31 Days of GT Panic - Day the First

I sign up to a few Tournaments a year , sometimes while drunk ( This sounds good and its only a 280 mile drive !) sometimes while sober ( We are free this weekend and there is a tournament) most of the time my mind is like a steel trap and I have everything planned but just occasionally an event slips through and I end up in the situation I find myself in now.

I have 31 Days left to go and I haven't even looked at the rulespack.

Now I know for a fact that there are people who never look at the rulespack until the day before, I also know there are people that purport not to read the rulespack with calculated nonchalance but have, in fact been pouring over it for weeks to maximise their chances.

So I have had a look at the Rulespack , a delightfully compiled work of art , far out crafting most non Mantic rulespacks I have seen and far better than my own Microsoft Publisher efforts lol.

The tournament in Question is the Northern Kings GT , being held just out side Wakefield in the Yorkshire. It is a Two day 2300 point 5 game Tournament ( these are my favourite flavour of KoW Tournament) and has extra points for painting and presentation , wait , what ? a Soft Scores Tournament in the UK ? a feverish re-read of the pack was necessary ! Yes , its true , extra points and an Overall prize ! not just armies of grey plastic slugging it out across the table to prove whose dice are the luckiest , but actual categories of painting to be won and placings enabled. Sod the KoWMasters ranking , this is an opportunity.

BUT , what to take to said event. After years of downgrading my painting due to apathy and disillusionment I have little that is painted past "at least three colours and based" so it would have to be an earlier army. No problem the Free Dwarfs are not too badly painted, however they are in need of some TLC thanks to RyanAir , but nothing that can't be sorted. So 2300 points of Free Dwarfs it is , Army list will be the same as the one that went to the Madrid GT and lost one game out of five.

So the Army is chosen , the list is done, nothing more to do ? I then delve deeper into the Rulespack and come across this handy checklist so I can maximise my painting score to ensure I succeed in everything I actually have control of , Dice notwithstanding LOL.

I have come across similar in other events , most notably the FFS events run by the Podcast team of the same name. This is a great way for you to discern if your army will max out on points OR if you will have to be more brutal in your games to make up for lack of painting diligence ( you know who you are !)

This shall be my checklist as I sort out the army I tell myself , but then I notice this on the same page

These are what the judges are looking for as a WOW factor for the armies at the event. on seeing this I realised I may have to rethink my "just glue the Brocks back on the bases" idea I initially had , I may have to pull out a few stops to see if I can get one of my armies past "well painted" and into the "WOW factor" category and I only have 31 Days to do it in .......

Tune in for more Blog posts on my progress.