Updating this blog is not a strongpoint of mine.

Ah well. I’m unlikely to get any better at doing it, so I’ll settle for erratic posts whenever I feel I have something worth writing about.

2016 is the first year where I’ve been committed to playing 40K at a competitive level. I started playing competitively in September last year, and have continued through to the ITC open which was at the end of November.

In 2015 I played in the following events:

Event – Month – Style – Comp – Army – Placing

Scottish Team Championship – September 2015 – Team Tournament – ETC – Tyranids – 2nd of 6 Teams

Rapid Fire – October 2015 -Singles Tournament – Space Marines – Rapid Fire – 19th of 36 Players

Winter War – November 2015 – Singles Tournament – Space Marines – Rapid Fire – 5th of 30 Players

Counter Attack – November 2015 – Singles Tournament – Imperial Knights – 2nd of 12 Players

I was happy with my start on the 40k Scene, but my performance wasn’t sufficient to qualify me for the Scotland Team, a point which I’m not surprised about. I was new to the scene with middling results. I decided however, that 2016 was the year where I would rectify that, and committed to upping my game.

In 2016 I played in the following events:

Dark Millennium 3 – February 2016 – Singles Tournament – ETC – War Convocation – 5th of 32 Players

Stronghold IV – April 2016 – Singles Tournament – Semi-Highlander – Space Marines – 5th of 16 Players

Eye Over Scotland – June 2016 – Singles Tournament – ETC – Dark Angels/Space Marines – 1st of 10 Players

Caledonian Revolution – July 2016 – Singles Tournament – ETC – Dark Angels/Space Marines – 11th of 76 Players

Firestorm – August 2016 – Singles Tournament – Firestorm – Space Marines – 7th of 18 Players

Rapid Fire – October 2016 – Singles Tournament – Rapid Fire 2.0 – Space Marines – 13th of 34 Players

Winter War – November 2o16 – Singles Tournament – Rapid Fire 2.0 – Space Marines – 1st of 22 Players

ITC Scottish Open – November 2016 – Singles Tournament – ITC – Space Marines – 2nd of 18 Players

I’m certainly much happier with my performance this year. Rapid Fire of 2016 was my biggest disappointment, failing to much improve my performance, despite taking a list that I thought would be great in the pack. Given that I managed to win an event with much the same list and the same pack, I think it was down to me failing to perform with it.

I’ve been using Centurions since June this year, in one form or another. Assaults in June/July and Devastators since then. I’ll be continuing in this manner for Caledonian Uprising which is 100 players in January, and likely the same for Dark Millennium 4 in February. I certainly feel like I’m getting better with the list, and hopefully a good performance at Uprising will help me achieve a place on the Scotland ETC Team.

Outside of Tournaments, I’ve achieved quite a lot in generic hobby terms. I’ve been running an Escalation League at my local club (Dundee Wargames) which has been running since around August, and boasts around 15 players, and will hopefully continue to go strong until it ends in September next year. It’s provided me a great outlet to play smaller games, and to use my Tyranids, who suffer from a thorough lack of competitive viability.

I’ve also been very graciously invited by Caledonian Deathwatch Radio to star as a Co-Host/Shit Talker Supreme, and it’s been a great experience. I play 40K because I love talking about the hobby, and the podcast has given me a fantastic outlet to do that.

In painting and modelling terms, 2016 has been a slow year for me. I built and painted an entire War Convocation in February for Dark Millennium, and amassed a small Deathwatch Force when Death Masque was released, but beyond that the majority of my hobby has been focussed on adapting existing models and armies for upcoming events.

In terms of Goals for 2017, I’ve got a few that I’m hoping to achieve:

Podium at an event with 30+ Players

Play in a Team Event

Win a 2 Day Event of any Kind

I think that the hardest of those will actually be the Team Event, as there aren’t presently any in Scotland. If I qualify for the ETC then that’s that ticked off immediately, but if I don’t, it will be forcing me to go down to England to play in one.

Podium at a 30+ Player Event is something that I’ve yet to achieve, despite having been to 5 in the past 18 Months. In 2017 I should have a plethora of options for it, Caledonian Uprising, Dark Millennium 4, Caledonian Revolution and Rapid Fire should all crest 30 players, and I intend on going to all of them. I’d also accept a podium at a Team Event with 8+ Teams as a rough equivalent to this.

Winning a 2 Day Event is definitely one that’s eluded me also. I won 2 events this year, but both were single day affairs. Winning a single day event is certainly much easier than a 2 day event since you play a lot less games, and generally the calibre of competition is much lower. I should have 4 or 5 opportunities to complete this one in 2017, and will be making full efforts to do so.