WarGames Con Narrative Tract Review: PART 2

Hello again folks, this is the second post in a series detailing my experience playing in the WarGames Con Narrative Tract. In this article I will talk about my preparation for the NT, what army I took and which table I decided to fight on and for which side.

The Narrative Tract is unique to WarGames Con and instead of 7 competitive games, it is comprised of four really big Apocalypse games! The past three years BigRed has run the Narrative show; not only has he been in charge of choosing awesome setting from the Warhammer Universe to stage the Apocalypse battles and written the missions for the games, he has also been the head judge/arbiter (more on that later). Because of the popularity of this event there have been enough participants to fill multiple NTs each year, so players can choose which battle to play in.

BoLS Con 2009 had three NT tables, each for one of the Campaign Books BoLS had released to date: Horus Heresy, Macharian Crusade, and Badab War and in 2010 the three themes were taken from FW books. This year there was a lot of discussion as to where to draw the themes from. 13th Black Crusade and Macrage were both discussed but when FW announced that they would be releasing their own version of the Badab War (EDIT: unofficially inspired by the BoLS book) we decided that had to be one of the tables again. Since Badab is essentially SM on SM, the Third Armageddon War seemed like a perfect theme that could accommodate pretty much everything else army wise.

The choice of table was a no brainer for me since I built my Mantis Warriors army specifically for the BoLS Badab campaign book; however deciding what to take in my army was somewhat more difficult. The NT calls for a 3000 point army and I certainly wasn't going to bring any unpainted models. I don't have any Super Heavies in my collection, and although there were PDF that fought on the side of the Separatists during the Badab War, I knew I wanted to take an exclusively Mantis Warrior army.

I had never fielded 3000pts of Mantis Warriors at one time before, so although I had that many points painted in my collection, I didn't have a good Apoc army. With still several months to go until WarGames Con I set to work expanding my collection of painted Space Marines. In the end there were still a couple more units I would have liked to add to the Apoc army but simply ran out of time. It also did not help that at the same time I was building from scratch a 1000pt chaos army for the team tournament. The army I ended up bringing was as follows...

Captain Mantodea

Chaplain

Assault Terminators

Landraider Redeemer

Jump Captain

Jump Chaplain

Assault Marines

Tranquility Snipers

Razorback

Tactical Squad; Rhino

Tactical Squad; Rhino

Tactical Squad; Rhino

Scouts Squad; Landspeeder Storm

Attack Bikes

Devestator Squad

Devestator Squad

Thunder Fire Cannon

I've noticed in big Apoc games most people over look scoring units and go for the big Super Heavies and lots and lots of tanks. Apoc games are also usually really close and come down to just one objective; which is insane considering how many models are on the board! What few infantry units there are on the table are usually pretty fragile and left unsupported on objectives. With this in mind I designed my Apoc list to be really infantry heavy with lots of scoring units to hold the few objectives on the board. I also stacked both a Captain and a Chaplain in my two combat units so that they could actually do some damage quickly on the charge without bogged down.

So there you have it guys, another chapter in my review of the Narrative Tract at WarGames Con. Next time I'll talk about the missions and the people I played with. Good times!  

WarGames Con Narrative Tract Review: PART 1

WarGames Con was loads of fun this year and I played (officially) for first time in the Narrative Tract; opposed to the GT. The NT is unique to WarGames Con, and labels its self as an "Anti-Tournament". This was a non-competitive event for players who did not want to throw down in the ultra-competitive GT that included over 150 people. Opposed to the GT, which consited of 7 two hour games, the NT was a two day event that included THREE 180 minute Apocalypse games and a single SIX HOUR Apocalypse game! blah :)

 

This was the third year of WarGames/BoLS Con. The first two years I played in the GT tournament with over 100 players each time. Both years I took IG, and although in 2009 I managed to pull out 2nd Best General, a couple bad games both years left a sour taste in my mouth. This year I vowed to BigRed that I would put my money where my mouth was and I played in the Narrative.

Durring the next couple of posts I will detail what I liked and didn't like about the Narrative Tract. I will talk about what I took to the fight and how our games played out. I will also make suggestions about what could be done to make the NT better for future WarGames Cons, because the NT is an absolutely excellent alternative to the main GT! The last three years in Austin it has been obvious that the guys playing with Titans, Flighers and Superheavies on historical battlefields were having WAY more fun than the guys stressing over seven competitive games! 

...and I hope after these articles you will see why.

~if you have any questions about the Narrative Tract leave a comment and I'll include it in the next article, ENJOY!

So Long Ferro, See You In 6th

My buddy FerroMike just had his second baby and will be absent from the hobby for a while.

Here is a pic form WarGames Con Narrative game. My Wantis Warrior Tactical Marines were fending off Ferro's Red Scorpion Dreadnaught while my Scouts scaled the temple ruins for the objective! I'm pretty sure his Dread routed my Tac Marines and his Interceptor Squad Heroically Intervened and knocked my Scouts off the roof! oh well at least it was epic.

Congrats Ferro!

Hope to see you again when 6th edition comes out.

Retrofitting Guard Tanks

While I plan to update my Imperial Guard army to become more competitive, I also would like to add some off beat units to the collection so I can have some fun with them too. Probably the main reason the Guard have been on the shelf so long is because I could tell my opponents weren't having any fun playing against them either.

Here is the beginnings of my Eradicator Nova Cannon turret. I used this tank recently against an Eldar army. I deployed it horribly out of position, but still managed to let loose a shot that killed almost an entire Seer Council! 

 Yes that is triple heavy flamers! Such a terrible choice.

I picked up a broken Hellhound off a friend of mine recently and have been working on turning it into yet another Chimera... that puts me up to 5! Yeah not really a good thing...

Gone but Not Idle!

It has been about a month since my last post which sucks but I am back to show off a few WIP pics of what I've been up to lately. For about three months leading up to WarGames Con I was very motivated to work on Mantis Warriors for the Narrative Track and Death Guard for the Team Tournament. Once that rapped up I lost all motivation to continue with those projects (even though I fell short with my ultimate goals) and have only played one game in the last month.

For the remainder or the year I plan on putting the majority of my attention towards Dark Eldar and updating my IG with a few new units I've had laying around unpainted.

Onto the pics

Was a Valkyie. Now a Vendeta!

 Rounding out the last few models in my Beast Master unit.

Nurgle basing theme.