Chris Tomlin

Nice! This will be helpful when I start playing Sylvaneth and teleporting all around the table Payment sent, sorry for delay.

Friday again! Wooo! Well, I gotta say I'm feeling a little worse for wear today after one (or eight?) too many Battlebrews at club night last night...I blame @Paul Buckler for stocking a great beer fridge (don't worry, I'll chuck in more next week!) But yeh, I have a few quick reports for you all today. Couple of replies first... Yeh in 8th Edition O&G did become known as "Green Dwarfs" due to the preferred style of play, especially at a competitive/ETC level. I certainly wouldn't want us drifting anywhere near close to that, but a bit of ranged support would be nice. I pretty much agree with all of that mate. I truly hope this isn't it and for the reasons you suggest I don't think it will be. There's so much they could do and you know it'd be awesome, GW are absolutely killing it for me at the moment. So so good!! Right then, time for another rundown on some older reports. As per 42-50 these will be just be very brief overviews to help catch us up. Enjoy! The first 3 games were played during my recent trip to the US in January. I attended Waaagh! Paca and whilst I wasn't signed up for any AoS events I did manage to get in a few good games vs top guys I'd always wanted to play. I just took my list from the Masters for this one, which to refresh was; Krunk - Battlebrew Cabbage - Talisman Warchanter Warchanter 15 Megabrutes - General, Ravager 5 Brutes 10 Ardboys 3 Gore-gruntas Ironfist Game 51 - vs @domus (Ironjawz) After meeting the Ginger Buddha in 2014 and 2015, I knew I wanted to try a get a game in with him! He'd recently picked up Ironjawz and having not played a lot of AoS, we thought this could be a fun experience for him and perhaps he'd be able to pick up a trick or two on the way. His army looks fantastic already, check it out on Twitter if you haven't seen it (he should really post it here) and with a bit more work, which I think he may do for Adepticon, it will be something really special. Very unique. Like me, his list selection was defined somewhat by what he had painted. He had gone with the big man himself, Gordrakk, backed up by all the usual characters and an Ironfist. I suggested we play Border War (GHOUL PATROL!) as I think it's the best way to showcase straight up General's Handbook AoS (which they don't seem to play a lot of out there). As this was more of a learning game, there were plenty of conversations and suggestions taking place throughout, however it wasn't a tutorial or anything, Domus is a smart guy and was able to play a good game and make solid decisions. He actually had me in quite a bit of bother early doors, especially as my Warchanter buffed Gore-gruntas failed a very short charge onto his which were camping his objective turn 1. It was a kinda odd game of Border War as we'd both left our "Home" objectives pretty open, instead sweeping to the flanks. Highlights included Megaboss Chump (he couldn't think of a name for his Megaboss, so I did the honours) taking down the mighty Krunk, which I was not best pleased at. He got a nice long charge with Gordrakk into the side of my Megabrutes, making it tough for them to bring to bear the full weight of their attacks. Regardless, they were still able to chop down the Fist of Gork, in part to good positioning of Gore-choppas in anticipation (VERY important with the larger units). But yeh, great fun game and most importantly Domus said it was useful to him which was the only real goal. Result - Major Victory* Game 52 vs Brad Schwandt @Rhellion (Sylvaneth) Another top guy, I get on with Brad really well and hanging out with him as well as Domus was definitely a strong highlight of my weekend. Brad is very much in tune with the UK meta and competitive scene - he'd fit in perfectly over here. Plays hard, but fairly and with a smile on his face throughout. We decided we wanted a competitive game, however Brad was rocking a very fine tuned "Maxime" Destruction list. We both felt this probably wouldn't have made for the best of games (ie, would've likely been a walk in the park for him and over quickly), so he opted to use his Wife, Andrea's, Sylvaneth army. This was still an incredibly strong list, not far off what you'd expect to see over here, with the addition of Drycha and more Hunters over Durthu (I think). We'd rolled up Take & Hold, probably my least favourite battleplan. In the centre of the board there was almost a valley made up of two very large blocky bits of terrain. Brad was able to place his free Wyldwood right down the centre of these, meaning the direct route to his objective was through them. I camped my objective with the Ardboys and Krunk, pushing the Megabrutes down the centre. The Cabbage went full aggro in order to pin the Scythe Hunters and stop them coming at the Brutes, which worked pretty well until eventually the Cabbage was cut down. In the centre Drycha straddled the two sections of the Wyldwood. We had an interesting convo about whether this counted as cover. I gave it, but by the time she finally died we realised that whether it counted or not, as a Behemoth she was not eligible to claim the bonus!! Fail! I can't remember specific details now, only to say that Brad dismantled my army with apparent ease, however it still took him some time to do so which meant he was unable to get around to threaten my objective. However....last turn he charged his Treelord off his objective to attack my unit of 5 Brutes which had made the journey around the side. After battleshock I was left with 2. I also had two left from the Megabrutes and a lone Gore-grunta - 5 models total! I was able to get the required retreat/run rolls to pile those 5 models onto his objective, whilst still holding mine ftw!! This was pretty much daylight robbery on my part I'll admit, still I think I played well enough throughout and kept my eye on the prize so that when Brad dropped the ball for just a second I was able to sneak in a steal it. I look forward to the inevitable rematch and crushing Brad will request the next time we meet! Fantastic, hard game though and a useful lesson in scenario play. Brad went on to win all his other games across the weekend, taking out 1st place in two one day events!! Congrats! Result - Major Victory Game 53 vs Johnny Hastings (Destruction) It was great to finally get a game in vs Mr Pointhammered himself. Needless to say, when me and Johnny get together the drinks are gonna flow and this time was no different. Johnny is just getting into AoS properly, so much like the game with Domus we played Border War (GHOUL PATROL!) and had more of a chilled learning game, whilst both still trying to win of course! His army is hands down one of the technically best painted Warhammer armies I've ever seen and his sculpting/conversion work is second to none. It was great to face off against it on the table. His army was predominately Gutbusters, with a large block of Ironguts backed up by support characters and units. He also had an Ironblaster and a large unit of Mournfang (It's basically an 8th ed WFB Ogre Kingdoms army at present). I actually can't really give you any details of this game as it was a while back and we were pretty drunk. I'm pretty sure it was still worthwhile for Johnny as he took plenty of notes (especially around the Hero phase) which I hope helped him out in future battles. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the game and was even able to do a pretty unique "Take it off!!" after killing my cabbage by whipping out his purple headed monster and tapping it on my purple headed monster!! haha! He did learn that Ironblasters are rubbish and Ironguts are good...I showed him the worth of retreating by having my Megabrutes disengage from the Ironguts and onto his home objective ftw. Result - Major Victory* (*Please note I am only listing these results for a sake of completeness. Whilst both games were still competitive they did have a learning element to them and were not about the result.) The next two games were doubles with my regular partner @Paddy O'Sullivan as practice for the Partners in Chaos event. The day before this was my Uncle's funeral, which wasn't great, I then went to a party in the evening and as a result of the bad day was on a bit of a self-destructive mission, so yeh pretty messy. So come Saturday morning, unsurprisingly I did not want to be playing Warhammer and had Paddy not driven to Dorset from London I most certainly would've stayed in bed!! Unfortunately I don't actually remember these games whatsoever, I don't even know what I used! Suffice to say, we lost both!! Game 54 - Doubles with @Paddy O'Sullivan vs @Paul Buckler and Rich Morley @Drakira (Destruction) - Loss Game 55 - Doubles with @Paddy O'Sullivan vs Jan Poudley @Clankers86 and Matt Bennett (Chaos) - Loss The next 3 games were at Partners of Chaos. A one day Doubles event run by my Age of Sigbrah co-hosts @Andy Talbot and @The Lost Lighthouse (Gary). It was a great day, I and Paddy had opted to run duplicate lists; Megaboss (Krunk for me, Kevin for Paddy!) Warchanter 10 Brutes 5 Brutes 5 Brutes Ironfist Paddy was painting his army for the event so we kept the model count down and figured it may be fun to push that many Brutes around. Also our armies could operate individually. Before each game I'd devise a strategy which usually had us acting independently to score objectives etc. It worked well. I won't talk about the actual games at all, you can go listen to a short episode of The Black Sun Weekly for that; But if you just want to know the results; Game 56 - Partners in Chaos Round One vs @Rob Ellis and @Ian Gilmore (Order and Destruction) - Major Victory Game 57 - Partners in Chaos Round Two vs Wayne Holt and Rich Buckler (Chaos) - Major Victory Game 58 - Partners in Chaos Round Three vs @Russ Veal and @Terry Pike (Chaos) - Major Loss The last game was on Table One and I came so so close to pulling out the win for us, as it was we ended up dropping down to 5th place (out of 20 teams), which was disappointing. As you'll hear from the podcast, I was pretty happy with my play throughout. Was a fun day, I hope you check out the podcast and enjoy. So that'll do for now. I do have another 8 games to report on, including 5 from the Sheffield Slaughter! Anyway, have a great weekend, hope you all manage to get some Warhammer in!! Chris

I agree that creativity with conversions should not be stifled, however I think there is a difference when it comes to Special Characters and what you've described is 100% a proxy IMO. If you'd taken Sayl and maybe changed his arm or whatever so it's still recognisable as Sayl I suspect no one would bat an eyelid. Special/Named Characters should be instantly recognisable, it doesn't sound like yours would be? @Pete Scholey - Good post. It's down to us as TO's and a community to ensure the acceptable standard is made clear to all entrants. Also it's a bit of a shame that all this has overshadowed the fact that there were some really nice armies at the event!

@John Harrison - Are grudges allowed? Me and @Lez would like to play if so. Sorry for delay with payment!

Hey, Not long now Ardboys! The Whatsapp group is filling nicely. Think I've got 41/56 people in there now. It's not vital, but I would prefer to have everyone in there. If you don't want alerts going off on your phone frequently, please note there is the facility in Whatsapp to mute individual chats. It will ensure everyone has all the relevant and up to date info. Feels very 2017! At the weekend I will be stealing from my brothers at Age of Sigbrah and using the group chat for posting the draw etc. Minimizing paper waste and what not. Also helps for planning in the evening and the draw in the run up to the event will likely be done in the chat. If you're one of the 15 entrants not currently in there, send me a text (07738 621 308) and I'll add you in due course. I'll cross reference a list later this week when I will also, finally, be sorting a PDF to clarify the scoring, food choices etc. We also have 10 grudges so far, which is a good portion of the field. I like to encourage as many of these as possible, so get yours in if you haven't already! Megaboss Chris <3

@Solaris - Yeh that seems to mirror what I've heard elsewhere. I guess my "problem" is that I'm not limiting myself to the GW fluff. I just want my army to be cool and themed in my own way. I create my own fluff by way of the battles on the table and how the characters come to life and tell their own stories...very rarely do I play someone who doesn't know of Megaboss Krunk and wants to kill him haha! He feels like a genuine character to me. Likewise, I still plan on adding more 40k elements to the army. I don't mind if they have some very basic/crude diesel powered contraptions, even if it perhaps doesn't match up to the fluff (although looking at some of those new Stormcast guns...). Unfortunately I just haven't had the time or motivation to delve into the AoS fluff (other than the fantastic Flesh-eater Courts book). I guess I probably should at least read the Ironjawz book though haha!

Midway through the week...it's Wednesday already you bunch of Weirdnobs! Unfortunately work is pretty busy, so I don't see any battle reports forthcoming this week, but we'll get caught up soon enough no drama. I'm planning another batch of 9 short ones like I did above with 42-50 and then get around to the Slaughter games in more detail (though there will also be reports on the next Age of Sigbrah podcast, to be released 10/03/17). Thanks for all the replies, sorry I didn't get a chance to reply yesterday; Well tbh it needs a little more work. I dread to think how many thinned down glazes I've used already, but I blocked some colour back out with Celestra Grey so had to start building it up again to where it is in the pics. It is super bright and has a proper glow in person. Need to darken it towards the end and add some little flecks/spots I think. I'll try to define the eye sockets better at that time. I've set him to one side for the moment though as I work on different projects. As it stands, I'm more than happy with this anyway tbh. Thanks man, I just think the Crossbow Brute works! A few people did comment to me at the Slaughter that whilst they liked the model, they didn't think an Ironjaw would wield a missile weapon. TBH I'm not sure we will ever see anything like this if it doesn't fit GW's fluff. My current thinking is to do a few of them as Spear Chukkas and paint up some Grot loaders to act as "crew". Just need to ascertain whether 40mm is a suitable base size. Haha it's all good mate, everyone is entitled to their opinion and like/dislike whatever they choose. I don't take offence and it's nice to hear a different viewpoint. As it is, I do agree, but also think in part its the photos. However even in person, viewing the model at anything other than close up offers a similar issue. I need to make the glow around the eyes more distinct from the skin-tone and also define the sockets. Thanks for your feedback, it'll help finish the model off and be even better. Haha!! Yeh that's fair. Managed it 3/5 times at the Slaughter!! Thanks bro! Glad you like 'em Yeh, I too am a fan of Rugluud's Armoured Orcs...I guess these are a modern homage if you like? It's hard (but fun) to theorise how the army would go. If (and its a big if) we ever did get anything like that, I suspect it would be part of a wave of new models/units, so we'd probably have more to consider and discuss than just the Crossbows. I wouldn't want to army to turn into a gunline as there is enough of that. I'd still like combat punch, just with some manner of ranged support to round out a more well balanced army. Thanks again for taking the time to reply, Chris

Morning, I wasn't sure whether I was going to come in the run up to the event (mostly due to financial restraints), but I'm glad my friends convinced me. I had 5 great games of Warhammer vs @Ben Johnson, @Liam Cook, Rob Noyes, @Russ Veal and Tom Fretwell and got to hang out with lots of awesome people...so in that regard, it was certainly a success. Overall I was very pleased to take 12th place in that field with pure Ironjawz and be 2nd placed Destruction behind @Darran Palmer (shame on all you other mixed Destruction filthmongers! ). On the topic of being 2nd placed; painting! Seems like it was super tight between me and @Bananaman Timmy, so congrats to him on the win. It's an awesome army and as someone that's been loving his work online for literally over 10 years I'm more than happy to see him pick up his first AoS painting trophy, many more to come I'm sure! Thanks to anyone who voted for me, always greatly appreciated. I'll be honest, I do have my reservations on the scoring system as the GH battleplans address kill points by way of secondary objectives for the minor win, so further rewarding that arguably places more power in the minor win and felt like a step backwards and away from objective play, IMO. Also the lack of paint scores is potentially a concern going forward (not specifically aimed at this event) as we are starting to see some dubious armies sneaking back into the scene. However, on the day, everything was scored as per the published pack prior to the event, so there can be no complaint on this front. Perhaps it could be reviewed going forward though, interested in hearing the TO's debrief/thoughts on these. One thing I would've liked is a bit more attention/interest towards Best Painted Army. It's fine if people are to self nominate (although as both a TO and a painter, I know that people do really appreciate the TO nomination), but it would've been nice for us to have a dedicated area to set up our armies so that people could've gone to one place to see them all as opposed to them being randomly dispersed across two rooms. But yeh, please take that all as intended; purely constructive and not at all a criticism. Just the opinions of one guy (of 72!). Thanks to @Pete Scholey, @Adymc and anyone else involved. Congrats to all the other winners, notably @AlexHarrison taking out 1st place at his first AoS event! Thanks to everyone for a good time, Chris

Hey, Oh no! That's a shame, I think his face is great (sculptwise)! Looks proper tripping out and mental. His mouth is beautifully sculpted and paints up lovely. The eye area may require a bit more work tbh. The fluorescent pigment doesn't show too well in the photos, or in person at distance. I feel I may need to shade the socket the re-glaze the pigment just to add more definition. The actual eyes themselves are exactly what I wanted to achieve, like I say its defining the sockets better before adding the glow...I think. We'll see. Randomly I am also particularly happy with the bottom of his staff (from the front, from behind the wash pooled a bit). That turned out exactly as I hoped. I was pleased that @Ben Johnson also noted that he liked this part.

Cheers bro! You got in there quick before I added the text to the post (upload pics on my phone then add text on computer at work), so check that back for some more info

Morning moody Monday morning Maw-krushas! So this past weekend was the Sheffield Slaughter, a 72 player 5 game event. I almost dropped out due to a severe lack of funds and not really feeling it in the week leading up to it, but in the end went along to hang out with mates and push my Ironjawz around. I'm glad I did go and thanks to the generosity of my friends was able to have a few beers (thanks all!). Ended up playing 5 great games vs @Ben Johnson, @Liam Cook, Rob Noyce (@?), @Russ Veal & Tom Fretwell (@?), which I will cover here in more detail. The scoring system was a bit unique so I'll have to explain that too, but for now I'm pleased to say I managed 12th place (of 72), which I'm pretty pleased with truth be told. Had a good bit of luck in some places (conversely some bad luck elsewhere), but hey, you need that for a good finish. Unfortunately missed out on painting by two votes to @Bananaman Tim Fisher. I'm more than ok with this however as Tim is genuinely a long time (easily 10+ years) inspiration to me and my painting/modelling, great to see him scoop his first AoS painting trophy. Many more to come I'm sure. Anyway, ask and you shall receive @N_Watson, @Soulsmith, @Solaris and @Durant..here are some poor pics I took of the two models quickly before I left on Friday. Some are a little blurry and the zoom deteriorates the quality. But yeh, I'm happy with them, still a bit more I'd like to do on the Shaman, but he's good enough for the time being. Enjoy, Chris

Morning, I'm feeling less exuberant than I should considering it's Friday and I'm off to a Tournament later today...this is due to staying up past 3.30am last night/this morning and being up at normal time this morning for work. Less than 4 hours sleep is not conducive to a cheery Megaboss!! Still, I finish at 3pm and am meeting @Paul Buckler, before going to get @Andy Talbot and @ChippyRick then heading up to Sheffield for the Slaughter this weekend. We are all using different Alliances so get to compete in the team event. Should be pretty cool. Also, I should clarify my reason for being awake until a ridiculous hour; painting Ironjawz!! I kind of lost track of time as I was painting my Crossbow Brute. It's not my best paintjob but I just think he's awesome regardless. I'll have some pics for you soon, the ones I took in the early hours were not great. Downside is that I got so engrossed in him that I didn't really finish off my Shaman! (The model I actually need for the weekend). Still, he is to a useable standard and tbh doesn't need too much more work at all. Again, looking forward to sharing some pics with you. I don't really have any expectations for the weekend gaming wise, but there's a lot of cool people going so it should be fun regardless. Wish me luck!! Cheers dude! I too would not be against black powder...just gimme something, anything, goddammit!! Yeh good point. Best bet is to probably try and reply like this, to a couple at a time without letting loads of comments build up. Glad you like the updates! Chris

@Solaris - Aesthetics vs practicality I guess. I'll try and strike a balance going forwards, perhaps cropping the quotes is an idea. I'm aware that large blocks of text inc multi-quotes aren't the most attractive prospect for a potential reader!! I've removed most the quotes from this page as a trial.

@Nico - Yeh would look good wouldn't it. Big Brute with a large crossbow (probably Spear Chukka size) and a couple of little Grots running around him. Could even look to convert some actually holding the Spear Chukka model itself. In my head it's quite small and would go on a 40mm base anyway! Random question; what do people think about my mass multi quote replies? Does it look messy and make the thread hard to read? It's easier for me to reply that way, but perhaps it'd be cleaner to delete the quote afterwards. I'll edit the above and see how it looks. Might make it harder to see what I'm replying to though. Am I overthinking a non issue haha!! **Edit - I've removed the mass quoting in my previous two posts on this page and it looks much better, but is harder to know what stuff is in reference to!**

All the replies!! My morning spent writing that was worth it then! I'll go back through and try to "like" as many of them as possibly shortly. @Nico - I actually really don't like this idea haha. That said, I wouldn't be adverse to a Troggoth loader, or something similar. The was a Gundabad Troll from the Hobbit range previewed at a WHW Open Day I was at that would be perfect. He had Brutesque armour already. Still, the overall theme for my army will bring in more 40k mechanical elements so that adds options as well for converted/themed war machines. @Forestreveries suggested using my crossbow Brute as a Spear Chukka. Just get a couple of Grot ammo runts to help him load and away we go. Really cool idea IMO. What base size does a Spear Chukka go on? would 40mm be acceptable? @Nico - Yeh that Eshin army is super sweet tbh. I forgot to mention above how good the Deathrunner was, seemed super tricksy. Can't remember exactly what @Paul Buckler did with it now, but it was cool!! Like you I wish Plague Monks were generic Chaos Battleline. Would breathe life into my Chaos army that's for sure. Loads of podcasts out there to listen to. Hopefully you can get caught up on mine at some point mate @ChippyRick - Yeh it was like we both just expected the Varanguard to go in, so that was a little strange. Great game for sure and definitely idea for a pre tournament practice game with a bit of stress testing in there. The long charge on the Gruntas definitely gave me control on the left at least a turn earlier than expected, which was big as it allowed me to pressure the centre quickly. Haha!! Yeh I can definitely see the funny side of that tbh. Still, got there in the end. There were a fair few variables to thing through at the business end and I definitely didn't want to throw it away. @Fungrim - Thanks a lot man, glad its of some use or interest to you, appreciate that a lot. If you don't find you remember games very well, then taking notes or photos during and writing it down afterwards may help you analyse and improve. Give it a go and see how you get on. Drop me a link in here when you do. I'm awful at keeping track with the forum in general!! @Solaris - Haha thanks man. Had a look through your topic and dropped a reply there. Agree re the links, though the photos weren't great it'd be good to have them back. I'm not sure if fixing the broken links is something @Ben is still working on or not? I think it was a pretty time intensive task unfortunately. Either way, I will get new photos of the army this year. @Fungrim - Re Ironblaster, that's actually a really good idea, would easily work as well. There is one downside however, as those things are so poor in the game haha!! Thanks again for all the replies, really appreciate it. Chris

@Cowboy Boots Matt

Afternoon Ardboys! Oooh replies! Yey...not that I thrive on attention or anything I've got some battle reports etc to add, but first... @NoobhammerN8 - That's awesome to hear man. Thanks so much. After seeing your cool Ogor, I look forward to seeing what you do with the Ironjawz! @Solaris - Yeh I getcha man and for sure, some elements are definitely posted for my own sake (I like to keep a log of my battles etc). But also, it is important (I find anyway) to receive responses, feedback etc etc. The interaction is definitely a big part of way I do this, for right or wrong. I'm also a massive hypocrite, as I definitely haven't been posting in other peoples topics anywhere near as much as I should (or used to). Gimme a link to yours and I'll check it out bro! @Fungrim - Wow! That's one savage looking weapon. Love it. Has to be 5+ to hit, classic Ork shooting haha! @Gaz Taylor - Stormcast OR Tzeentch. What is this word "or"? But in all seriousness, good luck with the house move! @Nico - Irresponsible would be my buzz word for GW purchases I suspect!! Hhhm, maybe. Personally I just prefer the crossbow aesthetic. @tolstedt - I actually can't envisage this! Do you have any reference material? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, just to catch us back up, I'm going to do some super quick "reports" of the 18 games I've played so far this year, I know they are gonna be lacking detail/information but to be honest it's much about keeping a full record for myself at this point. Going forward we may have more like this, but also I will still be doing some proper ones as well. For the first few games I used this list; Krunk - Battlebrew Shaman - Talisman Warchanter Warchanter Warchanter 15 Megabrutes - General, Ravager 5 Brutes 10 Ardboys 10 Ardboys 6 Gore-gruntas Ironfist Game 42 vs Aaron Bailey @Forestreveries (Sylvaneth) Great way to start the New Year's gaming with a game against my best mate! I'd gone 2016 undefeated against Aaron and his Sylvaneth but figured I was due a loss soon enough. Aaron's list was super solid with 2 lots of 6 Kurnoth with Scythes (but no bows, which I liked), the dirty Dryads of the Thorn combo and other stuff. We were playing Border War and this was one of the first times I'd tried out the Megabrutes. I learned an instant lesson in deployment / movement / managing that big unit as they were clipped on the end (unintentionally by Aaron) which meant I had to retreat and lost a turn with them. The 6 Gore-gruntas fared pretty terribly vs the other 6 Hunters (Shock) but did score me some points beforehand. The game actually went really badly for me, but strangely I still kept in it right until the end and IIRC I would've actually won had I got the last priority, which perhaps wouldn't have been fair given Aaron's dominance throughout. Kinda wish I'd done a proper report on this game somewhere as it was a cracker. Not sure if Aaron wrote up anything? Result - Major Defeat Game 43 vs @Paul Buckler (Clan Eshin) It's always an absolute blast playing the Dogfather and this one promised to be interesting as not only was Paul playing a full Eshin list (3 Deceivers, Death Runner, Assassins, 3x Night Runners, lots of Gutter Runners), but we were also trying out the new Escalation for the first time. Straight off the bat I made a bit of a mistake here as I deployed all my characters too far forward, so when it came to my first turn I just pushed them all 9" backwards to adhere to the deployment rules as it was the fairest solution without starting over. Left me in a poor position, especially with sneaky rats coming on from behind. Paul played this quite nicely, keeping the 3 Deceivers together as an uber unit, not allowing me to pick them apart. In this game I'd actually split my army to contest all 3 objectives, whereas going forward I have refined my strategy in this battleplan to concentrate on just two (more on that later). The Gore-gruntas were able to do a reasonable job in this game, scoring the left hand objective and killing a Deceiver before going down. Krunk and 5 Brutes were sent backwards to deal with all the Gutter Runners and Assassins, already I was enjoying being able to use Krunk as an aggressive combat unit without worrying about babysitting for Inspiring Presence etc. However in this game he was useless, rolling heaps of poor dice to inflict minimal casualties and maximum failed saves. Boo! Luckily the 5 Brutes did a much better job. In the centre the Megabrutes were sitting pretty whilst the Ardboys cleaned up the Nightrunners. I think I spent about 30 minutes on my last movement phase to try and work out the best way to hold the objectives from the threat of the two remaining Deceivers. Without going into too much detail (as I was definitely overthinking it!!), I managed to hold off and take the win. Unfortunately as I won, I didn't get to see his trademark #cockoutpowerslide which he only performs upon victory. Result - Major Victory Game 44 vs Ricky Mee @ChippyRick (Chaos) This game was played on the Friday night at the UK Masters at Warhammer World vs top bro Chippy, pretty cool! Ricky had his Masters list with Archaon, which you can hear all about in this episode of TBS Weekly - *Formatting has gone weird here* Once again we were trying out the new Escalation. It was in this game I decided to essentially split my army in two and try to compete for the two side objectives, leaving the central one open. The thinking here is that with the multiple Warchanters, the army can be split and still be functional, which is often not so easy for the opponent to do, especially if they deploy centrally. As it was, this went really well for me. Ricky went light on his right, my left, leaving just 10 Marauders to do the job. This meant my Gore-gruntas could charge in, clear them out before moving towards the central objective with the Ardboys and 5 Brutes. I was actually able to leave a single Warchanter on the left hand objective for the entire game, scoring every turn...a bit criminal really!! The knock on effect of this was that I was also able to smash more Marauders and Plaguebearers off the central objective and tie that up. The actual battle was really fought over my right hand objective (which was on Ricky's side of the board). A unit of Ardboys ran up to grab the objective and I shielded them off with the Megabrutes. Ricky hadn't played Ironjawz before, so wanted to stress test Archaon ahead of the main event so piled him into the Megabrutes. Unfortunately for him, the Varanguard failed their charge so the big dog went in alone.There was plenty of carnage and both units were depleted but I don't think destroyed (Archaon down to 4 wounds). As it was, I was so far up on objectives it was impossible for Ricky to win by about turn 3. We both acknowledged he would probably play different in future, but it was certainly a useful learning experience for us both. Result - Major Victory So after these three games and also a few more at the back end of last year, I was actually pretty happy with how this list was performing, even the 6 Gore-gruntas seemed to be achieving (though for 360 points I guess you need to be). Change wise, I would like a second Megaboss in the list. You could drop two Warchanters for him (and then probably switch Ravager for Bellowing Tyrant, which is arguably better anyway tbh), or drop the Gruntas for 10 more Ardboys and a Megaboss. Both probably have merit. Regardless, the main problem was that the list included a number of unpainted models so wasn't suitable for Tournament play. For the Masters itself I had submitted the following list. It includes some elements of my new build (Megabrutes), but was purely made of stuff I already had painted as I don't want to be putting pressure on myself to rush stuff out this year. If I can't get stuff done, I'll have to run with what I have. Problem is it leaves me with lists like this; Krunk - Battlebrew Cabbage - Talisman Warchanter Warchanter 15 Megabrutes - General, Ravager 5 Brutes 10 Ardboys 3 Gore-gruntas Ironfist Definitely a list worthy of the highest level AoS tournament in the world right....right?! Anyway, I did reports of my games on the Age of Sigbrah podcast, so won't detail them here. Go listen at - http://welcometorapture.podbean.com/e/age-of-sigbrah-ep35-just-chatting/ Game 45 - UK Masters - Round One vs @Rob Perrin (Tomb Kings) Result - Minor Defeat (Blood & Glory) Game 46 - UK Masters - Round Two vs @Terry Pike (Chaos) Result - Major Defeat (Escalation) Game 47 - UK Masters - Round Three vs Tony Moore @Countmoore (Death) Result - Minor Defeat (Take & Hold) Game 48 - UK Masters - Round Four vs @Pano (Bloodbound) Result - Major Defeat (Border War) Game 49 - UK Masters - Round Five vs Byron Orde (Death) Result - Minor Victory (Gifts from the Heavens) Game 50 - UK Masters - Round Six vs Ricky Mee @ChippyRick (Chaos) Result - Major Victory (Three Places of Power) If you've listened to the podcast you'll know I had some fantastic games and perhaps more importantly for me, some really close games (as I was worried about getting smashed and not offering competition). Literally lost the first two games on individual dice rolls! We'll have to see if @Ben can post that GIF here! The list was actually a little bet than expected in the field, but obviously not great. I did thoroughly enjoy using the Cabbage again though it has to be said! Not really much to comment on there. I don't actually know where I came as I think places 12-15th were tied on points. I believe I was listed 15th, but as I'd beaten Ricky on the head to head I think technically I'd come above him. Whatever though, honestly does not matter, it was a fantastic experience and I'm so glad I was a part of it. I think I played well all weekend, possibly spurred on by the high level of play all around me (and a lack of alcohol!). Anyway, I think that's enough for now. I will return with the other 9 games this week, including some doubles action and my games in the US! Thanks for reading, Megaboss Chris

Cheers Gaz! Yeh one of the "problems" with AoS is how awesome everything is haha! I haven't even finish assembling my Tzeentch and I'm back on Ironjawz...but then also bought a Sylvaneth army this week out of the blue! Too much stuff and literally no money!! Great conversion, he looks really cool! I like the repeater idea for sure, thanks for sharing. I have a massive 40k Ork bitzbox so will see what I can come up with on the second one. Thanks guys Chris

I don't think I've seen this before!! Amazing.

Morning, Pretty disappointed with the lack of response there tbh! Thought you guys would be loving that!! Not the kick-start to the thread I'd hoped for. Unfortunately didn't quite finish the Shaman for #miniaturemonday, but he is progressing nicely and will hopefully be done for the slaughter this weekend. Though I'll admit that I'm not sure the smoke is going to be as good as I'd envisaged. It's just really hard to paint. Such a good model though all in all. Thanks for the reply mate, glad you like them. The bow is indeed from the BCR range, specifically the Stonehorn kit. I agree 5+ to hit is awful, however it just feels right. Having an Ork army for 40K, I know that a 5+ is a guaranteed hit with a rocket launcher, so hopefully that'd translate here! I was thinking of applying the "duff up da big fings" rule to these Brutes as well, so they reroll their shooting against models with 4 or more wounds on their profile. Not too bad I don't think and keeps it simple. I'd rather they were underpowered as opposed to overpowered if anything. Losing to a bent made up unit could upset people!

@DeadlySarcasm - Yeh mate, I'll be getting a list up and cross referencing the entrants at some point in the next week or so. Apologies for the delay in releasing the pack details, super busy. Not that it contains any new information, nor will any of you read it anyway haha! If you have any questions beforehand, let me know. Chris

Hey, Bit of movement on the reserves list. I've decided to keep adding people as they request it. Super pleased to have @Mo Ashraf playing now Following the success of the Partners in Chaos Whatsapp group chat, I am repurposing it for this event. If Whatsapp group chats are not your thing you can just mute it or whatever. It will be useful to have as near to everyone as possible in it for the weekend and the days leaving up to it. If you don't think I have your number, please send me a Whatsapp message with your name; 07738 621 308 Cheers, Chris

Slammin' it, bro!

Literally just choked on my cup of tea at work reading this haha!! Slambro more like, what a baller!

Morning Megabosses! Hope you all had a good weekend? Reasonably chilled one for me, but did squeeze in some hobby I thought I'd share with you today. @Nico - I already have a conversion in mind for my Idol. Hopefully I'll get round to it this year. @DeadlySarcasm - I guess this depends how you define making points back. Do you literally put it down to how many points the unit itself causes? As well you know, I've discussed the importance of Ardboys many times and definitely need to get more painted. My converted unit of 10 is next on my table after I've finished up the following two models.... Firstly, let me introduce the new GW Ironjawz release; Brutes with Heavy Crossbows (I WISH!). This is something I've talked about non stop in person, on the forums, on twitter and on podcasts...so I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is and do a mock up. How cool does this look? Still a bit WiP at the time of the photos, but he is now finished and has been sprayed black. Would love to paint him this week to put into one of my Brute units for the Slaughter this week. Not gonna rush him though. Whilst it's just a bit of fun, I do genuinely think it looks great and just works IMO. I plan to make a full unit of 5 and in game will just mix them amongst my Brute units for variety. In the campaign I am currently in, @Paul Buckler has agreed to let me have a go at devising some rules for them. Initially thinking something like 1-2 shots, 24" range, 5+ to hit, 3+ to wound, rend 1, D3 damage. Bonus for shooting da big fings! Personally you guys could help me out and come up with a cool warscroll, just for fun. Anyway, this was on twitter yesterday and seem to be quite popular. Cant wait to paint him. The photo underneath this is exclusive to TGA as I haven't tweeted him yet. Its a WiP shot of my Weirdnob Shaman which I'd love to finish tonight. Seeing it blown up like that has allowed me to see some flaws I need to fix. Also very few areas are complete; skin still has 3 layers, bone still has 2 etc. I'm a bit all over the place painting him. Really though, it's all down to the smoke and whether I can be happy with that. Anyway, let me know what you think of it all... Chris