Phalanx 2012 - Aftermath

Morning folks,

Last blog I wrote was a precursor to the Phalanx 2012 event last Saturday, and I've only just managed to get the time to write this follow up and chuck some pictures up.

I was hoping to Tweet whilst at the event and post pictures, however, my mobile internet was playing silly beggars and I managed to get only 1 tweet sent, 4 hours after I originally sent it.

Demo Games

We ran 2 demo games over the day, the first being a change from the previously announced Ork heroes v Chaos Daemon waves and instead swapped to a large Apocalypse game.

It featured Orks vs the Imperial Guard and allied Dark Angels, with a host of Chaos Daemons spawning from the Temple of Skulls in the middle of the board to harass both sides.

We didn't get much played, due to a lot of interest around the show at stalls and traders, but it looked nice on the table and got a lot of interest from passers by.

Imperial Deployment - Lots of tanks, 3 Valkyries and support from Heavy Weapon platoons and Dark Angels space marines.

Ork Deployment - "Put da Fastest over derrr and the smashiest over 'ere!". Plus, Big Daddy Kan (Potato head stompa) looking after his Baby Kanz

Having a game like this was also an excuse to get my converted Ork planes out and use the new WD flyer rules for the Dakka Jet.

Uh-oh. Khorne Daemons show up from the Temple of Skulls as the Orks hit the middle of the board. Looted Carnifex Deff Dred is surrounded by Bloodletters.

View from above with the Ork Dakkajets, Loots and Warbuggy Squigs nearby.

VBCW
The other demo game we ran was a Very British Civil War scenario, called "The Road to Wigan Pier", which gathered a lot of interest also, especially from a nearby larger demo game of VBCW too.

It also featured a really ace demo board that Adam made specially for the scenario (and many a sleepless nights in the run up to the event).

And since it's set in Wigan, it rained through the entire scenario causing line of sight and To Hit roll modifiers.

The Wigan rugby team take up arms.

Using the courtyard walls for shelter was a good plan, but the bottleneck at the exit proved to be the most bloody area of the battlefield.

 

Lots of people enjoyed it, and Adam had done fantastically well on the scenery and the paint jobs on all the figures. It looked ace alltogether.

Bargains
Now then, down to the meat of the show - the bargains. For me personally, there wasn't much on offer from the trader's stalls. There were the usual bits bags, 20% off RRP stuff, but the second hand and junk bags weren't as good previously. Found a lot of them that wanted RRP (or thereabouts) for stuff just because it had been painted to a decent standard.

Personally, I'm never likely to buy anything painted and leave it as is. It'll end up coming home and getting stripped, so I would rather save myself half the money and get it bare plastic.

If I would have brought more than just a tenner with me, the trader's stalls would have probably been a bit more use. I think next year I'll have to get saving up in advance.

Anyways, the real bargains were to be had on the Bring and Buy stands (if you could fight your way in). Since it was lashing down on the morning and there were people waiting to get in early, they opened up the doors about 15 mins before the show was due to kick off. Meaning that the bring and buy got raided quite quick.

Personally, I spent my £10 on a unit of 10 assembled bare plastic Dire Avengers in decent condition and also, the major bargain, 20 Cadian Guardsmen, in the box and on the sprue, for £5. Only thing missing was the bases, but I've got plenty at home for those. Not sure what exactly I'm going to do with them yet though, but I thought for £5 I couldn't pass those up.

Some other bits and bobs I saw around but didn't have the cash for:
- Blood Angels army of about 1500 - 2000pts part painted, with Codex and special characters for £90.
- Grey Knight army with 20 Grey Knights, 5 termis, Termi Librarian, Techmarine and some other odds and sods for £45.
- 40 Goblins, 10 Orc Arrer Boyz, 2 Orc Chariots and 2 Spear Chukkas for £8 (I did pick this up, then put it back down and now regret it...)

Conclusion
Phalanx 2012 was fantastic, great atmosphere, awesome looking demo games and lots and lots to spend your hard earned cash on.

I better start saving for Phalanx 2013, and get to the Bring and Buy at 10am on the dot!

Cheers,
SB

[EVENT] Phalanx 2012 - June 16th

Morning folks,

This Saturday, there's an extremely good event on called Phalanx 2012 in St. Helens which we're running some demo games for, so I thought I'd shed some light on it.

A bit about the show itself - you can find the full information here: http://www.phalanxshow.co.uk/

Demo Games. 

Last year there was about 10 demo games running throughout the day (along with ours) from all sorts of different systems, themes and backgrounds. Some ranged from Nazi zombies inspired survival, to a Roman Gladiatoral arena run by MAWS Black Panthers section.

They were all fantastic and looked great throughout the day with lots of very interested spectators and people joining in.

Buying Stuff!

The bit that most people came down for were the trader stalls and the hall was packed with them, ranging from brand new GW stuff at a decent % off RRP, to historical figures, hard to find books and second chance models (like a converted Captain Tycho that Sanguinus of MAWS picked up).

There was also a smaller hall filled with Bring and Buy stands, with people coming to sell their models off. There were some cracking deals going about, it was just unfortunate that I didn't have any money in my wallet at the time (or very fortunate, if you're Mrs. Badger). 

So this year, the MAWS lads are back again after 2011's big Apocalypse game, we've decided to make things a bit smaller in scale. 

Last year we had 10,000pts of Orks v 10,000pts of Blood Angels and Imperial Guard, which looked absolutely fantastic on the table and my Killa Kans and Stompa got a lot of attention from passers by.

This year we're running 2 games across the space of the day:

For 40K it's "The Endless Waaaaaaagh!", based around the story of Warboss Tuska from the Ork codex and a Very British Civil War Game "The Road to Wigan Pier".

The Endless Waaaaaagh!

The premise of the Endless Waaaaagh! is simple, 3 Ork heroes stranded on a Daemon World try to kill as many Khorne Daemons as they can before they are defeated and re-born at the start of the next day to fight again, trapped in an endless battle, for which they've never been happier.

We ran this as a practice the other night, made some tweaks and are happy with it. It should look fun on the table, withough being too heavy on the space and set up. 

Hopefully people will also be able to join in on the game, choose an Ork hero and see how long they can survive.

The Road to Wigan Pier

This is a scenario for Very British Civil War run by Adam from the club for which he's painted a lot of figures for and is making some awesome looking scenery:

Desperate to relieve pressure on the Liverpool Front, the Liverpool Free State reluctantly takes the decision to provide arms via canal to the beleaguered Wigan enclave of Trade Unionists and Socialists. Commanded by a former journalist hoping to join up with the forces defending Wigan, a small escort force - made up of an uneasy mix of communist Liverpudlian sailors and Wigan miners and rugby players - encounters resistance from a Royalist force detailed to defend the waterway..

This will be the first time I've seen Very British Civil War (or VBCW) in action, after Adam's run and helped in a few other Demo games for it in the past.

When and Where?

Phalanx 2012  

Saturday 16th June 

Sutton Community & Leisure Centre in St. Helens

Opens to the public from 10am to 4.00pm. 

Adults £3.00, Children £1.00, accompanied children free.

Cheers all! Hope to see you down there, and I'll have a blog up some time afterwards with lots of lovely pictures of it all - along with some Tweets throughout the day if you follow: @MAWS40K

SB

Demo Game - Battle For Hades Hive - 2nd War for Armageddon

Ello,

On Saturday we ran 2 demo games at Phalanx in St Helens. It was a really good event, and I'd urge those who didn't go this year, to check it out next year. I've not got any pictures of the actual event hall and stalls, but there were a lot of really great traders, along with a bring and buy. (So next year, I'll start saving up some pennies a couple of months before!)

So, we decided for our MAWS 40K demo game, we'd like to do one of the Armageddon battles, but it was dependant on who would be going as to what one we'd run. Eventually it was decided that we'd do the 2nd War for Armageddon as we had Orks, Guard and Blood Angels.

We did it at 10k for the Orks and 9k for the Imperium, but loooking at the table we had, we vastly underestimated how much stuff we had to fit on the board - although it did look epic! But actually trying to play the game and move units was a nightmare.

So yeah, here's some pictures of it all...

Pre-Game shot of the terrain on the table, courtesy of Sanguinius' hard work.

View from the ultimate Vantage Point. No cover saves from up here folks!

The Green tide descends!

"Who suggested 10,000 pts? Look how many Orks I've got to move!"

Tycho and Corbulo become a road block, to prevent the Stompa getting to the Land Raider.

"Fire EVERYTHING at the Stompa!"

Mr Stompa Head finally topples over after 3 turns of Imperial shooting.

Sly Marbo takes aim...

Ork Fighta Bommas emerge amidst the Imperial Guard's backline.

The Killa Kans attempt to avenge their father... "Nooooooo! Daddy!!"

(Young) Commissar Yarrick takes on Warboss Ugulhard, ultimately defeating him and claimining his Battle Klaw!

Dante and the Sanguinary Guard take on the Meganobz and Warboss.

We called it at the end of Turn 3, as we needed to make a start on packing up. It was good fun, just a lot of models for the table size we had, especially playing 1 v 1.

The Imperium held back the advancing green tide (no thanks to the amount of terrain on the board!) succesfully defending Hades Hive for the time being. But we all know that Orks never truly lose!

We've got a few plans for future demo games, (all of which will be reduced in points!) based on feedback and other demo games we saw around the hall.

Big thanks to everyone who helped out beforehand and on the day (Sanguinius, Col. Straken, Farseer Jordan) and also a big thanks to St Helens Spartans for organising a fantastic event, and allowing us to play the demo game.

Peace,
SB

P.S. Everyone LOVES the Stompa. He'll definitely be at the next show.

Demo Mini-Game - Deathwatch Kill Team

As you may have heard we are performing a demo game at Phalanx 2011 in St. Helens, there Suicide Badger and Sanguinius will be fighting it out in an epic Apocalypse game which made me think, what if someone wants to try the game out. Sure they can have a turn or roll a few dice as they pass by, but what if someone really wants to try it out and get involved, thats where my idea came from to provide a mini-game (hopefully I don't stand around with no-one joining in).

So the basic idea (as I don't have a fancy PDF ready yet) is the passerby controls six Deathwatch Marines (Sternguard) and has to kill the Ork Kommando Snikrot who is protected by a 20 sentries, this means that it is small and should be completed in half and hour to an hour. I have prepared Stat Cards for all the models involved to make the game flow smoothly and so I don't have to cart around a load of Codex's and the main rule book. If they kill Snikrot they get to choose one random Apocalypse Stratagem, if they kill him in combat they get two, if they fail then the Ork's get one.

The main reason for this post though, is to showcase the six Deathwatch Marines which I have been painting up, took me a while to be bothered painting them. I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality, my room and phone just dont cut it. First up is Sergeant Ghost, leader of Kill Team Kappa, armed with twin Lightning Claws keeping his iconic weapons from the Raven Guard.

The bit I am most proud of is the writing I put on his little scripts, the reason I am proud is because my writing skills are sub-par, but this particular one looked really good (for me). His other piece of parchment says Purge The Unclean, but I couldn't fit all of unclean on and it gets a bit squashed.

Next up is Drake, he is a Salamander and he is still carrying a Heavy Flamer, which is actually a Grey Knight Incinerator, I used this as it has a little Inquisitorial icon on it, and its the only marine sized heavy flamer I could get my hands on.

This guy is nothing special, he is a standard Sternguard, nicknamed Borg because he is an Iron Hand (not that I had anything to convert him with, so he just looks normal).

Here is a veteran of veterans, I remember reading somewhere that the Ultramarines provide the largest number of candidates for the Deathwatch, this is because of their hatred and knowledge of the Tyranids, so here we have a Smurf reloding, no-one ever reloads...

Here is the Sternguard nicknamed Cypher, because he is a Dark Angel. This guy was my tester model, and originally all my models had capes, but once I painted this guy up I realised there were too many colours and the cape just drew away from the black making them look more like clowns than marines. I gave him a book just so that it looks like he is training to be a Chaplain, and to practice painting paper, it is currently blank, I will try to get something written in it, or just put some squiggly lines.

Lastly we have what was going to be a Exorsist, this was because of the Deathwatch short story I read in the Fear the Alien book, but then I realised the rest of the squad was too miss matched, so I left the link with Ghost. Now, this guy is nicknamed Artisan because of his Bolter, and he will be a Blood Angel, who are well known artists and sculptors.

Well there you have it, my six men that took me nearly three days to paint, and still need the chapter symbols putting on the shoulder pads, and writing in a book. I am also planning to continue with my Grey Knight overview next week (seeing as it has been a month since my last post)

Have Fun

Col.Straken

[Event] Phalanx 2011 - St Helens

Morning All,

Thought I'd point out Phalanx 2011, since it's happening not mega far from us.

Saturday 18th June 2011

Welcome to The Phalanx Show website. In it you will find information about the clubs and the traders that will be attending Phalanx 2011 as well as directions and timetables making it as easy as possible to find. Phalanx is the premier event for wargamers in the North West and now in it's 18th year. Phalanx 2011 will be on Saturday 18th June at the Sutton Community & Leisure Centre in St. Helens and opens to the public from 10am to 4.00pm. Adults £3.00, Children £1.00, accompanied children free. You will find over 40 top traders, bring & buy, demonstration, participation and display games. There will be prizes for the best game in each category. You can print a Bring and Buy form here if required, fill it in and bring it, together with your goodies with you on Saturday!

Catering facilities are available for most of the day.
There is also plenty of FREE parking and easy disabled access.
You can contact the Sutton Leisure centre on 01744 810910

The St. Helens Spartans are proud to support

Please note that all photographs on the website are, to the best of our knowledge, used with permission. However if there are any problems please contact us and we will do our best to come to a solution.

For Trade information and Bookings: email phalanxtrade@gmail.com
For Club information and Bookings: email phalanxclubs@gmail.com
To find out more about the club visit http://www.spartans.org.uk

Anyone else looking at going? There's the possibility of some MAWS demo games going on from other members of the club, but with plenty of retailers and a bring and buy, it might be worth a trip down!

I've added it to the MAWS40k website HERE

Peace,
SB