40K: Anime Expo Tourney Recap
Whew, running a 40K tournament at a major national convention was an endurance race, but a lot of fun! Here’s how it went down.
Anime Expo is over and behind us! It was a lot of fun and a good start for an annual event.
We had some no-shows and didn’t quite sell out, so there weren’t as many people there as we had hoped for, but it was a lot of fun. We also had a bunch of first time tournament players who all said they had a blast! That is great because it means that is one more person who no longer thinks tournaments are only for the ultra-competitive player but a fun way to get some good games of 40K in!
So far, everyone has told us they had a blast which is what we want to hear. In the end, players having fun is what matters. Chaos was out in force as usual proving to be a popular army as we continue into 6th. Space Wolves were super popular, too with 4 of them present. We had two strong Tau lists and both got knocked out of the contention by Daemons. So far, on the West Coast we’ve been seeing Daemons get the better of Tau consistently. We’ve been hearing though, that back east the Tau have been beating the Daemons. I wonder what is going on differently there. The single Nid player, Cooper, was doing very well just barely losing to the overall event winner on the last roll of the dice in a barn burner of a game. That was Cooper’s only loss, he also defeated Lyzz Foster (the BAO 2013 winner) in another close game.
Daemons were out in force either as allies or main armies. Garner with his really nice looking mono Slaneesh Daemons, Jathkin with his Daemon/Chaose force (and overall winner) and OverwatchCNC with his Flying Circus, who also lost to Jathkin in a really great game. He killed Fateweaver on the first turn and it looked like Janthkin was in deep water but managed to claw his way back to victory by game’s end. Interestingly, The Flying Circus also lost to Mike Milea’s balanced Eldar. My Eldar have had no issues with Daemons either apart from a game when I was seized on. Once they hit the ground, they get mulched by all the small arms fire and that is what we saw happen again, here. Janthkin was the overall winner, congratz! He was playing a balanced Daemon/Chaos list:
The Winning List
Fateweaver
Herald of Slaanesh w/Greater & Lesser Gifts, Locus of Grace, and
Steed Herald of Tzeentch w/Exalted Gift, Locus of Conj, and Lvl 3 upgrade6 Fiends
12 Daemonettes w/Alluress
12 Daemonettes w/Alluress
18 Pink HorrorsAdvertisement18 Seekers w/Heartseeker & Rapturous Standard
Allies: CSM Sorcerer, Lvl 3 w/Spell Familiar
10 Cultists w/6 Autoguns
Heldrake w/Baleflamer
How it Went Down
He had some really tough games and just barely won them through excellent generalship and a solid list. Well done! Janthkin’s been on a roll lately and that is two tournament wins in two weeks for him! He won $250 in prizes!
Mike Milea with balanced Eldar got second. His list was really solid, with 20 Warp Spiders, 2 Wave Serpents, War Walkers, an Autarch and Striking Scorpions. He played very well and managed to beat Grant Theft’s Jetseer Eldar by playing to objectives. Mike’s only loss was to Adam Merlic’s Tau as he won the roll to go first but gave it to Adam…he won’t make that mistake again I am sure!
Cooper Waddell got Renaissance Man with his well painted Nids and a strong 4-1 record finishing just under mike in overall points. Cooper managed to fight through Daemons (which we find Nids are actually really good against due to Shadows and tons of Poison attacks) and Tau, which I thought was very interesting. Well done, Coop!
Mike Fox took best hobbyist with his beautiful Space Wolf/Ork army. Haha, never seen that combo before! There were a lot of really good looking armies but many of them were not finished and so couldn’t win. It made what is usually a really difficult part of running a tournament easier this go around. That’s not to take anything away from Mike, he got second at the BAO in appearance and is a top notch hobbyist!
OverwatchCNC got second best appearance with his Flying Circus Daemons, just barely beating out another Chaos player who had a great looking army but had a few models that were not based, it was that close.
And the Wooden Spoon! That went to ReaperOfTheLost and his Crons! This was his first tournament and he had fun and took his losses in stride! He won a shinny box of Lord of the Rings models, yay! Haha, the Wooden Spoon is always fun, and it is tongue in cheek, not meant to make anyone feel bad. Thanks to everyone for coming and having fun! We look forward to next year.
Upcoming Events
Duel Con in Mesa, AZ in September
Comikaze in Los Angeles, CA in November
and
The Las Vegas Open Tickets will be up for sale at the end of this month! That will be in Las Vegas (duh!), February 7th-9th, 2014.
The Pretty Pictures!
So what do you think of that winning list? Enjoy everybody!
