The Power of Paint II

So, finishing the job late on the evening before the relevant event the New London WAR-SPs took part in the Dreadball qualifier held at the Hammerhead show up in Newark.

Four games to the day I wasn't overly expectant so when the first result came in as a 7-Nil in the final rush (James -Humans) I was somewhat chuffed. With tourneys I've always been a mid table competitor and immensely happy with it.

Riding high in the rankings I was expecting a quick drop which surly arrived curtesy of some naff (Mike - Humas). Surely the newly painted curse had hit though it wasn't a thrashing which I put down to the lack of varnish as my last can had died when called upon.

Third game was a comedy of errors between myself and Chris's Veermyn though highly enjoyable, mainly thanks to GSOH in necessary spades. Somehow I edged a close win though neither of us would have begrudged the other.

Given mixed results all over I suddenly found myself in the championship game against a club-mate Rich W. As with games 1 and 2 it was Corp vs Corp and something of a strike-fest. A few stumbling sets of early dice saw me drop behind only for Lady Luck to redress the balance in the last couple of rushes to let me take the game!

Scarcely believing my first EVER tourney victory it soon transpired that due to my edged victory and Mike coming home with a 7-Nil landslide had pipped us both to the trophy!

In a final twist Mike had won the previous regional at Vapartnak and so had already qualified for the finals at Mantic Towers. With myself and Rich even on tourney points, Rich ahead on strike difference and myself taking the head to head, Mantic adwarded is both a final spot.…so a three-way then :p

All in all another very enjoyable tourney day. I sometimes flag a bit at these but once again was keen to the last. Didn't see too much of the show but seemed to be less to see than last time, which was a fair few years ago. Picked up a few supplies......and somehow four of the MVPs Slippery Joe, Wildcard, Jon Doe and The Enforcer.

Must have been good :)

PS: That's another 20 PPs in the bag too!

It's a habit......

.....winning that is or so they say.

Wasps finally picked up an ugly win on Saturday and I was there to bellow them on. ANY win after nine straight league losses is mana from sporting heaven :)

I jubilantly returned home to my recently ordered Warhammer Invasion expansion March of the Damned turned up and so I spent some of last night sleeving cards and seeing what I'd got.

I've suffered something of a reverse of fortune recently and have been receiving something of a pummelling to all comers. My Dwarf deck in particular is still waiting for its first win despite coming agonisingly close on a number of occasions.

Much as with any strategy based game now that I've got the mechanics into my head its time to work on the army lists, so to speak, a little more. The Dwarf deck is a bit slow starting without enough decent combos and too many "Battlefield Only" bruisers. MotD has given me a few extra Slayers that fit the bill so they'll find their way in and I'll theme the deck to suit.

I'm still definitely looking to theme decks rather than going all killer but I definitely want to get a bit more competitive. With my main all conquering Chaos deck I'd actually like to get a bit more of a corruption theme in there, maybe got a bit more beast orientated and IF I'm feeling really brave take the insanely nasty Blood Dragon Knights out :/ Even the Orcs could do with some tweek.

Admittedly I'd be taking them out to put them in an Undead deck, possibly with some Dark Elf stuff as I haven't touched them at all yet. I've also been very impressed by the Lizardmen and their savage ability, which Stewart has harnessed to disgusting effect alongside the poncy High Elves. Not wishing to copy, or touch a high elf with something other than an axe, I'll have to find another option.

So as always boring prep is the key, just need to sit down and do it :)

Vive La Diff-er-ence

On Sunday I made another pilgrimage to Adams Park to scream bloody murder whilst Wasps took on Toulose in the Heineken Cup. Unfortunately results previous in the day meant we couldn't go through to the quarters but a good result would see us into the Amlin.

For a translation and a match report I suggest you try BBC Sport as that isn't the point of this post. The point is to give all possible credit to the Toulose fans.Now I can be a liitle bit Al Murray as far as Europe is concerned, all tounge in cheek I promise, and on the train up I was surrounded by French. Slightly intimidated I was impressed as to how many were making the trip and it all added to the build up to an excellent hard fought game.

Sat next to a big block of French I was really impressed how well they made themselves heard and how they went out of thier way to get on with the Wasps fans. Plenty had bought hats and scarves from the club shop as a memento of the trip and happily sat wearing them.

There was plenty of "banter" throughout and after a shaky first quarter Wasps settled down to a good, hard performance and we won it with a try in the last minute. Lots of handshakes all round and applause for both sides. A few of thier guys had even brought a banner thanking Serge Betsen, now a Wasp, for his years in French Rugby and he was pretty much mobbed when he went over to them.

On the trip home thier fans were still singing and surrounded by them for a second time I couldn't stop grinning. Best away fans I've ever met!

The Numbers Game

WARNING: Another Rugby related post. For direct access to the hobby content feel free to skip to the end: WARNING

Statistics can be used to prove just about anything, 76% of all people know that!

England took on Australia at Twickenham on Saturday. I, along with others, was in the pub.. shouting.

Possession, territory, tackles made and missed, strikes against the head, penalty count, line-outs won and lost, linebreaks. All these can be and are analysed, almost to death, along with patterns of play in super slow-mo. It gives ex-internationals a career after retirement.

England got ahead on all counts and the result was a 35-18 drubbing of the green and gold, with at least two clear chances missed for want of the final pass. RE-SULT!!

Meanwhile, late this afternoon Wasps ground out a two point win against Bath, 18-16, with just one try scored. With both attacks fairly shackled by defense, errors and a ropey ref there was a LOT of kicking, from hand and otherwise.

With Danny Cipriani leaving for Melbourne at the end of last season we looked a bit light on cover at 10, fly-half, and so it has proved. Two particular injuries have seen club stalwart Mark Van Gisbergen moved up from 15, full-back.

As excellent a player as he undoubtedly is he's simply not an experienced 10, which is more about distribution than kicking. Yesterday he was every inch a 15 in a 10's shirt and, in the crowd's opinion, far too keen to kick away possession for territory.

It's all about the numbers and at the moment it's not helping our play. Thankfully the pack was strong and avoided the three sin binnings that saw us play with 14 for a full quarter of last week's defeat.

Bath missed the last kick of the game for us to claim an ugly two point win. Still a win though. All about the numbers!!

HOBBY CONTENT / HOBBY CONTENT / HOBBY CONTENT

So after all that excitement I found a bit of time this evening to wash down the Falcon. I had been a little dubious as to how the Ogryn Flesh might cover the pre-painted finish but raw from the pot did a good job. Possibly a little heavy in places, with a few brush-marks, but a good coverage that tomorrow night's weathering will see right.

And I even got dinner cooked for me :)

The Kids are Alright!!

Evenin' all!

This is the lad Simpson, Wasps' scrum half. His excellent solo try from the base of a scrum on the halfway line saw an ugly win away at Leeds. After recieving a sound thrashing at home from Northampton last week it was a very neccessary win, especially given the ever growing injury nature of our injury list. Meanwhile, after digging a large hole for a composter at lunchtime, I managed to grab a bit of brushtime this afternoon and finished off my white undercoated Ninja Kids :)

Overall I'm rather pleased with thier outcome and feel a lot happier about painting onto a white undercoat. It took a bit more effort and fore-thought than I've been used to but I feel that a good result has been achieved and the white robes were much less of a struggle than normal.

As they're only tiddlers, those are pennies they're mounted on, I'll claim 6 PPs for the four of them to round off the monthly total at 24.

With just one project left on the active list, for the moment at least, I'll be doing a bit of teeing-up for the rest of this week and whilst the missus is out tomorrow night I'll be reconnecting to the X-Box, though not literally. Wolfenstein or Fable II.......