INTERVIEW: Warlords Tournament Winner Sedge

Today I have an interview with Rob "Sedge" Sedgeman, the winner of the Games Workshop Warlords event, Warhammer Livestream star, and Bonesplitterz Wurrgog Prophet. Find out how he got into the hobby, what it was like knowing that hundreds of people were watching him play live, and how he got 2,000 points of orruks painted so quickly!

Tyler: What first drew you into the hobby?

Sedge: So I’ve loved the hobby for years. I was introduced to miniatures on a school bus in 1985 (yes I really am that old) which lead to me to my first purchase, a lead skeleton horseman from Grenadier miniatures. I was hooked. I painted that the hose more than once with thick Humbrol paints till you couldn’t see the ribs of the horse any more. Years passed and my collection grew, WFB 3rd Edition game was introduced to my adolescent brain my introduction was complete. I would be a Wargammer for my sins.

Tyler: How long have you been playing competitively?

Sedge: Competitive Warhammer was introduced in 1999 when the club I was in, Battle Force Pompey (now Pompey Pirates), organised a trip from Portsmouth to Warhammer world to take part in our clubs first event at Warhammer world. Now it was a much more basic affair in Lenton that modern offerings that GW provide but I loved it. Myself and club mate Alan Thompson, a hero of the early tournament scene, both did incredibly well for a first event. Max points by game 4, only one more to go for the first ever max 100 score. End of game 5 and it looked like I would get it when Alan popped over and announced he was the ‘first’; just as my chances slipped away on last roll of dice brought back my opponents Slann from death (the infamous escape card from the magic card deck). The excite was real, the competition, the drinking and the friends I made would be with me for a very long time. I’ve attended many events now but each brings something new and the enjoyment is still as fresh as the first.

Tyler: Do you prefer competitive play over narrative play?

Sedge: Though I enjoy narrative I’ve always considered myself a tournament player. Equal armies battling lead by competent generals in the pursuit of victory, nothing finer. This has led me to generally play practice games for upcoming events. Recently with the release of AoS I have found myself playing more narrative games especially with introducing my two sons to the game (Ollie 10 and Louis 8). The Generals handbook has helped my step away from the uber-competitive gaming.

Tyler: What were your thoughts on AoS when it first came out?

Sedge: So the introduction of AoS! Blimey what a ride. I went through the lot; Grief, rage and denial. I stepped away from 8th and into a post Warhammer world where I dabbled in some other games namely Star Wars Armada (a truly epic game of space battles with epic sized ships). I was finally reintroduced to AoS by my good friend Carl Smith, two games in (a Loss and a draw) and I was hooked again.

Tyler: Do you think the General’s Handbook was needed to “fix” AoS?

Sedge: Was it needed? No. The community had got together and did an awesome job of creating some interesting and different balancing systems. The big ones were obviously Clash comp and South Coast but we also had a clever local one called PCK. It mathematically score the units and forced a balanced game by weighting stronger and weaker units together. Take the filth then take that fluff choice to balance it out. Genius. The Handbook is great for the wider community though, effectively introducing a version of the SCGT comp to the masses. Also the scenarios are very useful to get games going.

Tyler: What other games do you play?

Sedge: To be honest I don’t really play anything else. I haven’t the time. If I could it would be more SW Armada and board games.

Tyler: What made you choose the Bonesplitterz as your army to take to Warlords?

Sedge: Why Bonesplitterz? Well my High elves which I painted for the SCGT had been made almost irrelevant with some of the changes to the army structure. I had spent an awful lot of time building and paint a huge force, mainly with very old OOP models. All the blades were airbrushed blue NMM a true labour of love. But something new! I went back to Ogres for a little while but having used them for years I really needed something different. Bonesplitterz had just been released along with an accompanying episode from Facehammer which kind of struck a chord. I could see if it was possible to do in time for Warlords and the answer, only just! The army is just cool. Who doesn’t love the idea of hordes of anything swarming across the board and this was an army that suited that horde mentality well, something I love. Also there are plenty of synergy in the list which appealed to my inner gamer, get them to work and it would be a thing of beauty.

Tyler: How did you paint 2,000 points of orruks so quickly? The Battletome was released in the middle of July and Warlords was at the beginning of September.

Sedge: So how to paint quickly? A simple production line. Black undercoat, white zenith highlight. Airbrush the greens, Waaaagh! Flesh base Warboss green highlight and wash Biel-tan green got a great majority done. Then highlight with Skarsnik green and light Underhive ash brush. Then limited pallet of Thunderhawk blue and Incubi Darkness.

I then just put in the hours. My wife was incredibly accommodating with the hours I was doing as it gave her unrestricted access to rubbish wedding programs on the TV. I just sat and did it. Managed a fair/good tabletop standard quickly but really want to get back into them and add the tattoos for the next event.

Tyler: What were your toughest games at the event?

Sedge: The toughest game at the event was actually against my fellow club mate Pano (Jonathon Pano Kyprianidis) and his Bloodbound. We played the escalation scenario, had a ton of models then decided to have a few drinks. Not a great idea really as this would prove to be a very complicated game. The Bonesplitterz are not easy to use. They require a lot of concentration on the actual dice rolling (a good turn could lead to over 450 arrows being fired with re-rolls galore). The game itself was very tight with combat erupting along the entire battlefield from T1. Epic but hard work. In the end it was incredibly close but the Bonesplitterz were just getting the upper hand.

Tyler: How did it feel knowing that 2 of your games were being livestreamed all over the world?

Sedge: Warhammer on TV! Are you kidding me! This is amazing. I phoned my wife as soon as I knew and got my two boys watching it all LIVE. They loved it. I think this is a huge step change in the tournament scene and I’m excited to see how it plays out. Lots I would change or love to see but as a start its epic. I would love to comment in more depth on games as they played, what we were trying to do, tactics etc.but we were a little busy in game. We did answer whatever question we could during game.

Tyler: What army are you planning on tackling next?

Sedge: What next? Please nothing for a while. I’d like to go through the army now and bring the standard up a bit. I also just bought some more cavalry to try and take some of the shooting element down a notch. I found that it became very time heavy rolling all those archers for very little reward. Also people prefer combat so I’ll change the focus of the army slightly. So this year and probably early next I will focus on the Bonesplitterz as a themed army but who knows whats coming next! GW have been knocking it out of the park recently with armies. Also I want to build some new Bonesplitterz themed terrain. Did a lot for my elves (I even won a prize for it at SCGT) so they deserve it as well.

Tyler: What do you want to see for the future of AoS?

Sedge: The future of AoS? No idea. More of the same will be just fantastic, updates to Generals handbook would be advisable. Let’s see common units go up in price and uncommon go down. simple. New armies and rehashing old ideas, worked well so far. More terrain for different armies and realms.

Tyler: Any final thoughts?

Sedge: This is such a great hobby. I love having something other than real life to focus on. The painting, modeling, army building, games and events but most of all it’s the people we meet. Wargaming in general is a hugely inclusive hobby; it has to be. It forces us to get out there and mix with so many different people just to get a game. Never been embarrassed with ‘playing toy soldiers’ as it’s just great fun. Most people appreciate the levels of commitment and skill that you the player have to dedicate to get your hobby to work so be loud and proud and enjoy.

Wargaming is my hobby, I’ve been playing it for 31 years now and hoping to play for many more.

I would like to thank Sedge again for taking the time to do this interview. You can follow him on Twitter at @sedge55. You can watch the entirety of the Warlords event here for Saturday, and here and here for Sunday.

Until next time,

Tyler M.