Legion Wargaming club tournament.

Some weekends ago i decided to pay a visit to the new-founded Legion War gaming club in Ilioupoli. The club alongside with Boxes of war online store were holding a Warhammer 40.000 tournament and it was the best chance not only to take some photos from the new club but also from a 40k tournament in the new club.

While the Legion is a new place in the community the people behind it are devoted veteran miniature war gamers,  there is a lot of energy and ambition in their effort in making a club and so far this effort seems that it paid off, there were 14 players in the tournament (rare for this time of the year - if i may say so)

The Boxes of War online store also held a market day of their merchandise during the day, and they were also part of the organizers for the tournament.
 

24-3-2012 Warhammer 40k tournament in FS Viktoria.

It feels good to be back in the keyboard after some time, actually with so much work going on with my regular job it was quite hard to find time for the blog, but i sure missed writing and mumbling about toy soldiers and more importantly about the players that move them and give them life.

2nd independent club tournament report.

Hello people and happy new year.

The happy new year wish might have come a bit late but indeed the new year started with the best tournament that we could participate in for the wh40k community. The second Independent club tournament took place some days ago (last weekend actually) in the Stratos Vasilikos Hotel and the invulnerable camera was there with its lens ready to take photos, in the end of the report you will also find a link to download all of the photos from the tournament. You are free to re-post them anywhere with or without mention of the Invulnerable blog.

Doubles tournament in Marousi.

Its been a week after the "Kathimerini Incident" and the players were still discussing the subject and i guess they still do until now, that - and the fact that a new shop has opened in Marousi - a fantasy shop that actually just got transfered from Kifisia led to a over-poppulation on the doubles tournament that was hosted in that day.

More than ten pairs were gathered to play and some had to be turned away because there wasn't enough tables to accomodate them all, while this is sad it is also a good hint that the days with the 6 and 8 players on a tournament are long gone now, the hobby and the community is facing a rise in its numbers, even with the bad economic situation in Greece.

People stay more in their homes instead of going to clubs and waste money (well we still go to them but not that much) - warhammer is an expensive hobby but buying an army today means that you will be able to play with it for years ahead with just some upgrades usually with each new codex, would you be able to say the same thing with computer games? and in any case sitting behind your computer chatting on text with your co-players is as much social as what is happening on our community? reasons like this are to explain the rise in the players numbers.

Anyway, enough with my mumbling, lets get to see what happened on the doubles tournament.

Singles tournament in FS Kalithea 19-11-2011

I have to admit that from all the tournaments that i went to take photos and carve a post about the event, in that one i got as late as possible, the reason was staying wake late in the last night, a common problem i have with sleep, that is also the reason i play blood angels - vampires on power armor - as an aspiring vampire i hate i am getting trained to avoid the daylight and get more active on the night.

But anyway, you are not here to read my ranting about sleep and vampirism aint ya?
So here we go with photos and the usual... comments.

8-10-2011, taking the train to Kifisia.

Someone could say that the blog so far haven't visited every single place where a tournament in Greece can be held, this is true as in its short life of 4-5 months the Invulnerable mostly has covered events in the Fantasy shops of Kalithea and Victoria and the Games Corps in Halandi that started its activity right on the same month as this blog has gone online.

Mostly this was the reason (to start covering tournaments somewhere else too) why i choose to take the train to the north part of our city all the way to Kifisia in a boring 47 minuets (counted with stopwatch) journey to reach the shop in time.

Another reason for going to the tournament was that i was planning to play in this tournament too, packaging your army and photographic equipment can be tricky and the SLR camera got cramped together with the Stormraven and the infantry with the IC recorder, i run out of space (and hands) for the video camera and the tripod so i couldn't record any video for this tournament (and you were cooking popcorn already huh?).

Someone told me a day before that i should bring my army too in case not too many players were to come and i was actually waiting for quite a few gamers to arrive too because of the distance the shop has to the city center, when i arrived on the mall where the Fantasy Shop is i found only the Overmind, Takis Valeontis who would be also the Judge for the tournament was there.

1-10-2011 Back to Victoria

It was nice getting back to Fantasy Shop Victoria for a tournament, it isn't just the fact that i have connected as a player the meaning of Warhammer 40.000 with the Fantasy shop in Victoria (we old players know why this place is important to the hobby) but it is also the fact that many of my old time wh40k friends are still there, including the hideous Tyranid-thing that so far masks itself as a human being and organizer of many tournaments, i am speaking about Takis Valeontis if you haven't guessed already - the Overmind.

This time the Fantasy shop announced the start of a ranking system for the players that take part in their tournaments, the players will keep their scores from every tournament that they will participate in and we will have a more general view of the players level and ability, the Invulnerable blog will follow closely the scores as they will be posted on a separate page on the blog that can be found here:

http://invulnerable40k.blogspot.com/p/fantasy-shop-ranking.html

With all that in mind i woke up quite late to get to the tournament, the first thing i did was call the Overmind and ask him to what round they were still in, he answered that the players were just finishing the first round and to my question of how many players were there the answer were twelve, i quickly grabbed my SLR and the video camera and headed as quickly as i could to the tournament!.

25-09-2011 Independent club tournament, part three.

The last round of the tournament started and the place was half full of players since almost everyone went outside for a snack, drink, burger or all three of that. A little bit afterwards we got back into the hotel and for the one last round that would reveal the best player in both gaming and sportsmanship.


The third mission was Annihilation and the deployment was Spearhead, with the armies deploying with their flanks covered by the edges of the battlefield players were able to defend their weaker units better and bring forward their more tough units.

So lets see the pairs on the third round.

25-09-2011 Independent club tournament, part two.

With the Players still thinking of the battle they gave some minuets ago the next round started, this time they had to compete in the Seize ground mission with a Dawn of war deployment. Seize ground means that the troops choices in each army will be the most valuable pieces and whoever has the most (and a proper transport for them) has a greater chance of victory or at least greater number of assets to use for his victory.

Dawn of War meant that in the first round all those troop choices will be - probably - safe from enemy fire, this means that the players have a good chance if both play defensively to get at least one or two objectives in the first rounds, the whole deal will be how they will be able to hold them and conquer their opponent's objectives.

What was also interesting in the second round of the tournament was the small encounter with miss Georgia Lemou, a Journalist (a real Journalist) from the Kathimerini newspaper (the Greek version of Herald Tribune) who came to make a report about this "Warhammer" thing, i have to admit that while i tried to take an interview from her she ended up taking an interview from me, you can read the interview in the end of the report.

The other thing was that the tournament included a best painted army award and the four best armies were exhibited in the end of the second round, there are photos of each of the four armies who were nominated from the players as the best and of course the one who got the best army award. See all of that in the report coming below along with videos, photos and the usual "comments".

25-09-2011 Independent club tournament, part one.

Usually shops run tournaments and events, the reason is quite obvious, a shop who sells warhammer and miniature wargames usually makes sure that it will have some tables and sometimes quite a lot of tables for the players who get to the shop to be able to play the games they buy from the shop, its a very understandable and successful method to satisfy the players need for gaming space and also promote the hobby.

What was different with this tournament is that it was held from independent clubs and not from a shop, while it isn't so rare for an independent club to run a miniature wargames tournament it isn't the most common thing, what is really an important thing here is that player clubs as Espairos (ΕΣΠΑΙΡΟΣ) and Battle bunker - the two clubs that organized the event are motivated completely by their love for the games, this the players know and they are attracted from it - hence the latest tournament attracted no less than 36 players and many people who just came to see the games making it one of the biggest ever tournaments to take place in Greece.

Espairos, one of the two hosting clubs for the tournament is an official gaming club for role playing games, boardgames and miniature wargames, they have their own gaming hall with multiple rooms ready for gaming. Espairos is the one of the oldest gaming clubs in Greece and in ten years of activity has housed more than three hundred souls that share the same passion for gaming. You can find their forum and community in the following website.

http://www.espairos.gr/portal/

Doubles tournament at Games Corps 18-9-2011

Last weekend we went to Halandri again for a doubles tournament, this time i had the privilege of playing  with my friend Antonis - Azrael and also a Failed Chargers team player. Βecause of me playing too on the tournament i didn't had the time to take many photos or cover the event as much as the last one (in the last one i took almost seven hundredth photos (battery of my Olympus E520 almost run dry) and notes about every player and match!).


In this doubles tournament eight teams or pairs - answered the call to arms, that is 16 players, including the shop owner!, lets see who those 16 players and their teams were.

Games Corps Tournament 4-9-2011

As the grots keep thinking if they have to charge and capture the Leman russ in the Looterz web comic, the Invulnerable Blog ventured to Games Corps in Halandri for yet another tournament report, the first one for the new season, included in this one - as for the rest of the tournaments for now on - with your request too from the Poll that we have in the previous months are some interviews - what the players have to say about their matches and even more some commentary on the matches from the organizer: John Parks Papadopoulos and the Invulnerable reporter.

16-7-2011 Tournament for the Boxes.

E-Shopping in miniature war gaming is not news in Greece, it has been a fact for some years from the big shops who held e-shopping as an alternative method to buy stuff from them, what we didn't have was a shop completely based on the web.

The new e-shop that just opened its website some days ago came in to fill the space in the market of a completely web based shop and make another step into the merchandising of our hobby, this new shop named: Boxes of War, arranged and held together with the Game Corps shop a warhammer 40k tournament as an opening celebration for the Boxes of War website and for a mean to meet the people who run the shop who - as you should have guessed already are gamers and enthusiasts themselves.

A strike at the railway at the weekend almost stopped the Invulnerable camera from getting to the event, almost - but late enough to arrive at exactly the point where the tournament was starting and the Boxes of War tournament was already filled with players. Neither The strike or the heat stopped fourteen (14) players! and several spectators to come and take a day free of the normal fuzz of the ordinary world and sink deep into the enjoyment of the grim darkness of war (box of war?) that only Warhammer can provide.

Camera on, Battery full and a Free Beverage, everything is set for another photo report.

 

Find the Boxes of War e-shop here: http://www.boxesofwar.com/store/

9/10-7-2011 two days tournament - Day two.

With our heads still buzzing from the first day of the tournament we got all together again for the second day, two more games of warhammer 40k would bring up the winner of the tournament and much more gaming enjoyment for all of the participants.

9/10-7-2011 two days tournament - Day one.

Sometimes you like something so much that when it happens and even if it takes a complete day you sill want some more, so when you know that you will find the thing you like the next day too its even better, this goes as the truth with the two days tournament that was held last weekend on the Viktoria fantasy shop, if you liked the tournament as an event in the first day there was the second day for even more.

Even better with a two days tournament is that you can review your gaming and strategy from day one to play even better on the second day - see what errors you did in the first two battles with your army and try to do correct them in the next day. (The tournament had four battles, two battles on the first day and two battles on the second one, each player with 2000 points armies)

Kalithea tournament 25-6-2011

Last weekend on the 25th we held another tournament in Kalithea's Fantasy Shop, one of the most important factors of the day were the usual Greek Sunny weather who got the temperature quite high but it didn't stop the players from enjoying the game and i think we all gained - again - from the experience, including the shops who sold water bottles.

For the record the tournament brought 14 players, four of them playing Dark Eldar (the grim darkness is indeed very dark - and grim) two Imperial guard players, one loyalist guard and one heretic (one of the players were new to the 40k scene - you can guess who it was) one Ork player (they are rare, but they cause pain) two Grey Knight players ( i wonder if you add them if they would make one black knight, hmmmm) one Blood Angel (me) one Space Marine and one Space Wolf.

A Weekend of Tournaments, Part two.

The next day another tournament was held on Halandri, Games Corps, sleeping got me a bit late and i arrived once again - at the start of the second round.

Doubles Tournament 21-5-2011 Victoria.

Friends, the series aired on NBC on the United States from September 1994 to May 2004, it also aired on over 100 other countries including Greece, the series recieved positive reviews throughout most of its run, was nominated for 63 Primetime Emmy Awards was regarded one of the finest shows in television history.

The show was funny, had sharp writing and had good actors, but what made it so successful was that it was about friendship and viewers could relate to their personal experiences.

Friends are one of the most important part of our lives and the show was about that, if you ask me - that's the reason why it got so successful.

And yes, this post IS about the Doubles Tournament from last weekend.

Warhammer 40.000, Kalithea tournament, 7-5-2011

May 7, 2011.

It is waiting in front of me and within line of sight, 
It is also in charge distance.
It got a lot of cheese too.

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.