Almost Time To Brawl

The Black Sheep Brawl is just a few days away.  I hope everyone is doing a good job of procrastinating those last items that need painted, because hey, you still have a few days.  That's plenty of time!  We are playing at a new venue this year, so I want to share a little info about it.

The Salem Elks Lodge is a short distance past a Wal-Mart that you will see when taking the Highway 22/Mission St. Exit and heading West off I-5.  The Elks Lodge is normally secured for member access only, so you'll want to hit the buzzer button on the red phone to gain access through the locked front doors.  You'll be able to get reasonably priced food and drinks from the Lodge bar during the tournament, though there are other options within a mile or two if you want to get out during lunch breaks.

We also hope most of you will join us at Gilgamesh brewing after our first day of games Saturday night.  It's just a few miles away and you'll get a map to it in your swag bag when you arrive.  Gilgamesh is a local brew pub with great food and good beers.  We will have an area in the covered patio, just let them know you're from the Black Sheep Brawl.  After dinner at Gilgamesh, you might explore more pubs in Salem, or come on back to the Elks Lodge for open gaming till 11pm.

We've got a wide range of power level in lists that have come in, Swedish scores ranging from a little over 2 to over 19.  That hints at different people coming with different objectives in mind.  Whatever your objective, we hope to get you paired up with players of a similar mindset and power level.  On the end times front, we have a fair share of end times armies in as you can see in the list tally here.  There will be some pretty sick Chaos Legion combos, one Nagash, one Karl Franz Ascendent, a couple Alarielles, and others running around.

We're all excited to be running our biggest Black Sheep Brawl, and hope everyone's looking forward to some good games.  See you Saturday morning around 8:30am.

Black Sheep Brawl IV: Scenario 5

In the final epic battle of the Black Sheep Brawl IV, your ability to score loyalty points in the previous four games will play a role in your fate.  Hope that you have done enough to gain the Black Sheep's support, for you may have heard things like "get another pair of eyes on this", or "two minds are better than one", but two armies utterly destroy one.  Don't let your army get wiped out like the Sauron's forces at Minas Tirith during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

Now Available: Black Sheep Brawl IV Complete Rules Pack

Black Sheep Brawl IV: Scenario 4

Drink your coffee Sunday morning, because you will be playing a game within a game.  Like two players on Survivor frantically searching for a hidden immunity idol, you will compete to find the card that matters on the battlefield.  Will you pretend to have found it when you haven't to push a battlefield advantage?  Will you ignore the terrain, letting the other army find it first, then savagely beat it out of them?  We shall see.

Black Sheep Brawl IV: Scenario 3

In the last game of day 1 of the Black Sheep Brawl, you will be playing "Race to the Wizard's Tower".  In this scenario you will be challenged to both get in the haunted mansion (wizard's tower) as soon as possible to start earning loyalty points, and deal with the opposing army that is right in your face 18" away.  Will you rack up all the points?  Or will the spirits in the mansion drive your forces away?  Manage your enemy and control the mansion for a strong finish on day 1.

Black Sheep Brawl IV: Scenario 2

Today we bring you our game 2 scenario for the Black Sheep Brawl.  In this scenario, "Protect the Wagons", you'll have an extra model in your army!  But it may prove to be a bit of a liability.  Although it has some nifty special rules, it can prove a challenge to deliver safely to your opponents deployment zone.  Don't forget it's a chariot too, so it's got impact hits, but also cannot march.

Scenario 2 is also special because for the first time at the Black Sheep Brawl we are having a hobby challenge related to it.  We encourage everyone to make their own model on a chariot base to bring that will represent their loot wagon.  We'll have players vote on their favorite one and award a prize to the winning entry.  If you are up to your neck in work just to get your army painted in time, no worries!  We'll provide a stylish dwarven pony cart model to use for anyone who doesn't bring a custom one.

Black Sheep Brawl IV: Scenario 1

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting the 5 scenarios that will be played at the upcoming Black Sheep Brawl IV.  Scenario 1 is called "Raid the Burial Mounds" and is a twist on the Dawn Attack scenario in the main rulebook.  The main modification being the addition of burial mounds which you want to hold at the end of the game to earn loyalty points.  Don't that let you hold back from establishing yourself on them early though.  Being there first can matter, and they're dangerous terrain to any models that might charge over them to engage your unit holding them.  Another important difference this this scenario is that both flanks and center sections are equally sized at 24" to soften the impact of random deployment.

Announcing the Next Black Sheep Brawl

Good Times at Sparkle Party Death Match 4

In the still dark early hours of Sunday July 27th, a group of five black sheep assembled for a drive up to Seattle Center Armory for the Sparkle Party Death Match 4 tournament.  This one day, three round tournament is hosted by the Dimensional Cascade podcast crew.  We piled into the two cars and headed out for a four hour drive hoping to make it by 10 am for the check-in time.

This tournament was held in a second floor room of the Seattle Center Armory which lies in the large public area grouped together with the Space Needle, and some museums and theaters.  The main floor of the armory is full of different places to get food and drinks, which was super convenient.  Definitely a bonus for having the tournament here.  We arrived a little before 10 am and made our way through the Seattle Center grounds to the armory with time to spare.

We got checked in and were given some cool dice holders for turn and wound counters, and started to bust out the armies to prepare for battle.  Attending we had Chris with his Nurgle Demons, Josh with his no-infantry Warriors of Chaos, Taylor with his Ogres, Wiley and his Tomb Kings, and I had my Lizardmen.  As players assembled, we saw some familiar faces in a couple "Smooth Criminals" from SE Washington, as well as the Chumphammer crew from Vancouver B.C., Canada.  The rest of the attendee's I assume were mostly locals from Seattle and surrounding area.

The time schedule for this tournament was a little later and spread out than I'm used to which ended up being perfect considering the long drive for us to get there.  The first game kicked off at 11 and the chaos and dimensional cascades ensued.  The timing and rounds went really smoothly, so my regards to the tournament organizer and other staff for doing a great job.  Each time someone rolled a dimensional cascade result for a spell miscast, they were brought up for an award, which seems like a nice consolation and did not really feel like an interruption.

As far as the games go, I ended up getting to play all three games against local Seattle area players, and really enjoyed all three games.  I first played a fellow Lizardmen general named Nick, followed by two ogre players, Noah who had a really impressive looking icy themed army followed by Eric who gave me the toughest fight of my games ultimately crushing me.  There was also a painting competition as part of the event which got several top quality entries, I felt really lucky to get third place for it with my Forge World Basilisk as I thought several other entries were more impressive.

The first three places in all categories were awarded at the end, resulting in some people like Patrick from Chumphammer to end the night with a huge set of medals hanging around their necks.  It was good fun, and I really like that the medals are useful in themselves being the same size as Warhammer templates.  We wrapped up the night with some much needed nourishment and beers at nearby Mcmenamins Queen Anne.  I'll definitely be looking forward to attending future Sparkle Party Death Match events.

Some pictures of the event have been shared by the organizers here.

Black Sheep Brawl 2014 Results

Black Sheep Brawl 2014 Results

The third Brawl finished up on Sunday, and it was quite the contest.  There were five games spanning the weekend and we still had to use a tiebreaker in the end to crown our champion.  Here are our winners:

Left to Right: Josh, Dustin, Eric, Scott, Ryan and Chris with their Black Sheep Steins

Eric Weber: Black Sheep Brawl Champion
Scott Goldstein: Brush Master
Ryan Odam: Honored Opponent
Josh Baughman: Master Tactician
Chris Bailey: Storyteller
Dustin Boyd: Littlest Lamb

Full results:

Name	Army	Total	Paint	Sports	Battle	Narrative	Fav Paint	Fav Opp
Eric Weber	Wood Elves	71	25 (28*)	15	20	11	4		*Overall Tiebreaker
Frazier Edmonds	Vampire Counts	71	22	17	17	15	1	1
Dan Jones	Demons of Chaos	70	22	15	18	15	1
Josh Baughman	Skaven	69	24	15	21	9	2
Michael Case	Warriors of Chaos	68	25	19	16	8	7	2
Dustin Kane	Warriors of Chaos	66	17	17	18	14		1
Taylor Flesch	Ogre Kingdoms	65	23	21	16	5	1	3
Andrew Claflin	Dark Elves	64	21	17	16	10	1	1
Christopher Bailey	Demons of Chaos	60	14	16	13	17		1
Karl Gatke	Empire	58	16	17	16	9		1
John Evans	Warriors of Chaos	57	21	19	13	4	2	2
BIll Curry	Warriors of Chaos	57	11	21	15	10	2	3
Aaron Musk	Skaven	56	19	15	12	10
Scott Goldstein	Dark Elves	55	25 (32^)	14	12	4	8		^Paint Tiebreaker
Steele Hull	High Elves	54	18	16	16	4		1
Brent Buckland	Dwarfs	54	9	19	15	11		2
John Kersey	Beastmen	53	18	15	14	6
Arturo Gonzalez	Dark Elves	53	13	15	17	8
Chad Egbert	Dwarfs	53	12	17	15	9		1
Paul Willworth	Lizardmen	53	7	17	18	11		1
Thaddius Crevier	Warriors of Chaos	52	6	15	19	12
James Peterson	Orcs and Goblins	51	17	15	16	3	1
Ryan Odam	Dwarfs	50	11	23	8	8		4
Corry Gladwill	Wood Elves	48	14	17	12	6		1
Christopher Born	Tomb Kings	42	10	12	13	7
Dustin Boyd	Beastmen	41	12	19	7	3		2
Wiley Kinyon	Tomb Kings	37	0	15	15	7
Ryan Frayer	Wood Elves	33	0	16	12	5		1

Interesting Tidbits:

• Ryan Odam earned his second straight Honored Opponent Award, gathering four out of five favorite opponent votes
• Scott Goldstein returned to the Warhammer fold after more than four years away and he cleaned up in painting
• Dustin Kane racked up 9437.5 victory points, almost 1000 more than the next closest player
• We had a distant traveller from southern California, Bill Curry from the West Coast Hammertime podcast, and three Eastern Washington players, Dustin Kane, James Peterson and Chad Egbert
• Our top five players qualified for the West Coast qualifier for the USA Masters

Some Pictures:

Andy's Dark Elves approach the Black Sheep Bridge

Chris explains the finer points of auto-erotic asphyxiation to Mike and John

John, Scott and Taylor admiring the Brush Master's lady Dark Elves

Aaron's Skaven

Karl's Empire

John's Warriors of Order

Dustin's Beastmen take on Josh's Skaven

Dustin's Beastmen fight Mike's Hordes of Warriors

The final round's top match between Eric and Josh

Another Brawl come and gone!

Black Sheep Brawl Special Characters

Lists have been turned in for the Black Sheep Brawl, and we are providing a list of the Special Characters that have been taken.  Prepare yourself with knowledge in case you end up facing them!

Tomb Kings - Grand Hierophant Khatep

Tomb Kings - Arkhan the Black
Warriors of Chaos - Throgg!

Warriors of Chaos - Festus

Warriors of Chaos - Sigvald the Magnificent

The 2014 Black Sheep Brawl

Red Lion Inn - place of battles

Next month it will be time again for the Black Sheep Brawl.  The largest individual Warhammer Fantasy Battles tournament in Oregon.  This will be the third year for this two day event.  Players will engage in 5 games over the weekend consisting of custom scenarios that follow a narrative around the theme for the tournament.  This years theme centers around a time of fluctuation in the winds of magic. We've crafted scenarios that will challenge your generalship skills and bring new twists to a great game.

Our goal with the Black Sheep Brawl is to create a tournament where you are free to bring a tough competitive list, but don't have to worry about getting pitted against ridiculous army lists that take all the fun out of the game like giant death stars or 100% avoidance lists.  Combined with the unique scenarios, we hope this gives players the opportunity to shoot for glory in a fun environment.

We've chosen to hold the Brawl at the same venue as last year.  The Red Lion Inn in Salem is conveniently located right of of I-5 and more importantly, the drink prices are decent!  If you're coming to the tournament from out of town, you can even book a room to stagger up to after having too many of those well priced beers.

To those that have already signed up, we look forward to seeing you.  To those procrastinating signing up till the last minute.... register already!  February 22nd will creep up on us quick, and the army list due date of February 8th even quicker.  Perhaps you will be the Master Tactician, Brush Master, Honored Opponent, Storyteller, or Overall Champion and take home a Black Sheep Stein trophy.  Or take home one the many prizes to be raffled away from our awesome sponsors.

An epic clash of monsters at the second Black Sheep Brawl

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

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!

Black Sheep Brawl 2013

Brawl Registration Opens Wednesday

Heads Up!

This Wednesday October 3rd, starting at 8:00pm you will be able to register for the Black Sheep Brawl 2013 Warhammer Fantasy grand tournament.  Pre-Registration is going to be handled online right here: Brawl Registration.  Not only do you get a discount if you pay your entry fee early, but you also get the peace of mind of knowing your spot in the tournament is secure.  Regardless if you pay early or not, feel free to get yourself signed up starting Wednesday.

Basic tournament details are available on the registration site now, but the scenario details and rules pack aren't quite ready yet.  We estimate scenarios done, playtesting finished, and rules pack posted around the end of October or first week of November.

Stay tuned...

OFCC Around the Corner

Each year during the summer, Ordo Fanaticus hosts a huge 2 day Warhammer Fantasy tournament called the OFCC (Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge).  It is a fun, laid back event where you bring a team of at least 4 people and achieve or fail to achieve various accolades together.  Last year, the Order of the Black Sheep attended for the first time, and were the only 5 people there from the Salem area.  This year, Salem's ranks are bolstered by another member to the Black Sheep team, plus two other teams with players from Salem.

Me at OFCC 2011, getting ready to roll tons of 6's! (more pics from Blustorm)

The Order of the Black Sheep has returning members, Ben (playing Warriors of Chaos again), Chris (playing Daemons again), Eli (playing High Elves again), Josh (Playing his new Vampire Counts army), Paul (playing Lizardmen again), and a new team member John (playing a Dark Elf army).  Teams "Put a Skull On It", and "Mongering Mongrels" are new to the OFCC this year and bringing some Salem players too.  I'm glad we've got more local players participating, it would be great to see it grow even more in the coming years.

You can find more details about the tournament format here.  If you're not coming this year, I encourage you to start planning and working on an army for next year.  It is the ultimate in west coast Warhammer in my opinion.  If only we had more events like this...

Black Sheep Brawl Photos and Full Rankings

Check out the photo's from the Black Sheep Brawl over here: http://www.bluemelon.com/ioscode/blacksheepbrawl2012

The full list of rankings can found up on RankingsHQ now as well.  Just visit the tournament page here:  http://www.rankingshq.com/public/tournamentprofile.aspx?TournamentId=2782

Bonus Round

  

Subscribe to the feed here to get updates as we plan for next years Black Sheep Brawl!

Black Sheep Brawl Rules Pack

The rules pack for the Black Sheep Brawl this Sunday is complete and can be found here.  The document will also be distributed at the event.

The tournament has also been posted on RankingsHQ, and we'll be posting results up there afterwards.  Go there and sign up before the tournament if you want to have your results recorded to your user id on the site.  Totally optional though, if you do, include your userid when you sign in on the day of the tournament.

We have received 30 army lists so far, so we will be full.  If you have not sent in your list yet, there's a chance you can play if you show up we have a couple of last minute openings or are able to squeeze in and extra table or two.

See you at The Brawl!