GW Silas Creek Crossing Grand Opening

DNA FOR THE DNA GOD!  Khornate Kroot say "Buy more models!"

The Games Workshop store over in Winston-Salem has been open for a while, but today were having their official Grand Opening.  This weekend Saturday was going to be freer than Sunday, so I went on out for some kibbitzing, to take a stab at the painting contests, hopefully get some 500pt games in with some new folks and if I was lucky try my hand at the little bits-provided conversion contest.

No luck getting into the conversion stuff, that was chock-full all day, and produced some very fun models, kudos to all those involved.  My idea bits permitting was to do a CSM champion in the process of receiving the final "gift" that pushed him over to spawndom.  Alas.  Maybe I'll do him up anyways sometime.

I also somehow neglected to bring my dice and templates.  Bad gamer, bad.  At some point in repacking my stuff for the day to make it more compact and efficient to carry around that box got left behind.  So I bought a dice cube there, but at some point packing up from my first game it got left behind, never to be seen again.  I blame all the skulls on those realm of battle boards.  I guess they get hungry.

Lots of cool models and stiff competition in the painting categories.  I believe there were 45 entries all told, including the Khornate Kroot above.  Don't remember whose they were, but they're my kind of scum! (edit - Tristan Meridith did the Kroot)

Overview.  Hey, I recognize some of those!  What stunning Orks!

One of my favorites.  Voted for it for single, and it won that category IIRC.

Yarrick, with a cool if unhealthy looking banner bearer.  I think that laser monocle might be affecting his vision more than he admits.

What a lovely battlewagon!

My biker (left) taking a ride with a Wazdakka conversion (right) while my Kommandos skulk behind.

Tzeentcian rough riders (these guys would make good pals for the Scythaik!) and a nice Ultramarine squad using Armorcast weapon effects.  In the background you can see Jeffrey's Thunderwolf squad, which won the squad category.

A number of walkers were represented, including two DV helbrutes. 

Trygon with a very eye-catching scheme.  It worked, as he won the Large model category.

Nice vendetta.  Nothing too fancy maybe, but well done.  I'd be proud to have this fly my Merkans around.  I guess those wing transfers come with the kit?  That must be a huge sheet!

Iron Hands drop pod with its own dedicated servitor.  Nice touch.  I think he plays the in-flight musak during descent as well as handling the stormbolter after the doors pop.  But I guess for marines, bolter fire is music too.

What it says on the card.

The store's starter set demo forces.  Personally I want to see the Dark Angels and Skaven go at it.

And the mines of Moria too.  Fool of a Took!

Neat Eldar force setting up for a game after my first one finished.  I think I see now where I left that dice cube.  Oh well.

Jeffrey's Eldar vs. the United Colors of Dakkaton.  Jeffrey was my first opponent, and the painter of the winning Thundercav from an earlier pic.  He also won the WHFB lord battle bash.

I didn't get any pics of my own games; it was pretty crowded with people waiting for games so I didn't want to slow things down any more than with my unpacking/packing of my IG horde.  For 40K we were doing 500pts with normal force org, book missions with bonus points that didn't count for the mission but did for the event.  My best score was +8 bonus points, some guy won with +15 bonus points!  Or maybe he lost and got +18, I don't know.  But I suspect he won his game.

My first game as mentioned was against Jeffrey's Altaioc Eldar.  I brought a Primaris Psyker, two platoons of infantry (Command + two inf squads each) and a missile launcher squad.  Jeffrey had two squads of pathfinders, wraithlord and a farseer.  My psyker never got a power off, but never killed himself either, with consistent rolls of 10 or 11 on the 3d6 tests caused by Runes of Warding.  While the Warp was forgiving, the wraithlord was not and dispatched the psyker and his escorting cultists.  Later the wraithlord advanced on my firebase but failed his charge and finally fell to missile fire.  Hmm, we seem to have forgotten wraithsight rolls too.  One of my command squads did manage to make it up the table and flamer his pathfinders off of one objective, netting me the win.  Both boards I played on were pretty light on terrain - for the first game we had a tower (the one pictured above), a woods and a small fantasy cottage.  My second game had a fairly sizeable ruin, a woods, and three craters, a little better.  Glad I decided against bringing the rough riders.

Second game was against Justin, who brought Tau.  Superhero in a FW special crisis suit, two min squads of Fire Warriors, and four stealth suits.  Since I had misplaced that cube, I used Justin's dice, and they were pretty hot!  They helped me make a lot of hits and saves, though those high rolls weren't so good for our leadership rolls!  I routed his stealth suits, who fled off the table after getting only one round of shooting in.  His HQ and a fire warrior squad also routed, though both rallied.  Shame that.  On my side, my cultist platoon blob and psyker routed off the table early, as did my missile launchers later in the game, both of which were my main hopes against his 40K Tony Stark.  Remember that sequence in the first Iron Man movie where Stark walks through all those guys who plink off of him with their AKs?  The Scythiak felt like that without the psyker's psychic shriek and the cultist meltaguns to cause him problems.  Fun game, with crazy dice and coming down to some desperate assaults vs. the supersuit.  A little more luck and I could have taken him, but he lingered on with one wound.  Curses, foiled again!

I had a good time, just wish that they had had more space, or even some extra tables set up outside.  The guys running it seem nice, chatted with them a bit, good stock levels including Black Library stuff.  Chatted with other folks at the event, met new folks, reconnected with some I hadn't seen in a while.  Especially after seeing some assembled Warp Talons I was even more tempted to buy the kit, but managed to resist for now.  I think my hobby budget needs a little while to recover.  Maybe I can get them for Christmas...