Ohhhhh HERE IT COMES!

CA17 is shaping up nicely. With some really fantastic talented TO’s at the helm of what will be the highlight to any gamers year.

Its time to get your fix of the castle and all it has to offer.

Systems on offer
Warhammer 9th Age
KoW
Malifaux

Players Pack
Warhammer 9th Age
KoW TBC
Malifaux TBC

Welcome all,

CA17 Sci-Fi is shaping up nicely. With some really fantastic talented TO’s at the helm of what will be the highlight to any gamers year.

Sci-Fi this year will be all Sci-Fi and nothing but Sci-Fi.

40k 8th ed: the new flashy system will get its first run.
Epic Armageddon: (that’s 6mm 40k Epic) Australia’s best generals will battle it out over the two days, but the real competition will be if anyone can top “White Horses” at Karaoke!
Infinity: This highly entertaining tight skirmish game will make its return to the CA grandstand. Under the helm of Gav the scene in Newcastle has never been stronger. Players are flying from all corners of Aus to have a tilt at this.

Players Pack
40k TBA
Epic TBA
Infinity

Register to attend here

Welcome all.

Castle Assault is back for its 9th year!

With the demise of Warhammer the event has taken on a new path. What is becoming the norm the player don’tchange but the systems do. So to cater for the needs of the many this year we will have many events… well 4 to be exact.

Warhammer 9th Age
Kings of War
Malifaux
Flames of War

With only limited seating the events are given set seats if they dont fill them it goes to the next system.

FAQ:

Will Castle Assault be able to uphold with such a mix of systems?? Hell yes as all the players that you have come to know and love are still all in the one place they will just be playing a different system.

Is CAMoMA still a thing. Yes it is.

Can Fury still sing Mr Bright Side and make me wet my pants?? Yes he can and will.

Will Kendall say something completely random? We can only hope.

Will Nic actually win an event…? Sadly no as he is running the event.

Can Jack drink? Some say they have never seen him have more than 1 beer the entire day. Tis true..

The Players Pack for Castle Assault has been released and people are quickly signing up!

Check it out here – Players Pack

This will form the key rules that the games will function under, and the scoring system to deteermine players placings.

Register your interest either by email – rojo_hughes@hotmail.com

Or, on the Warmagerau website post for Castle Assault – Here

The Castle Assault Warhammer Fantasy Tournament is back for 2014!

The event has grown so large, that this year Castle Assault is solely dedicated to Warhammer Fantasy. We have simply outgrown the amount of space and resources we have to include any other gaming systems.

We are capping the event at 100 players, making it our biggest year ever. This year the event will have two TO’s, both Rojo and Kent Fury, to ensure that everything runs smoothly and players get the gaming experience that they are looking for. Whether we reach the full 100 or not is unknown, but at Cancon this year 124 players competed in the country’s biggest 8th Edition Fantasy event to date. We know that whatever level of attendance is achieved, everyone who comes along will go away with a huge sense of satisfaction from the gaming and comraderie experienced.

Castle Assault 2014 – Here comes fun!

Rojo.

Well, here we are at the conclusion of another amazing weekend of Warhammer in Newcastle.

Thank You’s

This event has got so much bigger than we ever imagined it would. I’m just relieved to find that we can pull the whole thing off with few problems. This is only possible with a lot of help from a lot of people.

We have to thank the amazing Kent Fury for putting this event on and doing a stellar job at making sure it is much more than just a Fantasy tournament. The awesome fun, partying and shenanigans are largely his doing!!! He does so much work for CA and the Newcastle Legions club too. He is a large part of why we have a vibrant and growing wargaming scene in Newcastle.

Once again, ChromeDog, Will, needs to be thanked. His work getting supplies from Cessnock Slayers with Kent, Darius and I was crucial to the tournaments success. I’m glad that this year we were able to lighten his load a lot and that he actually got to play. Well done Will on your first Fantasy Tournament.

The Cessnock Slayers provide roughly half our terrain and tabletops, so the event wouldn’t happen without their help. If you are ever in the Cessnock/Maitland area on a Sunday you might want to consider dropping in to the Cessnock Leagues Club for some gaming. Check out their threads in the Clubs Section on Wargamerau.

I have to thank the Infernal Muppets and the Mancavers for bringing some tables of terrain as well. We wanted CA to have some really nice looking tables and these guys contributed.

Other thanks need to go to people like Darius (especially for prividing the amazing Best in Race trophies), Simon Wood, our anonymous comp judges (you did well. Marking nearly 70 lists is quite time consuming) and Mick, the Gallipoli Legions Club Manager who allows us so much freedom and gets his staff to do a great job for us.

Results

Friday Night –

Many of us met at the Legions Club on Friday night for some beers and dinner and to set up the final half of the tables (There was an 18th birthday party going on until 9ish that we had to accomodate. They were really nice though)

It was a good way to start the weekend. Several of us went out to the Kent afterwards too. Mitch, Sean and I kicked on till fairly late.

Saturday –

Day 1 Morning came along and people began to show up and the excitement grew greatly.

It was a day of some great battles by players and the beers were flowing pretty freely by 10 or 11 O’Clock.

A great “all you can eat” bistro meal was put on by the club. I heard that it was pretty tasty.

At the completion of Day 1 we had Mick Ferraro on top with Empire with 53 Battle Points. Second was Alex Treble with Lizardmen on 51.50, Third was Pawel Sajewicz with High Elves on 50.50 and Marcel Fischer with Warriors of Chaos on 48.

Next stop was the Station Hotel for Karaoke. I don’t think the place has ever seen anything like a wargamer invasion before. There were some great performances and a lot of fun had. Honourable mentions must go to Sam Moore, Kent for his third year of Mr Brightside (but topping it off by crowd surfing whilst he sang), the Wollongronks singing Wonderwall, Nick Roy and Alex singing some N’sync, Mitch and Jamie and others singing Aladdins – A Whole New World and there were more….

After this my night gets a little hazy and others will have to fill you in.

Got woken next morning by Fury and had a couple of coffees and a great breaky at the little cafe under the venue. I was actually feeling really good. Much better than Sat morning (the hangover and tiredness kicked in later).

Sunday –

Anyway, Sunday happened, and we got a result. Here they are:

So our overall winner was Mr. Alex Treble with the new Lizardmen. Well done mate. Much deserved. (BTW the army looks great. Thanks Rowan for lending it to him!)

Big congratulations to all the winners.

Best Sport – Adam Raszewski
Best Painting – Roy Diprose
Sunday Club Challenge – Wollongronks
3rd – Marcel Fischer
2nd – Nick Legrand
1st – Alex Treble

Thanks everyone for playing in the right spirit and making my job easy. Sorry anyone that had rules questions I wasn’t fully on top of. I think we got most of them resolved adequately.

Anyone that has an interest in the pictures and videos from Castle Assault should like our Facebook page. There’s quite a lot on there. Make sure to have a look through the “Recent Posts By Others on Castle Assault” section to, as that’s where the posts by others have ended up and where a lot of the videos are.

If anyone has pics or videos or stories from the event, please post them up on here.

Looking forward to CA2014 (80+ players here we come).

Rob.

So, the lists are in for Castle Assault and have been sent off to the Judges to be marked for a composition score. From what I saw when compiling them all, we have a range of lists from just scraping in and hard as nails, to some really varied and interesting lists and a couple of fluffy fun lists as well. The majority seem to fall into that 3 to 4.5 area as it probably should be.

The scores will come back from our 3 judges and I’ll do some statistical trickery with them to give everyone a score between 0 and 6, with the list deemed to be the fluffiest getting a 7.

It takes a lot of work to get these scores sorted out. Firstly the lists need to be checked for legality (and I think there were only 3 with small problems). Then they are all compiled into one standardised document (The most time consuming bit). Once we have all three judges’ scores back, we don’t just average them. I put my own score down as well and then the most outlying score is removed and then an average worked out for the 3 and 4 totals. The real score is then worked out from between these two scores. After that the scores are ranked and graphed and minor adjustments made to give the field a more even distribution.

(This means that you may bring the same list as last year and get a different score if more people have taken softer or harder lists. Remember, this is a handicapping system, not an absolute label that can be pinned to a certain list)

What Armies are Coming?

The table below shows the breakdown of armies that will be seen (one list is still overdue, so there are 69 there):

 The real surprise is probably the number of Wood Elf armies that are coming. It’s great to see! (I can also let you know that we have a Forest Dragon amongst them)

Thank you everyone that got your lists to me in timely fashion. It really makes the job easier.

I’ll see you guys in just one more week,

Rojo.

It’s nearly time for the Army Lists for Castle Assault to be submitted. Lists should be sent to my email address, rojo_hughes@hotmail.com, by midnight on Sunday the 6^th of October. Here are a few pointers:

• Why is timing so important for list submission?
  For Castle Assault we use a team of at least 3 judges for marking the composition score for each list. There are a couple of considerations, from an organisers point of view, that we need some time to account for. Each list needs to be checked by me for errors and to make sure that the points add up correctly. Then I retype all of the lists into a standard format to make the task easier for the judges who have 60+ lists to mark. This step also reflects the need to keep each lists owner anonymous.
• What format should I submit the list in?
  The list should really be in Word, PDF, or Excel. Things like Notepad and HTML will be accepted, but are a little bit more difficult. Army Builder and the like are fine, but very importantly – It must have the Magic Lores for each of your mages identified!!! (Last year I had at least 3 or 4 that had no Lore for their mages, which makes marking the lists very difficult. Different Lores will affect comp scores and if there is none listed I guess we’ll have to assume that they are taking Death Magic )
  *p.s. Pasting your list into the content of the email is not the best way to submit it. I can obviously copy and paste it, but it takes a bit longer and your formatting can be lost.

• What should I name the file?
  Please make sure that the file you send your list in includes your name. Your name, and the army chosen, are probably the best label. I have to download 68 army lists and things labeled Castle Assault List or Castle Assault Lizardmen tend to get lost and lots of emails then need to be rechecked to find the owner.

• List Difficulty
  When designing a list please consider the enjoyment level that your opponents are likely to get when facing it. For those coming along to their first tournament there may be an idea that “This is a tournament, so people will be there to win at all costs with very hard lists.” You’ll quickly find that this is not the case and because of the Composition scoring component (and also through self-control and a desire to try new things rather than “Min-Max” or “Net-lists”) that if you bring a “balls to the wall, hard as nails” list, you may be in the minority.
  At Castle Assault we will be asking lists that are just too over-the-top to be resubmitted. The lists are scored out of 6 and the ones that just scrape through will get a 0. Those that are worse will be asked to go back and come up with something a little bit nicer [/principal’s voice]

• Other Tips
  It’s a good idea to have your percentage for Lord, Hero, Core, Special and Rare listed. It’s a good confirmation for you and us that these limits have been adhered to. Please make sure that any purchased upgrades are listed such as Shredding Talons, Regen etc. I guess in general, if in doubt, include more information rather than less.

In general we are now getting very close to the tournament. If you have any questions about lists or their submission, please send them to me.

Rob.

Both Fantasy and Infinity at Castle Assault are now completely sold out.
Thankyou everyone who has jumped on board and given your support. The organisers look forward to bringing you the best of experiences that we possibly can.

Anyone who missed out, I am sorry, but we just cannot fit any more players in. Next year we hope to run stand alone tournaments on seperate weekends and increase the possible number of players. Fantasy will go up to around about 80 players in 2014.

See you guys soon.

Rob.

Scenarios at Castle Assault

One part of the Castle Assault Players Pack that I have been quite proud of over the years has been the Scenarios and associated Bonus Points on offer. With some slight tweaks to the rulebook format we’ve ended up with some challenging tasks which we find work well in a tournament environment.

One of the major findings of early 8^th Edition Tournaments was that the scenarios really should be used and that the idea of 5 Battleline games was not only a little boring, but would favour players that chose tougher min/max lists that played one way and with little versatility. Some scenario’s could be a little annoying and random in nature so a number of Tournament Organisers set about trying different things and what we have now at Castle Assault has be born of these experiments and remained largely the same over the last 3 years.

At Castle Assault, our scenarios form the basis of 5 Battle Points that can be scored between the players, in addition to the 15 Battle Points that can be scored due to Victory Points. Some tournaments provide bonuses in the form of Victory Points, which is perfectly fine. We’ve done it this way though and found it to be successful and provide the Scenarios with a degree of legitimacy, considering they account for 25 % of the score.

So let’s discuss the scenario rules, what new tournament players should consider when designing their armies and also answer any FAQs about them.

Game 1 – Dawn Attack

Our first match is played as per the rulebook, with the addition of bonus points relating to unit Standards. By getting unit standards into your opponents deployment zone and keeping yours free of theirs, you can score somewhere between 1 and 5 Bonus Points.

Considerations? Well, firstly, I guess you will need to have some Standards if you wish to pick up the points for having them in your opponents deployment area. Another consideration may well be about the mobility of your Standard carrying units. Fast Cavalry, Scouts, Flyers and other units that enter the field from the sides or even your opponents deployment area (for instance Dwarf Miners) can all make the task of getting into that zone a lot easier.

Game 2 – Battle for the Pass

This scenario without adjustment can turn into a one-sided game quite easily and we therefore add some Objectives in the middle of the playing field. If one side has a lot of extra shooting than the other, it can sit back and wipe out the enemy without having to come forward. In other matchups, both players might find it less risky to stay back and play for a draw. At Castle Assault, the 5 Bonus Points are on offer for capturing the middle objectives.

Considerations? Firstly, having an Objective to place is a pretty big consideration. Something in the order of 40 x 40 mm to 50 x 50 mm is ideal. The instructions for placing these should be fairly clear in the Players Pack, but feel free to ask the TO if you have any slight doubts. Capturing the objectives also comes down to both being close enough and having enough static combat resolution to claim it (therefore a unit with ranks, standard and even your BSB, would be the ideal candidate for claiming). Basically I’d look at where you need to be by the 6^th turn and how you will get there at the right time.

Game 3 – Blood and Glory

In this scenario, the game can end early. As soon as one side “Breaks” the game is over. This can seem quite fatal to the enjoyment of the game. However, the organisers of Castle Assault have given this long consideration and have looked at how this actually causes players to really think quite carefully about how they play this game and some real tactical tussles can emerge.

Firstly, players need to consider the obvious factors of trying to keep their army from breaking. This could be as wide ranging as putting their characters somewhere other than their normal planned deployments. It might be not casting with, or lightly using, your Mage(s) magical skills if the risk of Misfire might cause your General or BSB to die. You might have to be very careful if your Opponent has Death Magic and can try and “snipe” your General and/or BSB. In list selection, you will also need to consider how many Fortitude points will be necessary for you to be able to compete adequately.

Secondly, if you do have the upperhand in the battle, you may need to consider when you break your opponent. It is possible, if you play well, to hold off breaking your enemy if you believe you can first pick up more Victory Points before finishing them off. This, I feel, is an added element that rewards generals that can think ahead and is one small part of the process of finding out who was the best player over the 5 games of the tournament. For example, a player might have his opponent beaten, but surround the Generals unit and refrain from charging until mopping up other units. Another interesting option might be a losing player charging his General out solo to get him killed if it saves a bunch of Victory Points in the long run. Very cinematic!

Game 4 – King of the Castle? Assault

This is our most different scenario from that found in the rulebook. We’ve taken the Watchtower scenario and made it so that the unit inside is not Steadfast. We’ve done this because sometimes a player can get a unit inside the Watchtower and it can be extremely hard to impossible to remove it.

For this scenario a small fortified hill called a Redoubt is placed in the centre of the board. You can see a picture below of what this looks like. It should be about 5 x 5 to 6 x 6 inches in area.

Like the Watchtower you might want to consider whether you will take a Core unit with 20 models or less to place inside the Redoubt if you win the roll off.

FAQ
1. How does the Redoubt effect Cannonballs?
A cannonball or similar template type weapon or spell will hit the unit inside with D6 hits at the highest strength. Like an obstacle or building, the cannonball will stop and travel no further, so it won’t hit units behind the Redoubt.

2. How does the Redoubt effect line of sight?
The Redoubt will operate under the rules for True Line of Sight. Although it is a fortified hill, it is really a unique piece of terrain, so it isn’t considered to be infinitely high. This battle should simulate a really heavily contested piece of ground and we think that this ruling is a better option than having a unit, character or monster hiding behind it and then popping in at the last minute. A Dark Elf character with the Stubborn Hat and Pendant of Khaleth, for example, leaving it’s unit and hiding with impunity behind the Redoubt before entering it is not the type of play that we are really hoping for. Having a major obstacle right in the middle of the field is also not desirable, especially when there will already be a number of hills and impassable terrain features on the board.

Game 5 – Bounty Hunt

This one is fairly straight forward. We’ve taken the Battleline scenario and added Bonus Points for killing opposing generals and BSBs. Not much to say here.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I feel that these scenarios will ensure that the truly best generals should emerge at the top of the field. Someone that takes a tough min/max army with the idea to simply smash the opponent, and deny the enemy points, will potentially miss out on a lot of Bonus Points that are on offer.

Blood and Glory particularly encourages players to take standards and BSBs and not rely on small avoidance units of skirmishers/redirectors, monsters and monstrous cavalry and hence points denial tactics.

Battle for the Pass with objectives punishes gunlines that can’t claim objectives.

Dawn Attack punishes the 3 horde unit builds that could be more easily spread out and isolated.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy the tactical play that comes from these Scenarios. If you have any questions about the Scenarios, please post them here in the comments or in the Wargamerau Castle Assault section of that forum. I’ll be sure to answer them as quick as possible.

Rob.