2
Dan Jones	13	7	7	15.3
Dustin Boyd	19	8	7	5.2
Dustin Kane	15	6	16	20.3
Eric Weber	17	22	11	20.3
James Peterson	17	10	9	17.3
Jeff De Remer	17	6	16	10.2
John Evans	14	13	8	7.2
Josh Caldwell	17	8	8	4.2
Maurice Maynard	15	6	15	10.3
Michael Case	17	16	4	7.2
Michael Sauermilch	12	5	3	0.1
Moses Jones	19	15	21	20.3
Ryan Odam	21	12	11	10.2
Shane Obrien	15	4	7	15.2
Steele Hull	15	6	7	15.3
Stephen Gingell	15	6	19	20.4
Taylor Flesch	15	10	5	15.3
Tim Mote	15	8	14	20.3
Vincent Shaw	17	6	5	10.2
Wiley Kinyon	16	5	9	5.2

Black Sheep Brawl 2013

Congratulations to Moses Jones,  the 2013 Black Sheep Brawl Champion!


I am exhausted and will post some more about the Brawl at bit later.  Thanks to everyone who attended.


-Chris

Here Comes the Brawl!

It's on tomorrow!  We're very excited and doing the last minute preparations for the Black Sheep Brawl tournament coming up this weekend.  We would like to share with you a short FAQ of questions we received about the brawl scenarios.  You can check that out here.

See you all at check in 9:00am tomorrow!