Astronomi-con Winnipeg 2015: Army Showcase

Another year, another Astronomi-con. This time the event was held at the Holiday Inn Airport Polo Park (a refurbished HoJo's). This year's tournament is the 15th annual Winnipeg event! Astro as an event has waxed and waned over the years; this year's Toronto even (last summer) had its usual 50 or so entrants. However, Winnipeg's event was down to just under 20 players. The fact that it was Grey Cup weekend, in Winnipeg, had to be a factor.

40K 7th edition has been around for awhile now, and two things are clear: (1) I hate the Psychic phase, which adds even more randomness and extra time to games; and (2) the newer codices are very powerful and well balanced amongst their own units, allowing multiple builds. There were four Eldar armies present (including my own Swordwind force)!

Here's a quick view of some of the other armies on display.

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Wes brought out an all-Harlequin force. Beautifully painted, the army was also hard as nails. Wes deservedly won Best Overall at the tournament.



Steve brought out one of the power builds of Codex: Eldar Craftworlds. Every Windrider jetbike you see is armed with a Scatter Laser (a Range 36",  S6, Heavy 4, gatling laser). Very fast, very hard hitting.



The Phoenix Lord Maugen-Ra leads Steve's army.



Mike brought yet another flavour of Eldar, with his Alatoic themed Ranger force.



Derrick has come back with a vengeance, fielding Tau.



I really love this beautifully converted Tau battlesuit. Derrick won Best Single Miniature with this piece.



Ben brought out a very well modelled Cult Mechanicus/Skitarii force.



Ben won Best Army for his considerable efforts.



Tom brought out another hard-as-nails army. With this Necron force, Tom  was in contention for Best General.



Kevin brought out an entirely new army this year. No Tiger Marines or Imperial Guard! These Tyranids are very nicely modelled.





Mike fielded a balanced Chaos force. The plane and artillery are nasty, but there's a lot of low-toughness squishy bits in this force.



Thomas won Best General with this Grey Knights force.The Paladins are very cool.



I have been playing 40K games against Lance since 1988! Some of these models date from that time period (that metal landspeeder is RT-era). The flyer is a cool conversion using parts from an IG Valkyrie.



I like how it holds a (magnetized) Dreadnought to drop into combat.



Greg brought out his Salamanders again.



He said he's been trying to beat me for 6 years; this year he did!



Ian brought out some Chaos-y goodness. That Contemptor Dreadnought throws out 8, Strength 8, AP 4 shots a turn!