+ inload: Post-event debrief +

+ Well, that was fun! On Saturday, Sinan and I hosted a one-day 40k 3rd edition event themed around a particular conflict during the Third War for Armageddon, and I'm pleased to say that it went pretty swimmingly. Beautiful armies, charming and cheerful players and lots of human versus ork fighting in glorious retrohammer action. +

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+ What happened? +

After a very hard-fought campaign between the forces of Taskforce Blacksand (a collection of six Guard and two Space Marine forces) and Gazgrim's War-horde (eight of the grittiest, smashiest, sneekiest ork warbands in the region), the victors were the Imperium, and Death Mire has been preserved... for now.

We had the campaign map above (supplemented, incidentally, by the extremely talented Kev's Mighty Empires re-creation of Armageddon – a visual that knocked-my efforts into a cocked hat!) that allowed players to trace their armies' position and progress in the context of the greater war – a visual touch that I hope went some of the way to making the gang feel like part of something bigger.

It was a very narrow victory, with the first half of the campaign being poised on a knife edge – four wins each – and the second half coming down to some extremely narrow margins to give the Imperials six wins against the orks' two.

Here's a snap of the command staff of the players (sitting on top of the campaign pack), along with the trophies (kindly provided by Pootle) and Steel Legion ration packs that ensured no-one went home empty-handed. (Who doesn't want that delicious corpsestarch?)

At the heart of the event were sixteen games of 3rd edition 40k, which ran – judging by the speed, laughter and occasional cries of dismay – very smoothly and were packed with fun. The pre-campaign and strategy phases involved a few simple mini-games, which I hope everyone enjoyed.

The games themselves looked absolutely spectacular, with a really high level of quality in terms of painting, modelling and theme. We'd tried to ensure all the boards were thematic (regular inloaders will know my thoughts on the 'Third Army'), and I hope everyone went away feeling that little bit more 40k*.

*More enthused about their hobby, that is, not downtrodden and living in a state of constant grinding terror!

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+ Visions of Armageddon +

What follows are Sinan's lovely pictures from the event. I've included some snippets of info along with Instagram handles (@Sinan_atamer, in Sinan's case) where I know them, so you can go check out more of these awesome armies. 

Here are Commissar Martin's Bad Moon warband, Wuzzdreg's Gitsmashas, getting stuck into Rook's (@Rook_28) Angels of Vigilance; both phenomenal armies painted specifically for the event. 

KnightofKent's fantastic Morkgomery's Boyz Goff warband – his warboss was a particularly kunnin' grot servant of Ghazghkull himself!

More of Rook's Angels of Vigilance.

Redmaws Great Company, commanded by the indomitable Liam (@6pluspainting), plunge into the Orient-Equatorial J'hn'sn Jungle in search of Colonel Dillon of the 6th Armageddon Ork Hunters.

Edward B's Battle Group Hyde advance towards the captured township under the stern eye (and lethal chainsword!) of Colonel Hyde.

Kev's awesome classic 139th Steel Legion, brought out of retirement for one more mission. Great to see these boys.

The 450th Jopall Indentured Squadron were another army created specifically for the event, and @voodoo.28 took away a well-deserved trophy for this amazing army, against some very stiff competition. 

Dakkamob Grimshak, led by Uzmek Kopgrim, advance towards the Acid-Mines. Sparrow did a great job on these.

The pack included rules for Steel Legion Liaison teams – units of the 7th Steel Legion and assorted Imperial allies, who allowed players to bring a couple of thematic models without committing to a full Steel Legion army (yet) – I was blown away with the creativity we saw on show. 

Major Kallus leads the 67th Cadian Armoured into combat, led by @thecallumboyle 

Armageddon fanatic Emily's (@mylifebehindabrush) 454th Cadian Recon punched above their weight in the Volcanus foothills – and brought gift dice for all the attendees: winner!

Harry's Wuzdreg Gitsmasha!

The ever-charming Biggles inspiratonal Jekil's Boyz. Biggles warboss won the pre-game Pit Fight minigame by simply opting for 'BRUTAL' every time! His battle against 6pluspainting's Space Wolves has to have been the closest margin for victory – initially being an ork win, until we found a squad of experienced Long Fangs lurking in an alcove while packing up, which tipped the balance.

Kev's 139/7th Steel Legion

Morkgomery's Boyz in all their glory. (@pierce.h_priv)

Ben's beautiful 179th Krieg crash into the orks.

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I'll hopefully post up some more notes and thoughts as they come to me, but suffice to say I had a wonderful, manic, humbling and fantastic time. It was a treat to run and especially lovely to meet some online friends in person – and finding out they're even nicer in person. 

Thank you to all the attendees for being so lovely (apologies for any inadvertent mis-reporting of names or armies here – I should have taken better notes. Do let me know and I'll update things), and special thanks to Sinan in particular for doing the organisational heavy lifting.

Here's to the next one!