Flame On, with special Epic UK friends Tim and Tom, pooled their scenery collection for a mega-battle. We'd call it the Stomp Informal, but that does Si a disservice. The man had crafted a scenario for this epic Epic showdown which pitted Imperial versus Chaos on a 24'x6' city board. 8 players clashed for supremacy.
You can read a draft copy of his scenario here. It was tweaked on the day.
Imperial Commanders Curis and SPAYSE MAHREEN had a heated discussion on tactics. It was settled by arm wrestling.
To aid the Imperial Commander, Black Templars, White Scars and Dark Angels swept down from the skies Drop Pods and Thunderhawks. The combination of Stomp's aggressive Crusaders with Si's resilient Leman Russes broke the Chaos on the Imperial right flank. Grand Urlock, Despoiler of Worlds, and all round Evil Overlord, Tim could do little to stop the Flame On synergysing. The right flank was a 5-2 victory to the Imperials. Meanwhile, Chaos Commander Christian had brought a Dark Imperator Titan to the game. Here's Curis and Christian doing their very best Imperator impressions. The Imperials chose to ignore this mighty firebase in favour of the objectives, with the left flank ending at a 3-3 tie. Overall, a victory for the Imperium of Man. And now, to end on the obligatory shot of Simon at a trendy bar.]]>
First off, I am sure you will join us all in thanking Neil Kerr for starting BotCh and running the first 6 BotCh's over the last few years. With the end of the Chump Wars Saga Neil has decided to move on to new challenges in life, but rest assured BotCh is in safe hands, and we look forward to this new exciting era, the start of the Double O Chump series.
Welcome to the seventh annual Flame On Battle of the Chumps event. There is no stopping us now. The battlefield, as ever, is situated on a war-torn planet of Chumponia where escalating engagements will build up over the weekend into all out war and climatic final battles to decide who shall rule.
In a real war skilful application of strategy and tactics will give the participants an edge in the conflict. The different sized games over the weekend, together with some non standard missions and objectives, is all designed to provide players with the opportunity to exercise these skills more than they would be able to do under normal tournament conditions.
Usually, players meet each other on a one to one basis, each with the same tactical objectives in mind. These represent individual minor clashes or a small part of a greater conflict that occur in a short period of time.
This event represents events occurring over a longer timescale where huge forces clash on an extensive battlefront across which conditions and objectives vary widely. In such titanic battles it is success or failure of large groups of forces which is important not the localised success or failure of one individual force; though they may greatly influence the course of the war through their bravery, skill or shear dumb luck.
The weekend's gaming is designed to reflect such conditions so the emphasis is on your overall tactical ability rather than creating a single all winning force. To win each player will need to demonstrate their ability to create and field their army in variously sized conflicts against a diverse selection of foes in order to achieve success. This might mean difficult strategic and tactical decisions need to be made while selecting your separate forces, but that is the true nature of warfare on a large scale.
Each player will have 3 separate and distinct armies drawn from the same codex. The first is a small recon force, the second is a main battle group and the third a large war host.
Location:
Maelstrom Games
Matlock Mill
Hamilton Way
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 5BU
This year there will be:
Clockwise from far left Nathan "Could Be Robert Nathans?" Roberts, Chris "Curis" Webb, Tim "Attention Span" King, Chris "Gang" Green, Graham "Like an Apple" Apperley, Gaz "SMONGASMONGASMONGA" Jones, Chris "My He's Grown" Apperley, Gary "Loveable Rogue" Percival, Mike "Painting Pimp" Newman, Scott "Not THE Scott Mills" Mills, Bob "Why Wasn't I in the Photo?!" Wolstencroft, Simon "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night" Jenkins and Mike "2U2" Mee.
Curis' Dark Angels of the 8th Company fought at Open War XV alongside the mighty Warlord Titan - Hepatitus Alpha. HeI ranked top of Flame On, though that's like being World's Tallest Dwarf as Flame On dominate the lower places at the Open War rankings.
Hepatitus Alphas was on loan from Simon - a man whose ever-present sunglasses actually served their intended purpose in Mansfield's gorgeous sunshine. And made him look a bit like Lt. Horatio Caine. OOooooowwww!
Mike Mee, a man who likes to express himself simultaneously in the first and third person with sentences such as "This pleases Mee!" took home the Epic Armageddon wooden spoon. Here he is looking surprised at Chris Steel's Vanahein Aircav (picking up another well-deserved Best Army award).
Joe Jepshon's gorgeous Epic (not) Dark Angels were cruelly denied any awards, despite looking fantastic with Joe's paint-staking hyper-lighting technique
It was also nice to see Golem's paintjobs gracing box art at Maelstrom's quite frankly aspirational shop.
]]>This was a scenario written by Flame On's mighty Si. Si's campaigns, army lists and scenarios are always set in his own corner of the universe - this time the planet Mocheskan, in the throes of civil war in the dark days of Abbadon's 13th Black Crusade. Basically the attackers have to cross two rivers and capture key political buildings in a city. Though the defenders are massively outnumbered, they've mined the rivers - even going so far as adding gravitic spring mines to stop pesky skimmers. The city itself is void-shielded and encased in a flak umbrella (ella, ella, ay, ay ay...).
But with a return to miniature hostilities Flame On deployed across the length and breadth of Britain and across three systems to bring glory and prizes to Manchester's loose-association-cum-social-network.
Firstly, the 40K crowd went en masse to the 40K Masters event at the Eye of the Storm.
Left to right: Mike "White Scally Jacket" Newman, Nathan "Moptop" Roberts, Chris "Scarfy" Green, Josh "The Stallion" Robert, James "Jimbo" Knight, Neil "The King" Kerr, Gary "Han Solo" Percicval, James "Curis-doesn't-know-how-to-poke-fun-at-him" Ramsay and finally Gaz "Oh-does-Curis-know-how-to-poke-fun-at-him" Jones.
On the main Masters event 1st place was taken by the gaming powerhouse that is Josh, 2nd place by Neil. Nathan managed 3rd place in the accompanying Open event.
The army-painting machine Mike Newman did nothing, but gets a special mention for shameless SEO purposes.
Meanwhile in deep south Curis and Stompzilla bombed it to Bristol, enjoying the throbbing hypnotic sounds of the Octopus both ways. They fought weird and wonderful selection of experimental Epic: Armageddon lists. Both tied for most sporting, and Curis' Raven Wing got Best Painted, taking him to like fifty gazillion painting awards. The cock.
Special mention goes to Stomp who on top of tying for most sporting got an honourable painting mention. What unlikely achievement for that lad next? Marriage? Attending a tournament sober?
Lastly, Jimmy "Ninjahamster" Balderstone drove a measly 400 yards to Stockport's Northwest Gaming Centre to lord it up Victorian style in the realms of Malifaux (which we've decided rhymes with 'Halifax') and claim absolute first place. He only provided this pathetic photo so we've taken the liberty of reflecting his face in the trophy to make it more exciting. (We actually started with obscene pornographic reflections, but realising he's behind the site we thought better.)
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Battles took place across a variety of boards, without a single giant cocking redwood in sight.
1st place was taken rather definitely by Tim Hunt and his Skorchatastic Speed Freaks that unleashed burny death.
2nd place was taken by Joe Jephson and his real-life Dark Angels, proving the world over that perceivedly under-powered variant lists are still deadly in the hands of the tactically astute.
3rd place was taken by Matt Arnold, who'd grown a beard especially to gain an edge in one of the scenarios (which rewarded extravagent facial hair) only to forget those rules in the heat of battle.
Matt also won Most Visually Awesome Army - Judge's Choice for his Blood Red White Scars.
Chris Steel won Most Visually Awesome Army - Players' Choice for his stunning Vanaheim Air Cavalry.
Last place went to Alan Saunders, who can console himself with the special SPAYSE MAHREEN wooden spoon.
Finally, Stockport Stockade 2011 has been provisionally booked for the last weekend in September. It may be a multi-system event so we can include Citadel Combat Cards.
Thanks to everyone who attended, and the staff at the Northwest Gaming Centre for providing an excellent venue.
A fuller Flickr gallery from the Stockade can be found here.
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They left clutching a horde of finely crafted swag. And, kind courtesy of the folks at BHGS, are gifted with free tickets to next year's event. Big thanks to the JD McNeil and his BHGS chaps. Rock on.
]]>The intrepid crew from left to right: Darren, Chris, SPAYSE, Mike, Matt, Mark and Si.
Si and SPAYSE's combined 6,000 points of Imperial Guard clashed with the Chris and Mike Raven Wing / Shi'Tkno Eldar alliance. ("Do you know which Craftworld your Eldar are from Mike?" "Shi'Tkno!")
Meanwhile Mark's Warlock Titan causes Darren serious rolling engagement problems. Mark would adopt the moniker "Stomp" were he to wake up from the Matrix. Darren is undecided.
Along with Mike and Matt, this was SPAYSE's first Epic event.
He threw himself into the festivities Jamie Perkins style, and was not in a fit state to accompany the rest of us to rock out at Caged Asyum afterwards.
The Epic community are also reminded of this October's inaugural Stockport Stockade event - two days of rocktacular Epic tournament gaming with a veritable smorgasbord of subtle scenario variations to keep generals on their toes. The event will be held on the 8th and 9th of October, and tickets are available for £20.
]]>In 3rd place Ben Martin/Kong with his Orks.
In 2nd place Jason Annett of 1st Company Vets, also with Orks.
And in 1st place Gary Percival/Wanderingrogue with errrr.... more Orks!