Me? An organizer? Madness!

Today marks the end of the first week of the Fantasy Escalation League I put together at Game Kastle. So far things seem to be going along quite well. I've got a full ten people who have paid the entry fee and played one or more games, and at least one that hasn't paid just yet. People seem to be digging the format. There are several, like me, who are just playing with their usual painted armies. But I do have a couple of people who are actually working on building and painting as they go. I'm excited to see how things progress from here.

I've run plenty of gaming events before, but this is my first attempt at a wargaming event. I got to watch numerous IFL events, most of which went well and some of which could have gone better. Now I get a chance to apply those observations in a somewhat different environment. I'm sure that by the time it's over I'll have over-analyzed every little bit of it. Hopefully this is the first of many. If there's one thing I learned, it's that wargaming thrives with a bit of structure.

In terms of actual gaming, I got in two League games during the first week. One very close loss to a Lizardmen army which went down to the last attack roll of the game and one win against a new Scaven player. Both were very bloody, as 8th edition is proving to be time and again. I think the single biggest highlight from both games was the Scaven Warp Lightening Cannon taking out my Hydra in a single shot.

Still experimenting with different options for my Dark Elves in 8th edition, specifically with magic recently. One of my favorite builds for a Sorceress in 7th edition was a Level 2 on a Dark Steed with the Focus Familiar. At first in 8th I had tried putting a Sorceress in a big block of Spearmen, since 8th really likes infantry blocks, and hiding an Assassin in the unit to protect her. After some serious game changing miscasts I started having doubts about the wisdom of the 'bodyguard block'. So, time for a substitution. The Focus Familiar Sorceress is back, if for no reason other than the fact that when she miscasts all she'll blow up is herself. I've also been trying a fairly cheap defensive item on my casters, the common one that gives a 4+ ward save to the first wound suffered, hoping that it will help them live through two miscasts. So far I don't think it has actually helped. I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but I think it's time to start considering alternatives. In terms of effectiveness, she was my MVP against the Scaven. Being able to hide her behind a build and still have the range and line of sight to his units made the difference.

Loot!

I gotta give a big shout out to Rushputin for the Games Day loot / close enough to my birthday to count as a present I got today. You are correct in that I don't really need another 3 Sorceresses, buuuuuuuut I could use another one on a horse and a Hag BSB. I can easily turn a staff into a banner and swap out the Cold One for a Dark Steed. Plus, he included a Malus Darkblade model which I can put on one of the new Cold One models (and potentially even use in the near future since folks out here don't seem to mind special characters) and some super sweet IFL dice. The guys out here will learn to fear the power of the club dice.

It might take me a bit to get around to doing those conversions since I have some painting ahead of me.....

I and a couple of the guys at Game Kastle are going to do an Escalation League starting in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to set my expectations appropriately. We've had a pretty good number of folks express interest, but it's hard to say how many are actually going to show up. The turn out at the store for open gaming has been good recently, with 3 or 4 games going on. I'm guessing we'll have 10 or so people start out and maybe 6 or so play through to the end. More to come as the league progresses.

One thing I can say though, just the fact that a few of us had an idea, talked on the forum a bit, and made all the necessary arrangements with the store to get things rolling is a great sign that I'm going to be all set for wargaming out here for the foreseeable future.