Motivation for Courage

My motivation for writing this blog is first and foremost to improve as a player. To do that, I need to learn. I find that the best way to learn is to question and challenge decisions made before or during a game. Often times, others are best suited for this role.

So, who am I? My name is Jarle Svendsrud and I live and play most of my games in Oslo, Norway. My online nickname is 'Olannon'. A few years ago I set out to become a competitive Warhammer player. I started an army blog on a faction specific forum known as Ulthuan (link). The thread helped me tremendously and convinced me that posting online is a necessity in order to maximise what you can learn from playing and analyzing a miniature game. A couple of years down the road I had improved tremendously and had my eyes set on attending the European Team Championship (ETC). I started a new army blog (partly also because a new faction rulebook came out) (link) and this summer I attended the ETC as part of Team Norway.

I'm the 2nd guy from the left

Shortly before we travelled south to Prague, Games Workshop revealed the much anticipated Age of Sigmar. It quickly proved to be a game that virtually no-one wanted to play. We had to find a new home. Warmachine & Hordes was the choice and literally the entire gaming environment in Oslo swapped systems overnight. Warmachine & Hordes already had en established player and tournament base both domestic and abroad which is a huge advantage compared to other systems. Since I picked up the game shortly after the ETC I have been continuously impressed by the tactical depth, faction and army variety and balance of the game. It far surpasses anything I've played before and nearly every game I play is intense, fun and rewarding from an intellectual point of view.

My big goal this fall has been to prepare for the Norwegian Masters which are being held in January, 2016. I know from my long Warhammer journey that skill won't come over night so I have no realistic ambitions of a podium finish. Instead, my goal is to be a force to be reckoned with, i.e. not be a push-over. I've played 2 tournaments at 35 points and one tournament at 50 points thus far in addition to roughly 70 practice games. My long-term goal is to compete with the best of the best, travelling abroad to attend tournaments and hopefully go with Team Norway to the WTC sooner or later.

Ok, so what's in this for you? I will do my best to keep this blog actively updated with quality content in the form of analysis, musings and tons of battle reports. I make reports from just about every single game I play and post them online. If you want to help me improve or become a stronger player yourself I hope you will find that following this blog is worth your while.