Thursday 28 January 2016

CanCon 2016!

My last trip to CanCon was 2013! I was very glad to be able to make it back again, and had a great time. The main reason I went was for the Blood Bowl tourney, to which I took my new Halfling team, and which I will cover in my next post.

A new occurrence this year that I was stoked to have been able to attend was the Australian Wargamer Bloggers' Meet-up, which is covered in more detail on Paul of the Man Cave's blog. I finally got to put names to faces, and we all caught up again in the evening for a chat and a few adult lemonades.


I took a few pictures this year. First, here are some of the games (click to embiggen):
3mm moderns from Bish of the Tiny Tanks blog. FFoT3 rules.

1930s Sino-Japanese conflict, I believe

The battle of 'Canburgh' 1863; ACW using Fire and Fury.

My mate Shannon played in the X-Wing tourney

Malifaux- I love the tombstones on the crater.

Part of the Battle of Leipzig. 28mm Napoleonics.

Dux Homunculorum's Scots versus Skraelings at SAGA.

I'm a sucker for a good table, and the Infinity guys never disappoint.


Check out the koi pond!






Many of my local club, the Newcastle Legion, attended to play Epic.





I got to play a few games on the Sunday night, namely Sheriff of Nottingham, Sushi Go and Formula D.
My soccer mom in the white van will win this race!

Finally, here's the loot I couldn't resist... FFG are draining my wallet. I got the Team Yankee stuff for a look, but I don't know if I'll use the rules (at least, not in 15mm).
Bring on the next CanCon!

CanCon 2016- Halflings play Blood Bowl!

The Wild Flings!

I took my new Halfling team, The Wild Flings, to CanCon for the Blood Bowl tournament. Pics of my team can be found here.

(Eight games over three days, progression, 1 000 kgp, full inducements except no cards, Swiss)

My starting team was two treemen, nine 'flings, one reroll. My intent was to keep my team value very low to allow me to induce Deeproot Strongbranch and a Master Chef every round.

Day 1:

Game 1: Peakie's Chaos Dwarves, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I lost 2-0 and sustained 5-0 casualties, luckily nothing serious.
The trees punch a hole for the 'fling with the ball to waddle forwards!

Game 2: Wesdrum's Lizardmen, The Lounge Lizards. An interesting match up, which I managed to lose 2-1. Memorably, Deeproot threw one of my 'flings into the crowd...
Can the 'Flings score from here? (No)

Game 3: bor1s's Dwarves, The Nuffbar Nutpunchers. Two dwarven teams on one day? I only suffered 4-1 casualties, and lost 2-1 again.
The Nutpunchers strike down the wide zone

Day 2:

Game 4: Devil's Reject had his incredibly unlucky Pro Elves, The Turquoise Turtles, but was still able to beat me 3-2. That's four losses in a row now...
A stoic 'fling line faces down the elven passing game

Game 5: I played against Freckle's Halflings, G.N.O.M.E. 'Fling on 'fling action! She went for a bigger team, but I was able to induce Deeproot and the Chef, and cracked out a 2-1 win! Woot!
Timber! A mechanical tree takes down Deeproot Strongbranch

Game 6: I played against Big A's intimidating Khemri, but was able to hold him off to a 1-1 draw.
A tree catches the ball!

Day 3:

Game 7: Another Dwarf team! I did well against Dreadful Dan's Bola Profrandas, having him 2-1 down, but then he scored in the very last turn to equalise- I was robbed!
'Flings move into the dwarven half of the pitch

Game 8: Against Vimes' Nurgle, The 48th Legion. This time, I robbed him of a likely 3-2 win, coming away with a 2-2 draw. Vimes say's he'll put up a special report on this truly tense, fun and exciting match on his blog in the near future.
One 'fling stands alone against the horrible Nurgle
Overall results:

One win, three ties, four losses. The Wild Flings came 28th of 36 teams, which isn't last! Woohoo!

The overall winner was Chopper and his Undead, The Immortals.
The champion's trophy

Thoughts and conclusions:

I really enjoyed playing the 'flings. The pressure to win is off, and you can just enjoy yourself. I'd have loved to get another win in there, but I can be happy with their performance.

I was pleased with my starting roster, which worked perfectly as intended. I was (just) able to induce Deeproot and the Master Chef for every game. Three trees are very hard for an opposing coach to overcome. I got Puggy Baconbreath out a few times as well, and he shone in my last game.
Puggy Baconbreath

I acquired the Grab skill on both my treemen, which was useful as they often Took Root, but I do wonder if Break Tackle would have been more flexible despite their movement of two.

I will definitely play the 'flings again!

Friday 22 January 2016

Blood Bowl- Halflings!

I am proud to present my Blood Bowl Halfling team, The Wild Flings! These are from Willy Miniatures, and I am taking them to CanCon this weekend!


The colour scheme was inspired by this Cleveland Browns variant logo designed by Daniel Gold:

I used a flesh coloured primer for these figures, which worked really well. I loved painting the faces- there's so much character in their sculpts and poses. (I did flag a bit when painting all their armour and stripes...)














I know that they can only have two treemen, but I also want to take Deeproot Strongbranch, and I happened to have a fourth treeman which I painted because I was on a roll! I didn't want to paint the creepers, fungi, or leaves too bright in order not to detract from the armour and stripes.





I got a Puggy Baconbreath star player as well.

Finally, a Master Chef!


Wish me luck for CanCon!