23-10-2011 Games Corps Tournament.

I have a big problem with sleep, my work as an illustrator means that i will get myself working until very late, thus usually i get up late on weekends, the weekend of 22-23 of October - that included another tournament on the Games Corps store in Halandri was no exception.

I ended up waking late and after another hour of traveling to the tournament i found ten warhammer 40k players already on the second round of the event, i was pleased also to find Dimitris, the owner of the Avalon shop that sadly closed some time ago, lets see what Dimitris had to say about the Avalon and his hobby experience and we will start with the tournament right after that with the tournament.

Invulnerable:What armies do you play?
Dimitris: I play both warhammer fantasy and 40k but mostly warhammer fantasy with Brettonians, Daemons, Orks, Skaven, Tomb kings and in 40k i play Imperial guard, Tyranids, Space Marines and Necrons (quite a lot of armies). 
Inv: About the Necrons, they are getting a new codex quite soon, have you seen the new photos from the Necrons? the new units?

Dimitris: No, i haven't,  warhammer 40k don't excite me as much as warhammer fantasy.

Inv: It doesn't excite you that much anymore, how so?

Dimitris: I just like warhammer fantasy more.

Inv: Because of the game rules?

Dimitris: No, warhammer fantasy is a more strategic game, 40k is more about statistics, fantasy has more depth into its strategy. 

Inv: I guess it has more detail.

Dimitris: It has detail, for example the magic system that changes the things a lot and the movement phase where if you do it wrong nothing will reach anything.

Inv: Have you played the 5th edition of 40k?

Dimitris: yes, i just find the warhammer fantasy superior to 40k as a game. It is better than 40k for me on the three last editions of those games. 

Inv: and where did you used to play?

Dimitris: On the Avalon game store, i had the shop until this July, i played both games a lot so that i could show them to the players. I couldn't pick one of the two games when i was a store manager, now that i am solo i can choose to play the one game that i like the most.

Inv: I see that there is a migration of players from shops that close to the shops who are now nearer to them. For example your players as i see now come here and on other shops.
Dimitris: Not only that, players seek independent shops, something outside of the big franchises.
Inv: Yes, for example the Games Corps gathers a lot of people as also the Dragon phoenix Inn and the Independent club tournament had an astounding number of participants.

Dimitris: Yes it got organized by Yiannis here (John) and the Battle bunker guys and Espairos. 

Inv: Thank you for your comments.

I would like to stay to that last thing that we talked about, that the players seek (as Dimitris says) independent shops to play in, as is the case with the Games Corps, Dragon phoenix inn, Independent club tournament, Strategy hall etc, i seriously doubt that, i don't think that it matters to the players who owns the club or if it is a franchise to a big chain of shops, as long as the owner provides quality (on everything) and good prices, on the other hand an independent shop is more likely to create a dedicated bonded group of players.  

Now lets see who the players were on the tournament.

Christos Spirou (left) came once again with his hordes of Orks and Dimitris Chondrogiannis, a player appearing for the first time in a tournament covered by the Invulnerable brought his Tyranid hordes.

Ektoras Stavrakakis (left) brought his imperial guard once more into a tournament, the next one in a row after the tournament in Kifisia and Ilias (right) brought his Blood Angels, interestingly enough to me Ilias deployed a heavy mechanized force of blood angels with rhinos, razorbacks, land raider, vindicator but also three Furioso dreadnoughts! coming out from drop pods.

Kostyuk Alex with his dark angels death wing and a red bandana came to this tournament and Ektoras (right) was playing Ultramarines, nicely painted too, and even brought Marneus Calgar.

Sannousi Marwan brought another version of Dark Angels, the Ravenwing company (stubborn space marines - that go Vroom-Vroooooom) Kostas Papaheimonas (right) brought his Dark Eldar once more.

And even more new players to appear on the Invulnerable blog, to the left veteran player (12 years of striding the war fields of the grim darkness of the far future) Stelios brought his Orks and Marinos brought his Dark Eldar with some Eldar Falcon playing as dark Eldar void bombers (quite a good selection for proxy models).

 The report starts with the prelude of an awesome confrontation, the Deathwing space marine terminators are readying themselves to face the Ultramarines first company, the dark angels choose the best camouflage for the situation, their color almost matches that of the terrain!.

And here the opponents arrive, the Ultramarines land raider opens its assault ramp like it is readying itself for a big bite of its enemy, but are its teeth hard enough for this bite?



Maybe it is, that's why it was carrying Marneus Calgar and the first company terminators, the Deathwing terminators ready themselves to receive the charge! For the Lion!



And the Clash is on! blue and bone white terminator armor parts fly everywhere, the sounds of the thunder hammers crushing upon tactical dreadnought armor makes the place quake like the halls of Hephaestus ironsmith!



High speed camera catches scenes of the bloody melee, note the Deathwing terminator in front of the Ultramarines land raider with the lighting claws, he looks like he is trying to enter the tank and blow it apart from inside - please GW if you are going to make some new rules include such awesome details like boarding enemy transports...

 

One against all, Marneus Calgar stand and falls alone in the end, the Deathwing terminators were too hard, or too many for his terminators. 

 The guys playing in the tables of Games Corps. 

 What can make a Leman russ battle tank to come upside down? a Furioso dreadnought and its melta gun!

The Genestealer Broodlord opens his arms towards the sky and prays for reinforcements and even before he can close his arms (all four of them) the Mycetic spore lands and from its insides two Zoanthropes step forward.

That Mycetic spore along with the one before belongs to Dimitris Chondrogiannis Tyranid collection, when Games Workshop fails to deliver something the players want, it is time for creativeness.
(by the way, it reminds me a bit of the mountain from the film Close encounters of the 5th kind)

 Those orks seem that they don't worry too much about the Tyranid monstrosity right next to them.

 And this is because of the reinforcements right next to them, a Ork warboss on a bike is more than enough to deal with any oversize Tyranid organism! if his weapons fail he can always just pull the throttle towards the beast and aim straight at it.
 

The Dark Eldar venom with its venomous multi shot weapons is a good weapon to bring down the bikers of the Ravenwing, their toughness of 5 means nothing to its 4+ wound causing weapons, the bikers weapons ofcourse is a reason for the Venom to worry.

A little stroll around the shop brings me in front of the new additions to the Games Corps, modeling kits - Tanks, some fighter jets and a WW2 German battleship as well as some others not shown here. Modeling kits are ideal for conversions, a nice history lesson or just a reason to glue something different.

One of the Hellhounds managed to destroy the blood angel Vindicator, the question is: the Hellhound in the left or the Hellhound on the right did the dirty job? i guess it was the one in the right, the other one forgot to install its flamer fuel canisters.

A drink cup (empty), a water bottle, a whole glass box that stores just a single green dice, a large 35mm base with nothing on it and many imperial guard causalities, what can you tell about this picture?

The Deathwing terminators from the previous turn on the transports after killing all of the terminators and the Ultramarine chapter master.

  Dark Eldar raiders and ork battlewagons .

 When everything fails call the air force, even if it is a bit obsolete, its still the air force.

If you don't stop the Furioso dreadnoughts that come out of the drop pods in the start of the game they will surely bring havoc to your lines, especially if you play imperial guard and have lots of infantry.

A brake from the games for Kostas, but once he sees his superiors (the Invulnerable reporter) he never forgets the proper salute.

 An imperial guard battalion, it can all fit inside a plastic disk.

Nice picture, had to post it, no comment, its Kostyuk Alex (right) with a friend.

How many times have you seen up close a model of a Warhound Titan? this one was resting in John's office, had to take a picture of it, and...

Of the freehand painting on the titans leg, made by Dimitris Malisovas, you can find Dimitris blog and painting services in the Guerilla art studio, there is a banner of the studio in the front page of the Invulnerable blog, and here: http://guerillaartstudio.com/

Speaking of paintjobs lets look a little bit closer some of Kostas Papahimonas Dark Eldar miniatures, Kostas army was selected as one of the four best painted armies in the Independent club tournament, if you don't agree with that the incubi are sure to make you change your mind. 

 Another wonderful selection of miniatures from Kostas army is those dark Eldar guys and their venom, their bases are awesome too, note the red interior of the cockpit due to red lighting inside it! awesome!

Christos spirou Ork battlewagons play chicken against the Ultramarine Land raiders, turn the vehicle at the last moment... or face the S10 hits of the deffrolla!.

A cheap trick from Marwan, Dimitris leans towards the table and Marwan suddenly turns the flamer template towards his face!

Dark Eldar against Dark Eldar in this table, the red cult against the green.

Ektoras is posing with his deployed Imperial guard army, they cover half the table indeed...

And draw the attention of John Parks.

One of the orks is doing a wheelie! no point in doing a Waaagh if you don't do it in style.

 
Lord Macrage, Master of the Ultramarines and of the power fists.

You my sons have done your job well today, now it is time for storage again.

So after 3 games of warhammer and many beers for the players it is time for...

The group shot! now i am thinking if all of them would fit under a real size small blast marker, oops! now you know why we take those group shots for the Invulnerable in the end of the tournaments!.
Anyways, i really had fun guys at this event, good gaming spirit, may we meet again on the next!.

But Ektoras turns back after the group shot ceremony to continue hunting orks, the Imperium would be proud, as long as there are greenskins in the same table Ektoras cannot stop for celebrations...

Especially when the Orks have broken through the imperial lines and they are causing a massacre...

Final results for the tournament is that Alex Kostyuk with his Dark Angels Deathwing won the first place, second is Christos Spyrou with Orks and on the third place Dimitris Chondrogiannis with Tyranids, Christos had several other successes on the past and i was waiting from him to get a good position, Dimitris did a good start on a tournament covered by the Invulnerable.

Be seeing you soon with much more action.
Have fun and take care.

For the Invulnerable.
Panayiotis.