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Well, The Big Game was a huge success and everyone had a blast. The game kicked off at 11am and ended at 11:30pm. What was really cool was how everyone had so many positive comments about the event and how much fun they had.

There were two tables. The first were 18 4' x 8' tables and two 4' x 6' tables setup in a 4-legged "M" shape. Then there were three 8' tables for the unpainted models.


The Records were blown away!

So here are the numbers...

Total painted points on one table 743,230

The previous record for the Biggest Apocalypse Game was 382,000 by Siegeworld

Total points on two tables 848,000

The previous record for the Biggest Apocalypse Battle was 520,000 by GMI games

All players submitted both registration forms and army lists. so we have back up for these records.

We are still working on the number of minis, as we didn't ask each player for that info in advance, so not everyone had that info readily available, but it is all on the army lists. So we are actually going through every army list to confirm these numbers. But so far, with only 315,280 points calculated, we had 6,971 miniatures, a record.

The L.A. Results

Well, what was amazing was how much fun everyone had. Even players getting their butts kicked were in a good mood and having fun. But in the end, the Imperial players bested the Xenos scum by 183 to 122.

World Wide Results

Next I will be calculating all the objective points from all the locations and posting battle reports and photos from different locations.






Wayne Clark's 67,000 points of IG was spread over 3 tables.







There were TWO Imperial Fortress wall sets set-up!



Golden Daemon winner Aaron Lovejoy moving 300 Khorne Berserkers!



We had hot girls playing too!

There wasn't too much happening at Warhammer World.... (were a few nice scratch built titans though....)

But that looks fun

Well that sure is something! Would love to see more pictures, and definitely some before and after shots.

Sacred feth that looks awesome. I bet that was a blast. And wow at 67000 point IG army

Nerds are cool. The defence rests

[Mod Edit - Please try to avoid quoting large bits of text and pics when it isn't really necessary! Thanks!]

i'm not even going to ask how many tanks or men there were!!!

I love how the one guy ended up facing off against 6 or 7 other players all by himself.

linnear wrote:Well, The Big Game was a huge success and everyone had a blast.

We had hot girls playing too!

I popped my head in for a bit after lunch.

Also, there were not nearly as many pretty girls as linnear's pictures suggest. If there were, I might have stayed longer.
____

NewDeal wrote:Sacred feth that looks awesome. I bet that was a blast. And wow at 67000 point IG army

I was wondering about that 67k points of IG.

An IG Russ has a 4" x 6" footprint (a Baneblade is 4x the footprint at 4x the points, and infantry "loaded for bear" has similar points density).

If he was 3 tables, each 6' long and 30" deep (18 tanks wide x 5 tanks deep), then that's 90 tanks per table, or 270 tanks.

270 tanks x 200 pts per tank = 54,000 pts.

I conclude that 67,000 pts is believable for 3 tables, esp if some were 8' tables instead of 6' tables.

Emperor Be praised thats a record indeed! Congrats!

Insanity, heard about this on 40k radio... didnt see pics though... wow, thats a lot of little plastic dudes... Don't even want to know how much $+painting/building hours is represented in those pics!!

supagigashoota wrote:

linnear wrote:THREE PAGE QUOTE

i'm not even going to ask how many tanks or men there were!!!

dude, don't quote a 3 page post just to write one line. it's as pleasant as reading all caps.

@ the OP:

yeah, it looks epic. our local store reported 96,000pts worth of troops on their tables for the event including a leviathan. i'm hoping they put up their pictures at some point.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Also, there were not nearly as many pretty girls as linnear's pictures suggest. If there were, I might have stayed longer.

How disappointing. When you're trying to hit on women at a wargaming event, do you pretend that you've wandered in by mistake?

Tailgunner wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:Also, there were not nearly as many pretty girls as linnear's pictures suggest. If there were, I might have stayed longer.

How disappointing. When you're hitting on women at a wargaming event, do you pretend that you've wandered in by mistake?

If I had more time and money, esp. time, I might consider hitting on other women, but really, I'm way too busy with the one already.

And besides, if she finds me around with not enough to do, she's more than capable of suggesting other things for me to do on her behalf.

That said, I don't mind a bit of eye candy as I'm looking around.

How many marine players I wonder...

Asherian Command wrote:How many marine players I wonder...

From eyeballing it, I'd say too darn many. By volume:

1. Space Marines (all chapters), BY FAR!
2. Guard
3. misc Xenos

That looks like it was a really good time.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Asherian Command wrote:How many marine players I wonder...

From eyeballing it, I'd say too darn many. By volume:

1. Space Marines (all chapters), BY FAR!
2. Guard
3. misc Xenos

...which pretty accurately reflects player/army numbers in the hobby, doesn't it? Has anyone (GW or other) ever published the numbers of various miniature lines sold (over any given period of time)? I've heard that Jervis "front for drugs" quip, but seeing the real figures would be fascinating.

linnear wrote:

We had hot girls playing too!

Mmmmm, pretty... MkI Land Raider. I see there was a girl there too.

George Spiggott wrote:Mmmmm, pretty... MkI Land Raider. I see there was a girl there too.

The guy behind the thunderhawk looks like he's never seen one before (a girl, that is)

I didn't even know that was happening... I walked in to the store hoping for a pick up game and my Jaw hit the floor so hard it broke!

NewDeal wrote:

I was wondering about that 67k points of IG.

An IG Russ has a 4" x 6" footprint (a Baneblade is 4x the footprint at 4x the points, and infantry "loaded for bear" has similar points density).

If he was 3 tables, each 6' long and 30" deep (18 tanks wide x 5 tanks deep), then that's 90 tanks per table, or 270 tanks.

270 tanks x 200 pts per tank = 54,000 pts.

I conclude that 67,000 pts is believable for 3 tables, esp if some were 8' tables instead of 6' tables.

Believe me, I helped him set up. He had 3 - 8' tables and fit a TON of stuff there.

Alec

Games Workshop Jennifer Square in Annapolis, Maryland participated in the worldwide January 22, 2011 Apocalypse event. We had two 8'X4' tables, one for fully painted armies and one for models of all types. Four of us participated in the fully painted table. The two of us with Chaos Space Marines each had the largest number of points while the two Chaos Daemons participants had somewhat less, so we faced off with two teams each comprising a Chaos Space Marines force and a Chaos Daemons force. We had approximately 7,500 points on each side of the table with roughly two-thirds of each force composed of Chaos Marines. Here are some photos with a brief description of each.

Battle Setup 1
The opposing Chaos Marine force on the far side of the table with some of my own Daemon allies in the foreground.


Battle Setup 2
More of the opposing Chaos Marine force. Note the large crab-like converted Defiler.


Battle Setup 3
Here's my own Chaos Space Marine force with some Renegade allies in a traitor Stormblade and Stormlord. The GW website What's New Today feature showcased the Tower of Skulls and Chaos Linebreaker Vindicator Squadron in 2010 at the links provided if you'd like a closer look.


Battle Setup 4
Some of the Chaos Daemon allies joining forces with me for the day.


Battle Setup 5
These are some of the forces on the "anything goes, painted or not" table. I photographed this part of it because of the preponderance of painted models and numerous Baneblades.


Battle 1
Our opponents got the first turn, but fortunately there were few casualties from that first round of shooting, leaving our forces free to charge up onto the objective later that turn. I'm glad Scabbiathrax is on my side! Fire from my Super-heavies, Chaos Vindicators, the Brass Scorpions and Renegade Stormblade and Stormlord destroy many opposing Chaos Marines and several vehicles, but the enemy's numbers seem endless and the nastiest stuff is in reserve.


Battle 2
One of my Chaos Vindicators is reduced to a burning wreck. An allied Nurgle Daemon Engine moves fiercely ahead of it.


Battle 3
Two of my Brass Scorpions attack the enemy daemons on and near the objective. The minor daemons would suffer horrendously at their hands, but a counter-assault by enemy Daemon Princes would soon result in epic duels of mutual annihilation.


Battle 4
My Chaos Stormlord is reduced to a wreck by the Traitor Warhound's turbo-laser destructor and the Chaos Terminator Champions lurking inside disembark. They are quickly engaged by a winged enemy Chaos Lord.


Battle 5
Enemy Chaos Chosen flank march against our forces. A powerful Chaos Daemon Prince with many sorcerous powers also moves against us.


Battle 6
An enemy Soulgrinder does battle with its Nurgle counterpart.


Battle 7
The enemy's crab-like Defiler assaults my Tower of Skulls. I used my newly painted Ork Killa Kans as allies in the game. The Orks try and protect Khorne's huge daemon engine along with help from daemon allies, but it is not to be. After being fired upon and assaulted repeatedly the Tower of Skulls provides the ultimate in 40K entertainment with an apocalyptic explosion that vaporizes and damages many of the models around it. Two of my three Brass Scorpions would also suffer the same fate, destroying many models around them, friend and foe alike. Unfortunately for us, they seemed to destroy more of our forces than that of the enemy. Khorne is a fickle master and he likes his skulls no matter to whom they belong.


Battle 8
My Cult of Destruction Chaos Obliterator formation deep strikes to protect our flank from the enemy's Chosen. Twin-linked plasma guns at close range destroy about 70% of the enemy Chosen in one round of shooting with some supporting fire from the nearest Brass Scorpion.


Battle 9
A huge formation of enemy Chaos Terminators teleported in to fill the gap left by the Chosen, also assisted by their Obliterators and Daemon allies including Skarbrand. The duel with my Obliterators left both forces severely depleted.


Battle 10
My Daemon Prince of Slaanesh takes on the Chaos Sorcerer and the few remaining enemy Terminators. The enemy Chaos Sorcerer and the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh annihilate each other! My Daemon Prince of Slaanesh also proudly appeared on the Games Workshop website What's New Today blog post on August 13, 2010.


Battle 11
After cutting a swathe through my Chaos Terminator champion formation, the enemy Chaos Lord advances behind our armored line to fight with the Daemons behind it. Enemy Bloodcrushers break my remaining Nurgle Terminators and massacre many of my Nurgling allies.


Battle 12
Forces on both sides are getting thin in the fight near the objective Chaos ruins. The incredibly powerful and sorcerous Daemon forces of the enemy begin to gain the upper hand over the heavily depleted forces we have remaining. At this point we have little firepower able to deal with so many large, tough, multi-wound monsters and the spells and combat abilities of the larger Chaos Daemons now outclass our remnant forces.


Battle 13
It's been a fun and hard-fought battle for both sides with massive casualties everywhere, but in the end after one last fight with Scabbiathrax the massive enemy Daemon commanders roam the battlefield unopposed and claim the magical Chaos ruins for their own.


This was the most fun multi-player Apocalypse game I've played in a long time. As luck would have it, we had four friends playing on the painted models only table and we simply had a blast. There was plenty of action, cool looking epic battles, and we had an easy-going fun time. We played so smoothly we quickly abandoned the idea of timed turns as time limits simply were not needed. Models were removed at times by the handful and the entertainment lasted about 4 hours, just long enough to fill up the afternoon with massive 40K fun without being exhaustively long.

I generally bring few troops to multi-player Apocalypse games in lieu of bringing some of my larger Super-heavies simply because not a lot of customers in my community can bring those models to these events and I feel it adds a much-needed atmospheric visual to these Apocalypse 40K games. It's just not Apocalypse without some outlandish massive constructs! Unfortunately, the relatively small number of models I field often proves a disadvantage if others field full armies of many troops and nasty HQ choices as happened in this case, but I have few regrets because my main objective was to have an ultra-cool looking massive 40K Apocalypse battle full of action and excitement and we certainly accomplished that. Even with so few models compared to the enemy the firepower unleashed by my Super-heavies and high-point formations like the Obliterators caused massive casualties and it took more than three hours to destroy our effective fighting ability. My friends provided all kinds of great looking complementary forces on both sides of the table, allowing for the epic combats seen in some of the photos here. This definitely got me excited about playing more games and next time I may try and work in some Chaos Daemons of my own after seeing some of the frightening things they were capable of in this game. For those interested, larger, close-up pictures of some of my models shown here are available for viewing in my Dakkadakka Gallery.

NewDeal wrote: 67000 point IG army

Dude has way too much time and money.

Looking at the setup, it seems like whomever got to shoot first had a hell of an advantage.

That's very impressive, but it actually looks way too impractical to actually be fun.

Looking at the setup, it seems like whomever got to shoot first had a hell of an advantage.

Isn't 40K usually like that? And these mega-games with massive amounts of anti-armor are especially like that. For example, Tanksgiving events always remove huge numbers of tanks on the first round of shooting, so going second is a bit of a drag. But the point of these kinds of events isn't winning and losing, that's inconsequential in these events where there's little tactical exercise possible. The point is the exercised in fielding an extremely large number of models.

lord_blackfang wrote:That's very impressive, but it actually looks way too impractical to actually be fun.

Again, like similar events in the past such as Tanksgiving, the fun is in seeing the massive number of models, especially the painted ones, all at once. Hopefully a good variety of model types and conversions also add to the spectacle. If you're looking for fun in having room for normal maneuver and tactics in these games then you're correct, they are not fun. But many of us with large model collections do enjoy these occasional mash-ups where it's just about the number of models and the mass tabletop destruction. Show up, blow something up, get blown up, enjoy the spectacle, have fun.

Breotan wrote:Looking at the setup, it seems like whomever got to shoot first had a hell of an advantage.

That's usually the case with Apocalypse, which is why the smart money's on reserves. The first shooting phase in this particular game would have been murder, and probably tooka significant fraction of the game time, too.

I think siegeworld does a better big game. It's not line up 12" from everything in your opponent's army and hope to win 1st turn, there's actually a real play surface (a huge one) and a real game.

I have to agree with RedBeard, this looks rather boring. It needs a dynamically sized map (something like 6ft-8ft wide and snaking around the store) and a ton more terrain to really be pulled off well.

Would be fun to play once, but even then, by turn 6 I'd be burnt out from rolling dice for the sake of rolling dice and not pursuing some sort of greater mission.

Would be fun to play once, but even then, by turn 6 I'd be burnt out from rolling dice for the sake of rolling dice and not pursuing some sort of greater mission.

And that's why you generally only do an event like this once or twice a year. It's fun once in a while. I'll concede it wouldn't be fun over "normal" games more than that.