Izmircon 2011

Ok, so Convention time is upon us, and in Turkey this usually kicks off with Izmircon.

Actually what is funny is this is where I have begun my journey to discover more about the gaming community within Turkey, and to begin getting into contact with more players, writers, and game designers. Which can be pretty cool considering some of the topics that we bring up. 

So what happened? Well aside from the normal meet and greet, the bread and butter of this convention for me was the warhammer tournament. Last year using 7th edition and Deamons I placed first. And yes, there was a sour taste in my mouth to winning with Deamons. 

So this year, I decided to try out the new Orc and Goblin book for 8th. Now you have to understand, I have had the book for a while now, and haven't read it. Also for 8th edition I have had all of 4 games since its release. Life has been a bit busy. So this tournament was going to be a very interesting time with me being pretty much a beginner in many respects compared to normal situations. To make things more interesting, I only played with Goblins. 

Overall my list was fairly simple:

• Night Goblin Great Shaman, 
• Goblin Warboss
• Night Goblin BSB
• Goblin Big Boss
• Night Goblin Shaman
• 2x 60 Night Goblins
• 2 Wolf Chariots
• 2 Doom Divers
• 2 Rock Lobbers
• 6 Trolls
• 1 Unit of Squig Herders

So how'd the games turn out?

Game 1 vs Lizardmen. 

I was up against 2 core units of Saurus,  2 units of skink scouts, 2 units of salamanders, and a Slann that was pretty much invincible. 

I really did not have a clue what I was doing throughout a majority of this game. I was caught off guard with the updates for scouts, which cost me 2 Warmachines, and due to misreading how marshes worked, I also didn't really set up so well (there was a marsh in the middle of the table, and both my big units sitting behind it).  

Upside is that at one critical point of the game, where I was stuck in combat and was tied, there was the chance for the LM player to take the game. Sitting 7 inches away with his second unit, he could have done a nice charge into my flank to crush my big steadfast unit of NGs. Unforunately, he rolled double ones for charging, and failed the charge. Instead of charing me, I charged him with my other NG unit and Chariots. Stalling out both our fights to the end of the game. 

In the end, all the died were 2 warmachines on my side, and his 2 units of Salamanders. So tie game. 

Game 2 vs Dwarfs

Game 2 saw me facing my arch nemisis.. the dreaded Dwarfs.. lead by the long haired one, they call Burak! 

His list held mostly smaller units, and lots of Warmachines. It started out with an Runelord with Anvil, 2 Thanes, 8 Miners, 10 Rangers, 10 Warriors, 24 Longbeards, 19 Hammerers, Cannon, 2 Organ Guns, and a Grudge Thrower. 

Game started simply enough. Miners and rangers to my left flank, challenging my warmachines, making me divert my chariots that direction to deal with them, anvil causing me charging problems to the chariots, and warmachines causing me havoc all around. It didn't help that my level 2 shaman decided to irresitably cast the bad moon spell, but failed to reach its target, and then miscast to remove all his levels and spells. When I did get into combat, my trolls died to an anvil charge, and my NGs held up for a while before finally taking out his unit of hammers. Chariots took out both the miners and rangers, but only after they killed my left flank of warmachines. 

In the last turn, the dwarfs made a last chance attempt to take out my unit from a rear charge, but failed to break them, and the game ended in another draw. This is a victory in my books however as normally I lose to dwarfs, especially this player, so not losing is a victory in my book. 

Game 3 vs High Elves

My last game saw me play against the one opponent I feared the most.. literally.. thanks to the new updates for the O&G booklet, Goblins fear all elves. Bar non, nothing about outnumber anymore, just straight up fear elves. And since I was playing a full Goblin list ( ok I had trolls, but still ) I knew this game was going to be an uphill battle for me. 

His list was holding an Archmage, lvl 4, Noble bsb, 10 Archers, 20 Seaguard, 20 Spearelves, 10 Swordmasters, 20 Phoenix Guard, 5 shadow warriors, 1 Chariot, 5 Reavers, 2 Eagles and a bolt thrower.

I will say now, that what happened next, I was not expecting to happen. 

With his deployment, he set up his reavers within 18 inches of my chariots. I went first, and was able to safely charge his reavers on the first turn thanks to their vanguard move. Not the best start to the game. The impacts wiped them out, and because of their placing, I was able to overrun straight into one of his eagles. First move, and already blood has been spilled. It really did not get any better for him from there. Although I did little effect with my warmachines, I was able to set up a nice setting for him to charge me with great difficulty. 

In his first magic phase, his Archmage casts a burning head attack, with irresitable, and miscasting on a 3.. killing his mage, and 6 Pheonix Guards along with him. As stated, this was not good news for him, and this was just the start of the bad luck. After setting my my units of NGs ready for his charges, they let out the Fantatics, but never reached their targets, making them sit in front of my units during his turn. Now he could have waited to see what they would do, or he could charge and take his luck. His luck was not with him, and his charges did not all make it. Chariot died due to 2d6 fanatic hits, his swordsmen lost 5 models to them also in their charge, and the seaguard failed their charge and sat back 1 inch away from a fanatic. 

My NGs were able to sit tight, and draw out the combat with the PGs, while the trolls came in from the side to finish them off. The spearelves lost combat, and ran, causing the seaguard to run as well. The Chariots took out the eagle, then the bolt thrower, before catching the seaguards, and charging the archers to my far right flank. It was at this point, which was turn 4, that we just called it, as his shadow warriors were too far to do anything now, his eagle was stuck in a strange close combat against my stone thrower crew, and his swordmasters died to the trolls. 

It was a massacre win for the goblins, and a surprising upset in the tournament points as well. With this win, I was able to secure 2nd place overall to a tournament that helf a lot of firsts for me. So I was happy with the outcome.

However the weekend didn't stop there. 

On Sunday we then moved onto the Infinity gaming side of things. Testing out our new models, and a different board set up also. A shot of it can be seen at the top of the post. We played out the games using new tactics such as Airborne Deployments, Heavy Machine Guns, Autocannons, Grenades, etc.. plus without the aid of levels ( we played that you could not climb anything, and had to stay on the ground floor ) it presented new challenges for us, and also removed a lot of the cover aspects normally presented in our games. 

So in the end, I left the convention with a feeling that I got in some really great games, got to hang out with a lot of good people, and have sparked new project ideas that I hope to have the ability to show all in the coming weeks/months. Will see however as time tells all.