Come to the First Annual Bugeater GT on June 24th-26th, 2011!
Purchase your ticket here: http://gt.bugeatergames.com/?page_id=93
The tournament, held at a local high school I teach at, is a fundraiser for the debate team that I help coach - so not only do you get to play your favorite game for 2-3 days but you also get to help out with kids' education! The tournament is based on the NOVA Open model, and has slots for 64 40k players and 32 Fantasy players. Cost is $45 for the two day tournament and the Friday night open and specialist gaming.

The Tournament Champion in Warhammer 40k will be invited to compete at the NOVA Invitational in Washington D.C.

Information is available at the tournament website: http://gt.bugeatergames.com, but here is the skinny:

1) There isn't another GT within a 400 mile radius of Omaha. If you live in the Midwest and are looking to add to the events you frequent, consider driving or flying to Omaha for the Bugeater. It is a relatively low cost event in a city that is pretty cheap to visit. PLUS if you're a baseball fan the College World Series will be finishing up the week before the tournament - come a few days early and catch some great games!

2) EVERYONE gets six rounds (only five for fantasy right now because we only have 32 slots, if it grows we'll expand to six rounds), and we're basing our event on the NOVA Open. That means there's two champions - one based on being the lone undefeated player, and one based on a combination of battle points, sportsmanship, and painting (other events call that the Renaissance Man, we call it the Sweepstakes Champion because that term is used at debate tournaments).

3) It will be 1850 for 40k, and 2500 for Fantasy - 3 color minimum on your models

4) We have just about $3,000 worth of stuff to give away, award, and put in swag bags. We've got GW box sets, rare minis, FFG rulebooks, Forgeworld Imperial Armor books, autographed Black Library novels, and gift vouchers for the winners. The winners will each get $150 to spend on GW's website. You'll also be getting things like a brick of chessex dice and a laser pointer just for coming in the door.

5) I check my PMs and emails often so if you have questions/suggestions/comments/are willing to help please email me or PM me. My email is RoyersT@gmail.com


This will be the thread where I post updates, rules packets, or anything else germane to the tournament. There were two topics floating around out there, but with the site up, a new logo, and registration available a fresh start was in order. Help support this GT in a part of the country where there aren't that many available!

If I've moved to Minnesota by then (a possibility) then I'll be looking into. I think it's a great thing that your using it to support a school program. That alone would get me to attend if it's within a 12 hour drive for me.

Dude, if you move to MN, you'll have to come and play some games in WI. :p

Also, I think some of us from WI will be making the 7 hour trek down.

I approve of this, not that it matters much. That said, presuming this thing continues to kick off the ground, it'll likely be an opportunity for midwesterners and jazz to snag a couple of NOVA Invitational invites, and a shot at a large cash prize against a country-wide field of opponents.

/endplug

Thanks, Hulksmash, I'm glad you like the tie-in to supporting the debate program. It is a great win-win of getting access to nice facilities and supporting education.

I'm glad to hear you're thinking about coming down from Wisconsin - that means I've heard from people in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska about thinking about attending! So if that does keep up, hopefully we can be considered for the NOVA Invitational. Plus, several companies we're hoping will help sponsor the tournament are waiting until next February/March to see if we can actually generate the entries we're hoping for - so the more sign ups means more prizes!

Well I'm not sure if I'm going to be in the area for at least probably the next month. All depends on how the job stuff falls out but I'll head down no doubt if we are in the area. Heres to hoping you get the sign-ups your hoping for!

Hey all, I just wanted to let you know that I'm wrapping up the deal for hotel rooms - it took a little bit of shopping since the tournament takes place during the College World Series and hotel prices are a little inflated (the first block rates I got back were in the 210-220 range, and that's a discount). But we've got a block of rooms at the nearby Hilton Garden Inn at $159 a night, all double bed rooms so people can fill them up and split costs. The hotel is just 10 minutes from the tournament, so it is very close - and is also close to some good restaurants and a movie theater.

After the chaos of the holidays are over, head over to http://gt.bugeatergames.com to get your ticket to attend the first annual Bugeater!

Hey everyone!

Some major updates:

-Now that the holiday season is over the 40k and fantasy pools are starting to fill up. You can buy your ticket for only $45 here: http://gt.bugeatergames.com/?page_id=93. The price goes up to $50 after February, so get it now! That's a sweet deal for two days of gaming plus the open gaming on Friday night.

-The tournament champion and sweepstakes winner (our equivalent to the "Renaissance Man") will qualify to attend the NOVA Invitational, an excellent invitation-only extension of the successful NOVA Open last year. More details will come later on about this and other tournament opportunities and prizes over the next month or so.

-The hotel block is a done deal, and there will be information on how to get a room on that block as soon as I get that information from the hotel.


The latest 40k missions are out. We changed how kill points are being done after reading feedback from BFS and talking with Mike Brandt, for kill points you have to win by 3 in order to count as winning that mission. Here is the link to the scenario pdf.

Also, we have the basic rules for fantasy, but we are still working on the scenarios:

Army Construction:

Each player will field a valid 2500 point army, constructed from the valid GW army lists (so no Dogs of War, Ravening Hordes Chaos Dwarfs, or Indy GT Chaos Dwarfs permitted)

NO special characters are allowed, and this includes named unit champions

The following items are not permitted at the Bugeater GT:

* Power Scroll
* Book of Hoeth
* Cupped Hands
* Becalming Cognition

If your army contains Wizards, the Lore that Wizard uses MUST be placed on your army list. For Grey Seers, you must declare how you are dividing their spells on your army list as well (e.g. 2 spells from Ruin and 2 spells from Plague).

Magic Addendum

The following rules will apply to the magic phase:

* You may never use more than 12 power dice in a single magic phase for any reason.
* A character is always allowed to take a Look out, Sir! Roll, regardless of any restrictions that would normally apply, for the following spells:
o The Dwellers Below
o Purple Sun
o Transmutation
o Infernal Gateway
o Dreaded 13th Spell

Please feel free to post any questions or feedback here, thanks!

Well as someone who just confirmed I'm gonna be Minnesota for the forseeable future I'll be signing up in the next little bit. Any info on places locally to stay that are near by? That would help as well as if you could get a block rate. Just throwing it out there.

Great!

For the hotels: we have a block of rooms set up at the West Omaha Hilton Garden Inn, about a 10 minute drive north of the tournament site. The paperwork was signed last week, so as soon as I get the info for people to use to get on the group block I'll let you know. Rooms are $159. There are other locations as well, which you can find on this map here.

We're doing a little more collaborating on the fantasy scenarios, so there will be a little delay and they will be out later week for those interested.

A couple of fantasy updates folks:

-Instead of a blanket ban on special characters, we're now banning specific characters instead. This was done because because there are people who want to run themed lists that require a special character to make that happen. We decided to ban the "offending" special characters:

-Kairos Fateweaver
-Teclis
-Thorek

In addition, the first round of the fantasy scenarios are out. There are five scenarios total, although the watchtower scenario has a placeholder page because we're still doing some internal testing.

Fantasy is filling up, we have half the field so far so get your spot today!

http://gt.bugeatergames.com/Bugeater_FantasyMissions.pdf

An end of the month update:

We are continuing to fill up at a steady pace - the race is pretty neck and neck between fantasy and 40k, but obviously there are more 40k spaces since we allotted 64 versus 32. There are only a handful of fantasy spots left.

However, because we've had many generous donations from stores, companies, and individuals, I am keeping the price at $45 instead of $50. It may not sound like much, but I'm trying to balance between being a fundraiser for our debate program and keeping this GT affordable.

So if you haven't signed up yet, please do so now. We have thousands of dollars in prizes/raffles/swag bag items already, people from six different states coming to compete, and overall an excellent weekend of gaming shaping up.

Looks like I will be coming down for this. I just have to nail down work and lodging arrangements first. If anyone going down wants to split a hotel saturday night, I would be interested. My second option is my sister-in-law lives in Belvue.

It was nice to here lots of talk about the Bugeater at the recent RTT at the Game Shoppe. It really got me excited to finish my current army project in time for it.

Hey Dunn, I'm 90% likely to be headed that way so if you wanna split a room I'd be down. That little bit would probably be the tipping point for me to lock it down on my schedule.

Pm sent to ya Hulk.

For those of you making hotel reservations, here is the block information:

http://www.omahawest.stayhgi.com/

It is at the West Omaha Hilton Garden Inn, located at 180th and Dodge. This is right next to the Village Pointe shopping area that has a bunch of good eating establishments, a movie theater, and of course stores. It is three miles north of Millard West (located at 180th and Q), and just a straight drive down 180th, so very easy to navigate to and from the tournament site.

To get the group rate, you either need to mention the code (MWD) or mention Millard West Debate when booking for the nights of June 24th/25th.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks Tim for the info. Only question now is where do I sell my extra kidney to pay for the room....ouch. I know, you thought the college world series was the week before.

Inquisitor_Dunn wrote:Thanks Tim for the info. Only question now is where do I sell my extra kidney to pay for the room....ouch. I know, you thought the college world series was the week before.

Yeah unfortunately the weeks didn't align, but this summer the school was limited on weekends as well. Next year we'll fix it so the hotel prices are more reasonable ;-) - with a roommate or two the price becomes a little more reasonable. I'm working on getting a couple more things in the swag bags to sweeten the deal, or dampen the hotel blow if you look at it that way.

I know a few people from the Kansas City area that plan on making the trek up. Not going to be able to attend myself this year, but next year is a definite possibility. Glad to see a NOVA style event here in the Midwest.

Yeah, I have heard from several people in the KC area. We have a pretty diverse range of people attending, which is a great thing. Right now, people from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, and California have purchased tickets, and there's folks from three other states who have said they plan on coming.

I'm getting really excited, and it is already looking like it could be a great first year.

Live in Arkansas...Kind of tempting me with the baseball and cheap gaming....

I'm working on getting some complimentary tickets to the CWS available to Bugeater participants, so you should definitely make the trip up

Another update (from the original content of the post): We're now considering doing a youngbloods mini tournament separate from the actual GT, since there are a fair # of 12-13 year old kids in town that are interested ... but .... we like our adult games of Warhammer . If there's any interest in doing this, let me know.

Very cool. How is the pre registration looking? Any word on what you had planned for Friday night? I'll be coming down after I get off work at 2.

Pre registration is looking solid. Many people have already purchased their ticket (which makes me happy, means I can get the prizes and stuff sooner!) ... but there are several groups of 5+ people that are in a holding pattern until the end of the month to get hotel and tickets purchased, so there are many waiting in the wing. The beauty of the Bugeater is we have SO much space, I could take whatever size numbers and be fine ... plus every shop in Omaha has offered to help build/donate tables for the tournament, so we're in fantastic shape there. It is really coming together as a community event.

For Friday ... still figuring that out right now but we do have a rough idea. There will be tables for open gaming (of course), and it looks like we'll have Blood Bowl be run by some guys from Dragon's Lair 2, Mordheim run by Dragon's Lair 1, and possibly Space Hulk by some guys from the Game Shoppe. Friday night events are at the Game Shoppe this year. Next year, when we're off the CWS we'll have it be at the hotel. Start time for the Friday events is TBD, but ball park start is 5 pm right now. Some guys from down in Kansas and Missouri (FRAG is their group name) are itching to do a little store vs. store/group vs. group throwdown on Friday night and we might have to entertain that as well.

Hey Tim, will there be any tables for open games or challenges? I would love to maybe get a fun game in friday night. Maybe some xenos scum will pick up the challenge to test the Crimson Fists!!

Yep, we'll definitely have several tables available for open gaming or any challenges.

I've had several people inquire about coming to the tournament but not participating. In response, we've added a "Spectator's Ticket" option on the website. For $15, you can watch the tournament, participate in the Friday night festivities, and you get a swag bag.

nice stuff

Folks we're now just two and a half months away - if you want to know more about the event catch our interview with the 11th company a couple weeks ago. We'll have some pictures of terrain up soon so you can get an idea of what the boards will look like. We have people from seven states attending so far, so if you're looking for some great competitive play in the Midwest then look no further!

Just purchased my ticket. Very interested in seeing an example of what terrain will be like.

Mizzouri wrote:Just purchased my ticket. Very interested in seeing an example of what terrain will be like.

Ok Tim, time to get those pics of terrain up.......j/k

He said he would post them up soon, so hopefully some nagging will speed it up.

Squeak, squeak. This wheel needs some oil.

Have no fear - this week I sent my term paper in, did a presentation on the New Deal era court where I labeled Chief Justice Hughes and Justice Roberts the Ambiguously Gay Duo of Ace and Gary, and to top it off I'm collectively bargaining tonight!

So what does that mean for you? Pictures of the "demo table" ... aka what to expect on each board you'll play on at the Bugeater ... will be up this weekend.

In other news. the 40k tournament champion will be invited to compete at the NOVA Invitational, and I have two weekend passes to the NOVA Open that will be going to winners as well, so kudos to Mike and the NOVA for supporting the Bugeater.

Hrm...my wife just gave a thumbs up me flying to NE solo.

Now if I can just make everything else fall into place...

*edit* Apparently my good buddy Hulksmash is also going, so that takes care of most of the logistics.

I'm in!

Any chance at seeing how painting will be judged for sweapstakes? Sorry to keep buggin ya Tim....lol see what I did thar.

Here is the painting rubric - borrowed heavily from Adepticon. We'll get some 40k examples up there soon, but example pictures for fantasy are there now:

http://gt.bugeatergames.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Bugeater_PaintingReq.pdf

Just woundering why armies are limited to 30 points as a high score on the painting?

It give people who are excellent converters but mediocre painter a chance at scoring decently. Basically it allows different aspects of the appearance part of the which is how it should be in my opinion

Hulksmash wrote:It give people who are excellent converters but mediocre painter a chance at scoring decently. Basically it allows different aspects of the appearance part of the which is how it should be in my opinion

That's correct. That way if you assemble your minis exactly as they are on the box, but your paintjob is amazing, you don't get docked for not doing conversions. The opposite scenario that Hulksmash mentions is also true. Along the same lines of having two champions - this is just another way we're trying to reward different aspects of the hobby in our scoring.

Hulksmash wrote:It give people who are excellent converters but mediocre painter a chance at scoring decently. Basically it allows different aspects of the appearance part of the which is how it should be in my opinion

Well, at least that gives you a shot at winning something.

I mean c'mon....I have triple monoliths and you're expecting to DAEMONHAMMER them off the board before the Deceiver eats them? =p

Thanks Tim. I was just woundering what the reasoning was. Thanks again for posting the rubric up too!

Hey all - some people were asking about terrain. We inventoried and set up some demo tables to see how our vision would actually look. We wanted to emulate how Adepticon and other events had set up their tables, but we're not quite sure our table layouts are currently where we want them. You can post your feedback here, or on the blog post, but here is the link with some pictures: http://www.bugeatergames.com/?p=474. We usually game with a little more terrain, but scaled back after looking at the pictures of other tournaments. Since we've posted scenarios for review, we figure we'd discuss terrain as well to get the sage advice of those with more experience than us.

Thanks!

TimmyMWD wrote:
To me, and maybe our scenery is just smaller, it left the boards rather empty. But that prompted a follow up discussion of what makes a good board for a tournament? The usual stuff comes up – area terrain, buildings, etc. but some things that stand out in my mind is terrain tall enough to obstruct LOS for vehicles, some terrain in the deployment zone to give foot sloggers a chance, and not too much terrain to make vehicle movement impossible.

I think you've hit on an important issue here. Its not just the amount of terrain that makes a board, its the quality of the terrain too. The Nova Open had the typical terrain...but one or more of the pieces was a huge BLOS/possibly impassable piece in the middle.

Here's my table from the Nova Open game #1:


Here's from Game #2:


Here's from Game #3:


Here's from Game #4:


Here's from Game #5:


Here's from Game #6:


I didn't take pictures for Game 7, here's a picture from the Whiskey Challenge:


Most of those boards have multiple BLOS pieces of terrain on it.

More than half of all GT participants are represented in three forms. Mechanized IG (parking lot), Longfang Razorback spam (parking lot with shooty infantry assistance), and Blood Angel Predator/Razorback Spam (parking lot). I think that part of the reason so many players have gravitated towards this is because not enough TOs put serious thought into their terrain. Why NOT play a parking lot army if you don't have to worry about angles of attack, or LOS, or being able to shoot an opponent? Not having chunks of BLOS terrain completely takes out a critical tactical element of 40k and goes a long way towards simplifying the game into "Oh, I brought more guns than you. I win."

I brought Orks to the Nova Open and take mobile 4+ cover with me everywhere I go so it affected me less than other people, but I haven't played those Orks in almost a year. What about armies who don't have the option of MSU spam? My Necrons for example. Should they lose simply because an opponent can bring more guns to the table than I can? Getting cover with a monolith requires some 4-5" tall terrain wide enough to cover half of it, BLOS usually isn't an option, but terrain should still play a key feature in games. The three phases of 40k - move, shoot, assault. For the ridiculous prevalence of parking lot armies, not having viable terrain removes the need for the first phase. Oh...you're walking terminators up the field? I'll just shoot them off the board with every vehicle of mine for 3 turns until they get here!

Encourage people to utilize ALL aspects of the game, to have to THINK about their deployment and where avenues of fire are, where they can get cover, how to safeguard precious units. Encourage people to MOVE models around the table.

If Mike Brandt reads this, his head will swell, but they did an excellent job with tables - they had something for everyone, without giving particular benefit to anyone.

Dashofpepper wrote:I think you've hit on an important issue here. Its not just the amount of terrain that makes a board, its the quality of the terrain too. The Nova Open (which Adepticon was modeled after, yes?) had the typical terrain...but one or more of the pieces was a huge BLOS/possibly impassable piece in the middle.

You do realize AdeptiCon has been around for almost a decade and our current terrain sets (over 225 tables) has been a 3-year work in progress? Our terrain is significantly different than what is pictured, is primarily uniform, and built with quality, durability and gameplay in mind.

Not saying the NOVA Open crew didn't do a good job, they obviously did, but the lack of history here is a bit much.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Bugeater GT - Terrain is tricky. To have good terrain you need one of two things: a dedicated staff who is willing to put 100's if not 1000's of hours into construction and painting, or a good network of people/stores/clubs to borrow terrain from. Building your own terrain, while a monumental task, allows you to have control over the aesthetic uniformity of the entire set. Additionally, it allows you to craft tables that are generally similar in style and playability. The downsides of course are the time and cost involved.

Being a relatively new event, you might not want to dedicate the sheer amount of resources required to construct terrain in your first year. Newer/smaller events can usually find/borrow enough decent terrain to put on a good show the first year (which is what the NOVA did last year if I am not mistaken). Experience and player feedback will go a long ways in determining your unique approach to you own event. Hopefully, you can also rally some additional volunteer support after year one, which can then aid with a larger terrain project down the road.

AdeptiCon has had varying terrain sets over the years. In the beginning we used the GW GT terrain. After a couple of years we constructed our first set of tables, without much thought to durability or uniformity. Around 4 years ago we started over from square one. This is the terrain we have been using for 3 years now. Every year we add 20-40 tables, spend time repairing damage/replacing pieces that didn't work and adding elements based on attendee feedback. It is a never-ending process, but ultimately an intergral one to a successful event.

Best of luck with the event.

@Dash

Was gonna say the same thing that Matthias did.

@Matthias

The terrain at Adepticon this year was truly excellent. There was even enough decently los blocking and big enough for me to infiltrate a unit of 17 genestealers inside 18" since they couldn't be seen. Never happened in all the tournaments I've played in 5th.

@Timmy

Regarding the pictures I'd recommend some larger, LOS blocking terrain if you can borrow it from someone local. Generally a decent sized LOS blocker in the middle of the table helps as well. Those pictures will make gunlines-esque armies over the top at your event.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Getting to look at those additional pictures as well, adding some pieces that block line of sight will put us in a fine spot. We've certainly got that terrain - as Matthias indicated a good amount of our terrain this first year is donated by the three FLGS in the area - but our first attempts looked a bit light. We'll meet again, pull some BLOS from what we have available and adjust from there.

Just a quick "what Matthias said." I'm glad dash appreciated our terrain, and we certainly did our damnedest, but AdeptiCon's terrain is the result of a multi-year strategic plan, not NOVA 2010.

Like AdeptiCon, we have a multi-year strategic plan for terrain, adding about 45 tables of uniform, custom terrain this year to supplement the 25 or so we proper owned last year.

Mike C from showcase, the BFS, and others will contribute the lion's share in return for the same. This is a good thing - working and supporting one another, and it'll sure help a GT through its formative years.

As fer Dash, appreciate the flattery of NOVA; we made a point of guaranteeing 25% coverage and LOS blocking pieces on all boards, just avoid giving us too much credit ... maybe there's some cross influences format wise for AdeptiCon40k, but their terrainwork is an awesome and peerless project @ present.

In that case, I'm going to whip out the noob card and claim hapless innocence.

Matthias, I've only been playing 40k for two years, and haven't had a chance to attend Adepticon. Kudos to your hard work, please don't feel that I was trying to slight you. I get around, but the trip to Chicago has thus far fell on inopportune times. I see a lot of heavy borrowing from the Nova's format, and thought I saw a post by you earlier this year/last year that Adepticon was borrowing the Nova format. No offense intended!

I am glad that everyone is saying the same thing about terrain though.

@DoP - Mike and I had a bunch of good conversations about all asepcts of event organizing. From logistics to formats to specific units, we threw stuff around all last Fall as we both attempted to sharpen our organizing blades. The NOVA 'format' was a single event, one that addressed a disenfranchised subset of gamers that we were interested in reaching out to also and including in the whole. To that end, I personally stole the Renaissance Man idea (which honestly wasn't entirely unique, as the idea of separate but equal awards has been out there for years) and applied our own math to it. Otherwise our format is generally the same as it has always been with a different/flattened out set of scoring. The NOVA uses AdeptiCon's PST system...a system that began locally in Chicago and was given a national stage via our event. We also ran Warhammer 40K Invitationals based off the GW Circuit for a few years (without large cash prizes).

The point being, good TO's talk, learn from each other's successes/mistakes, evaluate the differences in player bases and offer events the community wants to participate in. With the high turnover rate in wargaming and the influx of new players, a historical narrative is not necessary, but false claims really ought to be corrected prior to them becoming whispered gospel. It is also important to note that the Warhammer 40K Championships is one event amongst many at AdeptiCon and is often mistakenly equated with being all that we have to offer, when in reality is only what 18% of our attendees come to play in.

@TimmyMWD - Took a look at the photos on your blog. I think that is a good start for sure. Ultimately you need a little height to your terrain. Building hills that block LOS to smaller units is a good, east start. Additionally, a quick and simple way to convert some of your existing terrain to LOS blocking terrain is to simply board up the windows to some of your ruined buildings, if they are tall enough, it will create some nice LOS blocking stuff. I'd be weary of putting too much terrain on the table to compensate for lacking LOS blocking elements. Get one or two solid LOS blocking pieces per table and the rest is standard gravy.

Yes, I took the liberty of deleting that incorrect assumption from my earlier post.

All you fantasy players - we have one spot left in fantasy! After that we'll start a wait list, and if there's enough additional interest we'll expand the entries. Sign up today!

Big question is:

could Tim post a big photo of every piece of terrain he has right now?

It's really sounding like he hasn't started making any terrain in mass for the event!!?!?! (Took weeks to produce one sample pic, in this age it should take a day or two)

Showing one table is great. but where is the big pic of production line hills, forests and ruins? Or haven't you started yet?

fortykhardcore wrote:Big question is:

could Tim post a big photo of every piece of terrain he has right now?

It's really sounding like he hasn't started making any terrain in mass for the event!!?!?! (Took weeks to produce one sample pic, in this age it should take a day or two)

Showing one table is great. but where is the big pic of production line hills, forests and ruins? Or haven't you started yet?

@fortykhardcore- One sample shot of what to expect is ok. I have offered my terrain also. I'll bring it down, and if it is needed, he is welcome to it. If it is not, then it can sit in my truck. From their site, it looks like they are working on los blocking stuff too. There is plenty of time to punch out terrain to add to the stuff they have.

Cheer up!! Y SO SERIOUS?

fortykhardcore wrote:Big question is:

could Tim post a big photo of every piece of terrain he has right now?

It's really sounding like he hasn't started making any terrain in mass for the event!!?!?! (Took weeks to produce one sample pic, in this age it should take a day or two)

Showing one table is great. but where is the big pic of production line hills, forests and ruins? Or haven't you started yet?

Well, to post a picture of every board would require a pretty large room, and a combined shot from four different locations. As Matthias alluded to, the majority of our terrain in the first year will be provided by the local shops. The job on our end is to ensure that each table has a relatively similar layout in terrain distribution, and making sure that there is sufficient LOS blocking terrain, etc. as discussed in the posts above. I can tell you right now that we have more tables than we need - Dragon's Lair Blondo has donated six tables, Dragon's Lair Millard has four, the head of our gaming group, the Outriders, has fourteen tables that he's providing for our fantasy side, and the Game Shoppe is providing up to 18 tables for us. That's enough to cover 64 40k players, when in all reality we're closer to 30-40 for our first year. What we started doing this past week (as work commitments have prevented me from doing this sooner) is going to each store and beginning our inventory and determining set up.

Anyway, we set out last night revising our board structure based on the feedback we got here and on my blog. Unfortunately, my camera battery died :(, so someone had to take a cell phone picture and message it to me, so the resolution isn't that high. I'll go back and get a higher resolution one this weekend:



We've also been getting some of the cooler terrain inventoried, like this bad boy:


But most importantly, we've kicked off terrain production from now until June starting today! We call our weekend terrain gatherings Bartcon South on honor of a local buddy of ours. GW was nice enough to send this lovely set of packages to me yesterday:



So have no fear, we are more than good in the terrain department in terms of having terrain. The only question was how to set up our boards, which the experienced members of the site have been nice enough to provide us with some solid guidance.

That picture looks good. I think if the rest of your tables are similiar, you will be good to go.

So you're borrowing the terrain from local game stores! That should work well enough and provide some interesting variety.

Have you figured out who you're going to hire to run it for you yet?

Experienced event staff with solid rules knowledge and a proven track record of sucessful events will be key to pulling this off.

I used to live in the area if you need some names PM me.

fortykhardcore wrote:So you're borrowing the terrain from local game stores! That should work well enough and provide some interesting variety.

Have you figured out who you're going to hire to run it for you yet?

Experienced event staff with solid rules knowledge and a proven track record of sucessful events will be key to pulling this off.

I used to live in the area if you need some names PM me.

I won't be "hiring" anyone to run the event, but we have put together a quality staff of judges and organizers to make sure the event is successful and runs smoothly. Our judges come from the local game stores (again, the two Dragon's Lairs and the Game Shoppe) and have decades of experience running RTTs. They have all been more than willing to volunteer countless hours to develop the rules and scenarios, and I've been more than willing to accept their services and years of experience to shore up mine. That has allowed me to focus primarily on recruitment and getting all the materials and resources needed for the GT, and has helped make preparation far easier - the Bugeater GT really will be a showcase of the Warhammer community here in Omaha! I appreciate your offer for forwarding names, and if you'd like to contact me further to discuss your suggestions feel free to email me at RoyersT@gmail.com.

Pshh...everyone knows that every GT player is fully versed on the rules and that issues requiring judges NEVER come up. Right?

.....right guys?

......*silence*

fortykhardcore wrote:So you're borrowing the terrain from local game stores! That should work well enough and provide some interesting variety.

Have you figured out who you're going to hire to run it for you yet?

Experienced event staff with solid rules knowledge and a proven track record of sucessful events will be key to pulling this off.

I used to live in the area if you need some names PM me.

Hi Bart

Hey tournament sounds good!

Squigherder wrote:Hi Russ!

That's not me FYI. It might be one of my lads/minions. I have been instructing them to take the high road but they don't always listen. I'm sure you can identify with that since "Dan" has sent me a string of hate mail and attacked me multiple times publicly over a philosophical/minor disagreement...but I wouldn't think of holding you responsible for that.

I haven't had time for internet trolling since I went back to work. If some of 40khardcore's ideas sound like mine I can't control that we discussed the shortcomings of this event at length in our local forum.

I a bit offended though because, and I don't get why: Tim is still trying to slam BARTCON esp. in a national forum. It's a silly little local event that doesn't threaten his GT in any way. We have a couple of potential weekends blocked out for it and when our club member who is full time US army tells us what weekend he is free we will have it that weekend. It's a bunch of guys having RISK, Dawn of War, Mortal Kombat tournaments with their sons on Friday night, Apocalypse Saturday afternoon(with hot wings and beer!), and an undetermined game sunday. But hey Tim you should make fun of it in a national level forum because we're not coming to your GT, which has nothing to do with the scheduling at all.

It's in my best interest that the bugeater go well. If this fails what are the odds another GT level event comes to Omaha? Or any other town within a quick drive of me? Probably slim to none. A Gt is very unlikely to ever come closer to where I live than the bugeater.
I've been around long enough to realise that everything comes full circle and that I can steer an existing GT into a form I like better than a ...... well nothing because it went belly up.

Isanti13 (If this is you)(local TO and former outrider with many, many years experience)can even verify that I talked to him privately about the judging issue. My suggestion was that he and Mark K.(local Tournament Organiser with many years experience) not play and help judge to make sure things go smoothly. Why would I suggest such a thing unless I wanted the event to do well? If I wanted it to fail I wouldn't say a damn thing and sit back. I practically begged them both to not play and help judge!

In my opinion 40Khardcore has a legitimate question about the judging. If Russ and Mark are both playing..then who would be judging? They're the most experienced and reliable TO's in town AFAIK but again I don't know everything.

Hope everyone has fun at the GT! I won't be attending, not too thrilled with the format and the scheduling doesn't work out well for me. (If it was one or the other I'd probably be there!)

This is not Russ.

But yes, we know you have gripes with tournaments that give away free things such as door prizes and gift bags for just showing up.

And we know you have gripes with tournaments that have one award requiring 50% soft scores (Since the event is soooo WAAC according to you)

And I could go on and on, but honestly, the event speaks for itself. Already 60+ sign ups and 2 months to go.

Oh, and Russ is one of the judges...


P.S. Don't name an event after yourself if you can't handle people poking fun at it.. Bartcon... really...

Squigherder wrote:Hi Russ!

That's not me FYI. It might be one of my lads/minions. I have been instructing them to take the high road but they don't always listen. I'm sure you can identify with that since "Dan" has sent me a string of hate mail and attacked me multiple times publicly over a philosophical/minor disagreement...but I wouldn't think of holding you responsible for that.

I haven't had time for internet trolling since I went back to work. If some of 40khardcore's ideas sound like mine I can't control that we discussed the shortcomings of this event at length in our local forum.

I a bit offended though because, and I don't get why: Tim is still trying to slam BARTCON esp. in a national forum. It's a silly little local event that doesn't threaten his GT in any way. We have a couple of potential weekends blocked out for it and when our club member who is full time US army tells us what weekend he is free we will have it that weekend. It's a bunch of guys having RISK, Dawn of War, Mortal Kombat tournaments with their sons on Friday night, Apocalypse Saturday afternoon(with hot wings and beer!), and an undetermined game sunday. But hey Tim you should make fun of it in a national level forum because we're not coming to your GT, which has nothing to do with the scheduling at all.

It's in my best interest that the bugeater go well. If this fails what are the odds another GT level event comes to Omaha? Or any other town within a quick drive of me? Probably slim to none. A Gt is very unlikely to ever come closer to where I live than the bugeater.
I've been around long enough to realise that everything comes full circle and that I can steer an existing GT into a form I like better than a ...... well nothing because it went belly up.

Isanti13 (If this is you)(local TO and former outrider with many, many years experience)can even verify that I talked to him privately about the judging issue. My suggestion was that he and Mark K.(local Tournament Organiser with many years experience) not play and help judge to make sure things go smoothly. Why would I suggest such a thing unless I wanted the event to do well? If I wanted it to fail I wouldn't say a damn thing and sit back. I practically begged them both to not play and help judge!

In my opinion 40Khardcore has a legitimate question about the judging. If Russ and Mark are both playing..then who would be judging? They're the most experienced and reliable TO's in town AFAIK but again I don't know everything.

Hope everyone has fun at the GT! I won't be attending, not too thrilled with the format and the scheduling doesn't work out well for me. (If it was one or the other I'd probably be there!)

I want to put this mess to rest and get back to promoting the event - isanti13 and squigherder, take your disputes privately please. As for the Bartcon reference, that really wasn't an insult at all. We had 9 guys over at my house getting 'ard boyz prep in and putting terrain together, and failing to find another name we jokingly called it Bartcon South. No slight at all considering we had a great time and plan on having many repeat events at my place. In fact, that's the first time we've tried to get a large group together to play away from a FLGS or tournament in years, so kudos to you for implanting the idea in my brain.

For the rest of this hoopla:

40khardcore had some legitimate questions, which I don't think I dismissed at all, and felt I answered rather sufficiently. Mark Kyriss will be playing, but has been meeting with me to develop the rules and scenarios for months. Russ Barnes will be one of my judges. I understand that you don't like the two champion format, and given our past conversations we've agreed to disagree, I've never thought you've wished ill of this event. In fact, like I've said in other locations, I hope the first year goes extremely well to show you how strong the NOVA format is.

But that's all I'm going to say on that. Any other questions, post them here, PM me, or email me. Otherwise, I'll keep posting the updates! Again - only one spot left in Fantasy!

Timmy, how many are signed up for 40k? How many are paid? How many are you expecting?

To the rabblers in the other club - have no worries, the only thing you're missing is a spanking by Hulksmash.

Some ideas for friday night:

I've had some success in the past running a high stakes Mordheim game where you can buy skill upgrades for your characters and play a one-off game. I think the rules in the book allow for 1,000 GC buys for the warbands. We tried theming the scenario after a recently poular movie (either copy the actual plot or just the basic terrain setup theme and name)

Since the warbands for this type of game are usually very small (3 figures typically) you could supply them quite easily with figures from club members WFB armies.

If you do bloodbowl with two minute timed turns you should be able to host an entire tournament on Friday night. the only down side is that games that are tied at the end of regulation will have to be decided on casualties (Or eventually a dice roll if all other tiebreaker conditions don't work) You just can't do overtime and keep the tournament running properly.

It'd be great if you could get Mr. Kyriss to dust off his Epic and setup a game for people to play in too!

Try tapping the RPG crowd down there as well, somebody must be playing the WFB or 40K RPGs.

Dashofpepper wrote:Timmy, how many are signed up for 40k? How many are paid? How many are you expecting?

To the rabblers in the other club - have no worries, the only thing you're missing is a spanking by Hulksmash.

We have 26 paid right now, and another 10 that are "coming" (they've emailed/PM'd/something but haven't paid yet). My goal is high 30s, low 40s in the first year. We allotted for, and have materials for a full 64 player field, but high 30s/low 40s is our realistic year one target with travel prices, and with some of the clubs in nearby cities adopting a wait and see approach on the first year of the event. I've had a couple of shops tell me $45 is too expensive for a two day tournament, and I'm just hoping that when news comes back of all the swag, prizes, and awards that we gathered up to put back into the players' hands, they'll change their mind next year (plus, $45 is pretty reasonable from what I've seen of other events on the circuit).

Squigherder wrote:
Hey Tim! I'll delete my posts that are irellevant.(If I can) I wouldn't even be posting in this thread if Dan hadn't trolled me...which it's kinda sad I fell for it.

On the upside he gets motivated to join forums just to mess w me.

I asked at our annual Easter/Zombie gaming day if anybody was the anonymous poster but nobody claimed it. If I can root it out I'll stop it. The problem with loyal attck dogs is their occasional bouts with free thinking!

Thanks Bart - hopefully no hard feelings!

Hrm. Well, I hope it turns out well. My wife and I have had some arguments about this. =p Plane tickets to D.C. for the Nova Open were $250 apiece, and a single plane ticket to Omaha - which is closer...is $600+. I'll honestly admit some reservations on attending here.

Hey there, I just moved to Bellevue and looking for gaming in the area. I know this is more of an event with many people traveling from out of town, but I was wondering how I could get a spectator ticket and possibly meet people from the Omaha area to game with. Unfortunately I'm fairly new to Warhammer, and my army is in boxes at the moment, but I would still love to come down and meet people and check out the armies! Let me know how I could go about this, and thanks in advance!

@Dash - Understandable, those are some pricey tickets!

@Bixeightysix - You'll want to visit the Game Shoppe (http://www.thegameshoppe.com), located right in Bellevue. Best game shop in town (and it's not my home store, so I'm not biased!). You can go to our website at http://gt.bugeatergames.com, and you can purchase a $15.00 spectator ticket to get you the swag bag, and access to Friday night fun gaming and the ability to hang out Saturday/Sunday to watch the games.

If you have any more questions let me know!

Timmy,

Thanks for the info! I have stopped by the Game Shoppe and was very surprised by the store altogether. I'll hopefully be seeing you all in June!

Any word on attendence #'s or how the terrain project is coming? Also is there a bar in the Hotel or a nice one near by?

I believe Tim said Fantasy numbers were close to 40 and 40k numbers were in the low 30s of people who have paid.

The terrain is coming along nicely. Spent an evening last weekend assembling and priming a ton of stuff and are planning to paint them next weekend. Russ has also been on a terrain making spree and is pumping out some nice 40k and fantasy stuff. So all in all it's looking pretty good!

We are a month away from the tournament!

We have 38 in Fantasy and 32 in 40k registered and ready to go - we're still accepting registration up until June 10th.

Josh - I'll let you know about top bar choices to hit up. If you're a wings fan, Oscars (which is right in between the hotel and school) has some of the best wings in town. I'll post that up thought .

All participants - remember that army preference is due to me by next Tuesday, and army lists are due on June 10th!

I can't remember if I've paid for this one Timmy. Hit me up on PM and let me know if I have or haven't so I can make sure I do

@Hulksmash - sent you a PM

For everyone else - June 10th is the signup deadline. We have 39 signed up in fantasy and 35 signed up in 40k right now. With all expenses paid for, any additional tickets is now 100% add'l money going to the debate team. As of right now, we're looking at about $2000 donation to the debate program. That's all possible because of your attendance, and because the generosity of our sponsors - many of whom donated completely free product to help keep the Bugeater GT affordable yet loaded with prizes. Thanks to Chaos Mail Order, some of the latest Dark Eldar / Tomb King releases are going to be given away. Thanks to a local company, Silver Compass Designs, everyone will be getting an all-in-one template in their swag bag on top of the other items already mentioned.

A reminder that I need army lists by June 10th, and initial army preference by tomorrow if possible.

Thanks guys (and gals)!

Awesome on the amount raised Timmy! That's great.

Also in regards to our preference can I say Nids or IG

I gots tha Army ADD!!!!!

I'll make the decision by the 10th and shoot you my list for sure. Though 3 weeks early is a little crazy


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Or an All Pally + Dreadknight GK army

Getting the army a few weeks out is so we have a barometer for FAQ preparation and army list checks in a few weeks.

In other news we are sold out of fantasy spots. If you want to get on a reserve list, email me or PM me. If someone drops, people on the reserve list get dibs on the spot, in order of when they were added to the list.

This is the FINAL WEEK to buy tickets to the Bugeater GT! We have 40 players in 40k now, with a few more on the way.

If you're on the fantasy reserve list, don't give up hope after this week, if a drop happens - even the night before the tournament - I will try and contact you to get you in. My judges and I are putting a small FAQ together for fantasy and 40k based on questions we've fielded from players that will be out this week as well.

I want to go! This could be the begining of a great event in the Midwest! However, I am all booked for Wargames Con in Austin and I won't be able to have those days off at the end of June. Oh well, perhaps next year. I wish this event and everyone that attends the best!

Tony Malave
http://chicagokamikazes.blogspot.com//

K, finally paid. I'll shoot you my list in the next day or so. Super busy with work and getting ready for A-Kon. Thanks for putting this on Timmy!

Shot my list in a couple days ago. Now I just have to finish the unit I added to my list.

I'm coming down Friday afternoon. Anyone else, besides Hulk, staying in the hotel (where Tim had the block reserved)?

Folks tomorrow is the last day to sing up for the Bugeater GT! We have 40 players in fantasy (sold out!), and 41 40k players. There are still spots available for 40k. We have 9 states represented: Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana. We've got a great turnout for our first year!

Also, tomorrow is when I need army lists. Please email those to me at RoyersT@gmail.com

Thanks!

Registration is now closed. We had a good number of purchases on the last day, so we are now up to 47 40k players (with 40 in fantasy still, no drops!). If you have not gotten your list in, you are past deadline ... get it into me asap

We also added 2 more states to our list: Wyoming and Nevada. So we have people from 11 states total!

And more importantly, those additional registrations pushed up to just about $2500 for the debate program in net ticket sales. We're hoping to hit $3,000 with concessions, so come hungry . Thanks to everyone who signed up for the first ever Bugeater!

40k Final Packet out for this weekend:

http://gt.bugeatergames.com/40kMissions_FinalPacket.pdf

Some of the stuff we are raffling away this weekend:



And the trophies arrived today!



See everyone in a few days!

And the tournament ends!

Hulksmash called me from the road to tell me that he paired off against Dual Lash Chaos Marines on Table #1 for the final game, and got tabled. Chaos won. o.O That's unusual!

Yep, Hulk went 5-1, losing in the last round. There were 3 undefeated going into round 6 - Dark Eldar, Chaos, and Hulk's Deathwing. I'm waiting for batreps on how Tony (Chaos) beat the Dark Eldar player, because I was busy doing fantasy awards and handling some other stuff while that game was happening.

I'll have full results posted soon, I've got a broken seal on a skylight and a deluge of water flowing into my bathroom. Once that gets fixed, I'll start postin'!

Sorry I couldn't come, glad you had a great event!

Well, I decided to sign up for Dakka so I can toss out my input. I'm Tony, the Chaos player that took the Bugeater. I'll definitely write up a battle report for the Dark Eldar game Tim, I'll work on it over lunchtime. Thanks for a great weekend! Also, Hulksmash, you were one hell of a fun opponent that last game, took it like a champ!

Who won the Fantasy Games?

The champs were as follows:

Fantasy:

Tournament Champ (lone undefeated): Dan Sammons (Skaven)
Sweepstakes Champ (best combined battle/paint/sports): Eric Rennie (Vampire Counts)

40k:

Tournament Champ: Tony Staub (Chaos Space Marines)
Sweepstakes Champ: Marc Tomlinson (Eldar)

@Ironnerd

Thanks Tony. I had a great time getting pounded flat. I knew it was gonna be a tough match-up but I didn't expect it to be that bad

@Timmy

Great job on the tourney man. You guys put on a great event. I'll be doing up a tourney review in addition to batrepping all my games (that's right, I took pictures!!!!) on my blog over the next week or so. Thanks for a great event even if the weather and drive nearly killed me (not completely exaggerating )

I was going to go for fantasy, however there are too many other events I'm attending this summer, maybe next year.

You missed a good event. My review is up now on my blog:

http://hulksmash-homeplace.blogspot.com/2011/06/tournament-review-bugeater-2011.html

Hulksmash wrote:@Ironnerd

Thanks Tony. I had a great time getting pounded flat. I knew it was gonna be a tough match-up but I didn't expect it to be that bad

@Timmy

Great job on the tourney man. You guys put on a great event. I'll be doing up a tourney review in addition to batrepping all my games (that's right, I took pictures!!!!) on my blog over the next week or so. Thanks for a great event even if the weather and drive nearly killed me (not completely exaggerating )

Hey man I am the IG player who played you round 3.

lol, we never made it back. We detoured an accident on 59 and got around it and then a huge tree had fallen over just before craig where we were gonna try and get back on I-29. We tried to detour it and ended up on a muddy un-improved road. Needless to say two and a half hours later someone showed up to pick us up. Are vehicle is still stuck up there until the road dries up. I ended up not getting home after dropping everyone off at there homes until 0730 this morning. So was a very eventful trip.

I feel your pain. I waited that huge storm out in Omaha only to get back home in time to get called out for the fire department. We resqued 2 people from cars from a flash flood and spent the night looking at bridges and pumping water out of the sewer to help keep it from backing up in people's houses.

Needless to say I didn't get to bed till 10am today. I'll have coverage and pictures up later tonight.

@Hulk.... Good thing we went back for the camera so you can have pictures...lol


@Tim... One hell of an event sir. I'm glade the debate team did well, a good cause. Best run event I have ever been to.

Ok, I put up a battle report for my game 5 vs. Dark Eldar. It's my first batrep, so I can't comment on the quality, but the game was amazing, so hopefully that shines through. Never had something come down to the wire nearly that badly...

Now up on my blog, 2 cents on 40k, is my first impressions on the Bugeater GT. Check it out, tomorrow's article will focus on tables, terrain, and some cool people that made my experience a blast.

http://2centson40k.blogspot.com/2011/06/bugeater-gt-2011-coverage-trip-and.html

Bugeater Gt 2011 terrain coverage and shots of interesting people.....

http://2centson40k.blogspot.com/2011/06/bugeater-gt-2011-coverage-terrain.html


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Link to results:

http://www.bugeatergames.com/Bugeater_Results40k.pdf

Look to Josh's previous post for the full pdf of the results. I posted two copies of the results, one for the Tournament Champ (best w/l record) and the Sweepstakes Champ (our Ren Man). One thing I loved about the Nova format (has Mike trademarked that yet?) is that it rewards you for eeking out those close wins instead of punishing you. If you look at the two different sets of results, our Tourny Champ (Tony), didn't even place in the top 10 for Sweepstakes because he had several very close wins (see his battle report about having to play to the third mission in game 5).

But here are the top 10 in each:

Tournament Champ:

1. Tony Staub (CSM) 6-0
2. Brian Mart (BA) 5-1
3. Marc Tomlinson (Eldar) 5-1
4. Brad Townsend (DA) 5-1
5. Adam Tricola (DE) 5-1
6. Cory Gage (SW) 5-1
7. Andrew Gould (BA) 4-2
T-8. Jeff Armstrong (SW) 4-2
T-8. Roalnd Manarin (IG)
10. Ryan Cavin (Tyranids) 4-2

Sweepstakes Champ

1. Marc Tomlinson (Eldar)
2. Brian Mart (BA)
3. Roland Manarin (IG)
4. Brad Townsend (DA)
5. Andrew Gould (BA)
6. Jeff Armstrong (SW)
7. Adam Tricola (DE)
8. Jamie Tigges (Tyranids)
9. Ryan Cavin (Tyranids)
10.Charles Young (IG)

4th even though I was one of the last undefeated's standing with one of the dudes I beat being ahead of me....teach me to not lose early

I like that 3/4 of the top spots come from 4th edition codexes.....suck on that tier system!!!!!

Oh, and there is a slight glitch in the scoring. I had 103 BP's so I should be third overall, not that it matters much. It's pretty much just for my ego

Hulksmash wrote:4th even though I was one of the last undefeated's standing with one of the dudes I beat being ahead of me....teach me to not lose early

I like that 3/4 of the top spots come from 4th edition codexes.....suck on that tier system!!!!!

Oh, and there is a slight glitch in the scoring. I had 103 BP's so I should be third overall, not that it matters much. It's pretty much just for my ego

Ya, also Brian had 125 points atleast he thought he did. So he lost the sweepstakes champion by .5 points. That hurts. Luckily the competition between first and second there was between friends from the same club.

Crazy that different match ups decide the winner so much. Im curious if the dual lash list faced a mech IG list. It really comes down to every army having a decent or even a hard counter for their army. I wonder which top tier builds has the least counters. There is always one list that can counter any list you build.

I disagree that all top level armies have decent or hard counter. I think you can build so that there aren't any gaps and generally do, assuming no painting deadlines

But that's just my view on army building. I think you can plan for any eventuality and have to, because even though you don't think it's a great army that could be your doom you still might run into it round 1-2.

I have to say I was surprised by the number of Mech IG as they have been slowly fading from all other major events, at least the gunline variety.

Tomb King wrote:
Crazy that different match ups decide the winner so much. Im curious if the dual lash list faced a mech IG list. It really comes down to every army having a decent or even a hard counter for their army. I wonder which top tier builds has the least counters. There is always one list that can counter any list you build.

Nope, miraculously I did not face Mech IG. Although I have beaten them before, IG is definitely the army I was most scared of, followed by DE. I can take on BA and SW, and I've done so fairly often in the past. My opponents were: Blood Angels (Brian Mart, who was runner up tournament champion), Grey Knights, Tyranids, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, then Hulk's Deathwing.

Chiming in to agree that armies don't need to have hard counters - its all in how you build and use it!

I might want to disagree with dash and hulk, not all armies are impervious to hard counters. For example, chaos daemons vs grey knights with enough strike squads to cover the board before you even get a chance to deep strike. That may be a hard counter, if they have first turn, they can essentially win the game before you get on the board. Though you can steal the initiative, which I did do once. To yermom, but it didn't change the end result...so 1/6 of getting on the board? In my honest opinion, thats a hard counter.

Yes - Grey Knights are a "Hard Counter" to daemons in that respect. They're built that way.

I'm not talking about a codex that is built specifically to screw another codex - but rather that any given army (aside from Daemons being faced by Grey Knights) doesn't need to have a hard counter.

Thus the phrase "Take All Comers" army. Every codex can build that kind of army - with the exception of daemons. For everyone else, you only have a hard counter if you build your army to allow it.

@Clause

It would take a special build of GK's to totally bone a Daemon army but if you build your list right it's not a hard counter in my opinion. That may be where we differ in opinion. Besides....who's taking more than one Strike squad nowadays

I'll agree it's an uphill battle though

Honestly I expect the way daemons play to change heavily when they eventually get their redux, though that will be probably be in the second year of 6th at the earliest.

I would agree with you dash that if you create a sound list you can be prepared for every contingency, which is the Take all comers list/army build you speak of. I am just butthurt that I play daemons, I am not saying it is impossible to beat a GK army. But I would say it is very close to impossible for me to beat a well rounded, Gk list, played by an intelligent general.

Hulk, I got the pleasure of playing Nick (yermom) this past weekend at the tournament he helped run/host. I was running a (thought to be) competitive fatecrusher list, I ran into Nick in the second round after we both won. he was running 3 strike squads, 3 purifiers and 2 assassin squads, with 3 rifle dreads backing him up(all foot squads in psybacks, and I think 3 rhinos). He knew the capabilities of my army as he used to play daemons. He won first turn on a roll of a 2, he offered me first turn so we could make a game out of it. With 3 transports filled with strike squads, he could cover a length of 72 inches, plus the width of the rhinos, so he can over the length of the board no problem. He also would deploy, up to line, then moving 12. So I had at maximum, 12 inches of deployment on my side to deep strike into. I will not argue the effectiveness of strike squads, but I will say that Nick is a very competent general and is very methodical. So I would offer that he has good reason to take 3 strike squads.

All I am trying to say is that there is, a hard counter to an army, that almost makes it impossible to win. Yes, daemon players have beaten GK players, yes they will in the future. But, an equal daemon player, vs an equal Gk player. A GK player will win.
But, all that warp quake stuff was worthless in my game with nick, because I stole the initiative!

EDIT: But yes, this is all my opinion Hulk, so of course I do not mean to attack your views and observations. This is just the way i have seen it play out. I hope you are right though, because I would love to smash through a GK army with my daemons

I would work on the pairings next year some. This year seemed kind of inconsistent at times. Two of my buddies who came down together played eachother the second round and they both had max points while another 2 winners has 14 and 18 points. In addition, having 4 of the 7 space wolves players playing each other in round 1 is pretty harsh. Dunno if that was real bad luck or what. Might even post a piece of paper with current points and such after each round so people know where there sitting. Rather than wondering why they got one opponent instead of another.

Our late round pairings needed some tweaking, to be sure. However, I know for a fact that round 2 our pairings were solid - we matched high-low the whole tournament. In round 2, it was easy since there were 22 undefeateds, so the #1 seed played the #22, the #2 played the #21, and down the line. Then for the 0-1 players, #23 played #44, and up. They must have been right in the middle of the pack to have played each other in that round. Not much you can do about that.

We split the field into the Nebraska and out of state groups and then randomly paired without armies being shown. If we gave credence to armies, that runs the risk of matching up favorable rounds, and that's no good either. I don't disagree that 4 of 7 space wolves hitting each other is a drag, and we can do that check next year, but swinging the other way and avoiding like-army pairings can have its problems, too.

TimmyMWD wrote: I don't disagree that 4 of 7 space wolves hitting each other is a drag, and we can do that check next year...

Agreed on that one. At the Alamo GT, 4/5 of the Dark Eldar players got paired against each other round one.

Beyond the first round, pairings can have limited control, but I think there is value in a couple of pairing ideals:

1. No one from the same group traveling together plays each other in the first round.
2. No codex plays itself.

You said that you did Nebraska vs. Everyone Else, which works too.

Dashofpepper wrote:

TimmyMWD wrote: I don't disagree that 4 of 7 space wolves hitting each other is a drag, and we can do that check next year...

Agreed on that one. At the Alamo GT, 4/5 of the Dark Eldar players got paired against each other round one.

Beyond the first round, pairings can have limited control, but I think there is value in a couple of pairing ideals:

1. No one from the same group traveling together plays each other in the first round.
2. No codex plays itself.

You said that you did Nebraska vs. Everyone Else, which works too.

Agreed. This is another example of the value of feedback - I just added to my "to do for 2012" list to add in army list checks for the first round. Thanks Brett.

The reason we did Nebraska vs. everyone else is because it was something like 20 NE players and 24 out of state players, so it was real easy to ensure point #1 that you mentioned, Dash.

The final reflection is up on my blog, I thought I'd post it here, too. We had a great meeting tonight about what we'd like to do for the next Bugeater. Although none of them are major or system changing (we like the Nova style event format, and we're sticking with it), it's funny how long our list is of little things to make it better (empty tables to put armies, using a microphone for time announcements). Never rest on your laurels. Anyway, here's our thoughts:

Folks,

Tonight the tournament staff and some of the players from the Outlanders group met for a few hours over food and drinks to talk about the first ever Bugeater GT. We already had a great deal of feedback on Sunday night from the sheets everyone filled out, and from the judges talking with players and getting feedback that way. But on top of that, we've been reading people's posts on forums and their blogs the past few days. Thanks to Josh, Brad, Bill, Lloyd, and others who have been posting around the internet about your experience at the GT. This is kind of our "state of the GT" report about how we thought things went, how you told us things went, and what we look to do for next year.

First, we thought (and you indicated on your feedback forms) that overall things ran well ... particularly for a first year event. With the exception of round 3 on Saturday, we ran on time (or in some cases, a few minutes early) according to the schedule we sent out in the packet. We only had three pairing snaufs the whole tournament, which I'm happy with, and just a couple points of confusion on scenarios - one time each for fantasy and 40k. The judges were active in moving between the tables, I thought the concessions ran well, and generally people told me they had a good time. There were, however, some areas we could have improved and we will work to improve upon for next year. Obviously, things are still very much in the air, but already we know we want/need to do a few things for the second Bugeater GT:

* Top priority: move the Bugeater GT to another weekend, or find a reasonable hotel rate for people. The 25th/26th weekend will conflict with the CWS (I was misinformed) next year. Unless we can find a group rate for $80-$90 at a nice hotel (doubtful), we'll be moving the Bugeater GT to another weekend in June. We have one in mind, and it is NOT the one I posted about on the blog yesterday, because that is too close to the 4th of July. If we move the Bugeater GT, we will move it to an earlier weekend in June.
* Many people wrote or said something to us about this, but fantasy players needed more time to finish games. We like the 2500 point level, but games will need to be at least 2 hours 30 minutes long instead of 2 hours 15 minutes.
* Next year, we'll make sure to have more table space - either larger tables or additional tables next to the boards so people have plenty of space to set up their armies and other materials without fear of them getting knocked down, bumped, etc.
* Next year, we'll have a microphone. No more yelling
* Having 2 rounds of fantasy on Sunday was a nice way to conclude the tournament, and based on the sheer volume of out of town players requesting it, we're looking to go to 4 rounds of 40k on Saturday so that way they also have only 2 rounds of gaming on Sunday. That will also allow us to stagger start times, so we're not inundated with results from games and having to take 30 minutes to get the next match ready for both divisions.
* We also want to make sure there's consistency in terrain. There were a couple of tables that were light on terrain, and a couple that had some beefy buildings right in the middle that hindered play. We think there should be big LOS blocking features in the middle of the board, but ones that you can move into/contest objectives on, etc. We thought most of the terrain was excellent, just that a few boards needed tweaking.
* We're going to increase the number of painting judges and assign them specific divisions to judge (so 40k and fantasy have 2 painting judges each). That way we can get the judging done during registration and lunch. No more judging painting while gaming is happening. ALSO with painting, we'd like to expand the single mini painting categories to more like a Golden Demon style - meaning the models don't have to be from your army (they certainly can be) to encourage some really creative/well painted models.

Anyway, those are some of the things that, at least for now, we're really committed to doing. The overall format of the tournament will largely stay the same, with some tweaks and changes still. I think the "Nova" format works (having 2 champs - one based on win/loss one based on combined scores). Tony, who won the 40k Tournament Champ, for example had pretty low battle points compared to the 5-1s in the tournament. I LIKE that he still won tournament champion because it encouraged and promoted close, nail-biting wins that are close. I think that's a great thing. I think the enjoyment people had shows that system works. We're also working on creating a more accurate pairing system to keep things running quickly and smoothly. Obviously a lot is up in the air with a year until the next Bugeater, but I wanted to let you know that we are looking for areas to improve, and we poured through your feedback the past few days to hear what you thought.

I want to thank all the people that attended this year. Getting 80 players (plus more than 10 paid spectators) for a first year event is, in my opinion, very impressive. You guys helped to make this a successful first year - everyone in attendance was fun, friendly, and there to have a good time and compete in a good atmosphere. Your attendance also helped raise over $3000 for the debate team. What makes me really happy about that figure is that we raised that much money while providing swag bags, lots of raffled off prizes, and keeping the cost at $45. Find another 2 day tournament at that price. You would think that raising money for the debaters and keeping costs down would conflict, but they don't because of the GREAT support we have from our sponsors. I hope you'll give the Game Shoppe, Chaos Mail Order, Silver Compass Designs, and our other sponsors your business after seeing that they were willing to give away thousands of dollars of stuff for FREE to support the hobby.

Thanks again for coming to the GT. You all took a chance on an event that never took place before, and I'd like to think that bet paid off. I look forward to seeing you next year at an improved, and larger Bugeater GT!

-Tim Royers

I'm confused why there is such hesitancy to host events on holiday weekends.

For most of the working world, that's a long weekend - meaning that a holiday weekend is the PERFECT weekend to host a GT. No need to take time off work, leave early from work to catch a flight, get back in time for work Monday morning...that kind of thing.

If you were to host it on the 4th of July weekend, I'd be there. Hell, I'd be ANYWHERE for a GT on the 4th of July weekend. People are asking for 4 rounds on Saturday with two on Sunday so that they can make the drive/commute/flight home to be ready for work Monday morning.

Holiday weekend negates the need for all of that.

Dashofpepper wrote:I'm confused why there is such hesitancy to host events on holiday weekends.

For most of the working world, that's a long weekend - meaning that a holiday weekend is the PERFECT weekend to host a GT. No need to take time off work, leave early from work to catch a flight, get back in time for work Monday morning...that kind of thing.

If you were to host it on the 4th of July weekend, I'd be there. Hell, I'd be ANYWHERE for a GT on the 4th of July weekend. People are asking for 4 rounds on Saturday with two on Sunday so that they can make the drive/commute/flight home to be ready for work Monday morning.

Holiday weekend negates the need for all of that.

As long as fourth of July itself was not during the event. The 4th is on a Wednesday next year. So I would be game for a weekend near the 4th, next year I am gonna win it all with my tau.

@Dash

I've found 2-day events really suffer around holidays. Especially big ones like the 4th. Reason being that most people have family/friend obligations that don't allow them to head out for a weekend. For locals it sometimes works but you very, very rarely get people flying in for something over a holiday weekend.