Warhammer Fest 2018

I got the chance to go to Warhammer Fest 2018 and thought I'd write a little about my time there.  I won't be cover all the announcements here just my time there. If you are looking for announcements please check out the other news sites or Warhammer Community page.

Day 1
1st day we spent most of the morning just looking around and seeing what was there. We wanted to book in to the new & upcoming releases seminar but it was full by the time we go there.  We did book into the video game seminar for later in the day.

Cosplay

In the main hall they had a huge shop section including a Forge World and Black Library shop.  Next they had open game tables and a bitzbox challenge, then were the tournament tables and finally a section for other Warhammer related productions like Video games, tables, card games and RPGs.

After looking about for a bit we had seen most of the different sections.   We decided to spend a bit of time watching the tournament games which was really good fun.  None of the players minded people watching or even asking questions,  but obviously we were careful not to interrupt anything.  I liked seeing what people were running as competitive lists, Custodians seemed really popular so were Guard, Craftworld and Dark Eldar and Death Guard. But almost every army was represented, including a really cool Ork army with Chinorks made from converted Kharadron Overlords Arkanaunt airships.

When it was time for the Video Games Seminar it had been cancelled and replaced last minute with a talk/Q&A with a designer from Cubicle 7, the designers of the upcoming Warhammer Fantasy RPG 4th Edition.  I was disappointed because I am interested in a few of the upcoming GW video games but I have been looking into the new Warhammer RPG so it was good to find out more. It looks like it will be as gritty and deadly as the 1st two editions with some more streamlining and expanded class system.  It will still have the old careers including ratcatcher which is good.

After I watched a bit more of the tournament games then decided to play a few of my own.

Gaming Hall

First I played against an Imperial Soup tournament list. I had brought only infantry models with me because I didn't want to carry tanks around with me so I had a less than competitive Flesh Tearers list but it was a fun game.  I was up against a Battalion of Scions with Bullgryn and a flyer, a Supreme Command of Custodian  Jetbikes and an Outrider of Sisters of Battle with Saint Celestine. It was a tough game and I gave up turn 4 with only my Chaplain, Captain and some scouts left.

Next I played 1000 points against a Salamanders force made of the Dark Imperium box set and a Predator.  It was a much more balanced game but my luck was really not in.  First 5 Death Company charged 5 Intercessors and were wiped out without causing a wound, he got really lucky with overwatch and then my surviving 3 didn't cause a single wound before I was attacked back and wiped out.

Adeptus Titanicus 

My Furioso also fluffed a bit same as it had in the last game and I've never seen such bad rolls for the Frag Cannon/Heavy Flamer, I'm thinking of taking the dice I used in that game and burning them with all my other dice watching them as a warning to them not to fail me in the same way.  The game was going OK though, I'd lost my Death Company and Furioso as well as my Sanguinary Guard but had wiped out his Hellblasters, one Lieutenant and some Intercessors plus his Captain was almost dead and in combat with my Chaplain and the Predator was in easy charge range of my captain with thunder hammer. I was also holding more objectives at the end of turn 3.  The game could have gone either way at that point but it was late and a football game was starting soon and apparently the roads would be closed for a while as fans were coming in so to avoid getting stuck we called it a draw and finished there.

Day 2

1st Render of the new Sisters of Battle
Models

The Second day we had already looked around everywhere so it was more about watching games and playing for us.

We spent a bit of time watching the tournament games which was really good.  I liked seeing good players playing and seeing the lists they used.  Turns out the Ork army with the converted Chinorks won the tournament which was good because it was a beautiful army.  I was actually impressed with the painting standard on all the tournament armies, I knew some would be well painted but expected some people to just have the old "3 colours and go" paint scheme but I didn't see a single one that looked rushed or badly painted.

I also had a go on Battle Fleet Gothic Amanda 2 which was fun but having never played it of the 1st game before I didn't really get what I was meant to be doing so did badly, it wasn't a tutorial mission so I was thrown in with now introduction to what I was meant to do or how to play.

After a short visit to the Forge World shop to pick up a few bits we set up for a couple of games ourselves.  I will do full write ups for these two because I took photos for them so will won't talk about them too much because I will do it in the next few weeks, skip the rest of this section if for some reason you care enough and you want to read the full battle reports (which will be my next two posts, next Monday and the Monday after) without spoilers.

1st look at the next Blood Bowl team to be released
Dark Elves

Both games were 1000 points and were my Flesh Tearers against an Imperium list made up of Space Wolves and Custodians.

Game one I was worried from the start.  I didn't think I had enough in my lists to deal with the Custodian HQs and when I was charged by them I didn't think I would survive.  However I managed to hold out and pile more into the combat which allowed me to slowly overwhelm the Shield-Captains on Dawneagle jetbikes, once I started killing them off the Imperium list slowly started to fall apart and I ended up tabling them.

Next the Imperium list was changed up slightly and a Stormwolf flyer and Njal were added instead of two of the Custodian Shield-Captains.   Again I really didn't know how I'd deal with the flyer with just 1000 points and very little heavy firepower.  As it turned out my Scout missile launcher was stupidly accurate and hit almost every time and I was able to take down the Stormwolf fairly fast.  I had set up in a firebase with my combat units ready to counter attack but this time my opponent tried to hold back rather than come towards me and get shot/charged.  I ended up having to move up the board to chase him but again as I started killing Shield-Captains the list started to fall apart and I ended up winning the game on points.

Upcoming Necron Super Heavy from Forge World

As powerful as the Supreme Command Custodians are (and plenty of the tournament lists included them) I don't think it performs as well at low points because they can be overwhelmed by larger units and you can't include as much other things to distract from concentrating your strength against the Shield-Captains.

After we had to leave, it was about 3pm and the hall closed at 4pm Sunday anyway and we needed to get back down to London so headed off.

My Thoughts
I really liked Warhammer Fest.  I had a great weekend and would do it again.

If I was to do it again I think I would take a better list, I didn't really want to carry to many models around so only took what I could fit in my small case but we ended up leaving models in the car until we wanted to use them so it wouldn't have been a problem and I would have liked to have a competitive game against new people.   It was fun playing armies I don't normally and against people I haven't before so that was good fun and something I'd like to do again.

Event Exclusive Models

I would also try and look at more seminars next time, there were a few I wanted to see and was disappointed that the big one I wanted to see, new and upcoming realises, was full before we even got into the arena.  It was the most popular so I do think that it would have been good to have it run a couple of times through the weekend.  I know people in the 1st would start posting about it online but still would have been nice to see even if I knew most of the stuff that would be mentioned.  I wanted to see the video game seminar but as I said that was changed at the last minute to a tabletop RPG one which was a bit disappointing.   There were lots of others but because I didn't know how much time we would have we didn't want to book too many, next time I might book a few more because once you have been around the main hall you are left either watching or playing games, especially if you do both days as you have plenty of time to fit stuff in, so seminars might have been a nice way to break up the day.

So yeah it was a good weekend and something I would recommend it you like GW games.  There are things I would do differently if I did it again but I am glad I did it.

For more info about what was announced at Warhammer Fest look at the Warhammer Community Live Blog.  All Pictures are from the Warhammer Community page because I forgot to take any myself other than of my own battles on day 2.