A tale of two gamers.

As you may have noticed by now, I do rather enjoy a good Kings of War tournament. Not having much chance to play local friendly games, they are my main gaming outlet so I try and make the most of them and use the rest of my hobby time painting and building. 

The main problem with this set up is all the Vanguard stuff I’ve bought and never get to play with. And Deadzone. And Armada. League of Infamy and Dungeon saga (and now Firefight…..) are added to the list and that’s just the Mantic Games.

So imagine my delight when I saw the announcement for Explod-a-con down at Entoyment games in Poole. A full weekend of Mantic Games tournaments. It was only an hour and a half drive from me so I chose exhaustion to save money over the hotel.

So this is a tale of two gamers and they’re both me.

Gamer 1! As I have said in a previous blog, I suffer at Kings of War because I tend to take models or armies that I fancy depending on my current fancy. Not this season! This season I’m taking 1 army and learning how to use it properly and then try and get to masters. I’m not too fussed about actually going to masters, but looking at the list of people who went last year, I had beaten about half of them. So this year I figured I’d actually prove to myself that I CAN do it, at least the once at least. 

I didn’t get around to doing my Order of the Green Lady so I’ve been taking Forces of Nature, tweaking the list after every tournament to find that sweet spot.

But first…..

Gamer 2! Still me! But this me isn’t the ‘aiming to win guy’, this me honestly doesn’t care!

Friday at Explod-a-con was Vanguard. I’d only played 4 games before with a Dwarf war band at a small tournament at the Pit and that had been a couple of years ago….. The previous tournament wasn’t kind to me. Dwarves only have little legs and I came up against 3 Orc war bands and a Goblin war band and I got utterly, utterly stomped. I found the game overly complicated and a little clunky with the way the fatigue rules worked so I finally used it as an excuse to paint up those sweet Basliean models I got with the Kickstarter, to give it another go. I wasn’t expecting to win a single thing, I just aimed to have some epic moments!

My first game was against Todd’s Trident realms and had some tough guys and a leaping frog who was no end of trouble but my war band were a mix of Paladins, sergeants and a Dictator, heroes all! I quickly picked up the rules and relied on my shining armour and skill at arms and pulled off a surprise win! The surprise continued by also winning my second game against Alans dwarves, destroying their baggage wagon, One Paladin spent half the game rolling around in the dirt parrying dwarven hammers while the Dictator played dwarf cricket with his giant hammer.

Alas my winning streak came to an end as I came up against Jon’s Abyssals trying to pervert some power stones. Now playing at 200pts I added in a Ogre and another paladin and it was an epic fight of good versus evil, my Dictator killing the Hellequin with a single blow before being cut down by the Seductress! My noble paladins mounted a heroic defence (like the last battle in Steps to Deliverance!!!) but to no avail. My last game against Alex was another brutal fight against Abyssals, and after a good start my Dictator was sucked in and spat out by the portal, returning to see his war band slowly overwhelmed.

So another loss, but I had won more than I thought I would, had a lot of fun and changed my mind about Vanguard and would definitely love to get some more games in. It was lovely just to play something new for a change, just for the love of having a bit of fun. It clearly worked as I got my first ever sportsmanship award. As anyone will tell you, I’m FUCKING ADORABLE so needless to say I’ve always been confused that I’ve never had one before but there you go! Numbers were down due to covid but everyone had a great day! I didn’t stay for the Walking Dead but was back for day 2 for….

Deadzone! I’ve never played Deadzone, only having just got it for Christmas So I painted the box GCPS, added a Strider and some rangers and went in at the deep end! Needless to say Game 1 against Tom’s Marauders was a brutal learning curve. I manage to kill one before I lost…. Game 2 I killed several Nameless before I lost….. Game 3 I killed even more Asterians, enough to win! And then promptly got shot to teeny bits by Todd’s enforcers, finishing off a thoroughly enjoyable day! I didn’t stay for the awards as I had to dash off as me and my lovely lady had tickets to see Andy Zaltzman that evening!

So back to Gamer 1 (still me) and the final day…. Kings of War! I challenged Todd after my Deadzone massacre and scratched a win. I played well but had one round where 3 combats all failed to go my way and it was a hard slog to get back on top. Reaper units are utterly, utterly hideous. I may have to treat myself to a Nightstalkers army…..

Game 2 against Jon Gunns was a brutal and tactical affair and came down to me failing a 1 inch surge to get my greater air elemental into the Soul reaver flank…… leaving me open to get butchered. My hydra had two tokens in the far corner but it wasn’t enough.

Final game was against Seb’s Rhordia which was a lovely army I’ve wanted to play for ages. When I saw how he was deploying on my left I weighted my right flank and hid the naiads in the woods in the centre. I smashed the flank and got the objectives I needed and redeployed to protect my centre…. And just to be a shit, as it was Salt the Earth I flew my pegasus over to destroy one of his objectives, winning the game.

So two wins and a loss….. put me at the top of the Masters leaderboard! It only lasted a week but it’s great to see your name up there! I have plenty more tournaments to go so if I keep up playing at this rate I may make masters! 

Theres lots of aspects to this hobby and this little adventure has proved you can be gamer one or gamer two. Both are awesome, don’t hold back and just go for it. And most importantly, have some fun.