Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I searched all over the GW site and couldn't find any info on the 2011 Ard Boyz. Anyone heard anything yet?

I thought they weren't doing Ard Boyz anymore.

spireland wrote:I thought they weren't doing Ard Boyz anymore.

I don't think they are.

That sucks if so. I enjoyed the environment they fostered.

I'm curious as to when that was announced? Must have slipped past me. And this being a year I could play Oh well.

As far as I'm aware it's still happening. The throne of skulls info would also lead me to believe that:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=14700053

If you look at that link, this section would indicate they don't plan on removing it:

2011-2012 SEASON
June 1, 2011 - May 31, 2012
Games Workshop is happy to announce the continuation of the Official Independent Tournament Circuit for another year.

The new circuit will begin on June 1st, 2011 and finish on May 31st, 2012.

The 1st place finisher in each system, at each Independent Tournament on the Circuit will receive free entry into the 2012 North American Throne of Skulls Tournament in Memphis on October 6th and 7th of 2012.

You will be able to enter the 2012 North American Throne of Skulls Tournament in one of three ways:

For FREE by placing 1st in one of the Independent Tournaments
For FREE by placing 1st in one of the Ard Boyz Tournaments
By PURCHASING a ticket when they become available in January of 2012

The North American Throne of Skulls Championship will follow this same format each year after 2012 in Memphis during the month of October


That's my guess at least

That would tend to suggest that they do indeed plan on future Ard Boyz. Although GW is notorious for cutting and pasting without proofing, etc...

I certainly do hope they decide to continue the Ard Boyz format, as they are my favorite tournament format.

Eldanar wrote:That would tend to suggest that they do indeed plan on future Ard Boyz. Although GW is notorious for cutting and pasting without proofing, etc...

I certainly do hope they decide to continue the Ard Boyz format, as they are my favorite tournament format.

What? GW is an organization that is masters of the English Language, they are very careful in what they say. All of their writings are worded perfectly as not to cause any confusion.

GW are doing 'Ardboy. I've got that directly from several people at the Memphis HQ.

Schedule and rules still a bit off, but it's a definite that it will occur.

Good, i'll actually be home this year to attend the 40K and Fantasy rounds.

I heard they were considering a lockout ... depending on whether they can hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement or not......

Oh wait.... thats the NFL.

Nevermind.

If the UK throne of skulls is any indication it seems like a punishment to give tickets to attend

Since mikhaila confirms it, I consider it pretty much a done deal. I'll probably give it a whirl with my troll & ogre army this time around! Complete with banners for no auto-losses

Huzzah! Wouldn't mind another trip up to Philly-- Mikhaila runs a tight ship!

Please, please no gakky missions this time around!

I liked the missions last year!

Reecius wrote:Please, please no gakky missions this time around!

The missions were horrible last year esp the diplomat meet in the middle mission. It was awesome for super assault armies, I got assaulted three times before I got to even go because of that stupid mission.

The one with the randomly scattering Objectives was a lot of fun.

The Finals missions were okay; just had a couple of flaws. The biggest issue was the Diplomats one, and the fact that it started with a scrum in the middle wasn't the big problem. The bigger issues were that a) it said you MUST deploy the other units (unlike regular DoW), and b) it gave all the advantages to the player going second, unlike regular missions where it's more balanced.

Some of the prelim and semi round missions were written literally days before the actual event with little to no playtesting (fact, not conjecture). Expect that to remain the case this year.


Success by accident could happen, though ... some of last year's missions were fine, or not majorly unbalanced. Some were just plain awful.

I don't understand the necessity for odd scenarios. If Ard Boyz is supposed to be about who is the best player, then why not just use the basic scenarios from the rule book. Make the tournament about actual game play rather than who has access to a boot of the scenarios ahead of time and/or jimmy's their list the best for particular scenarios.

The abilty to adapt quickly to unusual circumstances/missions and still achieve victory is also one of the skills of a real life general or a miniatures wargamer.

Mannahnin wrote:The abilty to adapt quickly to unusual circumstances/missions and still achieve victory is also one of the skills of a real life general or a miniatures wargamer.

Quoted... for truth!

The missions need to be shaken up a bit. Adapt and overcome, gentlemen.

These comments are not related. Mannahnin's statement does nothing to address "gak ily written, non playtested missions."

Sure, adaptation is a big deal for wargaming and real life generalship ...

Not in any way related to "Ard Boyz missions are often really, really crappy."

Mike, you seem to have missed my first post in the thread, where I commented on two specific flaws in one of the missions. I also gave more detailed critical and constructive feedback directly to the guy who wrote them, when he asked for it, and later saw improved versions at another tournament.

Crappy, unplaytested missions are DEFINITELY a problem with Ard Boyz, and something GW should do a better job on.

That said, I think the missions often get a lot of unwarranted and unnecessary flack AS WELL as legitimate criticism, often just because they're different, and because SOME complainers have limited tournament experience or differing agendas. Some complaints are real and valid and need to be heeded; others are based off nothing more than someone's idea that "real 40k" is only about the missions in the book.

Mann - I should have been more direct in my reply. I wasn't criticizing your comment; in fact, when you posted it, I went to reply and basically thought "well, I don't have a reply," in that I didn't have anything more to add or any critiques to make. Monster Rain's comment, however, was in line with his earlier comments "liking" the missions ... and I was adding an addendum that your comment isn't really related to the flaws and problems w/ the Ard Boyz missions, or the horribad way in which they are developed.

So, apologies if it read to you as a knock on what you said ... it wasn't.

Fair point, sir. Agreed.

MVBrandt- My comments were more directed at the idea of simply using the missions from the book at 'Ard Boyz.

I'm pretty sure no one is arguing for "gakky non-play-tested" missions. And yeah, I thought the missions last year were fun (at least up through the semi-finals, as I didn't advance further than that). But of course, tournaments are serious business. I would agree that the missions could use a little more work, if for no other reason than to avoid the confusion that the wording of a few of them caused in the days leading up to Prelims.

Tournaments need not be serious business for the attendees - this is a hobby and they should be fun. The Venn Diagram of competitiveness heavily coincides with the Venn Diagram of fun for most everyone (even those who claim it doesn't) ... more importantly, that's true for polish. To the former, nobody - casual or not - likes going into a situation that's unfair, or "buggy," which is what happens in an unpolished situation.

The more polished and "serious business" a tournament is for the ORGANIZERS and rules developers, the more fun it is for the attendees. So, since the producers of Ard Boyz don't put ANY serious business into mission design and playtesting, fun is often abridged for many attendees.

You also can't really use the rule book missions in a three round tournament with mroe than a handful of players. You need the ability assign various scores, not just win/loss.