Im On A Boat: My Grand Waaagh Experience
For the second time I went to Alameda, California and boarded an aircraft carrier to play pretend war in the heart of a once mighty war machine. The Grand Waaagh always starts early at 8 AM with tired looking gamers shuffling up the gangplank to register and converse amidst aircraft, tables, and even a space capsule. It is quite a setting and standing on a cold steel floor all day lends itself to a feeling on wanting to obliterate your enemy or perhaps just invest in some shoes with arch support. After a round you can forage for food at the onboard eatery or drive around Alameda and try to scrounge something up. Last time I went it was the first year the event ran and I played 40k. I ended up tied for 5th place. This year I played Fantasy and my record was 2-2-1. Not too shabby for my first real Fantasy tournament with an untested army in a game I am not at all terribly good at.
My list was the following:
- Tomb King (General) :: Armor of Destiny, Dragonsbane Gem, Fencers Blades (260)
- Liche High Priest (Hierophant) :: Level 4 and Lore of Nehekhara (210)
- Liche Priest :: Level 2 and Lore of Light (105)
- Liche Priest :: Level 2 and Lore of Light (105)
- Skeleton Archers [15] (90)
- Skeleton Chariots [6] :: Musician and Standard Bearer (350)
- Skeleton Warriors [50] :: Spears, Shields, Musician, and Standard Bearer (270) Carrion [3] (72)
- Khemrian Warsphinx :: Fiery Roar (230)
- Khemrian Warsphinx :: Fiery Roar (230)
- Necropolis Knights [6] :: Musician (400)
- Hierotitan (175)
As you can see this is pretty amateur and is missing a lot of very obvious and good tools I would come to learn that in my games against some really nice people who played to win but also had great sportsmanship. An unusual combination in the plastic mans hobby. At least until this event when I seemed to luck into all good games.
Four of my games were against Orcs & Goblins with some variant of someone's inspired list with their own bits added in. After the second game I knew exactly what I had to do and it got easier each subsequent round. The only loss was against Vampire Counts and a very nasty unit that only needed a single encounter with Dwellers to make it cry… but alas it bested my egyptian dead.
My overall experience was very positive and I recommend this event no matter which game system you play. The surroundings cannot be beaten and everyone I encountered this year was very easy to play against and were all good sports. Running into that 5 games in a row was a welcome surprise.