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!

UPDATE: Toys for Tots Warhammer 40,000 Charity Tournament

This coming Saturday will mark the "Two Weeks Until Toys For Tots Charity Tournament" milestone. So today, I have some BIG updates to the event. The two big updates are:

PRIZE SUPPORT

and

MISSIONS

But to keep ALL of the info in one place, I am re-posting the earlier details here along with the newly-added details.

Another interesting twist to the subject, though, is that Sci-Fi Genre in Durham is hosting a 40k tournament the same day. Although they are not hosting a Toys for Tots event per se, I have sent an interloper to attend their event, and bring back toys that some of the gamers there are donating to the cause. Tis the season of giving, and I'm glad to hear that folks beyond the event I'm organizing are contributing! THANKS!

Onto the finer details.

TOYS FOR TOTS WARHAMMER 40,000 CHARITY TOURNAMENT

Saturday, December 4, 2010

All Fun & Games. Apex, NC

Call All Fun & Games to RSVP your attendance to the event. You do not have to RSVP, but any walk-ins will be allowed to participate on a first-come/first-served basis after all the RSVP folks. Attendee limit is currently at 18 with the option to increase to a max of 24 players.

Check-in begins at 10:15 a.m. day of event

Games begin at 11 a.m.

Entry fee is "new in package" toy donation(s) to be given to Toys for Tots Foundation (benefiting the Raleigh Chapter http://raleigh-nc.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/default.asp). "Dig Deep" and give as much as you can - many children in the area wouldn't get a holiday gift if it wasn't for the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program!
**SPECIAL OFFER FROM ALL FUN & GAMES: All Fun & Games will provide a 15% discount on any games, puzzles, etc. purchased for donation; there will also be a 10% discount for purchases for yourself. Just inform the store staff at checkout which items you are donating to receive the special discount on them.

Army lists are 1750 points

3 Rounds

2:15 time allotted per round

Random pairings in Round 1; Swiss-style pairings in Rounds 2 and 3

Missions will have primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives (with the Primary being means of determining winner and Secondary and Tertiary objectives acting as "tie breakers" if need be - see details below)

Crown "Best Overall," "Best General," and "Best Sportsman" winners

PRIZE SUPPORT WILL BE AVAILABLE. Over $100 in prize support will be offered throughout the day's event. Prizes will include Best Overall, Best General, and Best Sportsman. Other prizes will also be offered during individual rounds, and as the TO sees fit (in other words, *how* prizes other than "Best X" will be awarded is still To Be Determined).

WYSIWYG required; "Counts As" is acceptable within reason.

Painted strongly recommended, but not required.

EVENT SCHEDULE

10:15 a.m. - begin registration
11:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. - Round 1
1:30 to 3:45 p.m. - Round 2
3:45 to 4:30 p.m. - Food Break
4:45 to 7:00 p.m. - Round 3
7:00 p.m. and beyond - announce winners, brag, commiserate, pack-up, clean-up, etc.

Missions

Deployment	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary
Dawn of War	Seize Ground (Mod.)	Terrain Features	VPs
Pitched Battle	Annihilation	Recon	VPs
Spearhead	Capture & Control (Mod.)	Table Quarters	VPs

Primary. Determines the winner of the game. If someone wins on the Primary Objective, you can stop here; otherwise, refer to Secondary.

Secondary. First tie-breaker. If the primary objective is tied, utilize the Secondary Objective to determine a winner. If the primary objective is tied and the secondary objective produces a winner, you can stop here; otherwise, refer to Tertiary.

Tertiary. Second tie-breaker. If the primary AND secondary objectives are tied, utilize the Tertiary Objective to determine a winner. Since the Tertiary Objective is Victory Points for all missions, simply calculate VPs (pg. 108 of rulebook) and any player with even 0.5 more VPs than opponent wins.

Mission Objectives

Modified Seize Ground

· 5 objectives – 1 @ center of each quarter (total of 4) and 1 @ center of table

§ Each scattered 1d6+3” prior to roll-off to see who goes first; use little arrow on “hit” but halve distance (rounded up)

· Only Scoring Units may claim objectives; any unit may contest

· Player with most objectives wins this mission objective

Modified Capture & Control

· 3 objectives – 1 @ center of each players’ deployment zones (total of 2) and 1 @ center of table

§ Two Deployment Zone objectives scattered 1d6+3” after roll-off to see who goes first, but prior to deployment of any units; use little arrow on “hit” but halve distance (rounded up)

· Only Scoring Units may claim objectives; any unit may contest

· Player with most objectives wins this mission objective

Annihilation

· As per pg. 91 of 40kv5

Table Quarters

· Person w/ most Scoring Units in a quarter claims it; unit must be completely in quarter to count

· Any units except dedicated transports count for this purpose

· Player with most quarters wins this mission objective

Recon

· Player w/ most Scoring Units completely within opponent’s deployment zone wins this mission objective

Terrain Features

· Person with most VPs in an area terrain feature (which is defined as any terrain feature that is demarcated by a base and is not impassible) claims the terrain feature

· Player to claim the most terrain features wins this mission objective

Victory Points

· As per pg. 108 of 40kv5 (except player wins this condition if 0.5 VPs higher than opponent’s total)

Mission Special Rules (all missions)

Reserves, Deep Strike, Infiltrators, Scouts, Outflank, Seize the Initiative

Toys for Tots Warhammer 40,000 Charity Tournament

This December, DFIR blogger MJ;-) (yours truly) is going to organize his second ever Warhammer 40,000 tournament.

The tournament will be a Charity event to benefit the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots organization. I've actually been "threatening" to do just this for like the last 4 or 5 years. But I've finally pulled the trigger and followed through on my past threats.

So if you are in the central North Carolina area (or a glutton for a good road trip), then ready your force, pick up some toys for your entry fee, and head on over to All Fun & Games on December 4!

Here's the skinny...

TOYS FOR TOTS WARHAMMER 40,000 CHARITY TOURNAMENT

Saturday, December 4, 2010 at All Fun & Games. Apex, NC

Registration begins at 10:15 a.m.

Entry fee is "new in package" toy donation(s) to be given to Toys for Tots Foundation (benefiting the Raleigh Chapter http://raleigh-nc.toysfortots.org/local-coordinator-sites/lco-sites/default.asp). "Dig Deep" and give as much as you can - many children in the area wouldn't get a holiday gift if it wasn't for the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program!
**SPECIAL OFFER FROM ALL FUN & GAMES: All Fun & Games will provide a 15% discount on any games, puzzles, etc. purchased for donation; there will also be a 10% discount for purchases for yourself. Just inform the store staff at checkout which items you are donating to receive the special discount on them.

Army lists are 1750 points

3 Rounds

2:15 time allotted per round

Random pairings in Round 1; Swiss-style pairings in Rounds 2 and 3

Nova Open / BFS style missions (i.e., missions will have primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives with the Primary being means of determining winner and Secondary and Tertiary objectives acting as "tie breakers" if need be)

Crown "Best General" and "Best Sportsman" winners

WYSIWYG required; "Counts As" is acceptable within reason.

Painted strongly recommended, but not required.


EVENT SCHEDULE

10:15 a.m. - begin registration
11:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. - Round 1
1:30 to 3:45 p.m. - Round 2
3:45 to 4:30 p.m. - Food Break
4:45 to 7:00 p.m. - Round 3
7:00 p.m. and beyond - announce winners, brag, commiserate, pack-up, clean-up, etc.

MJ;-) Project Log: Logan's Hunters Revived!

Having recently moved, and been reunited with my precious Warhammer 40,000 models that were in storage since late-spring, I have now been getting anxious about a triumphant return to the 40k hobby - particularly the gaming side of it.

I'm sure I'll dabble in a few one-off games in the near future; however, my first "milestone" for 40k gaming is an Invitational Tournament coming up in November. 2,000 point armies for this one.

{on a side note, this tournament is the 2nd annual one where players battle for the "coveted" Warmaster trophy. RussN. took home the trophy last year, so is hosting the next one as he tries to defend his title against almost a dozen other gamers.}

So, 2,000 points. What to do, what to do...

Ah! I know!!! Get my Space Wolves Terminator army out, and get it all ready for the event!

Piece of cake. Only 27 Terminators and 3 Drop Pods to paint up. About 5 weeks you say? No problem... (at least, I hope not)

So its looking like I need to average one squad per week. Doesn't sound too difficult, but my first squad is already showing some weak links. Primarily, my "assembly line" style of painting doesn't transpose as well to units who are made up of differing models. Its more of a "7 Tactical Marines + HW + AW + Sgt" kind of methodology. Not so much a "Termie1 + Termie2 + Termie3 + Termie4 + Termie5" kind of way.

So for now, no pictures for you! I see looking back through my older two Space Wolf Project posts revealing my "secret" and then detailing their assembly, the pictures there are of bare plastic. I'm mid-way through my first squad at the time of this posting. So I hope to roll out another post in the near future showing their primed-washed-drybrushed base, and then start showing off finished units as they get done.

Until then, hang tight - more posts ARE on the way!

After-Action Reports

As I mentioned in my last post, I attended a three-round, 2,000 point "invitational tournament". A comment there from ColKilgore suggested splitting my 14 daemons into 2 squads of 7. The good Colonel also asked for a report on how I did.


'Ere goes...

First off, there was a good variety of forces present at the event. Six non-marine armies consisted of: Tau, Tau, Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, and Chaos Daemons. Marine armies consisted of: Deathguard, Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines, and Black Templars.

I didn't mention it, but we were able to bring three completely different lists if we wanted to, covering the needs to be a Planetstrike Attacker, Planetstrike Defender, and Cities of Death (on 4'-x-4' board). I stuck with one list, BUT with the intention to split my daemons into two 7-model squads for my Cities of Death Game (I just forgot to mention that in the original post).

These aren't really "Battle Reports" per se, as all the fine details were not put to paper by me, and now said fine details are eluding me...

GAME 1 - Cities of Death (modified Firesweep) vs. Curt's White Sword Space Marines (ie., Vanilla SMs)

The Cities of Death missions were modified to be more appropriate for v5 rules. The modification to the firesweep mission included (a) standard Spearhead deployment, (b) making only v5 "Scoring Units" able to plant flags in the buildings (any unit could contest), and (c) adding Kill Points to the score. So the victory was calculated as a comparison of Flags + KPs = player's score.

The 4'-x-4' table featured a pair of roads running at angles in an "X"-like fashion across the gaming area. There were seven larger ruins/terrain features that counted as objectives, and a variety of small and medium objects that did not (e.g., old Gothic Ruin corners, piles of rubble/debris, an impassible LOS-blocking storage tank).

Curt ran (and always does run) his SMs in a very "basic" format, featuring lots of bodies, units equipped to do anti-armor and anti-personnel duties as needed, good commanders with good equipment (but not all blinged-out and point-sinkey), and a few armor and close-combat units in support of the "main force".

To say my expensive Plague Marines were outnumbered is an understatement. At least it's not as bad as when I play with my Deathwing army...

The rounds were fast and furious; we were able to complete 5 turns. In the first portion of the game, I quickly dropped 3 flags and Curt was able to get four planted. At no point in the game did this situation change. So it was all down to Kill Points for the rest of the game.

With all that terrain choking the table, I did not want to deep strike to much, so deployed my Terminators and Typhus aggressively near the front of my DZ. The White Sword got first turn, and proceeded to paste several of my terminators with a Vindicator and Whirlwind. About mid-game, my Termies got charged by The White Sword's Dreadnought, and by that point, had no Power Fists/Chainfists to deal with him. But at least Typhus had divested himself from that unit and was rolling down field solo.

The White Sword played a more defensive game while I took the initiative to try and claim a few more objectives. The two daemon squads assaulted a Tactical Squad in a ruin - no grenades and craptacular daemons led to a short confrontation ending in the extermination of my daemons. Both Typhus' and my Sorcerer's Wind of Chaos powers were less than spectacular, and ultimately Big T, the Sorcerer, and a squad of Plague Marines were killed trying to take that same ruin.

At the end of Turn 5, with time for the first game run out, the vast majority of The White Sword stood victorious on the battlefield. The objectives never changed from the start: 3 for me, 4 for Curt; however, Curt absolutely slaughtered me in the Kill Point side of things, netting him a very massive win (I believe I was 2 or 3 models short of being completely wiped-out).

GAME 2 - Planetstrike Attacker vs. Russ' Orks

As Defender, Russ set up the table. It was a barren wasteland. Two bastions were placed about the center of a long table edge with the other about the center of Russ' right half of the board. the only other terrain on the board was a series of linear obstacles covering the middles of all three other table edges. Most of Russ' orks were mounted up in vehicles, so he didn't really want anything standing in his way of pure mobility.

I chose the short edge close to the single bastion as my Drop Zone. My Predator and Rhino squads rolled in on that side with everything else Deep Striking in. The terminators and 10-man Plague Marine Squad (on foot) dropped about center table - I was aiming for a more aggressive "in your face" landing, but sadly scattered backwards quite a bit (8" and 11" scatters). Meanwhile, one Plague Marine squad (in rhino) was working on meltagun-ing the solo bastion while the Sorcerer and his rhino Plague Marine squad raced for the dual bastions. After three or so turns of the former unit shooting and assaulting (power fist) the solo bastion, it simply did not fall. Similarly, the Sorcerer's unit was de-mechanized, so were unable to do much.

Russ' WAAAGH! was decently timed, except that a couple squads were just over 6" away after their run/fleet move, so unable to assault. A huge mob of Boyz stormed into both my 10-man squad and Terminators, but Typhus' daemon weapon and his terminator cohorts cut down many, many orks. In my next turn, Typhus' Nurgle's Rot psychic power claimed another handful of orks, and the combination of the Plague Marines, Typhus, and Terminators brought that Ork Unit down low, failing two leadership tests (boss pole), and being cut-down in a sweeping advance by my Plague Marines.

As the game ended and time was out, Russ and I assessed the situation. Daemons and Terminators were in base contact with both of the bastions along the long edge, and I had one meltaguner in contact with the third bastion. We agreed that if another turn was played, that lone meltaguner would be wiped out by a large mob a few inches away, but it would not matter since I'd still have possession of the other two bastions.

Win for the Deathguard!

After two games, I was sitting on 1 W and 1 L; time for Battle Number 3.

GAME 3 - Standard v5 Mission vs. Alex's Chaos Space Marines

One of the participants of the day was a relatively new 40k player, so rather than be bogged-down trying to master 40k and Planetstrike or Cities of Death rules, he played three standard games. I was glad to play a standard mission, and in the end, Alex was surprisingly well-versed in the rules and tactics of 40k. In fact, I believe he had 3 draws for the day with no wins and no losses. Another interesting thing about Alex was his Chaos Marine list. I called it "unconventional," but don't let that term be equated to "ineffective."

The mission we rolled up was Seize Ground (4 objectives) with Pitched Battle deployment. The four objectives were fairly well spaced-out, with two not far from his long table edge and two not far from mine.

Early in the game, I managed to wrest one of Alex's objectives from him using my Terminators. They couldn't control it themselves, but were sitting on it for much of the rest of the game making sure he couldn't either. I sent my forces to try and wrest his other from him, but it was being controlled by a chaos marine squad of TWENTY models. Yup, "unconventional" does not mean "ineffective." After destroying a 10-man squad of his, my battered remnants of the 10-man Plague Marine squad rolled back towards one of my "close" objectives; meanwhile, a 7-man Plague Marine squad was camped on my other "close" objective, and my termies were on one of Alex's close objectives.

The game went on to a full 7 turns. At the end, my 10-man squad had been vaped by Alex's Land Raider, leaving that objective uncontrolled. My terminators were sitting on one of Alex's objectives (still), so that one was uncontrolled. Turn 7 began with each of us holding one objective (and really no way to gain control of another). I had the benefit of going last, but alas, a long day of enjoying but brutal combat, left my mind a bit mushy. My "Eldar Mind" snuck in, and caused me to Epic Fail in the bottom of Turn 7, resulting in a draw! You see, what happened was Typhus was bearing down on the 20-man squad holding Alex's one objective. A lone Chosen stood in his way, which was a good thing as I got to move, assault, kill, and consolidate in Turn 6 leaving me right on top of that large squad. This is where my Eldar Mind failed me. I decided to pull off a big "Tricksy Move", rolling Typhus down the side of his large squad in hopes that I'd assault him and pull his guys on/near the objective off of it in the ensuing counter charge.

Guess what? That part worked like a charm. Problems at this point are twofold, however.

First, Typhus' non-Eternal Warrior self was vaporized by a Power Fist, meaning Alex was able to re-consolidate back onto his objective.

Second, and most importantly, all Typhus really had to do in Turn 7 was move a few inches to contest that objective. He would have lived, he would have contested Alex's only objective, and I would have WON that game (1 to 0).

Stupid me... ;-)


All in all, though, I can't complain with a 1-1-1 record on the day. No "real score" was kept, but Steve W.'s Black Templars seem to have taken the day with three wins. The food provided by Russ' wife Renee was spectacular, and the camaraderie can't be beat.

PS. Epic Fail #2 - with my wife taking the kids to the zoo that day, she had dibs on the family's digital camera. So I swung by my office on the way to the event to pick up my nice 35mm SLR digital camera. It sat the entire day under the table where I first placed it when I walked into Russ' house.

So NO pictures for you.