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2011/09/12 22:46:31
Subject: Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
Each player received an awesome t-shirt, custom chessex dice and gf9 template.
The Loot
Best Overall (wins, painted, sportsmanship) - over 2000 points of Dark Eldar worth $497
Best General - over 1500 points of tyranids worth $348
Best Painted - over 1200 points of grey knights worth $308
Best Sportsman - over 700 points of space wolves worth $150
Two "secret prizes" - an orc battle force, and a space marine battle force
The Journey
My wife and I were planning on visiting her family in Scottsdale that weekend. Since this is Blackmoor’s stomping ground I was thinking about getting a pickup game with him and chat about the Nova Open. Checking the local game store calendar sites I noticed that Empire Games is running a GT with a hefty prize. The GT wasn’t advertised on a lot of forums and was supposed to be for the locals. I quickly called the store and talked to Jimmy who informed me that the GT is full. Since there are usually a few cancelations and I was coming out of town they charged me the early entry fee and put me on an alternates list. If no drops happened I would still get the shirt, template, dice and a $25 gift card. I see this as a win.
The rush to finish the Templars is now on. 2 weeks to finish 35 models seems doable, but life gets in the way with a 6 month old (not that I’m complaining, he’s a bundle of joy). I decide to take a few days off before the tournament and leave early to take advantage of the in-laws. Free babysitting, comfy house and 2 days of minimal interruption = painting and modeling spree.
Painting comes down to the wire. In the final hours my wife, sister and mother in-law come to my rescue and help with basing. I finish at 4 a.m. the day of the tournament.
I was in for a surprise with my round 1 opponent…
Store Review
Easy to get too, walking distance to fast food choices, Starbucks and grocery stores.
Tall tables and awesome terrain make strategic games and no back agro.
Jimmy, Brock and Josh ran a tight ship.
Day 1 started at 9:30 and ended at 5:00. Day 2 started at 10:00 and awards were given out at 4:30.
Each morning we were greeted with doughnuts and cookies.
Hour long lunches and 2.5 hour rounds made for a relaxing environment with little rush.
Before each round Jimmy gave an overview of the mission and clarified any player questions.
There were also 2 door prizes given out consisting of an Ork and Space Marine battle force.
During the rounds they announced extra prizes:
Assassin award ($20 gift card) - first to have HQ kill HQ which Blackmoor won.
Worst dice roller ($20 gift card) – first to highest percentage of 1’s in a roll of dice. Drew won with a 6 1’s out of 6 dice.
Tactical retreat award ($20 gift card) – first to fail a leadership check
The scoring matrix was 70% wins 15% painting and 15% sportsmanship with victory points as a tie breaker for place.
With this logic I think John should have won best sportsmanship instead Ryan as he had more victory points. (Glad Ryan won, he’s a great guy)
I think painting should have had a heavier weight or a more defined painting rubric. It was explained to me that if you have a fully painted army to 3 color standard you got 8 points automatically and bonus points were given if you went beyond that. Only 17 out of 40 armies were fully painted and 10 beyond the 3 color standard. With this system painting does not account for much. The devil’s advocate would argue that this reduces subjective scoring.
Closing Thoughts
I would have won overall if Blackmoor hadn’t seized the initiative ;p (maybe?)
This is a must go to event and store.
Hopefully they do it next year with more advertising.
I would have won overall if Blackmoor hadn’t seized the initiative ;p (maybe?)
This is a must go to event and store.
Hopefully they do it next year with more advertising
I only seized the initiative because this is my home store and I have to protect my house from you out-of-towners!
The funny thing is that you can chart my progress from the guys who finished 2nd-5th, I played Dave in round #1 and beat him, I played John in round #3 and beat him, and then Ryan in round #4 and Micheal in round #5, so the only loss these guys had was to me. The funny thing is that since they were all 4-1 and the tie breaker was victory points, so the best general award came down to who got the most victory points off of me. (Michael has Dark Eldar and I could not make a save and he killed a lot of my guys and so won best general)
I thought that I had a good chance at winning a prize after going 5-0 but I did not know what they scoring formula was, so I was worried that I was going to win Tyranids (I won a bunch from Wargames Con and I have a Tyranid army that I have been trying to get rid of forever). So I ended up with a whole lot of Dark Eldar and I couldn't be happier.
The reason why it was not really advertised was that they had only room for 50 players and they sold out really fast so there was no reason to advertise it.
Speaking of tournaments, that game store can accommodate 32 players, so I was thinking about holding a 5-round Nova Open style tournament there in the spring.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Reecius wrote:Way to go Alan! He has been on a hot streak lately!
I have been doing alright, but let's see how I do at the 'Ard Boyz and Comikaze Con.
This army does go with the Razorwing I won at your Bay Area Open.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/09/13 05:44:39
2011/09/13 05:48:24
Subject: Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
I joked with Michael about getting Best General and then being awarded a Tyranid army......hahahhahahah!
Automatically Appended Next Post: And yea, I mentioned that playing Ryan was like playing a fluffy bunny with Red Thirst and Blood Talons. He just recently moved from California so I hope to game against him again at the shop.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2011/09/13 05:55:34
2011/09/13 06:26:14
Subject: Re:Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
Ryan definitely deserved the best sportsman award.
In my game he was in a bad situation where he had to start his army on the board and that was bad for an army that has 2 storm ravens when he is not going first.
Add to his problems is that he rolled very badly for his first 3 rounds of shooting. Then for a brief moment the heavens opened up and he had a turn of good rolling and he killed 3 out of the 5 objectives that you need to for the win (the mission was who ever destroyed the most objectives won) and then I tabled him ending is chance at winning. But he took his loss in stride and was a great guy.
2011/09/13 11:32:49
Subject: Re:Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
Well played. I am glad to hear you're coming to comikaze, that will be a really fun event.
we need to get a game in. I am intrigued by this paladin army. It wohld be a super tough match-up for my bjorn wolves. I want to see if I could find a way to win.
It was a great time, all of my battles were a lot of fun.
Alan that was a very intense battle at the end. I thought I was done for sure when every time you hit one of my vehicles it exploded. However, I managed to pull out a draw(was that your only draw?) and that with only five or six regular kabalites left on the table.
Am I reading that screen right... I could possibly have lost against Alan and still taken Overall if I had gotten a chance to paint my army? Ah well... next time.
Empire Games is a hell of a store, with very well run tourneys. I would definitely recommend it as a place to game.
Ciao
2011/09/14 11:21:40
Subject: Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
Mabus wrote:
Am I reading that screen right... I could possibly have lost against Alan and still taken Overall if I had gotten a chance to paint my army? Ah well... next time.
Ciao
Painting only represents 25% of your score, so if you notice that John has the same battle points (40) as you, and the same sportsmanship (25) and in painting he has 9 points compared your 0 and it took his score up only to 33.1 from your 31.75.
2011/09/15 22:02:10
Subject: Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
Nice job Blackmoor.
I can vouch for Empire Games as an awesome venue. Back when I lived near PHX, I played in a few tournaments there and it was always a good time. Their high-tables are very nice to lean on and over if you need to check line of sight ect.
I'd love to cruise back out there for another big tourney, provided the date isn't too close to Adepticon... I'm sure if I head out there for the Wild West Shootout in Jan, that I'll stop by.
Proudly howling at 40k games since 1996.
Adepticon Team Arrogant Bastards
6000 point Space Wolves army
2500 point 13th Company Space Wolves army
3000 point Imperial Fists army
5000 point Dwarfs army
3500 point Bretonnian army
2000 point Beastmen army
2011/09/16 22:27:00
Subject: Re:Empire Games 1750 GT 9/10 Results and Review
I don't wanna take anything away from Blackmoor, he's an awesome guy and a standup player! It's just sad seeing reps like that first one with 2 great players turned completely on its head by that stupid rule.
yakface wrote:
Terrible rules-writing no doubt, but given that you basically can't play it RAW in any kind of sensible way lets you know that it can't be right.
4000 points
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
Ah well... next time.
6000 point Space Wolves army
3000 point Imperial Fists army