I had a Tournament!

Hi lads and ladettes,

Long time no see. And well, will be longer again until the next time given that I have just welcomed fester Jnr into this world (that's #2 for those who are counting) and I have all but been stopped playing 40k until 2012. Joy!

Anyway, onto the tournament.

The last weekend of June was the local RTT - Cowcon.

I turned up with the Cursed Ork Army of Doom (aka MVB/Archies/The Ork build). More on the curse later.

Knowing this tournament was a comp'd event, and knowing that for this list to place I had to major win 5/5 games, I had my game face on, big time. The event was also comp seeded, meaning that the first round you played against another player with the similar comp score as you. I knew I was just about the toughest list there, so it was going to be rough.

Game 1: Razor Wolves.

Joy of joy. I drew the lowest comp army there. Razor wolves with long fangs. Luckily, the guy didnt have too much experience with them, and I pushed across the table with ease, and all but tabled him.
Thankfully, I drew a high KP army on the KP mission. Phew.

Game 2: Blood Angels
A hybrid style force that I had actually beat (this exact army and player) at the previous RTT I attended.
Mission was "Milk the Cows", you get one token for each objective you control at the end of your turn. Win conditions are decided by the margin. Once again, major victory.
Highlight of the game for me: He brings a squad of jumpers and surrounds a trukk. He then Wrecks it, Kareen result is the "Explode" equivalent. He loses 2 guys, deliberately takes 2 plebs and breaks coherency, then fails the leadership test and flees. Did you know that you cannot rally if you are not in coherency, and that by the letter of the law, you cannot move in any way but straight back (unless you are blocked of course), even on a run move, to get back into coherency. That basicall won me the game as his nerve was then broken.

Game 3: Thousand Sons.

No, not counts as, legit 1000 sons from C:CSM.
Mission: Escape Capsule. End of Game turn 2/3, a capsule falls from the sky (random location in the middle of the board), only objective. Win margin based on VP's of troops on the objective.
He saw my army, (he and I are good mates regardless), shook my hand and said "I have no chance". I simply said that I had to deal with his Daemon Prince and Greater Daemon, and if I couldn't he won. Those daemons ate all 9 kans, 2 squads of boys and everything else I could find, just to keep them off the only objective.

Game 4: Orks

Another local player, a good tourney player, who I hadn't to this point played. I really was concerned with his list, as I tend to lose against other Ork players.
5 Objectives as per NOVA placing. Major Victory to me again, only after I managed a last turn charge to pull him off one of his two objectives.

Game 5: Footdar

That's right ladies, top table, last game, footdar.
Mission, Spearhead, KP. I knew I had no chance in this mission. I had 22 KP to his 12. He outranged me, out gunned me, and I had basically nothing that could deal with his Wraithlords or his Avatar. Sigh.
Result, massacre defeat.
Turn 1 he took 4 KP off me. This pretty much summed up the game for me. Anything he shot at died in a ball of flame, and no kareen results went my way. Apart from that, yeah, I made a few mistakes, and they hurt. Killa Kans in terrain (all 3 squads) moved 9 inches over 3 turns, running each turn. What can you do when the dice finally fail.


The Curse:
So the curse, I hear you say?
This list has lost only 3 games across 3 tournaments. Each time, it lost to the eventual tourney winner. This list is cursed to be always beaten by the eventual winner.

Regardless, a great time was had by all, and I got knocked from 1st overall at the start of Game 5, to 7th overall, and not even best general (by a long margin).

CENTURION - full disclosure

In order to try and get a level of full disclosure (and some feedback), the following are the score sheets for Cent

The overall paint score is TO Paint + Peer Paint Total (total 40).
The overall sports score is Peer Score Total (total 40).
The overall Battle Score is:
Total KP % x 10 + Total Obj% x 10 + Total Quarters% x 10 + VP% x 10 (total 40)

Peer Paint (Choose 1) Out of 5 per round
>50% unpainted models (0)
Some unpainted models (1)
Models painted (3 colour), but not based (2)
Models painted (3 colour) and based (3)
Models painted very well and based (4)
Models painted so well I may have to steal them at the end of the tournament next available opportunity (5)


TO Paint Sheet (tickbox) Out of 15
1. Less than half of the models painted - 0
2. More than half models painted – +3
3. All models painted & based– +3
4. Drybrushed, Highlighted, Inked, Shaded – +3
5. Squad Markings – +3
6. Bonus TO “awesome marks” - +3


Peer Sports (tickbox) Out of 8 per round
1. Did your opponent have an army list to show you and the appropriate codex for their army?
2. Measurements and dice rolls are all made clearly and accurately (no rubber rulers or intentionally hidden rolls). Your opponent also used only provided dice.
3. Game was played in a polite and respectful manner (game/army questions were answered, not every move or army rule made by an opponent was questioned etc).
4. Game was played in a brisk and orderly fashion. The game was kept moving with good time for the armies in question.
5. Your opponent remained positive if they were losing, and/or were not belittling if they were winning. Your opponent either won or lost in good grace.
6. Any discussion or disagreements were sorted out in a respectful, considerate manner. Please note, asking a referee’s opinion is perfectly acceptable.
7. You had a great game and thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
8. You would actively search out and want to play this person again if you bumped into them at your local FLGS.

Thoughts from those competing / not competing?

Centurion - bowing to the pressure

So I have been getting pressure to make some serious changes to Centurion by the WargamerAU community. Now we usually laugh at WGAU as the request you expect is "put comp back in".

To sum up the feeling though, we got to "I want the tourney to be both days, not that shitty Combat Patrol".

I then spoke to some locals, SneakyDan (another 3++ Author) and a few plebs, and it seems that there has been some backlash over the idea of Combat Patrol...
What this means, is that for me to get a decent turnout @ Centurion its time to trim the fat, and lose the Combat Patrol.

Centurion Missions updates

It is official.
The missions have been finalised for Centurion and playtesting can begin.

After a personal playtest, I have decided to use the following KP methodology:

This is a slightly modified version of Stelek's 5x5 Missions.

Before deployment, choose 5 valid Kill Points from your opponent's army. Mark this on an army sheet or piece of paper.

Once your opponent has chosen their kill points, you may reveal your choices to them and vice versa.
If your opponent has chosen kill points which are not Kill Points due to specific rules (Tyranid Spore Mines, Lone Wolves) it is your responsibility to let your opponent know and rectify this issue. Failing to do this will grant your opponent these Kill Points should a TO become involved.
These are the only Kill Points that are available from your opponent's army.
The player who gains the most Kill Points wins the goal. If the players both get the same number of Kill Points, this goal is tied.

The line about Lone Wolves being free KP is simply to keep people honest, not to be abused. If it appears to have been abused then the TO will get to make the final decision on whether or not the KP's are awarded. It will be the owning player's responsibility to ensure this is resolved correctly prior to deployment.

A Gentleman's Ones ... Banner Competition

b.smoove, the ownerer and runnerer of A Gentleman's Ones has recently run a competition to try and get him a new banner, and I thought I would throw my hat in the ring. He was giving away a cupboard of stuff spread around everyone who entered, and I thought "I can get some free loot!".
Heh. Actually I thought something different, but that will come soon.

So my entry is above.
I got an email back from him that went along the following lines:
"Cheers Matt. This is absolutely beautiful, and you've absolutely nailed the concept of the title. "
Now I don't like to spruke (well, OK, I do) but that made me a happy fester.

Anyway, turns out I ranked in the top 5 somewhere (I am claiming 3rd as I'm 3rd on the list)!

To see who beat me, go here -> http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/2010/09/banner-contest-and-winner-is.html

Now, for the good news, and coming back to my "greed" above.
Whatever loot I get from b.smoove will go straight towards the Centurion Prize pool, and at this point, be given to the best converted miniature in honour of the work b's done here (which is FREAKING AWESOME).

http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/2010/08/daemon-prince-iii-finished.html

I hope he takes the opportunity to spruke(in-joke) about supporting a Tourney on the wrong side of the planet.
On that note, if you want to sponsor a prize @ Centurion, drop me a line =D

Decision Made ....

After much deliberation and attempting to come up with a witty name with some kind of background and meaning ....
I gave in.

I present, the CQ 40k Open.

I think, that based on popular demand, the winners of the 1st day will progress to The Cheddar Invitational.

From this point, all other players could either continue on in the Open and play it to its resolution (and then gain 1st/2nd/3rd in the soft scores environment) OR we can run the Combat Patrol option.

This is still up for consideration.

Oh, and yes, those are my marines. The entire army done in metallics. They are green. After painting 120+ orks you would think that I'd learn my lesson, but no... green marines!

Waiting on rebuttal from the other TO's before going 100% with the name, but so far they haven't been all that much help!

From names... to banners

Right, so I still cant pick a name.
Based, however, on my banner building ability (NONE!), I have whipped it down to 4 options

1. Redneck Rampage.

2. Death Star (personal least favourite!) - you cant see the starfield in the back!

3. The Cheddar Invitational

and 4. Something to do with Crocodiles that I havent worked out yet.
(where we are, is basically the southern most crocs frequent, and suffice to say, you dont swim in the river...

Thoughts? Complaints? Sticks to whack me with?

Oh, and date is a placeholder, but a definite possibility!

Nova Open Ripoff Tournament - What's in a name

Right, so I need a name before I can start advertising this (and writing what will no doubt be, the most tongue in cheek player pack in the history of the game).

After speaking with the TO of CowCon (our local comp tourney), he has suggested that we don't use "con" in the name, as this event wont ever be a "-con".

The suggestion has been to go down the path of an event name like "Winter Warfest" or "blah Open".

So, please, suggestions from my 2 fellow TO's and 2 other followers?!
These are my cerappy ideas :(

- Rocky Rumble
- Rocky Rampage
- CQ Cataclysm
- The Cheddar Open

Oh, I dunno. *brain explodes*

Anyway, brief overview of initial layout.

Points: 1750.
Players: 32 (min) - 64 (max)
Date: Late Feb to Early March (depending on clashes with other events and room hire)
Cost: $50.00 per person.
This includes :
Saturday: Knockout tournament of 3 - 4 Games
Sunday: Finals / Eliminated Bracket Mini-Tournament on Sunday.
Lunch both days
All attendees will get standard dice for use
Prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, All rounder, Best Painted, Best Conversion, Trophies, and a HUGE swag of giveaways. My initial financials indicate that everybody will walk away with a prize of some description!

We are hoping that the Major Prizes will come from Forgeworld!

Thoughts? Is it too much?

Nova Oz / festerCon / CheeseCon 2011

So now that SneakyDan has let the internet cat out

of the bag ... (YTTH)

 

I am looking at running a Nova Open (http://www.novaopen.com/) style tourney in Central Qld.

I hope to make it a 40-50 person tourney, with a knock out style on Day 1, and Day 2 having: Tourney Champion, a Combat Patrol Mini-Tourney (400 points) and also a couple of 3v3 Apocolypse Battles.

If I can convince Gladstone TO's, I might even get them to run a Blood Bath match (something of their own creation).

Anyway, this is a placeholder and a warning, competitive 40k is coming to a large basketball hall near you... soon.