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I would like to begin with a salute and thanks for a really well run, enjoyable event! I recently had the pleasure of playing in an RTT in Denver at a convention called Tacticon in Denver CO, at the 4 Points Sheraton and it was one of the best local events I have attended in years.
What was really good about it:
Incredible Denver area player base with unreal armies!
Superior, missions with depth, well thought out 5th ed contexts and spirit of balance
Accessible accountable and honest judges
Scoring attempt to be empirical (nice custom round score sheets)
Good size and timing (one day; 3 battles)
Decent Terrain all around, many variant boards, good variety
Judges gave a bye, but also played the bye so they still had a game
Fair price
Nice prizes (Baneblade Trophies and more!)
Great number of participants
Overall atmosphere of Comradery and Sportsmanship
Emphasis on objectivity throughout
I wrote this thread as a salute to the Players and especially the Organizers in the hopes that they will see it and get the recognition I think they deserve and so that anyone else who was there might speak in the forum and ad their take on the show and benefit from the organizers cool ideas. I also wrote it to broadcast to the greater community what a great group we have in Denver and the really excellent mission concepts that were at the show.
Before I get into the details I would like to caveat, this is largely from memory, if I credit the wrong person with something, or slightly misquote a rule etc. I apologize. That said:
I'd like to talk about these sweet missions we had! They were a fusion of the new 5th ed. mission rules and the Adepticon method of having primary, secondary and tertiary objectives. They also made use of the kill point RATIO concept discussed on dakka previously, (Yakface' Idea I think) and it was just beautiful! Each mission had a trio of objectives, most of which were out of the core rule book so many players (not forum goers necessarily) were instantly familiar with them, while still maintaining a really demanding game environment by having 3 mission objectives. Essentially it worked like this:
In any game the players could both achieve or both fail an objective, this would be a tie, any other result would be a loss for the failing side and a win for the victorious side. For example in a mission they had called "Power Behind the Throne" (Kill enemy character/HQ), if both sides did it, it would have been a tie. The primary obj. was worth the most points at 20, the secondary at 15 and the tertiary at 5 ties were 10,10,3 and losses were 0,0,0 (from memory). It constantly required a player to think and play to the missions and every unit counted, for example imagine trying to keep your HQ alive, Kill the enemy one, take more objectives than the other side and also have more KP in the enemy deployment zone, many simultaneous competing concerns and designing strategies around scoring units and endgame strategy, it was just a challenging blast!
The Missions were:
Bad Spies
Deployment: Pitched Battle: 12 inch long sides
Primary: Have more KP in your opponents deployment zone than they have in yours.
Secondary: Annihilation (40k Rules)
Tertiary: Capture and Control (40k Rules)
Power Behind the Throne
Deployment: Dawn of War: Halves and HQ/2xTroop elements
Primary: Kill the enemy general (HQ or squad upgrade, in enemy army, attacker chooses) and have yours (that they chose) survive
Secondary: Seize Ground (40k Rules)
Tertiary: More KP in your opponents deployment zone than they have in yours
MeatGrinder
Deployment: Spearhead: Quarters
Primary: Have a better KP ratio (KPr=KPlost/KParmy) basically a better percentage of lost units.
Secondary: Capture and Control (40k Rules)
Tertiary: Kill your opponents highest cost HQ
They were all really great challenging missions to play, and they followed the spirit of the game while maintaining focus on the new concepts in the 5th edition rules too. Absolutely superior, with Adepticon style scoring it was really an awesome time to play.
Bulletized requirements were also used for composition and sportsman ship scores. The sportsmanship scores detailed more than just, did your opponent make you feel good, it referred to (with specifics 3 points each for) accurate measuring, rules questions resolution, enjoyable player and more!
The painting and comp were pretty simple at 2 by 5 point bullets for was the army done (essentially) and was the theme something (other than whatever it took to justify the effects).
True objectivity may be an academic abstract, but in this event I really felt like an honest attempt was made to promote that concept with the revolutionary scoring they used!
Event organizers take note, really good ideas here!
Hoo Zah to all the Tacticon Organizers and Participants, Hail to all the Winners!
Finally I'd like to thank Valhalla's Game Center of Wheatridge CO for donating MEGA prizes! and the Local GW store (that closed) for getting Tacticon all their terrain!
If you were there, what did you think? If not, check out this cool system!
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