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Chronicles of a Champion

by Jonnel Mendiola

INTRODUCTION

Hello there all of you. For those of you who don’t know me my name is Jonnel Mendiola and the current Warhammer 40K champion for 2001. Thank you all.

Anyway it would be silly for me ‘interview’ myself for this article so I’m going to do a monogram or a personal rant……here goes.

I started playing Warhammer way back in around the early 1990’s. I bought my 2nd edition Warhammer 40K Rogue trader Book around 1989 along with a box of Marines (yes the RTB 01 box) in Malaysia when I went on a trip there. Back then I had no one to play with so I collected a lot of the old boxed sets like the Necromunda Imperial Guard and Orcs so I could ‘lend’ people an army to play with.

INTERIM YEARS

We stopped playing for 4 years after Graduation and played some of the card games. As for me I was able to acquire Alternate Realities Galleria (some of you may know it as Platinum comics) and set-up the Alternate Realities Alabang (located in Kindertown, Alabang town Center). In 1998 I met Freddie Tan who just acquired the distribution to the Warhammer line in the Philippines. So I jumped at the chance to distribute Warhammer in Alabang while he focused on the Greenhills crowd by setting up Neutral Ground. Those were the early days of Warhammer in the Philippines and we all played with the previous editions.

In 1999 I renovated the Alabang store and renamed it Hobby Café and re-located it to the Movie theatre site in ATC, but was forced to move the store to Festival Supermall in 2000 where it still currently remains. In mid 2000 I renovated the Galleria store and renamed it Hobby Café. This is also the time when both Freddie Tan and I became partners in the said store until now.

Over the years I have collected several armies. On active duty I have an Eldar Biel-Tann Army, an Ork 40K Army and my current Dragon Knights Marine army which won me the tournament. (I also own a High Elf Army and Orc Fantasy army) My marine army is really a re-paint of my old blue colored marines which I was never really happy with. They looked too normal in addition to the fact that they were painted nearly ten years ago when I DID NOT know how to dry-brush or high light my models, heck I didn’t even base them back then.

Third edition 40K gave me the chance to re-do the army with new models. I sold some of the old models and I traded my 1st generation Land Raider to Paul, who turned it into an Ork battlewagon. The concept of using Dragons came about when Raymond Tesoro pointed out to me that the Alpha Legion Legion shoulder pads looked like dragon heads. So I ordered a bunch of shoulder Pads from mail order plus whatever dragon bits I could find. I put them together over a period of 4 months with the new Land Raider being finished just about 5 days before the tournament.

THE DRAGON KNIGHTS SPACE MARINES CHAPTER

The Dragon Knights are a ‘generic’ Marine chapter. They are the TRUE ‘Vanilla’ marines. With the different Chapters of Space Marines having their own rules I wanted to be able to play with whichever one I want hence I painted them as such. Their colors look like Blood Angels, their robes give them a Dark Angels feeling, the individual details are that of the Black Templars, the flame markings of the Salamanders and the crazed look of the Space Wolves. And you know what? It all looks great! And I shall soon endeavor to create their own web page to give you all more details.

HOW TO WIN IN TOURNAMENTS

So what does it takes to win?

1) Have a fully painted army. Make sure they are properly based. If you are up to it, make a unique distinguishingly different army that has never been seen before. This always catches the eye of the judges.

2) Don’t make a Cheese army. Get the units that you like but don’t go overboard with them. Three Basilisks or Whirlwinds are looked down upon by the judges. Multiple troops of FULL squads are okay.

3) Practice with your army. It still takes practice to remember all those stat lines and to see the effects of all your wargear. Play with a variety of opponents so you can see how you can respond to them.

4) Remember your mission. Read the missions carefully, is this a victory point mission or not? How do you stop your opponent from doing his?

5) Be generous to your opponent. Remember that in tourneys we have sportsmanship scores too, so it pays to be nice to your opponent. Just dice off those rules contradictions.

6) Play fast with little fuss. There is a time limit per game in the tournament so you have to play fast if you want to finish your game. Encourage your opponent to do so too so both of you can have fun and get a chance to accomplish your mission.

7) Get your opponent to react to you. Assault him, tie up his units, go after his HQ and most expensive unit. You must be doing something right when you are on HIS side of the table.

8) Bring an incredible amount of LUCK. Bring along your lucky charm, girlfriend, lucky BIG dice, do your dance of victory, pray to Gork and Mork or whatever because in the end it is just a game and you should all have FUN!!

I really didn't expect to win because I was the odd-man in the tourney but luckily Clark arrived and needed an opponent so I decided to join in the fun. And the rest as they say is history.

For those of you who are looking for a good game, we usually play on Saturdays in Hobby Cafe Alabang in Festival Supermall. so feel free to drop by or send me email at [email protected] Thanks to you all!!

The Dragon Knights, note the converted Emperor's Champion in Front.

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