EDITORIAL: Six Observations as a TO
Hi all, Jwolf here. The con has come and gone, and I feel like it was a great success. Just a few quick and random(ish) thoughts about the whole event and the 40K IGT in particular.
#1 Grey Knights and Dark Eldar are torrent of fire armies.
People aren’t used to playing or playing against them yet. For example, no DE player had blocks of 12 dice set aside for Venoms, and other players haven’t acquired the stack of single dies for each special + bucket of dice for the rest. Having these ready speeds things considerably during Dark Eldar Venom spamfire and Grey Knight Storm Bolters as well. It’s not just that the large amounts of shooting slow things down; not being prepared to process the damage associated with that shooting slows the game, too.
#2 Grey Knights do something new in every phase of both players’ turns.
Austin is an early adopting area, so we’ve been swamped in GK since almost day one. Being prepared for the crazy grenades, Sanctuary, Shrouding, and other various shenanigans is well ground into the local gaming experience. Not true for a lot of players at WGC, and these complexities added a lot of time. Add in that a fair percentage of Grey Knights players didn’t have 20+ games in with the army, and their difficulties made some of those games slower and more confusing as well. This is the first year that we didn’t have 95+% BRB rules questions for judges, and almost all of that change was Grey Knights questions.
#3 The more regions we have represented, the more fun the whole thing seems to get.
In year one we had a majority of players from Texas, Colorado, and the Gulf States. This year most of those players were back, but significant groups from Chicago, Missouri, and other areas showed up, and I believe everyone had more fun with the wider field.
#4 Simple missions are easier to understand, but…
…even very simple missions can get confusing once we add in time limits, long days, and alcohol.
#5 The Blackout Drunk rule.
If you cannot remember why you have dice in your hand and/or where you are, you forfeit the round. I think that is also a good rule to have, and advise it to other T.O.s.
#6 Awesome badges are worth it.
Bushidoredpanda and Bdub did a fantastic job of casting the badges from Sean “The” MacKirdy’s original sculpts, and people loved the badges. The idea was cheerfully stolen from Mike Haspil, who brought purity seals for all his opponent’s in 2010.
Big thanks to Battlefoam, Spikey Bits, Dragon’s Lair, Mantic Games, Privateer Press, THQ, and Great Hall Games for their support and sponsorship. And as always, thanks to my fellow Flylords of Terra for staffing the events and making the whole thing possible.
What trends are you seeing at the major events you’ve attended recently and tell us what you want to see more of.
