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So I'm going to the 40k Throne Of Skulls in Nottingham next January and I haven't been to one of these before. Can anyone give me some feedback on what it's really like?

How competitive are the people who go? Is it all flyer spam with lists tweaked to within an inch of their life or do most people play for fun? Are there any stats on the sort of lists people took to the most recent tournament there?

How does terrain work? Is it all set up in advance or is alternating placement used? So would it be OK to put an Aegis & QG in my list or is someone just going to stick a great big ruin in front of it at the beginning of every game.

Any recommendations on cheap & safe places to stay nearby.

Hi Hi,

ToS Uk 40k isn't as competitive as some of the independents. Expect to see (some) highly tweaked lists there but by no means will everyone be using them. Of course if you win the first 3 games, day 2 you should expect to see much more tweaked lists on the top tables so there is a moving gradient in that respect.

Sportsmanship votes change things a lot so people try to be a tad nice

I stayed at the nearest travel lodge which was alright and I wasn't alone in doing so.

Terrain is all pre-set up so yeah no Ruin blocking aegis's.

I haven't been since 6th so I can't comment on stats of armies.

The real cute-hydra

I attended in April 2011 so no idea about 6th related stuff. However I thoroughly enjoyed the more laid-back nature of the tourney. Don’t get me wrong there were 1 or 2 power lists. But actually the best player I encountered was using vanilla marines for the challenge of it. So all in all a nice mixture, tending towards the fluff bunny spectrum 

Awesome, I'm attending this one too. I wouldn't say so, It's extremely rare that you'll play a fully optimised list. I've only been to ones since 6th so I completement cute-hydra well here .

The terrain is pre set unless you agree with your opponent beforehand. Most of my opponents last time brought Aegises and they always worked really well, non-one's that douchy. Plus, there's generally not enough terrain to do that.

It's a really enjoyable event no matter whether you do well or badly. I've never run into TFG at a Throne of Skulls, and I'm pretty sure that it's not me .

I've just come back from the October Throne of Skulls. You will find some cheesy lists, but overall you should find that you'll play against good people and have a laugh.

One thing that changed this time was that you played a random opponent each round - there was no 'top table' at all. In my final game (where previously I had won 2, lost 2) I played against a guy who had won the first 4 of his games.

I beat him.

I'm heading back to the March Throne of Skulls next year.

_Valten_ wrote:
One thing that changed this time was that you played a random opponent each round - there was no 'top table' at all. In my final game (where previously I had won 2, lost 2) I played against a guy who had won the first 4 of his games.

There must have been one hell of an allocation screw up then, there are most definately top tables, they are specified in the rules pack and I saw them when I was there. If you've won all your games going into the last match you would definately be on the top table. In fact, all of the people that I played had exactly the same record as me going into that game, bar game 4, who had 1 more win than me whilst I had 1 more draw.

So how many flying vehicles did people see. 1-2 or lots? Many people bring Helldrakes or was it all Vendettas & Night Scythes?

Don't know about Heldrakes, a few Night Scythes and Vendettas. Most lists with flyers only had 1, although there were a couple of Night Scythe heavy lists and 1 Vendetta heavy list when I was there, so not many.

Just went to october ToS.

There were a a few armies that spammed flyers, but lots of armies had 1 or 2 in, also most armies had a ADL.
Terrain was pre-set but also almost non-existant, even so, fortification would be set up after terrain so they couldn't just plop a ruin in front of it anyway.
ADLs seem a really good idea for ToS.
Lots of cheap travelodges around.
Games were all random this year with no top tables at all. (not even standings after each round).
Rounds are 150 minutes long and everyone plays the same mission (determined by judge) which is not repeated all weekend, allowing people to play most missions.
The Food isn't too bad, but you get well fed.
I would say that some people wanted to be competitive, but most people (including me) probably tied harder to win game-by-game than they did at the army list stage. i used a themed army list with the models i wanted and actually done really well as i didn't play any douchbags with 5 necron flyers.

For the most part, it seems to be groups of friends that go away for a fun weekend away.

Hmm, I don't know what to say.

Part of me is slightly upset at in some ways the complete death of the old GT. I know the old grand tournament have been long since casualised but it was still nice to go to ToS and try to get to the top tables. Now if games are completely randomised it means that if you want to play high end competitive play you are completely forced to go to the independants.

This is good in a sense because it means that tournament players play tournament players. No-ones TFG if everyone in the room is.. Quite honestly I am disappointed if I go to a tournament and don't play against atleast one optimized list because that's why I go to tournaments because my local players don't have any intention of learning the high end tactics/list tweaking.

That said, I don't think I will be going to any more ToS's as I didn't mind paying just under 100 quid including hotel etc for a good weekend of competitive play but if GW are actively encouraging against it. I'd feel bad if I brought a strong list and played against nothing but kids who had lost all their games but equally would be irritated if I brought a casual list and went up against cron air all weekend.

Confessions of a TFG I guess.. I play to win and work hard to do so, but that doesn't mean you can't be polite about it.

I guess ToS will become like the other nottingham tournies which GW does from time to time, usually arranged by stores. People will still have a good time going so that's all that matters, I just won't be one of them.

Love
Cute-Hydra

 cute-hydra wrote:

Hmm, I don't know what to say.

Part of me is slightly upset at in some ways the complete death of the old GT. I know the old grand tournament have been long since casualised but it was still nice to go to ToS and try to get to the top tables. Now if games are completely randomised it means that if you want to play high end competitive play you are completely forced to go to the independants.

This is good in a sense because it means that tournament players play tournament players. No-ones TFG if everyone in the room is.. Quite honestly I am disappointed if I go to a tournament and don't play against atleast one optimized list because that's why I go to tournaments because my local players don't have any intention of learning the high end tactics/list tweaking.

That said, I don't think I will be going to any more ToS's as I didn't mind paying just under 100 quid including hotel etc for a good weekend of competitive play but if GW are actively encouraging against it. I'd feel bad if I brought a strong list and played against nothing but kids who had lost all their games but equally would be irritated if I brought a casual list and went up against cron air all weekend.

Confessions of a TFG I guess.. I play to win and work hard to do so, but that doesn't mean you can't be polite about it.

I guess ToS will become like the other nottingham tournies which GW does from time to time, usually arranged by stores. People will still have a good time going so that's all that matters, I just won't be one of them.

Love
Cute-Hydra

I guess that makes me TFG then, because I have never played someone that I would call TFG at Throne of Skulls. There are still a few well known tournament players that attend, but you're right that it's a good thing that they play each other. At least you have a chance to play them. Plus, games are not completely randomised, it's based on your performance in the previous rounds.

Well, different people have different definitions of TFG, obviously I don't feel I am a nasty player to play against, but equally I do play to win and I try to make optimum lists and then play them optimally putting analysis into games etc. Equally, there's a huge difference against playing someone new or who is more casual to playing my regular opponents who are like me and try and get to a high end level of play. I used the term TFG simply because I can imagine a lot of people felt it when I deployed my army etc.

I played at ToS in Jan with 5th edition Venom Spam for DE, I was polite, friendly but I was there to try and win. I took a tournament army to a tournament. That said, I did everything I could to win (without cheating, putting my opponent off or anything unsportsmanly like that). To put it bluntly I worked hard, put a lot of thought into it and played my absolute best, I felt bad for my first game as I was playing someone who didn't have much of an idea of what they were doing. Equally my last 3 games were against experienced people who could give as good as they got. I enjoy a high competitive end game looking at the tournament level of 40k. Equally, I can understand that some people don't want to be worrying about making sure than there troops are perfectly positioned to block enemy movement in such a way and want to play a much more casual game. I don't disagree at all, I just don't enjoy that part of the game myself. I thought that ToS as the new(relatively) GT did a good job of catering to everyone as the people on boards 1-10 after a few rounds were most likely going to be the competitive players using harder lists but the people in the middle/lower tables were still able to enjoy themselves.

Some of the independent tournaments have a slightly harder feel and ToS was a really nice atmosphere. From what people have said that pairings are now becoming random with no standings etc ToS is no longer a tournament more a games day. Nothing wrong with a games day but I liked that ToS was a GW offically ratified Tournament and it's clear that they don't support their game played at a high level. Equally, I was in my friendly gaming workshop and was talking to a friend and one of us said 'x is a better choice' and was asked nicely by the manager to say 'x was a different choice'. So it seems that they are against a constructed competitive feel as part of general policy..

Just my musings

I probably have derailed the thread a bit.. so I'll stop now!!
The real C-Hydra