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.

Dugg; no offence intended in the use of the word "handed."

You guys complaining about having to face the same book over and over must never have played as a Xenos during 3rd and 4th. During that long 5 year stretch your likely opponents were going to be Space Marines and Spike Space Marines, never seeing anything that was not T4/3+ until you met another poor slob playing xenos in the losers bracket.

@Phazael

I don't know what you're talking about buddy. Those were the golden years of knowing that building a list to kill SM's meant you won if you played Xenos! Nowadays if I build to kill marines with any army I'm all to likely to run into 3-4 xenos armies....makes me sad but I find this is the most diverse edition on the tournament scene to date.

I think that any pairing in the first round of a tournament that is not random is a bad thing. If people are so concerned about one codex, to the point that possibly facing it in the first round is alarming to them, or will somehow ruin their tournament experience, they probably should not be playing in a tournament.

@Hulk-
Yeah I took advantage of it, to be sure. The result was all of my skimmers, wraithlords, and star cannons being nerfed into the turf. I just find it funny that people are bemoaning a lack of diversity when the last couple years have seen arguably the most varied amount of armies and builds in tournament play. I mean, just walking around the BAO, I scarecely saw two armies that looked alike, even if they were from the same book.

All it takes is tracking the actual lists winning events, and/or perhaps more importantly placing in the top 20, over the past several years. The promulgation of events like BAO/AdeptiCon that have "bare-win" generalship tracks combined with traditional overall tracks, and [accidental or intentional] generalized balance improvements to 40k as a whole has really helped the overall feel of the circuit. There are more army lists and codices that can win, and more ways to "win" at tournaments than ever before.

The other thing is, most GT winners are not competing and winning - and never really have - with MSU netlists that you see promulgated in "store hammer" and "web hammer." They're winning with their own flavors, as they always have, but think about back in the day ... when Nidzilla and Tri-monolith lists won repeated tournaments while also being oft-seen netlists ... and compare it to people winning with full-size GH squads instead of razorspam wolves ... or with outflanking close assault guard instead of leafblower ... or with all manner of GK list (yea, yeah, I know) instead of "just" hench-psy-razorback spam and psyfle-dread spam ... etc.

The environment is pretty diverse and radical right now on the actual circuit.

Finally posted up the pictures I took from Day One and Two on my hobby blog. Thanks again for a way fun event.

Day One
http://armyundecided.blogspot.com/2012/03/pictures-from-day-one-of-bay-area-open.html

Day Two
http://armyundecided.blogspot.com/2012/03/bay-area-open-2012-day-two-pictures.html

awesome shots.

here are some that i had on my phone.

http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a26/Sneekygit/40k/BAO%202012/