What I did on my holiday

- Contributed by Rachel Lewis

Wednesday night, 1.30 am - finish painting army and stagger into bed, having had to make a gun out of hacked up biro pens because the bits I need are still en route from America... I vow never again to mail order anything less than 2 months out (10 days was probably cutting it a bit fine)...

Thursday: uneventful, carefree driving to Hamilton with our personal chauffeur Michail and lots of techno music. Stalag Warlords (the accommodation) proves to be a lot less Stalag-like than we expected, not bad for $60 for the weekend (nice one Geoff).

Friday: And the games begin. I start playing my 6th game ever against last years winner, who was great fun to play. Somehow I managed to enjoy watching my army get put in a high-speed blender by hundreds of Tyrannid claws. Next came the 'Not-Space-Wolves' courtesy of Greg, who also kicked my spiky blue butt all over the table (but nicely). And finally some Blood Angels, who also won against me.

Went on a healthy food mission and discovered everything but petrol stations to be closed. Got grilled by the guy behind the counter on what a Warlord was (toy soldiers, not a motorcycle gang, if Michail's white Honda hadn't already let him figure it out), and we were really from Wellington...

Saturday: Looked more promising. A very close game against the Blood Angels of Kyle Wilson, about as new to the game as me and very fun to play. Many thanks to Alan who was very patient about us constantly asking what the rules were. Not once did he say 'read the goddamn rulebook'.

The next game produced a shocking victory! 'You two are running out of time, finish the next turn' which allowed me to make a grab for table quarters. I'm not sure how that game would have gone otherwise. Most of my weapons that could even scratch his army's paint were gone, as he brutally blew up nearly all my raiders by the 2nd turn. Eek! Naturally, I lost the next game:) Wyches can't hurt a Dreadnought unless it's immobilised (repeat 50 times) until I can remember NOT to hand the 'enemy' my most expensive unit onna stick... oops :o)

Sunday: Another game won - it would have been a draw if the game had ended when it was supposed to, but I was able to grab one more turn to break him (just). Despite having a 92% chance of blowing up his Landraider it was fine at the end of the game and still dishing out punishment. Next was setting up the army for judging. Saw my brother and 2 year old niece turn up - a lethal blonde midget (Sarah! don't touch that! Don't grab that! Leave the basecloth alone!) who was taken away quickly... It was cool having a chance to look at everyone's armies, and proved to be very difficult judging whose I liked best for the Players choice. I got lots of positive feedback on my stuff, which was very encouraging for a new player, besides the 'Warm fuzzy' effect generated :o). The last game saw me walloped again, by Eldar this time, 3 whole units were back in the box by the end of turn one. Ouch.

However, it was good to have it all over - as much as I enjoyed it, 8 games was a bit of an overload over 3 days. I ended up placing 21st equal (from 29) not bad for a first attempt. I'll be back next year to try for better.

Overall: brilliant venue, gorgeous location (not that I got much time to look, I didn't finish a game early once). The food was unbelievably cheap, although I felt I must've been close to looking like an umpire by the end of it. Next year, maybe something with green bits?

Living with the 40k umpire I got to see how stressful it must have been to get everything organised, but on the day it ran like a dream. Brilliant job Hamilton guys.

I stuffed myself completely full of food at the dinner on Sunday. I would like to say I had lots of fruit for dessert but I headed straight for the Pavlova and profiteroles - you just can't go past custard and cream, yum.

Congratulations to the Bay for getting the next Natcon - fantastic bid guys. If I hadn't lived in Wellington I probably would've voted for you myself. I had a great weekend and can't wait till next year. Hawkes Bay, bring it on...