Toys for Tots 40k Charity Tournament - SUCCESS!

A week ago, I ran what we hope is "The 1st Annual Toys for Tots Warhammer 40,000 Charity Tournament." Planning is already underway for "The Second Annual..." event in 2011.

Turns out, a few other locations also held charitable events that weekend. So we'll see how that impacted our results below. Gamers' Armory in Cary held an event, and SciFi Genre in Durham extended their help by acting almost as a Brother Event where toys were collected and added to the donations from the event I ran at All Fun & Games in Apex. It is rumored that a store in Southern Pines also (independently) held a Toys for Tots charity event. Research is underway in regards to this rumor... Stay tuned for additional details to come...

The opening image of this post shows most of the donations to Toys for Tots received at the event at All Fun & Games. Three additional items were donated after that picture was taken, bringing the number of donations at the AF&G event to 26 items! Not bad for only 6 participants... What is surprising is the number of non-participant donations we received. All Fun & Games donated several games, which is greatly appreciated! 40k gamers who could not attend the event also stopped by, or sent family members, with toy donations. And a number of AF&G customers who saw what was going on proceeded to purchase items for donations along with the items they initially came to the store to get. That was phenomenal - there may have been six participants (plus myself) at the event, but we likely received donations from well over a dozen sources all combined.
The AF&G event ultimately consisted of six players, with what I'm going to say is probably one of the strangest list of armies present at a tournament that I've ever seen:

• TWO Necron armies
• TWO Daemonhunters armies
• One CSM Undivided
• One Tyranids

If you'll recall from THIS POST, the missions used in this event were basically home-made, but followed the recent trend at events where a series of tiebreakers are listed, pretty-much eliminating any "Draw" results. The three primary win conditions were alternately the three main scenario types in the 40k v5 rulebook. Although I did alter the objective-capturing-based missions to dictate where the objectives would be ultimately placed for each game. All three of the secondary conditions (1st Tiebreaker) were largely updates to old rules - capturing Terrain Features, Table Quarters, and Moving into the Enemy Deployment Zone (Recon). The Tertiary objective (2nd and Final Tiebreaker) was Victory Points - yet another homage to the 4th edition missions. VPs followed the system laid out in the current rulebook (pg. 108) but differed only in that a player won this condition if they scored even 0.5 points more than their opponent.

Daemonhunters and Necrons Battle Over 5 Objectives

Following a tiered-scoring system for the win conditions, a possible 60 points was available for Battle Points (3 wins on primary conditions).

Sportsmanship was scored as well, similar to the Battle Points just discussed. Sportsmanship was scored each round by opponent with bonus voting at the end of the day - the third round report form also asked players to list "their favorite opponent of the day." Sportsmanship was scored on a similar scale to BPs, so 60 sportsmanship points would be a perfect score.

In the end, we crowned the three following winners:

Best Overall - Todd Craig, Tyranids

Hive Fleet Craig Fans-Out on the Offensive

The Overall Winner of the event was Todd Craig, or should I say Hive Fleet Craig! Craig wasn't pulling any fancy schmancy hooligans. No, Todd fielded a straight-up Tyranid force of some Monstrous Creatures backed by a handful of Genestealer units. Todd helped show that the Tyranid codex is still a punishing opponent to deal with - that whole "brick to the face" thing often hurting...


Best Sportsman - Barry Wilson, Necrons

Compared to some of us, Barry is a relative newcomer to the game of 40k. However, his Necron force is well though-out, and can deliver on a number of battlefield situations simultaneously.

Best General - Randall Elmore, Chaos Space Marines

Sons of Malice CSM Grab Center Field Early-On, and Never Let Go.

So in all, we had a great day. Participants were very giving with their donations, and many other folks - gamers who couldn't make the event and strangers at the store who saw what was happening and contributed toys on their own - gave to this worthy cause as well.

Above, I eluded to the "Brother Event" at SciFi Genre in Durham. A Shadow Agent of mine, who goes by the handle Russ, attended the 40k tournament in Durham, challenging participants there to donate toys to be included with the items from the AF&G event.

Fifteen toys and games were donated at that event! Combined with the 26 at AF&G, our concerted efforts raised OVER 40 TOY DONATIONS FOR TOYS FOR TOTS!!!!

SciFi Genre Toy Donations - THANKS GUYS!!!

So, in the end, a lot of people had a great day of playing Warhammer 40,000. And they plus a number of other individuals managed to collect 41 toys and games for the Toys for Tots charity here in the Triangle.

THANK YOU ALL!!!! Keep an eye out for next year's event - likely to be held the 2nd Saturday in December. We hope to round up the other local area stores and see how many are willing to host events for this worthy cause!