That was the Year that was .....2022

With only 18 Days left of this Year and no further Tournaments to attend I thought I would put digit to keyboard to record this years ups and downs spent in the World of Kings of War in the UK ( and beyond).

I had finished the previous season 30th out of 248 players , I had attended 12 events and had one podium place ( a second place at a Black Dragon Tournament) and I set myself the target for the 2022 season of coming higher than 30th or scoring more Ranking points, we shall see how I fared at the end of the article.

I had used a total of Factions ( Abyssal Dwarf, Dwarf, Free Dwarf, Elves and Ogres) and still had these armies available to use along with a couple of new ones I was working on.

The New Season dawned bright and Happy at the Golden Trolls Christmas Tournament called Winter Wonderland , for this I brought my Ogres out of retirement , first having turned all my Warrior Hordes into regiments as per the new hotness of the Multiple Small Unit(MSU) Ogre war machine ! I hadn't practised and had only finished the Army the night before but I figured boldness and my burgeoning experience would see me proud! however this Pride cameth before the fall and I crashed to a frightening 16th out of 16 and collected my own last place trophy for my foolishness.

Bit of a poor start to the Year but not the end of the World, I had been invited to the Masters Tournament as the Stand in Player in case of Odd numbers and so I decided to take my Free Dwarf Ranger army based on the high placing army I had played against at Clash of Kings 21 , nearly every model in the army is converted and lovingly painted. I practised and worked out my tactics , the large amount of infantry in the army was new to me but I figured I had a handle on it.

Needless to say I was hopelessly outclassed by all the players that got their Masters places by being good, I went 0/0/5 and walked away with another Wooden spoon , 2nd Tournament of the Year and second last place , however this one was not a surprise at all ! But I did get voted Best Sportsman of the event which was nice.

A couple of weeks later and I was heading to The Birmingham Bullrun , the First Tournament run by interweb celebrity and all round nice chap Steve Hildrew. The event was a one day Three Game tournament with a scoring system that rewarded scenario play over kills, This event was the first run out of the "Army of Generic Evil" that I had painted up from random Human models I had from other projects and a shamelessly copied Tom Robinson list. It had not fared well in practise games at the Ribble Warriors club due to the lack of ranged shooting in the list , but I decided to persist with it as it was fun to use.

The Army performed well for its first outing taking two wins before falling to a Shooting Heavy Sylvan Kin Army on the top table in game three , the result was a respectable 9th of 26 and the 2022 Duck was broken !

The next up was another of our own Golden Troll Events ,The Easter Beaster, a tournament with a special character Monster to add to your Army , mine being a small angry hedgehog miniature on a 50mm Square base ( the monster is Height 2 lol)

For this prestigous event I decided to enter using my Partners Herd Army to which I added a new Hydra Model I had just painted , literally finishing again the night before the event.The result was to come 0/1/2 and 14th of 16 Narrowly missing another Wooden Spoon ! But at least I was well on the way to using the most factions in the Season.

The Day after the Easter Beaster saw us heading to Telford for the Riftwars 22 Spring event run by the STAGS wargames club , this was a one day , 3 game event run without individual clocks , which makes a slow player a massive liability in scenario based games. I took my Newly painted (again) Forces of the Abyss Army for its first outing , a lovely hard hitting fast moving army that relies on holding the enemy with the Well of Souls and Chroneas while the winged beasties whizz around the flanks and score objectives. I lost my first game , won the second and then lost the third by virtue of only getting three turns in before the time ran out.

a result of 1/0/2 and 9th of 14 , but no wooden spoon again .

A Week later saw the Army of Generic Evil heading to Stirling in Scotland for the two Day King Beyond the Wall 7: The Wildlings GT a five game tournament with a few fun rules thrown into the mix. I started badly , losing my first game , then won my second but alas it went downhill from there with the Varangur seemingly indifferent to their purpose, resulting in 1/0/4 and another spoon ( actually a stick for stirring porridge called a spurtle ) but we came away with a taste for Cheese, Bacon and Haggis Toasties which we still prepare and consume to this day .

We then left the Country to head to Madrid for the Madrid GT , a full report of my antics can be read Here

A Couple of Weeks after our trip to Espana and we are off again , this time to Cardiff in Wales for the Clash of Kings Welsh Qualifier, a one day , four game Tournament and guess what ? Yes I took yet another newly painted Army , this time my re based Abyssal Dwarf army , These guys start well , I am winning my first game until I time out then it all goes awry again resulting in 1/0/4 and 20th of 26 , back to the same old !

It is at this point that I decided to stop pising about and concentrate on one Army , the one I have used most and so I decide to use the Free Dwarfs for the remainder of the Season !

The Season continues with The Northern Kings GT where the Free Dwarf Brock Riders surge to a 3/1/1 score sheet and give me 9th from 38 Players and some decent points on the Rankings scoresheet at last lol , A couple of weeks later they go 1/1/1 at the Pride of the Shire Tournament and I get the Countercharger award ( exact middle of the results table lol) which sets the theme for a few more of the events I take part in as the later half of the Year becomes a blur of events.

The Free Dwarfs don't get to play at the Britcon Swords of Summer event due to a drop out but and this obviously upsets them as they only come 1/0/3 at Sharads BattleMasters event a week later , although this is a Tournament I traditionally do badly at having taken the spoon at the First one I attended and coming near bottom in subsequent events.

Back to Telford for another Riftwars event and apart from a good First game two close defeats saw the Free Dwarfs 1/0/2 and 7th from 12 a performance they repeated at the Golden Trolls second annual Speed KoW event where 825 points of Free Dwarfs won 3 and lost 3 to come 7th of 12 again lol

Fast Forward another Fortnight and we head up North to Carlisle for the Battle in the Undercroft event , the first run by Dan for KoW and a jolly well run event it was too.

The Free Dwarfs had an epic day in Carlisle going 2/1/0 to win the event overall by 1 Point form Steve , who had drawn against me in the last game. The Free Dwarfs celebrated lots for this , my First ever Tournament win in over 40 years of Wargaming.

The Free Dwarfs thenhad a stint as the Spare player at the Golden Troll/ Ribble Warriors Cold up North Tournament at the Ribble Rumble. cruising after their victory they went 1/2/2 for a 20th out of 28 placing.

Then at the Chez Trolls single event the Preston Pillage the Free Dwarfs came 10th of 22 with 1/1/1 as they had cut the Brock Regiments down to 2 and used an infantry heavy army for a change but still managed to hold their own.

The Next Day this Dwarf army trundled to Birmingham for the Second Birmingham Bullrun run by the irrepressible Steve and despite a minor setback against some luck ratkin Slaves they managed to pull off two wins and come 8th of 24.

The last Tournament for the Free Dwarfs this Year was the TT Tournament in Sheffield run by our old Mate Andy Hawley, it was his first Tournament and went well , but not for the free Dwarfs who played the Same Sylvan Kin Army twice with predictable results lol 1/0/2 and 8th of 10

The Last minute inclusion of the Golden Trolls Krampus Karnage to the calendar gave me the excuse to bring out my new New Abyssal Dwarf army and they managed a distinctly average 1/1/1 to come 9th of 12

So How did I do You ask Yourselves ?

So my points have gone up and so have (at this moment) my places. Still only 1 Podium a year but a 1st as opposed to a 2nd. Win rate has gone down but I have started drawing more games and my Kill points have gone up too, all in all an improvement which is what I was aiming for !

So after this brief run down of the Season of 2022 I am going to go away and work on my Season 2023 Army and hopefully some more Bloggery ! Till then , thanks for reading !