I had the honour to be invited to the annual Summer Carnage days at Krems. The guys there meet about two to four times a year for having a few days of dice, miniatures and Apocalypse games of Warhammer 40,000. The following article is not a battle report or anything, just a bunch of pictoral impressions of the two large games.
On the first day there was a game of Orks versus Imperial Guard and Space Marines.
One of the nice aspects of these games is that I get to see some miniatures which I painted for some of the guys again.
The other reasons why I always enjoy visiting these games, despite the drive and only standing on the sideline, taking photos, is that these guys never put unpainted models on the table and what they paint looks pretty. Very often what you see when people post pictures of their Apocalypse games online is rows and rows of Leman Russ battle tanks or Rhinos, all just primed, Rhinos without any roof hatches, hordes of bare plastic Grey Knights and so on.
If I put in my commission painter brain, sure, great, here’s my card. As a wargamer though, the visual part is just not very sexy that way.
With the games these guys put up though, heaps of lavishly painted models of all kinds. Boyz, Stompas, Lootaz, Dakkajets. Guardsmen, Baneblades, command squads, Valkyries and so on. And they got the terrain to go along with that too.
So, the second day was the main event so to speak – Chaos (all four gods present in some form of another) versus Imperium (Imperial Guard, Imperial Fists, Minotaurs):
Remember the big guy?
This Stormblade was a bit unfortunate lateron in the game….
…his plasma reactor blew up. This new template is just insane. 😀
I have to say, those Thunderbolts do look rather pretty. Maybe some day I’ll get one for one of my IG armies.
You know, sometimes I miss that Warhound. Took ages to paint but it was quite a ride.
Oh yes, he’ll show up in an post soon to come.
Those Imperial Fists…This was the third year I’ve seen them on a table and they always stand out. Amazing yellow there.
So that’s it. Just a few pictures of two really nice looking games. I know, I suspiciously sound like a fan boy but I find it impressive how these guys basically play Apocalypse as intended. Very laid-back, having fun with the game, just like the designers intended. This is the great advantage of a club over pick-up games – big projects, big games, everybody’s on one level (mostly). Made me want to have a game of 40k actually. I mean if you look around the internet you often get the impression that nobody ever has fun with 40k so it’s double refreshing to see people play and enjoy the game outside of any kind of tournament context. Always a pleasure and I’m looking forward to the next game over there.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
Tale of Painters is the unofficial Warhammer hobby magazine run by hobbyists like you. Support our work by using the affiliate links from our 🇺🇸 / 🇨🇦 partner stores for your next orders so we can continue to bring you fantastic FREE content every day:
Or support us directly:
Very nice Imperial Fists and great to see your models in action Sigur!
It's amazing.
Hey,
I kind of recognize those miniatures up there! You put up a great story and portfolio of pictures! And thanks for the very nice words you have for us! It’s always a pleasure having a professional photographer on board. Next time you should also come over for some of the not so busy days, because than we could have one of those more normal 40k games – although in my world they are the more special ones, since I play Apo and normal games now almost on equal shares.
Just my two cents on Apo games and why they work out so nicely in our gaming community:
I think the atmosphere in Apo games is very crucial. As you hang out with some guys in one game for several hours (a whole day even – around 12 hours including the preparations), it’s a great social event! I remember having a lot of side conversations off topic too – or also teasing my opponent imperial guard player. Usually I tend to get into a kind of battle frenzy mood when I play ORKS – occasionally shouting “Fir’ da big guns” or simply “WAAAGH!!!” – I have not knelled down yet and said a prayer for my crusade fleet though. The game almost gets side-lined while we are having our fluff talk and creating our atmosphere.
Second, none (or almost none) of us tries to build an army list which is rather competitive one. That also keeps the frustration level rather low as most of the armies participating are kind of balanced (however the combination of armies can be quite nasty sometimes – IG allied with Blood Angels Outch!). Therefore, most of the Apo games we play tend to hang in the balance at least until round 3 – we hardly make it to a fourth round anyway.
Thirdly, as you can see we have a great scenery and range of miniatures – all painted rather nicely. Imagine 200 ORK boys running through the battle field; yes we played the green tide once – takes a hell a lot of time moving that stuff through. Having painted modells and scenery makes a difference – at least for me
Fourthly, we try to build a story line around our big Apo games. Although writing motivation is rather low. But imagining a fluff and background story around your crusade fleet and writing some short stories on battle and special events that happened during a game, is a challenging and fulfilling task to do before and after an Apo game.
Post-battle the motivation for painting is rather big and, therefore, having Apo battles always keeps me agitated on my big stock of miniatures waiting to be painted.
Reminds me on the Tigershark stored in the cellar…
Looking forward seeing you around at our next Apo game
Cheers,
Endless