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Cheers! As some of the US folks in this venerable forum may know, I am presently serving a two year term as Chair of the Organizing Committee of the US Masters fantasy wargaming championships. The shift in direction of GW this summer required Masters to make a choice whether to continue playing Warhammer 8th edition, or to switch to another gaming system- be it AoS, Kings of War, one of the fan-made warhammers that are being worked on, or some other system.

Masters is, and always will be, a US fantasy wargaming championship system by gamers for gamers- a voluntary coming together of gamers from across the US to share our hobby. Each of the 8 regions of Masters voted their preference, the regional voting for which game system Masters will use for the upcoming season January 2016 through December 2016, culminating in the championship in February 2017 has closed today. The decisive winner was Kings of War by a regional vote of 7-1, with the one vote against a very close one within their own region.

Although I would have been happy as Chair to press forward with whatever game system the Regions came to a consensus on, I am most glad that it was such an overwhelming vote for a single system. Keeping this national community of gamers united is good for everybody, providing choice and community for gamers, helping bolster attendance in a time of unprecedented transition for TO's, it's win-win all the way around.

Now that a system has been chosen, the Regions can start talking with their player bases about Regional methods of team selection, as that is decided by each Region internally within the bounds of the Charter. For some Regions like South, little will change about the selection process since all GT's in the Region went 100% Kings of War, but for some it may be a little different so I urge all players to get active in the regional subforums of the Masters forum to stay informed. The names of all of the regional reps are stickied in this board, they are your first point of contact for questions about selection of regional teams. The Masters forum is at:

www.wargamersusa.com

Turning to Kings of War itself, while I would have thrown my whole heart and effort behind whatever system the Regions chose, there are some particular upsides to Kings of War and the game company behind it, Mantic Games. As folks in this subforum know, Mantic is a very accessible to its fans, and is very interested in and supportive of, a competitive scene for its games. Being openly embraced as competitive gamers by a game company is a great feeling. I have already had some very positive conversations with Mantic about developing a mutually beneficial relationship between Masters and Mantic moving forward, and should have some really interesting announcements to make in the near future as we look ahead to the Masters championship in Vegas in February- this year part of Las Vegas Open hosted by Frontline Games. Since February is the culmination of the January 2015- December 2015 qualifying season it will still be warhammer 8th one last time.

The first of those announcements is that I will be running a small three game Kings of War event at US Masters Vegas 2016 on the Friday before the Masters event proper. Now that the vote is official, I can give Frontline the details so it can be added to the LVO list of events and will post them here. Mantic leadership will have a strong presence at LVO (and now at Masters), and so my thought was that a small event was a good way to look forward and get a small taste of what KoW might feel like on the Masters level as we all start to look ahead to the 2017 Championship weekend.

For more information about US Masters, that link again is:

www.wargamersusa.com

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john bailey
Chair, US Masters Organizing Committee

Ah, that is great news! I don't have my Kings of War force together yet but it is awesome to see such a decisive vote in favor of a single system and I hope to have it ready by around AdeptiCon next year. Will keep an eye on your schedule!

Thanks!

Qualifiers for next season don't begin until January 2016 so everyone has some time yet to get their armies together. Check the Regional subforum on the Masters site for qualifiers in your area!


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john bailey

Hopefully the new system shakes up the people in the events. I played in US masters for 2 years and had a HORRIBLE time. I quit fantasy because of the players. (Sold my army months before AoS drop)

It was never fun playing against Comped hardcore armies. Then on top of that half of the Top tier players exploited rules cheated and bullied non competitive players. So again hopefully this shakes it up I've seen a few of the people I mentioned quit gaming all together but we will see.

Sorry to hear that was your experience, man! Players from my own Region (South), had a great time both years, even the first year when we got a bit hammered on the battle scores, lol. It's a whole new day, a whole new game, and at least from what I'm seeing locally there's alot of fresh blood coming into the scene. I hope you'll make it back!

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john

Thats good news. Im looking forward to the KOW tournaments here, you guys should have a blast too.

probably best they voted for a living rules system rather than going to a dead system or a fan made rules set.