My Reader will know from the previous bit of Bloggery about the War up North Tournament which was held at Element Games in Stockport on the weekend of 12/13th October 2024. It was a 2300 point 5 game tournament run by the Ribble Warriors Wargames Club. Using the Northern Kings Scoring system and allowing the use of Allies but not using the Withdraw rule. This was its third instalment and had attracted 22 Players in total. There was a concise Rulespack with plenty of info that even included the Maps and scenarios for each round.
The previous Blog went into a detailed precis of how the army I had chosen would perform on the tabletop and my hopes and expectations for the weekend. Well, as often happens in real life, expectations did not mirror the reality, no Sir, not one Jot!
The Army looked lovely on the Tabletop along with all my Damage Markers and GeeGaws for turns and angles and such, although I forgot my base board so that was the first downer of the weekend.
The Day started with a very early dart over to Stockport from the TrollManor as we had a Wagon load of scenery. We arrived and the scenery was unloaded up the many, many steps at Element Games. Tables were set up and scenery distributed (the maps had been published along with the scenarios so it was down to the Players to set up the scenery for each round)
Then there was a nice treat in the form of a breakfast Barm (Teacake for my Southern Chums) all included as part of the Tournament.
There was a slight hitch in that the pre drawn draw for the Tournament disappeared when the TO went live with the event, still a couple of Gremlins in the Mantic Companion then. So we all ended up playing a person other than the person we expected to play, for me this was fellow Club Mate Barry and his Forces of Nature Army. Made up of a load of Elementals, some Centaurs, Naiads and such. The Scenario was Salt the Earth.
The Game started off well for the Northern Alliance with a strong show of shooting and an energetic thrust up the right of the board, where most of the Tokens were, while a regiment of Scorchwings faced off with a Chimera Lord on the Left. However, I spent too much time fannying around with Scorchwings on the left and my shooting sort of petered out. I kept just failing to kill things but Barry didn’t return that favour and the result was a severe drubbing for the Northern Alliance at the End.
Ah Well, onto game two. But first Lunch, which was some very nice sandwiches, doughnuts and some Boutique Crisps.
Game two saw me playing Dominate against the Ogres of Nick, Nick is a new Player to KoW but an old Opponent from the Warhammer Players Society days and it was a pleasure to see him playing Tournaments for KoW. His Ogre army was absolutely gorgeous indeed. However, as I have played Ogres at the last few Tournaments I was quietly confident. However the failure of my Chimera Lord to kill a Troop of Fleabag Sniffs, that then waivered him in return sort of set the tone of the game. Indeed I went on to manage to kill a lot of Nicks Army only to fall foul of the “Every Unit Scores” as the centre circle filled with Ogre Characters at the end of the Game and he beat me quite convincingly, even with my Horde of Tribesmen in the centre of the Table. And I hate Crocodog Wranglers, with a passion.
Ho Hum, still the only way is up
Game Three was Loot and my Opponent was another Old friend, Conrad, complete with his Free Dwarf army made from 1990’s Miniatures and some Pigs.
We set the counters up all on one side of the board and then proceeded to play on a 3’x4’ table LOL , Although , again the Northern Alliance got off to a good start and completely pinned the Free Dwarfs into one Corner of the table, the NA’s apparent inability to finish units off resulted in some stalled combats, which allowed Conrad to bring his Beserker Brock Rider Regiments into play and these proceeded to hoover around the Table like maniac Roombas, destroying everything they touched and resulting in my First Tabling of the Weekend.
So off home to commiserate and hope that the following Day the curse of Element Games would be lifted. I had a little cry and tried to give my Dice a resounding pep talk but they just weren’t interested and, in all honesty, it wasn’t their fault. They actually played fair on the Saturday , but I detected a hint of resentment that I had blamed them and I figured they might be reluctant to perform on the Sunday.
Sunday dawned early, not as early as Saturday, but early enough. The Trolls roused themselves and headed out towards the second day of the War up North.
My fourth Opponent was Steve, who’s Halfling Army should have been my first opponent and as I looked at the three organ guns and the mighty Hordes of Infantry I was reminded that, although their lack of movement would have helped in Salt the Earth, their overwhelming Unit Strength and Firepower would see them well in the Game Four Scenario- Push.
I decided to stack my right flank and fight for the centre token, a strategy that had served me well before, however Steve Waivered my anti Organ gun Birds, stalled my advance with EJ grenadiers and powered his hordes through my centre, although there was a late fight back by the NA the result was a 5 to 4 win for the Halflings. Although I did manage to Kill their Big Metal Pig!
Lunch again and I managed to secure one of the Curried Chicken Sandwiches, totally delicious! Completely made me forget about me Ginsters Pasty! Another Giant Cup of Tea and I would be ready to face Game Five, or so I thought.
And so to game 5, the scenario was Control and I face the “Spare” undead army led by Morgoth, I was totally outclassed by the Wights, Soul Reavers and barrage of Spells I was subjected too and, truth be told, was past caring. Onto my Second Tabling of the Weekend! Luckily at that moment my Grandaughter turned up for a visit and took my mind off the rest of the game.
The upshot of it was I took my own bloody Spoon home, it wasn’t even Close!
All that remained to do was to pack up the Scenery, roll up the Mats and return home.
Element Games – You Win, I will not be back, for a while at least.
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