The Elite 8

well, this tournament has been pretty enjoyable for me to think about, but I do realize I haven't given the early rounds as much coverage as I want. The demands of a certain 8 week old little girl have seen to that. That being said, I'm enjoying it, and even if I do a bit of a fast forward through some matches, I think that will be ok. Hopefully it won't disappoint the 2 people reading this. haha.

(6) Everblight vs (11) Cygnar

It's cinderella time. When I first started this thinking about this, I found myself thinking two interesting things. First, I disliked Cygnar enough that I almost ranked them last. Second, I considered Legion an early dark horse because back in Warhammer Fantasy I'm a dark elf player, and I love the contrast in play styles between Legion and my base faction, Khador. In retrospect, I was wrong. First off, what I didn't realize about Cygnar is they have some awesome models. I love 5 of their warcasters, including Siege Brisbane and the Han Solo-esque Allister Caine. Addititionally, I love the Thunderhead, trenchers and attatchments, and the strom blades. All are great models. On the legion side, I can find 3 casters whose looks I can stomach, including both Thragoshes, and really only E Thaggy is a model I really love. I do like the Nyss, but overall, I'm just not too keen on the Beasts, for much the same reason I never fancied the 40K Tyranids. It's just not a really good visual range, to me. Furthermore, I love the trencher theme and the lightening theme of Cygnar. Either would definatly be a theme I would try to build around. Overall, not a huge fan of Cygnar's long armed jacks, they look a little too weak to me, but I'd take them over the Legion Beasts. I do like the Legion Fluff though, and the play style definatly has appeal. However, in the end Cygnar just has too many more cool models, and the playstyle is different enough from Khador that I think it could be very Fresh.

Stop: Hammer time

Winner: (11) Cygnar

(8) Pirates vs (9) Pigs (Thornfall Alliance)

I'm not really a big pirate vs ninja guy. Pirates are ok. I liked the Johnny Depp movies, but I've always been much more of a Master and Commander guy rather than a Jolly Rodger guy. Still, I will confess an affinity for the Privateer Press models. They have a lot of character, and some of them are pretty cool looking to boot. I like Phinneus Shae, and it sounds like bringing the Commodore Cannon would be a ton of fun. I'm not counting Bartolo Montador amoung these guys, but if I did, that'd be another huge bonus. I love that model a ton, as you'll hear about once the Mercs have their first match-up. on the otherside, I'm not a huge fan of the piggies. They don't have a lot of models yet, and the ones they do have are, eh... The two notable exceptions are Lord Carver and the War Hog which are both AMAZING models and almost enough to bring me into the faction, if there weren't so many other great choices. Also, I must admit, I'm a sucker for humans. I always choose humans when I can for things b.c I feel like I can get into the character of them, as opposed to playing the role of Bacon. In the end, the pirates have been around slightly longer, have a better theme (to me), and more choice.

This Model is almost BA enough to buy a faction for...

Winner (8) Pirates

and with that, we have advanced to the elite 8. The pretenders are gone. I will probably speed through the next round a bit too, and save the real detailed match-ups for the final four. See ya soon, and be sure to look below for the next round match-ups.