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Anyone else staying in some dives tonight? We're staying in the Holiday Lodge Motel with a dead phone, a door handle that's broken and piss stains in the shower.

We'll see you all tomorrow, or we'll be on the news with a series killer eating our entrails

Anyone care to share how the first round went?

Hard and long. Like they all should!

I just saw The Independent Characters' pics on FB. It made me even sadder I couldn't go. Looks like an awesome event!

Is there going to be a way to get pictures that you took for the event? I didn't get all the pics I wanted. I noticed a last going around taking pics.

I had a blast at this year's BAO tournament. Inexpensive food, discounted Warhammer products, great atmosphere, and good amount of terrain on each table. There was a huge turnout with many competitive lists. Most of the players I met were really friendly and easy to get along with.

The only downside was limited space when navigating between tables, registration on day 1 delaying first round, player match up posting, and difficult to hear official announcements in a noise environment.

But overall, this tournament was a huge success with surprising results. Good job Reecius, thanks for organizing this!

thelordcal wrote:
Anyone else staying in some dives tonight? We're staying in the Holiday Lodge Motel with a dead phone, a door handle that's broken and piss stains in the shower.

We'll see you all tomorrow, or we'll be on the news with a series killer eating our entrails

Near constant. Pot odor from at least two rooms. Dealer likely in one, given the people traffic in and out. I ain't gonna say which one, as sometimes, dey is some crazy ass-folks. KnowwhatIamsayin'?

Otherwise good service & clean room.


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 SabrX wrote:
I had a blast at this year's BAO tournament. Inexpensive food, discounted Warhammer products, great atmosphere, and good amount of terrain on each table. There was a huge turnout with many competitive lists. Most of the players I met were really friendly and easy to get along with.

The only downside was limited space when navigating between tables, registration on day 1 delaying first round, player match up posting, and difficult to hear official announcements in a noise environment.

But overall, this tournament was a huge success with surprising results. Good job Reecius, thanks for organizing this!

Didju bring Sisters? I debated about interrupting a game with a SoB army that looked like it might've been yours or jy2's.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 tomjoad wrote:
I just saw The Independent Characters' pics on FB. It made me even sadder I couldn't go. Looks like an awesome event!

Link? Can't seem to find it on FB.

Brothererekose wrote:

 SabrX wrote:
I had a blast at this year's BAO tournament. Inexpensive food, discounted Warhammer products, great atmosphere, and good amount of terrain on each table. There was a huge turnout with many competitive lists. Most of the players I met were really friendly and easy to get along with.

The only downside was limited space when navigating between tables, registration on day 1 delaying first round, player match up posting, and difficult to hear official announcements in a noise environment.

But overall, this tournament was a huge success with surprising results. Good job Reecius, thanks for organizing this!

Didju bring Sisters? I debated about interrupting a game with a SoB army that looked like it might've been yours or jy2's.

Nope, I haven't played SoB much this edition. I know the army you are talking about though. That was a beautifully painted SoB army. I heard there were 5 SoB players at the tournament.

I brought my Tau-Orks army. I believe I'm the only one who ran that combo.

 SabrX wrote:

Nope, I haven't played SoB much this edition. I know the army you are talking about though. That was a beautifully painted SoB army. I heard there were 5 SoB players at the tournament.

I brought my Tau-Orks army. I believe I'm the only one who ran that combo.

No, there were several others who brought Torks. Got photos which I will probably be posting in my BAO batrep thread tomorrow.

Posted my quick summary of the BAO this year on my website. The title intro I use for the blog post is the same I use for all Tournament posts I make so don't take it as a reference to the contents inside. I also took over a 100 pictures I posted up as well!

http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2013/03/03/tits-tournaments-bay-area-open-40k-boys/

Congrats to Elizabeth!


Liz with Belt of Russ with MC Reece standing nearby.

I just got home. I had such a great time. So glad I went!

Congrats to Liz giving the Old Demons a final hurrah before new rules and models come on line.
I could not believe the amount of Double-Triple HellDrake spam that was going on.
Nice to meet up with old freinds and aquaintenances and get some good games in.
1st day was long...with 200 people to get checked in and paired up it made for a late start. The barn was about as full as you could get it. If WFB plans to expand you'll need that second barn...along with staff and duplicate computers to run that room.
I know Reece wants to try and get the event into an actual hotel...but the hall size you need will run you 10-15K. You will never recover that kind of cost and that will cause this event to go bust.
Of course another option is to see how much renting a circus tent/canopy would be (including set-up) and using that giant grass field in front of the barn. Besides...that would add to the 'ambiance' of the Fantasy Event. It would also let the WFB guys do their announcements, get the loot, and get on the road rather than waiting for 40K to finish.
As for check-ins...start check-ins a day early. Most of the Friday Doubles players are playing the singles GT too. Let them check-in for everything on Friday. Also alot of us get in Friday afternoon and swing by to check out the Doubles and to say hi...check us in right then also.
Somehow you need more staff/Judges. Are other FLGS's willing to partner-up in exchange for body support? Maybe entice some good local players who aren't playing to help out in exchange for Store Credit or a Battleforce? Or even cash? Something. You're short by at least 1/2 to 2/3rds in staff. Even more next year if WFB moves to their own barn/tent.
A shame the food trucks bailed on you (was this because of the gate problem with the fairground itself and they could not get in???). You should tally up how much pizza you sold and show the cash flow to the venders. For an east 4-digit day in profit you'll get every roach-coach in Frisco.
DBs. TFGs. Yep, their were some issues with DBs. Perhaps its time to introduce a new category beyond expulsion from the event....a ban from the next years Open. With the specifics shared with other TOs so they can decide if they want this sort of activity at their events. A year of being excluded from alot of major events should cause most people to evaluate their behaviour. (This is for that Special DB who'se dice go cold and they start throwing models around and calling their opponent an MFer).

Bracket winners. Something for the people not bringing the latest Net Power list. After day 1 break everyone into 4 brackets. The top bracket plays for the Belt and the Glory. But also give a shoutout (and some loot...even if its just a basic troop box of their choice) to the top player in the other brackets. Everyone knows after your 2nd loss your done. People take it in different ways. No-Notice dropping leaving your matchups in a lurch. Nerd raging on their next opponent. Toal relaxation as they know they can just enjoy the game for the games sake. But if they have bracket matchings, that gives them the incentive to keep charging (or to do the DB thing and throw the other 2 day1 games so they can pound baby seals the next day...but most people will see right through that level of baggery).
Trophies. Even if its something simple and Cheap. Certainly for the winners. But as part of the swag a simple "I was their" participant keepsake. With a little brass tag to be sent later with their name and final standing engraved on it. Shirts and stickers and all are nice...but they wear out. Playing aides given out get lost or broken. But a little something to put on the shelf and revel in the magnitude of your Self-Nerdliness?

Haha the Belt of Russ is beyond epic. Nice work.

Congrats to Elizabeth on an impressive Victory.

Wow, what a crazy ride!! I was about to have a heart attack the first day due to registration delays, but we got things back on track.

It was crowded, loud, hectic, and fun! We grew too fast and we were under-staffed, but we ended just barely behind schedule after a late start.

Fantasy had 50 players! 40K had 144! Wow, what a big increase over last year!

I am still just trying to get my head screwed back on after all the craziness. Thanks so much to all the guys that helped set up and break down as that is a HUGE task and the help was much appreciated.

Big news, of course, is that a female won the 40K championships! Liz Foster, a local girl who is a very good player and a cool person, went toe to toe with some EXCELLENT players, every single round. She faced Alan Bajromovic in the finals (winner of the ET singles and WargamesCon), and defeated him in a GREAT game. There was a huge crowd watching, and everyone was cheering with every roll of the dice, it was so much fun! She is the FIRST truly undefeated (7-0) player we've ever had at the BAO, so that is momentous in more than one way!

In the end, Liz pulled it off, and won. The first girl to win a major, competitive GT (to my knowledge), and she did it the hard way, fighting through some tough comp. Well done Liz! Way to break the gender stereotype! Alan, a Zero Comp Teammate and a fierce competitor, took the loss in stride and played the game like a true gentleman, a smile never leaving his face even in defeat. The Belt of Russ, our super, over-the-tops, WWF style "masculine" trophy was won for the first time by a girl! Hahaha, that is awesome!

The narrative guys played a great game too, with so many awesome, beautiful models, it was crazy! Looked like a great time.

In all, we had some serious issues with logistics this year (we grew too fast this year), we will fix those problems. We're focusing on turning the weaknesses we had this year into strengths next year. What we get criticized on now, we will be complimented on next year!

Thanks to everyone for coming out, we plan to only improve, grow and get more fun as time goes by!

Any and all criticism is welcome, send me a PM, post it here, come in the store, whatever. Help us to see how we can improve our game and make our events better!

Thanks, and another one under our belt! Results will go up tomorrow.

Props:

+The event location. A lot of people dis the fairgrounds, but I actually think it's a great place for a tournament. The more "open" environment prevents the place from getting stuffy despite hundreds of people in a somewhat limited space. I actually like dkellyj's idea of maybe running the event outside, which IMO would be even better, but there are obvious logistical issues with that-- the most pressing being night!

+The missions were excellent, they were probably the best I've ever seen at any tournament and really lent themselves to strategic thinking and tight games.

+Good terrain. This is a key weakness at many events, but you guys were on the ball. Every table I was on had excellent amounts of terrain. Other events should look at pictures of your guys' boards to see how to run terrain in 6th edition.

+Forge World. I'm gonna say it right now, this event convinced me that I was wrong in my initial assessment and Forge World is totally fine for normal play. People were bringing pretty "serious" stuff and the games went fine. That said I will point out that this was only possible thanks to your guys' aforementioned good terrain. In games with insufficient terrain, especially insufficient tall terrain, the prevalence of Skyfire and Interceptor weapons available via Forge World seems perhaps too strong.

+I loved the Best Of awards (and not just because I won one)

+All of my opponents! Seven games, all good sports (win or lose), all very fun people to play with, no thumbs downs required!

+Reece, Frankie, and the rest of the crew for putting on a great event!


Slops:

-The registration delay day one was frustrating-- you've already touched on that, no need to go into it more.

-I had heard that there were going to be food trucks at the event and there weren't. No big deal for me because I'm fine with pizza, but more variety would have been nice, especially for those with dietary restrictions.

-The sound system was jacked up and made it hard to hear announcements. This was especially annoying when it came to time checks, which are pretty critical! A projector at the back part of the hall with a timer would have been really useful also, as there were several situations where I wanted to know how much time was left (especially when it was down to the wire) and we just didn't have time to run to the front of the hall and look at the timer, especially under the cramped conditions.


Recommendations:

~A "Best Sportsman," "Favorite Opponent," or similar would be cool, where people cast a vote for whoever they thought was most sportsmanlike/most enjoyed playing with at the end, and whoever has the most accumulated votes wins. This type of thing encourages polite play-- not that anyone I saw needed any encouragement!

~Consider revisiting the flyer 180 degree vertical line of sight ruling. I totally understand why you guys did this, but contrary to predicted effects it played a role in two out of three games that I faced enemy flyers in, allowing shots that would typically be prohibited.

~More time for games would be really, really appreciated. Of the seven games I played, only one of them finished by rolling to end the game, with the remaining six games either ending on turn four or on turn five without rolling for turn six. Even an extra 15 minutes would often mean an extra game turn, since the later turns tend to be faster anyway. One other unusual thing to consider is dropping to 1500 points-- not sure if you guys would want to do that, but I would strongly consider it. While 1500 points is low the designers have built the game and Codexes around it and I think there are a lot of interesting choices to be made at that level.


Overall this was a great tournament. I had seven great games and really enjoyed things. Overall I would say BAO 2013 is probably the most fun I've had at major tournament to date, so big thanks to Reece, Frankie, and all the other organizers. Hopefully I'll be back next year for BAO 2014!

It was a blast. I found out about a whole different stores there that are better then my current one(Frontline, you got yourself a regular customer). Im going to more tournaments now.
Im only sad i didnt get to face tyranids or SOB, those are the only armies I have yet to face.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I noticed, you copy and pasted alot from the Singles into the Doubles. This lead to quite a bit of confusion. I thought that allies was part of it, and if you where playing 2 different codex's that you had to use the rules for the allies matrix..
It was very confusing.

Pics, includes tasty's

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/Sneekygit/library/BAO%202013

 Dave_Fay wrote:
Pics, includes tasty's

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/Sneekygit/library/BAO%202013

Does anyone know where to get that turn counter in the pic all the way to the right in the first row. It's a dark angels army with 2 drop pods and bikes.

Chancetragedy wrote:

 Dave_Fay wrote:
Pics, includes tasty's

http://s8.beta.photobucket.com/user/Sneekygit/library/BAO%202013

Does anyone know where to get that turn counter in the pic all the way to the right in the first row. It's a dark angels army with 2 drop pods and bikes.

The black one?

It was the BAO 2012 swag. Contact reecius for one.

Yah I see it in his batreps all the time thanks a lot! And sorry I should have put this in the first post but thanks for the pics they look awesome.

I had a great time with 7 fun games and many difficult opponents. Thanks for the fun GT Reece and gratz to Liz.

Last year at the BAO I did well, got plenty of complements on the look of my traitor mech IG, but my custom vendettas aesthetically bombed so bad they made the army as a whole look bad. The idea of small scale silver towers of Tzeentch running around as vendettas sounded good in my head, so I got to work. Towers became to unstable to play with, so the models became floating rocks, and I completely bombed in the execution of creating them. Unhappy with the models I ended up throwing them away after 2012's BAO and started over from scratch with a new concept of a giant oversize double headed double tailed screamer of Tzeentch. It worked so well a couple of months ago that after seeing the UberScreamer at tournament in Temecula (near San Diego) a couple of players complemented me on it then proceeded to trash talk the floating rocks I brought to the BAO in 2012 not knowing I was the jackass who made those abominations before taking them out of this world. Then yesterday at this year's BAO I won something I thought I would never in my life see, Renaissance man. After looking through some of last year's pictures of the floating rocks in action compared to the uber screamer now I feel like I have just came out of the dark ages. Thanks for the games to all of my opponents, and to anyone feeling a bit down in they bombed in 1 way or another just remember no matter how bad anything went this year they can go really well next year.

Looking forward to BAO 2014!

 schadenfreude wrote:
I had a great time with 7 fun games and many difficult opponents. Thanks for the fun GT Reece and gratz to Liz.

Last year at the BAO I did well, got plenty of complements on the look of my traitor mech IG, but my custom vendettas aesthetically bombed so bad they made the army as a whole look bad. The idea of small scale silver towers of Tzeentch running around as vendettas sounded good in my head, so I got to work. Towers became to unstable to play with, so the models became floating rocks, and I completely bombed in the execution of creating them. Unhappy with the models I ended up throwing them away after 2012's BAO and started over from scratch with a new concept of a giant oversize double headed double tailed screamer of Tzeentch. It worked so well a couple of months ago that after seeing the UberScreamer at tournament in Temecula (near San Diego) a couple of players complemented me on it then proceeded to trash talk the floating rocks I brought to the BAO in 2012 not knowing I was the jackass who made those abominations before taking them out of this world. Then yesterday at this year's BAO I won something I thought I would never in my life see, Renaissance man. After looking through some of last year's pictures of the floating rocks in action compared to the uber screamer now I feel like I have just came out of the dark ages. Thanks for the games to all of my opponents, and to anyone feeling a bit down in they bombed in 1 way or another just remember no matter how bad anything went this year they can go really well next year.

Looking forward to BAO 2014!

Was this yours?



Awesome job, dude!

The eyes on that thing make it soo creepy in an awesome way!

I played against that army! It was truly a nice piece of work. great job. It totally takes on the Chaos persona and looks awesome on the tabletop.

And to be honest, it is a giant upgrade from those Giant Rocks.

Amazing overall result...major props to Liz!

I actually played against her at last year's BAO in 5th edition (before the Daemons got their WD tweak) and ended up winning that game pretty handily, but she was an absolute class player the whole way and took it like a champ, so it is fantastic to see her on the opposite end of the spectrum winning it all in an absolutely spectacular fashion.

Anyone saying that Daemons are perhaps too powerful in their pre-6th edition incarnation is missing the point...that codex, by its very nature is incredibly random. So for someone to go a perfect 7-0 means that they're able to whether all that crazy luck and still come out on top.

So yeah, great, awesome, result and hopefully it goes a long way towards shattering idiotic stereotypes and all that junk.

Post text removed for being extremely rude. If you would like to bring up an issue involving another player, please do so in a polite fashion, even if you feel that they don't deserve it. --yakface

 Kingsley wrote:

~Consider revisiting the flyer 180 degree vertical line of sight ruling. I totally understand why you guys did this, but contrary to predicted effects it played a role in two out of three games that I faced enemy flyers in, allowing shots that would typically be prohibited.

Can you please elaborate on the in-game situations you describe? The more detail the better.

 yakface wrote:

 Kingsley wrote:

~Consider revisiting the flyer 180 degree vertical line of sight ruling. I totally understand why you guys did this, but contrary to predicted effects it played a role in two out of three games that I faced enemy flyers in, allowing shots that would typically be prohibited.

Can you please elaborate on the in-game situations you describe? The more detail the better.

I had a Vendetta go into hover mode, and shoot straight down at the Doom of Malan'tai, 1" from the Vendettas base. Later, a different Vendetta Zoomed over and shot straight down at some Termagants sitting on an objective, again 1" away from the Vendetta's base (the following turn, the Vendetta off-loaded passengers, which made its relative position extremely important).

 Janthkin wrote:
I had a Vendetta go into hover mode, and shoot straight down at the Doom of Malan'tai, 1" from the Vendettas base. Later, a different Vendetta Zoomed over and shot straight down at some Termagants sitting on an objective, again 1" away from the Vendetta's base (the following turn, the Vendetta off-loaded passengers, which made its relative position extremely important).

Obviously flyers shooting straight down is not an example that needs to be given...that was the point of the ruling.

Instead, I'm looking for specific examples where the player would not have been able to simply alter their location to get those same shots in some variety.

Your 2nd example you say that the Vendetta then off-loaded passengers, but would the model having to be back a few inches to get the shots really have changed the ability for the models to disembark and claim the objective?

The more specific examples of things that happened that could not possibly have happened otherwise (if the ruling was not in effect and the player controlling the flyers could not have done something slightly differently to achieve the same results), the better.