The Virus - A short story

On the other side of the world, reports are coming in of the outbreak of a new strain of virus. From the initial news reports it seems to spread rapidly, affecting mainly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. The death toll is low for this particular virus, but the speed of it's transmission hasn't been seen before. The country at the centre of the outbreak locks down the country in an attempt to control the situation. The reaction from the rest of the world is slow, politics coming to the forefront as it is a case of us versus them. We don't want to get involved with their problems, and we also believe that this will not affect us in any way whatsoever. We continue on with our lives as normal, no precautions, no forethought.

A few days later, reports now come in of the same virus in other countries around the world. Some of these countries are our global allies, some of them are our neighbours. The reaction again is slow, again politics taking control. Those newly infected governments play down the virus so as not to panic the populous, telling them they have things under control.

A few days later the first of our neighbouring countries goes into complete lock-down, closing schools and shops, banning mass gatherings, and telling people to stay in their homes. People begin to panic buy, shops are stripped of food, medicine and toiletries.

The first case of the virus is now reported locally. The government decides to wait and see how things develop. Cases multiply rapidly, and the dead are now being counted on the news, with each bulletin bringing in ever increasing amounts of new cases and an ever increasing death toll.

Panic finally arrives to us all. Some have looked to what our neighbours are doing, and isolating themselves for the duration, only venturing out when necessary and stocking up on supplies when they do. Others just laugh in the face of this adversity telling their friends and neighbours that they are overreacting, remaining at large and singularly ignoring the advice issued in other countries on how to curb the spread of the virus.

Things go from bad to worse and the ensuing outcry from the public finally pushes the government into action, closing schools, banning mass gatherings, and telling people to stay in their homes. The few who ignored advice still say everything is a overreaction, and continue to ignore the advice given to them. The government are now forced to legislate, bringing in new powers to fine and arrest people who are at large on the streets. Even those who have been prudent and were self-isolated long before any official advice are being stopped and quizzed by the police on their way to buy essential groceries or medicines.

Initial reports state that the virus, and lock-down procedures will last 3 to 4 months. The latest reports now state this may last for over a year, coming in waves.

This is no work of fiction, this is reality. Novel Coronavirus is here.

You may have seen in the News that novel coronavirus, Covid-19, is affecting daily life, and with sweeping lock-downs across many countries, many of us are now forced to stay at home. The social aspect of tabletop gaming is taking a battering with gaming clubs closed and people told to maintain social distancing. However, having enforced time to ourselves allows us more time to paint those unfinished minis, craft that scenery for your table, and refine those home-brew rules you've been talking over with your gaming friends. With new online services people can still get together to meet, share and discuss their hobby, as well as take part in online tabletop games. Some of us might even have time to update our blogs.

Myself and my family are all well, although I am still working (for the time being). Look after yourselves and remember:

Stay at home
Wash your hands
Maintain your Social Distance
Protect your Health System

Welcome to 2020

...and welcome to the League of Omicron

A lot has been happening since my last post. I've been crafting, playing 40k, playing DnD, playing Delta Green, and playing boardgames.

40k (Warhammer 40 000) has been my sci-fi wargame of choice since I started gaming, and if you have read some of the other blogs, you will know I love Space Marines. I'm really an old school fan, and have been collecting and playing 40k since the mid 1990s. I was never a fan of taking a chapter from the rulebook, and even back when I started I had been designing my own chapter. I didn't want to stray too far into uncharted territory with my chapter and so I opted for a chapter based off of the Ultramarines Chapter. This made it easy (in terms or describing to others) who my Chapter was.

All I needed now was a name, a colour scheme and a logo and I was good to go, and so was born the League of Omicron. I took the Ultramarines vibe and ran with it having a uniform colour for my chapter, the League of Omicron being purple, and the logo was the Ultramarines log turned upside-down with the tails cut off. This way I hoped to be able to use the Ultramarines transfers to make my life easy.

For a long number of years, my love for 40k waxed and waned, as it seemed to be a non-stop race between new rulebooks and new army lists, and god forbid if you wanted to play someone and you weren't using the most up to date rules or army list. My biggest loss of love for 40k, and one of the reasons I stopped playing for a long time, came about somewhere starting around 4th Edition of the rules when Games Workshop retconned some of my beloved Space Marine units. Yes I could play in friendly games, and yes I could modify rules to allow my units to be on the field or even place proxy units, but it didn't just feel the same. My Army Standard Bearer, and my Apothecary on a Bike were sadly no more. With this the League of Omicron died and I didn't do much with the chapter since then.

When 8th edition (the current edition as of writing this) came out and my friends were enthusiastic for the new rules and new army lists, once again I was nonplussed. Yes, I would eventually field some minis for a game, and learn the new rules, but I cannot say I was as enthusiastic for the game as my friends were. All that changed when I saw what Games Workshop were doing, and boy was I pleased. No only did they release a free primer for the rules (basic rules to allow anyone to play the game), but they also released a couple of army list books listing all the old units which they had previously released minis for over the years. This got me hooked, and I borrowed the Index Imperium book from a friend to see if my beloved Space Marines were listed - they were!

With this the League of Omicron was reborn! I have had quite a few games with the new rules, and I like them, especially since I can use my older minis which are no only out of production, but where they haven't had rules for a many number of years. I really want to do the League of Omicron justice and complete them as a Chapter, with background and heroes. Over the many games I have played I have built up the potential for such background and heroes, I just need to commit them to paper now. Stay tuned and follow the League of Omicron.

J

Boardgame Bonanza - Part 1

Boardgames are great. I like boardgames. When I was growing up I played boardgames with family and friends. Yes everyone played Monopoly in the way back at some point in time, but after several arguments it really loses its appeal. I enjoyed other boardgames with my family, like Cluedo , Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. Somewhere in a cupboard in the famly home there are several boardgames which I got as a teenager which are more logic or puzzle boardgames. Once I left for college I didn't play many boardgames, except the occasional games of Scrabble at  Christmas when I was at home with my family for the vacation.

Fast forward to a few years ago when the Causeway Giants Gaming Group used to meet in a local bar. Boardgames were brought along by some of the members as they were easy to transport and could be played in a few hours. I decided to contribute and so sourced myself a new boardgame so I could add to the fun. I picked up Castle Panic (see below). This was a great game which went down well. Since then several members of the Causeway GIants will meet and play boardgames. I have played boardgames in folks homes of an afternoon or an evening, as well as meeting in OTT to play.
I have also discovered Print and Play games (PnP). These are great, as you get a pdf of the game rules / board / cards / tokens etc and you print it out and play it. Generally these are low cost (the ones I got were free or had a free offer at the time of purchase) and you oftern have the option of purchasing a quality print run version if you like it enough. Some of these games I have here also.

Some of the games I have played recently are:

Castle Panic

   https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43443/castle-panic   

"Castle Panic is tower defense strategy game in which players work cooperatively to protect a castle from monsters... ...The objective of the game is to kill the monsters invading from the forest before they can destroy your castle." - Wikipedia entry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Panic

This is a simple tower defence game which relys on luck as well as skill. Sometimes you might get unlcky with the monsters draws, but usually if the players work together they can defeat the monsters. I also picked up the expansion for this, which includes more monsters and a few special rules to make the panic set in quicker. All in all I love getting this game onto the table.

Agricola

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31260/agricola

"Agricola is a Euro-style board game created by Uwe Rosenberg. It is a worker placement game with a focus on resource management. In Agricola, players are farmers that sow, plow the fields, collect wood, build stables, buy animals, expand their farms and feed their families. After 14 rounds players calculate their score based on the size and prosperity of the household." - Wikipedia entry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricola_(board_game)

I've had a couple of games of Agricola. It good, I like it, but it is also tough as I feel there is quite a steep learing curve with it. You do really have to focus on the game right from the start, and strategise well to maximise your farm. I've only played this a couple of times, and it has taken me three or four turns to get into the swing of things, which makes my farm suffer in the long run. I didn't disgrace myself, but I could have planned better in the first few turns. Sometimes the cards you are dealt for occupations and improvements help out and maximising the farm output is easy, sometimes the cards are difficult to use, especially at the start due to restrictions which need to be in place before use, and this can limit your farm growth. All in all I enjoyed this game and look forward to playing it again.

Runebound (2nd Edition)

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21523/runebound-second-edition

"Runebound is a high fantasy adventure board game created by Martin Wallace and Darrel Hardy and published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2004. A second edition was published in 2005. A third edition was released in 2015. In Runebound, one to six players take the roles of adventurers who seek out quests (indicated by markers on the map). The quests are then resolved with either victory for the player, or a loss of some item. Each player is seeking quests and trying to gain experience which results in greater power and combat skill." - Wikipedia entry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runebound

Imagine a basic version of D&D in a boardgame, whats not to like about that. Take your character, roam the land, fight monster, gain treasure and equipment, fight the big bad evil guy and win the game. It is quick to learn this game, and with a bit of strategy (and some luck on dice rolls) you can progress your character relatively quickly to end up facing the end boss. Great game, and would love to play more.

Goblin's Breakfast

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/164760/goblins-breakfast

"In this card game, players take the role of Goblins at the Breakfast table, scrambling to eat as much food as possible and to prevent other players from doing the same." - DTRPG entry, https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/135134/Goblins-Breakfast

This is a great game and I got this as PnP. It's easy to learn and easy to play and I have had great fun playing this with friands. You also know its a good game when you are playing with a few friends and once finished someone says, "Do you want another game". Makes me smile inside when that happens.

Anyway, thats a start into the boardgames I play so until next time.

J

Blue Stuff - Is it art or science?

You may recall from a previous post,  here , I mentioned I had recently purchased a load of second hand Space Marine minis to help boost my Warhammer 40k army. I acquired some bikes, some assault marines, some characters and some other random minis. Most of these were in good condition, although some of the bikes, assault troops and random minis had bits missing. I needed to replace the missing parts to allow all the minis to be successfully assembled.

I took a rummage through my bits box to see if I had anything spare I could use to replace the missing parts. In the bits box I found a few other tactical marines with parts missing, and so began the job of chopping up the models and assembling everything I had to hand.

At the end of this phase, there were still quite a few bikes, and a small number of assault and tactical marines with parts missing. As there were not too many missing parts for each mini, I decided to look online for spares. Wow! I had no idea buying 40K bits online could be so pricey. To just kit out the bikes alone with the minimum to make them functionable would cost somewhere in the region of £60, and so I decided I was going to try and replicate the missing parts instead. I only needed a few of each part, so I thought this was the best option.

I wasn't sure what my best plan was. Silicone moulds and resin pours? Push moulds out of Green Stuff / Milliput? Scratchbuild? I took a look on-line and found a few videos where folk used Blue Stuff (never heard of it) and Milliput to make one off bits for their minis. This looked exactly what I needed and so I took the plunge and bought two packs of Blue Stuff from Green Stuff World (and I picked up a couple packs of Green Stuff for the hell of it), oh and I bought some Yellow / Grey Milliput.

Blue Stuff is a thermoplastic resin; that is to say it melts when hot to become soft and malleable, and hardens when cold to the consistency of a hard rubber. Getting the temperature right for the Blue Stuff, getting the part aligned into the Blue Stuff correctly, and getting the amount of Milliput to fill the mould right were all trial and error. On the tutorial videos it looked simple and I can say now it was anything but, especially for my first few attempts. After several attempts I managed to get the hang of it and I started by making those items of low number requirement first. This way one or two casts and I am done to move onto the next one. The reuseablility factor of Blue Stuff is key here as even if your mould didn't turn out correctly, just re-soften it in hot water and start again.

The results were not too bad, especially considering this was my first attempt at making anything from Blue Stuff / Milliput.

I will continue to play with the Blue Stuff and Milliput as I still need one or two extra bits going forward. The temperature of the hot water to soften the Blue Stuff is important, too hot it sticks to everything including the container, too cold it doesn't shape well. I only made the Milliput in small amounts, generally just what was needed to fill the mould and no more. Mixing Milliput was also trial and error. Whilst it is forgiving in terms of ratios of the Yellow / Grey component to mix together, I found different batches had different curing properties, with some of the bits I made still soft the next day.

The Blue Stuff / Milliput worked out well as it was (reasonably) quick to make the mould, and the short cure time for the Milliput meant I could make several components across a full day. Milliput also did not stick to the blue stuff too readily, and scrubbing the Blue Stuff under cold water with a brush soon loosened any flakes of Milliput still adhering to the mould once demoulding was completed. The Milliput was also easy to work with in terms of removing mould lines and generally tidying up the item. This was mostly accomplished with a sharp blade, but a rotary tool and needle file helped out also.

J

Where's Julian?

Well the good news is I haven't disappeared in a cloud of white smoke and been transported to the pages of an entertaining series of books in my stripey jumper! I'm still right here where you left me, you just needed to look harder!

Lots of things have happened in the past few months, although not as much has happened in my gaming life as I would like. Work and family commitments have again consumed my time, leaving me very little time for gaming, although I have been able to squeeze one or two hours in over a weekend for the past few months to keep up with my gaming and hobbies.

In December 2018 I took part in a Warhammer 40k narrative mega battle, Vigilus Laid Waste, at OTT. I really enjoyed this, even though I lost my game. It was a great event, and on socialising and speaking with other members there, they were able to point out a few aspects of my army which could be improved.

I considered the suggestions given to me for my 40k Space Marine army, and two things I decided to improve were my fast attack and assault options. So with this in mind, I spent my Christmas money gifts on trawling through eBay to find some second hand models I could put to use in either a fast attack unit, or an assault unit. 

I have spent a bit of my time over the past few months sorting out my new 40k mini acquisitions.

I picked up quite a few Space Marine bikes, although most of them are missing parts in some way or other. Most of the bikes don't need the paint stripped off them (which is a relief) and so with a bit of repair and rebuild work I will get these assembled into a couple of units. Now I have most of the bikes stripped down and cleaned up, the next job is to either buy or cast the missing parts for the bikes.

I also picked up a couple of squads of Space Marine assault troops, although the paint job on most of these was quite heavy handed, so they are currently sitting in a jar of cleaning fluid (I am using methylated spirits with reasonable results). Once I get these out and cleaned up, I will get them reassembled and added to the paint queue.

It is difficult to not buy more than you need when shopping online, so when I was shopping I decided to pick up a few more Space Marine character models I needed to flesh out my army. As most of these were metal minis these were quite easy to strip the paint off, so I tackled these first. I have just completed the rebuild of these and have added them to the paint queue with a couple of the other character minis I had had lying in a box for the past 10 years. I am hoping to get these all painted before the end of this year! lol

The rest of my gaming and hobby time over the past few months has been spent on one of those crazy projects which sounds good at the start, but a few months in you think to yourself “what am I doing?” I decided I needed a library, and not just any library. This was no simple wizards study, or large reading room in a manor; this was to be the grand library for the Frostgrave Library scenario.

I needed to be able to fill about a 2ft square section with bookshelves and tables. The tables I will consider later as I have some tables from the Heroquest boardgame that would suffice, so what I really needed was bookshelves; and books, loads of books!

The building of the bookshelves and books is not difficult, but is quite laborious considering how much I have to actually produce. I have some books, potion bottles and scrolls already made so I have a head start on these, but what I really needed was bookshelves. The task started out quite easily, but when I began to lay out the space, I quickly discovered I needed a lot more bookshelves than I had originally believed. With this in mind I have been steadily building the bookshelves over the past few months. I am on the final dozen or so bookshelf carcases so hopefully in the next few weeks I will be painting and filling these with books.

So, on the whole, even though I haven't achieved much over the past few months, everything has been moving along slowly and steadily, albeit there has been only two main projects on the table so far.

J

... and is right on the doorstep of The Giants Causeway Gaming Group

So, long story short, if you have read the history le sson you will know, after a second hiatus, I got back into gaming around 2013 when I found a local gaming group, The Giants Causeway Gaming Group. A few of the members of this group were staff and members of Be a   sts of War, who if you haven't heard of them by now, were set up to provide news, reviews, tutorials and general all round great info regarding various topics such as wargames, board games, card games, roleplaying games, as well as painting and modelling.

At the time I got back to gaming (c. 2013) much of the focus from Beasts of War was on the wargame and tabletop miniature skirmish game side of the hobby, and I suppose trying to build up a fanbase and future business that was to be expected of them. I joined the ranks of their online community around this time although I didn't do much with my registration as the games they were promoting were not something I was into at the time, and to pay a premium membership to access games and systems I wasn't interested in didn't appeal to me either.

Around 2015 they got some shiny new premises in Coleraine, close to home for me, and offered the Causeway Giants Gaming Group a chance to use their venue on a Sunday afternoon. Whilst this was a great opportunity, it didn't suit me, and so things just bumbled along as always.

Recently Beasts of War, have relaunched themselves as On Table Top [as of writing this, same URL as Beasts of War], with more of a family friendly approach, rather than only focusing on the diehard gaming nerds, and grognards like me. Whilst I didn't think much of the relaunch at the start, much to my surprise and delight, their vision has been a real boost to gaming in the local area, and not only that their membership package now includes use of their gaming space up to three times a week, the use of their boardgame library, the use of their workstations where you can build and paint, and a small discount off certain ranges from their new small shopfront. This was perfect for me, as I now had more days to plan something, more opportunities to play something, and if I didn't get down one day, it was not another month before I would be back. Needless to say, I took up the membership offer straight away as the opportunities it afforded well outweighed any cost.

The team and On Table Top / Beasts of War must be lauded for their efforts, especially in helping to bring the community together and to help a grognard like me to get back into gaming. Good things can only follow, and I will offer my support to the team where possible. I look forward to more gaming real soon!

J

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay  

Good News! Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has a new lease of life...

Okay, let me rewind a bit. You may remember from the history lesson that I am a keen Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) kind of guy.

Cu bicle 7 have now acquired the licence to publish the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game system; and have so far released - the Core rulebook both as PDF and physical copy, a Limited Edition core rulebook (physical copy), a Starter Set as a PDF (the physical copy of this will be released as soon as errata feedback has been compiled), printable character sheets, two free PDF adventures, and a free PDF adventure seed document. Needless to say I have ALL these so far!

I am so happy to be back in the Warhammer World, which I think is a rich and glorious world to play in, and I am looking forward to taking a group of players and telling their story in the future. I will post more thoughts, reviews and game info so if you are interested, stay tuned!

J

Wooden Crates for Tabletop games

Following on from my last blog about making Wooden Barrels, I have added to my scatter terrain by making some wooden crates. These will also give minis something else to hide behind and climb over. These are definitely easy to create and mines are made from thin card and polystyrene. I used cereal packets for my thin card as it is cheap and ideal for this build. I used expanded polystyrene like the stuff you find as packing material, although you could easily use extruded polystyrene instead. If you don't have any polystyrene you could use foamcore or corrugated cardboard instead.

General scratch building tools. You will need something to measure and mark out your polystyrene and cardboard, and you will also need a metal edge and a sharp knife to cut things out. If you are working with polystyrene, you will need a suitable glue that will not dissolve the polystyrene. The basic box (polystyrene core and outer cardboard) can be glued together using any suitable glue, but I would definitely recommend PVA to glue the card on to create the wooden slat effect.

The polystyrene is used to fill out the void in the middle of the crate and give the crate some solidity to attach the card cladding to.

Cut out the polystyrene to the size and shape you want. I used my Proxxon hot wire cutter for this, but you can just use a straight edge and a knife. Don't forget to make the blocks slightly smaller than you want the finished item as you will be covering all this in cardboard. I find using a mini for scale helps to determine the various sizes which work best, but I cut 10mm cubes and 17mm cubes as my basic structures and then increased or decreased from there to make my different sized crates. If you are using cardboard or foamcore, layer these to get your desired shape.

Clad the polystyrene (or cardboard stack or whatever) with thin card to give a plain card box shape. Next cut thin strips of cardboard to make the wooden slats for the body of the crate and glue these on. I cut my slats approximately 3mm and 4mm to give a bit of variety. I didn't glue any slats to the bottom of the crate as my crates will just be sitting on the ground. Once you have all the slats for the body of the crate attached, cut more slats for the support staves, generally these are cut slightly thinner that the slats for the body.

It is up to you how you want to build your wooden crates, but I would suggest having a look at some photos to get some inspiration. I have used slats to build the body of the crate to give the old-style effect that I was after, however there is nothing to prevent you from adding slats to the outside edge of the plain card to provide a frame. This would give a more modern wooden crate style which is made from plywood or other material with a sturdy frame around it.

All the crates were primed black, then once this was dry given a coat of a light brown beige colour (I used a of approximately five parts toasted nut to one part burnt umber). All the crates were then highlighted with a cream, then light grey. All the paints used in this step are either cheap artists acrylics or trade paint tester pots. These colours used here are to build up the tones in the crate before the wash is added.

Once all the paint has dried, the crates were washed with a black brown ink wash (I used two parts black ink to one part brown ink, both mine are citadel range of washes). Once the wash has dried the boxes were dry-brushed to bring out the details. The final colours I used were to give a bleached wood effect.

I first gave the crates a heavy dry-brush with a lighter version of the base colour. This dry-brush was from all directions and was to bring back the light wood colour. Then a heavy dry-brush of beige was added (although not as heavy as before) again from all directions. This is to add that grey effect to the wood. A light dry-brush of the light grey was added to pick up some of the detail. This was again dry-brushed from all directions although I brushed more from the top down and less from the bottom up. White was finally added in a very light dry-brush and is only for an edge highlight to pick out the final detail to make these pop.

I enjoyed making these and reckon these will look great on the gaming table. I hope that this inspires you to make something yourself.

J

Wooden Barrels for tabletop games

I love skirmish war games and tabletop dungeon crawls but I need some appropriate dressing to give the minis something to hide behind or climb over.

I decided to make some wooden barrels. Not the easiest thing to make if you have never attempted scratch building before, especially the smaller barrels as they can be quite tricky, but the results are good and these look good on the table. All of these barrels are made using thin cardboard. Cereal packets are cheap and ideal, although make sure the cardboard is flexible and does not split when curled.

General scratch building tools. You will need something to measure and mark out on your thin card, and you will need a metal edge and a sharp knife. A good pair of scissors are also very useful for this build. Glues are of your choice but a general purpose glue works best. You can build using PVA (I did some this way) but you will need to hold everything till the bits stick. You might need some superglue for those tricky straps. Hot glue isn't great for this build. You will also need some cocktail sticks or something to roll the card on.

Cut out strips for the body. The width of the strips will determine the height of your barrel. The length of the strips will determine the width of the barrel. For appropriate sized barrels to fit into 28mm scale, cut strips at approximately 20mm wide and 15cm long for the main body. Cut the strips for the bulge about 1/3 of the width of the main body. Roll the main body strips tightly around a cocktail stick and glue together. Roll the bulge strips around the middle of the body about 2 or 3 times. The more you wrap the bulge strips, the merrier the barrel will be. Glue on the end pieces cut from scrap card.

Score and cut out the staves. The overall width of the staves should be 1mm or 2mm greater than the height of the barrel to provide a lip. This measurement will vary depending on how much of a bulge you have provided. When scoring for the mid section, this should be the same width as the bulge. Trial and error will get you the correct width for the staves, mine are approximately 4mm wide. As the barrels go up and down in height, the stave width should be adjusted accordingly to make it look right. I found it quicker to cut out the notches with scissors than to slice out the notches with a knife. The scissors are not the most accurate, but if you want to mass produce some barrels to throw on the table, then this will be the quickest route.

Once the staves are glued on. Cut out thin strips about 2mm wide and glue on as barrel strapping or banding. Glue one at each end of the staves, and one at each of the score lines near the bulge.

Once the barrels have all been glued together, I gave everything a quick coating of PVA glue to harden up the staves and ensure that everything stays glued together. To finish of the barrels, paint to your liking. Mines are painted with GW spearstaff brown, with a red / brown wash to give a basic wood effect. The banding I have simply painted black. Don't forget to look at pictures of real barrels to get some inspiration.

J

Why am I running a Kings of War Builder League?

Within the Causeway Giants Gaming Group someone asked would anyone run a league of some sort for the group. There were lots of suggestions and points raised, and through the ensuing discussion a Kings of War League was suggested. I had been itching to play more Kings of War and so I decided (wisely or not) to organise a Kings of War League myself. Thinking on past experience I have found that whilst there is lots of enthusiasm during discussions when things like Tournaments, Leagues and other Events are suggested, until someone actually steps up and does something, nothing ever happens. I mean, how hard could organising a league actually be?

The initial response to a Kings of War League was good, garnering about 17 positive responses about playing in a league. I therefore reported to the group that I would be setting up and organising for a league. Quite a bit of work was initially undertaken, including reading up on Kings of War organised play, putting together a draft ruleset, organising documents and schedules, getting the league listed on the Mantic community events page, and dedicating a small section of this website to the future Kings of War League.

When I was compiling the rules I looked to see what other clubs had done with their Kings of War Leagues. Most of the information I found was from that period in time shortly after Games Workshop blasted the Warhammer Fantasy Battle world into oblivion and brought out Age of Sigmar. Most of the league rules if found were based around bringing in new players and introducing them to Kings of War, not only as a game, but also to get experience of a league and tournament practice.

I wanted to do something similar for the group's first league, and so between Mantic's 2017 Clash of Kings Organised Play supplement, and the league rules I found online I drafted rules for an escalation league, which would allow players to build their army over the course of the league. This should hopefully be engaging for both new and experienced players. The Builder League was therefore created where you essentially “build” your army over the course of the league, and at the end, hopefully have something which can be used in tournaments.

So with everything ready, the league was launched and registration opened. As it turned out, rather disappointingly, only 4 people signed up for the league; 5 people if I included myself. This was a huge drop from those that had initially been so positive about the league. Not to be disheartened, I am currently working away with reckless abandon to make this league work; and I want this league to work not only for my own sanity, but to encourage others to join in any future league that might be run within the Group.

So as we draw to the close of registration, I was on tenterhooks because the league as I had designed it was built around an even number of players, and so with 5 people signing up, it meant that I would have to sit this league out to ensure everyone else got a game. This is not a real problem, it was just the way I drafted the rules. I am sure I will still get a game in here and there with folk as they practice with their lists, but it seems that my itch to play Kings of War would not be soothed so easily. Whilst I am disheartened that it has turned out this way, I will be working on a new set of league rules for next year, and hopefully I will take better account of an odd number of players.

To answer my question above, how hard could it be to organise a league? Very hard as it turns out!

J