Practice Games - Practice List

Ah well, so much to do, so little time. Into St. John's for some pre-GenCon gaming with my list of many things, and I discovered I'll need medication (or perhaps electroshock) to play it in 7 minute turns. So it's back to the drawing board.

This is my initial deployment in my first game against an eDeneghra list played by Mark.

Things heated up on my right flank:


Then, things heated up on my left flank:


Then I lost. Mark is an excellent player, so losing to him is no great shock. But it has to be said that I was stupid and then I died.

Next game was against Mark again, this time (at my request) playing nSkarre. I decided to change my deployment strategy.


Mark changed his strategy as well...here are his full Satyxis Raiders with Witch attachment charging my jacks...oh, what fun. Is there a caster with overwatch neutron bomb strike available?


After the game I told Mark that playing his Skarre list felt like reading a Russian novel...I knew something bad was going to happen, especially if I got off the couch to do anything. Unfortunately, I got up off the couch. His first charge attack from a Satyxis Raider did 12 points of damage on my Spriggan! 12 points! + feedback. He hit both my jacks with another 5 charge attacks. And let me say that free strikes from Satyxis Raiders are not gentle taps either.

Initial conclusion - I must find my brain. Final conclusion - I need less models.

Here are Ken's heavy warbeasts...he is taking them to GenCon:

Another view of Ken's Circle army:


And here is Jason's gun line, ready to receive the attentions of their woodland foe.

Gen Con painting project

I painted the Widowmaker Marksman, an Ogrun Bokur and Reinholdt during a couple of sessions last week while I was vacationing down the coast. I haven't completely finished them...I'm going to put another flesh wash on the Ogrun, I've got to flock the bases and paint their edges black, and I will spray varnish them with Testors Dullcote on a dry day.

As far as problems go, the right ankle of the Widowmaker Marksman broke off when I was pushing it into the slotta base so I had to pin it back on. This is a design issue but no big deal as far as the modelling goes. The Ogrun Bokur is a fantastic model, one of the best in the entire Privateer Press range as far as I am concerned.

Here is the next iteration of my Gen Con Hardcore list. I am going to playtest it next week when I go into town for a week's vacation.

The Butcher of Khardov
Behemoth
Spriggan
War dog
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Kell Bailoch
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount)
Ogrun Bokur
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Widowmaker Marksman

The Soccer Wars

Holland, the dirtiest team to never win the World Cup.

It was clear what was going on. It was a coaching decision by the Dutchies to break up the Spanish verve by physical brutality. And it worked. By the second half many of the Spanish passes in the midfield were hurried and off target, giveaways they would never had made but for fear of injury. That's not to say they were cowards, but when you have a million euro professional salary there are limits to what you will sacrifice for your country in sport. And the Dutch coach, van Marwijk, knew his man in Webb. Those first two Spanish yellow cards were laughable equalizers for the much more serious Dutch misdemeanours that preceded them in turn.

Von Bommell was disgusting, a devil in orange. De Jong's foul on Alonso will be replayed for years and every controversial red card to come will be compared to the yellow he got.

After the match van Marwijk insisted his players stayed within the law. "It is not our style to commit horrible fouls, it is not our kind of football," he pleaded. He's obviously picking up where Tony Blair left off on Iraq's possession of WMD.

It would have been a scandal if the Dutch had won, but they played with such calculated violence it was a scandal they were there at all. Their defeat looks good on them.

Photograph: Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP

A hero for our time

I have always admired Diego Maradona, the man who knows how to win - and how to tell his detractors that their arguments against him are arguments against God! Diego Maradona, long may your big jib draw.