30-4-2011 Warhammer tournament, Fantasy shop Victoria

April 30, early in the morning....

Sitting in front of the PC I’m doing a quick search in the Web for information about the tournament...

The only person I can find in the moment is Mike “Cadaver”, he has just connected in Googletalk, but the dizziness from the overnight work has beat  my brain in a kill points match by 11-3, yet a part of it is still operational, it types a message…

- Mike, good morning, do you know at what time the tournament starts?
- The tournament starts at 11, you can still make it.
- Great! I will get my army and come, I don’t know if I’ll be able to play but you will see me there for sure!

The dudes in red (my Blood Angels army) are packed quickly with an army list I came up in less than 10 minutes, but there isn’t too much interest by me for gaming today. I’m thinking that I will play if there is an odd number of players and someone ends up single in the pairings.

I am actually more interested in taking photos.

So, the camera is readied for war, batteries are full, memory is formatted, my other camera, a big professional Olympus E-520 will stay on the shelf again and I’ll use my small compac sony thinking  that it is more than enough for the job at hand.

With the miniature carrying bag in my shoulder, camera in my pocket, mobile phone, wits, but with not a cream pie in my stomach (since the local bakery just run out – the world is not a perfect place) I’m going towards the Metro station.

It is a long walk to the tournament and one that pass through the ill treated city center “Omonia” square since the train works of the main metro line aren’t done yet and the city’s fastest mass transit system is literally cut in tw. Still  with a quick step I can make it just in time to see the start of the tournament.
 

The view is amazing, the usual 6-8 players of the Greek local tournament has been replaced with 18 people each with an army of 1750 pts. Painted or not the army is legal unless you “bring a Coco-Colla can to proxy a battle tank “as the host usally likes to say…

The players ,some of them supported by friends and relatives, are waiting for the first round pairings from mr. Takis Valeontis host, organizer and referee of the tournament who is taking his responsibilities quite seriously...

…While some others don’t.

And as the players start deploying their armies I find the time to take pictures from the terrain pieces before they get filled with corpses… eerrr… I meant troops.

And from models that their Eldar pilots thought that expressing their artistic talents (on the hull of their vehicles) will stop the enemy from firing at their marvelous works of art, and thus keep them safe.

The Dark, Dark Eldar players get ready to face their first opponent

While downstairs Igni’s Jet bikes are targeting Spiros Eldar troops
in a relentless civil war between two Craftworlds.

Thats why Spiros sends his Wraithguard unit to church every Sunday, with some divine help he thinks no dice will come up against his favor.

While in another table Cadaver’s Captain Pac-man and the yellow agents (Lysander and the rest of the Imperial Fists) are facing another Dark Eldar force, The Marine scouts clever as usual have just conquered another building in the name of their emperor, sadly the gun operates much more like the Greek government: it fires only if the mission and situation permits (planet strike)

We have to note, everything in this photo, serves the almighty emperor, from the ultramarines, to the… fan, its painted in golden/silver colors, as so many other imperial things around, the only things that this fan is missing to be totally devoted to the god-emperor is skulls.

A really well painted space wolves army.

To Find space for everyone to play in the tournament the local historical miniatures wargames club “Strategikon” offered one of its tables so that an extra pair of players can face each other, the players and organizers had to make a short walk
(it’s only a few steps away from the shop that host's the tournament).
Here Mr. Panos Papadopoulos with his Son are participating in the tournament by leading…

…As one mind, the Tyranid force in the right side of this photo against the Tyranid force who are in the left side of this photo…

...Who are themselves led by the happy Tyranid couple who is showing to us the fruit of their union!

Back in the Fantasy Shop Cadaver (the bearded guy) ignores the dark sinister helmet who has made its appearance secretly on the table.

While his Imperial Fists have finally found a place where they can claim that the color in the power armor serves as camouflage – a yellow building!
(For the love of the emperor, who actually goes to war wearing yellow?)

The Autarch is the leader of the Eldar warhost because he has the “longest” spear…
Here he is on his bike “showing off” again to the poor guys
who has to walk (and fleet) by foot to go to war…

Challenge.

Accepted.

Fantasy shop, hosting place of this tournament (and many others) brings only the best quality merchandise, here you can clearly see that those skulls have no sign of any decay, the skulls don’t miss any teeth.

When the first round of battles ends the first round of food and drink start, here is Greece.

Riding in the Land on top of the Land raider

Yellow warriors.

One of the Genestealers has made a remarkable discovery, the nuclear silo hidden inside the fortress! And he (it) has called all the rest of his hive-pals to see the spectacular launch.

Somewhere around here… there must be the control pad for this turret, search again…

Wherever you go, you will always find a ninja, here a ninja is standing on the top of a Vendetta gunship (and completely ignoring things like G-Forces, acceleration, and/or gravity – what a ninja should be able to do actually)

When guns are not enough, Spiros uses other tricks left on his arsenal, He mercilessly unleash his known Hypnotism abilities to the Dark Eldar Raider driver.

Whatever is running in that river makes the vehicles get stuck in it, maybe the grey building in the end of it has something to do with it.

Those things are totally bizarre (like many other Tyranid organisms)
but they do at least march in a line and in good order!

See? The red carnifex didn’t eat all of its food (Termagants) the green carnifex did (lots of Termagants) and see how big it became (they call it the Tervigon now)

Children smiles and players make the grim darkness of the far future less grim and far less dark.

Andreas meets Anestis on the tournament and the Talarn Imperial Guard face the Space wolves space marines on the battlefield.

The complete “insult” as the top floor of the fortress is taken by the Dark Eldar.

From left to right: Stefanos (veteran Blood Angel) Lefteris (new Blood Angel) and Igni (Eldar spy)

The Tyranid couple is puzzled, another hint about the hive minds intelligence!

Stefanos gives Blood Angels fluff lessons to Mike that leaves him surprised!

Suffer not the witch to live!!! - The orange Cthulhu doll dressed like a witch
(probably it also weights as much as a duck!)

And the tourney reaches its end, here, the three winners, from left: 3rd place: Mihalis Skalkos, 2nd place: Pitsinis Haris, 1st place: Alexandros Karampinidis, and last the organizer: Takis Valeontis.

But Alexandros Karampinidis is the grand winner with a big difference in victory points, well done Alex!

Here is Alexandros with his friends, new talented players all in the Warhammer world, congratulations.

A bit later the shop is empty and the players head some on their homes, others for continuing the day and some propably on their planets by battlebarge, craftworld and at least one must have used a webway portal.

All that is left are the sound of the dice, miniatures movements and the mass cheers of the players who reminds us of the fun and that serves as a reminder and a hint for the next tournament where we will meet again and once more we will have the same amount of fun.

I would like to thank all the participants, players and organizers for helping in the coverage of the tournament.

See you all again.

Panayiotis.