Miniature Wargaming in Rural Japan

  Game 3 I now faced Rodin in the final round, The same chap I had faced in the previous 2 tournaments in the final round and had beaten both times. He had his High Elves again. His army was like a much more muscly version of mine. He had a death mage lord with the book of Hoeth and a BSB on horses in a big unit of 14 silver helms. 1 Prince on a Moondragon, 2 Frostheart phoenixes and 2x5 Ellyrian reavers. Almost nothing I had could fight these big monsters and they completely outclassed my monsters. We were playing battle for the pass. Rodin took the first turn. He moved his army up, keeping the frost heart phoenixes out of charge range as it is possible that a lucky charge from my horsemen could break them through combat resolution. His dragon moved up on the left in a position to counter charge any unit that went into his big silverhelm block who had also moved up. His magic could only reduce the strength and toughness of my noble on gryphon. His reavers did a wound as ...

  Game 2 In my next game I faced RG, who had come first in the previous tournament. His was fielding Bretonnians with 2 blocks of knights, 1 realm and 1 errant, 1 small group of grail knights and a 3 Pegasus knights some archers and a trebuchet. He had a lord and 4 paladins, 1 on a Pegasus and a prophetess wizard lord. The mission was meeting engagement. RG deployed his army first mostly slightly back into his corner with the Pegasus knights and grail knights not arriving and the archers going in a house. I also deployed carefully, forgetting that he would probably pray. My dragon mage and silver helms did not arrive. Turn 1, I went first and moved up slightly, with most of my power on my left flank. I don't think magic did much this round, though I was able to get flaming sword on my archers. In the shooting phase, despite only 15 being in range due to my bad deployment the archers did 4 wounds to the trebuchet and killed it. Already one of the biggest dangers to me was gon...

  I attended the Karl Franz 3 tournament in Hachioji in the middle of January. This event used the Warhammer Fantasy 8 th edition rules. There were less player than previous events due to a lack of awareness of the event and illness. My army was a mad high elf army with 5 monsters including 2 flamespire phoenixes, 2 mages on sun dragons and a noble on a griffon. Some knights and archers finished off the set. The list is below. Archmage (185) (death) on sun dragon (235), golden crown of atrazar (10), lv 4 (35) 465 465 Dragon Mage (350), dragon armour (10), 360 Noble (70) on Griffon (150) enchanted shield (5) 225 585 20 archers (200) musician (10), banner (10) 220 5 silver helms (105) shields (10), full command (30) 145 5 silver helms (105) shields (10), banner(10), champion (10) 135 500 flame phoenix 225 flame phoenix 225 450 2000 (Note, as I had so many fliers my movement was...

 On Sunday the 24th of September I hosted a Warhammer 40k team tournament. I had hoped to get 5 or 6 teams of 3 players each, but due to Corona and the release of Armored Core 6 we had only 8 players spread over 3 teams. The system I made for this had the team Captains rolling off and then the winner choosing 2 armies to fight, one from their team and one from another. The other team's Captain could then choose which table was used for the game. All the tables had set missions.   The system worked better than I had hopped and made for an interesting event, though the team captains were very casual about their choices and could have made more tactical decisions. There were a good mix of armies. Imperial Agents, Chaos, Tau, Tyranids, Necrons, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, Adeptus Mechanicus.    This was the first 10th edition event I have run, and everyone was still getting used to the new rules. I had felt less enthusiasm for 10th as the army creation side of the game ...

  The final game of the Karl Franz Cup 2 was a doubles game with 4 players on 1 table. I was playing with my partner for the event, Kobayashi-san and his Ogres. He had a BSB, a butcher, 6 bulls, 6 iron guts, 4 leadbealchers, 3 mournfang cavalry, 2 sabre tusks and an iron blaster. I felt they would add some muscle to my flimsy elves. We faced Rodion and Aki who had High elves and Empire respectively. Rodion's High elves were all cavalry with 4 units of Ellyrian Reavers and then 10 or so Dragon Princes led by a mage a BSB and a frost heart phoenix. The Empire were a traditional style list with 2 blocks of halberdiers, a few hand gunners, some knights, pistoleers a general, BSB, warrior priest, wizard and a cannon. It was the Meeting Engagement scenario and the empire pistoleers and 1 block of halberdiers started off the table as well as my archers. The high elves/empire deployment was focused on the centre and deep on the left side of the table and looked quite spacious. With ...

 The second game was against Nagai who also had dark elves. This time the list was more traditional with 3 big units of spear men, black guard and 10 cold ones led by a item heavy lord and also a sorceress on dark steed. I was on the same table as last time. Turn 1  We were playing the watch tower, I got the tower but declined to put any units in it, we deployed and Nagai went first. He moved his units up but was out of range for magic and the little shooting did nothing. In my turn I moved up 1 unit of silver helms to block the spear men, and put the dragon in between them and the tower. The rest of the army moved up, except the white lions which kept the barricades in between them and the cold ones. The dragon mage then buffed himself with flaming sword and Nagai saved his dice to stop fireball and the bound spell. The dragons breath weapon then killed 14 out of the 20 black guard after some poor saves from Nagai, he failed all 14.  Turn 2 The spear men charged the sil...

  On Saturday the 29 th of August 2023 I attended the Karl Franz Cup Team Tournament in Hachioji. This is the second Karl Franz Cup in Hachioji this year. Having won the last one back in April, which was a singles event, I decided to bring a slightly more unusual army. My 3 monster high elf list is as follows. Lords Prince (140) Lance (7) Heavy armour (6) Enchanted Shield (5) Griffon (150) Khane's Ring of Fury (25) Swooping Strike (25) 358 Heroes Dragon Mage of Caledor (350) Level 2 (35) Dragon Armour (10) 395 Core 15 Archers (10x15) 150 5 Silver Helms (21x5), shields (2x5) 115 5 Silver Helms (21x5), shields (2x5), Champion (10) 125 Special 10 White Lions of Chrace (13x10) 130 Rare Flamespyer Phoenix (225) 225 1498 I had some doubts about this list, especially around is killing, and surviving power, but at least it would be fast. The event had an unusual style as the first game was a singles...