PAX Australia 2015 - Show Recap

I was a bit late in posting this due to Fallout 4 related issues, so PAX is well and truly old news at this point.

So, PAX is done. Three full days of non-stop noise, spectacle, and crowds. Since my milieu is war gaming, tabletop, etcetera, that is what I will focus on, and the milieu in question at the event was huge. The board game library and play area took up almost one eight of the main hall, and by mid morning, every day, it was completely packed.

The Reaper Paint and Take at midday

First up the Reaper Paint and Take came as a bit of a surprise to be as to how large it was, and how popular it was with the punters.

 The event in a nutshell was basically a combination of a free mini give-away combined with a free paint area with all the paint equipment provided. I ended up sitting with people that have never painted before or hadn't for some time, this seemed to be true for the majority of the people doing the event. The event also ended up requiring a queue to get seated on the busier days. Painting classes and a Speed Painting event were also offered, though I did not participate, therefore can't meaningfully comment on them.

Day two result, getting better.

First up, the provided minis were not primed, which was well, frustrating. If you're reading this, you probably are a war painter or mini painter of some kind and I shouldn't have to say how important it is to start with a layer of primer to put some tooth on the mini, combined with the fact that the minis in question were Reaper Bones assorted, it made building up those first few layers an exercise in frustration. I certainly saw lots of the new people clumping on the paint to try and get some quick opacity, which is not a great habit to get into for a beginning painter. In the end, I 'primed' my minis with a quick layer of black, which didn't really work as the paint at the extremities of the minis buffed off from being carried around in my bag. Also, while I know I'm being unreasonable at this point, but the minis still had their mould lines. Considering the amount of people and free minis being given away, cleaning them up before hand would've been prohibitive for the people running the event to clean them up. But still, mould lines...

Day one result, my assessment, meh.

They were also running a best painted of the day competition. I entered on both days and won neither, but the ones that did well and truly deserved it. I suspect, like me, there were more than a few competent to high level painters amongst the painters striving for the first second and third trophies of the day. Perhaps I was taking this comp a bit too seriously, but I digress.



I don't know how some of the winning results were achieved with the brushes on offer. The detail brush was something equivalent in size to a Size Zero Windsor & Newton Series Seven. Though size was the only thing they have in common, it couldn't hold a tip, which made the eyes and details impossible to paint. I was tempted to run back to my room and get my W&Ns, but that felt like cheating. A larger flat head brush was also provided, though likewise it frayed up after not much use.

The loot haul.

The paint on the other hand was a very pleasant surprise. Each table had the full starter set of Reaper Master Series colours. In terms of consistency it feels a lot like P3 though slightly thicker, which is quite nice. I ended up doing both glazing and two brush blending on both my figures and I'm pleased to say that Reaper worked extremely well with both techniques. I was impressed to the point where I may have spent a lot of money on buying up many of the colour triads from the Aetherworks people, and will probably order more if it continues to work out well.

In terms of acquisitions, I bought my first two Knight Model figures, Rorschach and the Comedian. Normally I dislike the superhero genre, due to market over-saturation and I always found the whole genre, one that glorifies vigilante justice, somewhat creepy. Which is probably why the characters from Alan Moore's deconstruction resonate with me a great deal. In any case, I'm going to attempt to paint up Rorscach for the Crystal Dragon if my current Guild of Harmony project doesn't pan out. The rest of the haul isn't directly related to painting I bought up the new X-Wing starter after finding out the damage deck had been revised in the new release. The black case in the left is a small figure case that I picked up for hauling around small model count armies, I intend to use it for hauling around my Frostgrave, Malifaux, and Infinity armies.

For the most part, that is extent of the painting and war gaming content of my PAX experience. The rest of it consisted of attending a variety of panels, the Warren Spector playing through Deus Ex and the Masters of Orion remake were particularly memorable. I also played a few tabletop board games on the last day, less than I was intending throughout the entirety of the convention.

Overall, I'm glad I went to PAX. Though the full three days, combined with the insane crowds, made the event extremely exhausting for me. If I go again, it'll probably be for one or two days rather than the full three. I'd also like to see panels and more and varied classes that focus on the tabletop war gaming and painting side of things, I suppose the offerings at Cancon have really raised the bar in terms of quality in that area, and PAX may not be the most appropriate venue for that sort of thing. Either way, nothing else I have been to can compares to the raw spectacle and scale of the event, it is something that I'd recommend people do at least once.

ANUCon 2015

I've developed a healthy degree of scepticism for war gaming tournaments in general. I personally find them long and energy draining affairs that tend to get me flustered more than allow me to have fun. My preference for gaming has always been the single game of an evening with people I already know.

I used to play in a few big Flames of War tournies back in the day, but as time marches relentlessly on, I find myself without the willpower to manage two days with three games each. Which is way ANUCon instantly intrigued me the moment I heard about it, as it is the first Warhammer 40k tournament that I've seen that allows for one day entry. Given that I am a human adult with minimal time on my hands, not to mention my aforementioned lack of energy. The prospect of keeping half the weekend free to actually prepare myself for the next week of doing adult type stuff is somewhat appealing. The end result, two games on Saturday, I wasn't unhappy with this outcome.

The points limit was 1500, and I opted to bring out my guard list, which in brief, is as follows.

• HQ Sec with Master of Ordinance & Astropath
• Lord Commissar
• Priest
• Lvl 2 Primus Psyker
• 2 x Platoon with 2 Inf Squads, Melta & Plas, 1 Missile Heavy Weapon Squad attached
• 2 x Armoured Sentinels with Lascannons
• 2 x Leman Russ BT with no sponsons, hull mounted heavy bolter only.
• Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

Anyway, opponents were drawn and first first biff of the day began. I was paired up with these chaps.

Blessing of the Omnissiah be upon you, weak human flesh bag.

Deployment was done, I set up at my edge safely ensconced behind my block of concrete and made ready to whittle down his advancing robo-men. I ended up popping his walker thing first volley with a fortunate missile barrage, giving me first blood.

In spite of this, he continued to advance, losing a few units to battle cannon fire, but his robot-ninja things came right through the woods in centre of the board. Their bonus cover saves kept them alive long enough to smash my centre line. On my left flank an outflanking unit managed to shoot me up without the cover save from my defence line. On the right flank, the knight cleaned up with many stomps. Hilariously, I had all three of my plasma gunners fry themselves on the cooling coils of their own weapons towards the end game, even after improbably surviving round after round of shooting.

I did okay on battle points in the end, mostly due to lucky draws early game, but I was tabled first game, not off to a good start. In spite of it my opponent was polite and well prepared, hate the game not the player, as always.

Next up was quite a treat, one of the best painted and delightfully themed Ork lists I've ever played against.

I hope you like Forgeworld, Gretchen and conversions.

The deployment was hammer and anvil, so these poor Orks would be taking the long way to get to me. To my surprise, it turned out they were a shooty list rather than a mass of bodies list. The scenario itself was the one where we score each-others cards for controlling individual objectives. The initial deployment looked something like this:

A combined squad from one infantry platoon held the centre with both missile teams and company command squad. A squad from the second platoon anchored the left and right flanks with my Sentinels covering the left with their Lascannons while the Russes have almost a full field of first from their position in the centre. The most awkward part of the deployment was the bunker cutting off line of sight between the left flank and the centre, meaning that later on supporting fire from the Russes couldn't hit the left.

Anyway, it went down something like this.
I fired a bunch, killed a few squads of foot slogging Orks, though his vehicles remained resilient. I did scored a couple of immobilizing hits on the vehicles advancing down the centre and right flank, which was useful. His artillery pounded my line without mercy, though the Aegis line kept the casualty rate to an acceptable minimum from direct fire.
The left flank was eventually hit and overrun in close combat to Orks in a fast attack transport. While the right was undone by a flanking Wartrack with a flamer, which roasted the entirety of the defending infantry alive. All the while, the Wartrack survived two volleys of missile launcher fire. I ended up getting first blood early due to battle cannoning a squad of Gretchen in the early game, and both our warlord remained in play until we called time at turn four. I ended up taking slightly more victory points in the end, making it a narrow victory. Though if the battle had gone on, I'm sure I would've been ground down under sustained fire from his artillery. The Ork player was a great opponent, making it two out of two good sports for the tourney.

Weeks pass and the results of the tourney are sent around. Much to my surprise, I ended up ranking 9th overall. In retrospect, I believe a lot of the points I scored depend entirely on the cards I drew for the Maelstrom missions. I also did pretty well on the sportsmanship and the comp score, which may have helped boost my ranking out of proportion to my performance on the tabletop.

This being my first 40k tourney, I'm not sure I would do it again. As always, 40k is a slow game to play, especially for my Astra Militarum army. Every game with them is a drawn out battle of attrition. Maybe getting my Dark Angels painted up and ready would change up the play style a bit. Though the severe drubbing I got at the hands of a knight was once again a stark reminder that 40k, at its core, is not a balanced game by design. This makes it less than optimal to be played in a competition setting. On the other hand, I kind of expected this given the known weaknesses of the list I was bringing, so the said drubbing that I received was well deserved.

If I go again next year, I'll definitely bring a knight of my own. I already have the kit, I merely need to find the time to assemble it and complete a paint job. It'll probably take a while, as I'm planning to freehand the banners and house crest, watch this space.