San Diego 40k Masters League

Hello everyone Pablo here and I just wanted to draw your attention to something that has a lot of 40k players in San Diego excited. The second annual 40k Master’s League.

This league is ran by our very own Douglas Johnson, and features an exciting round robin-esque format, at 2000 points, with a full, 12 man, playoff, single-elimination round and ITC rules and FAQs. You’re very own Frankie, and Reece are competing in it, along with your’s truly. The reason why I think so many people down here enjoy it so much is because of its format and diversity in opponents. In this league alone out of 30 people I think most people haven’t had the chance of playing each other in a structured environment (see regulated 7^th ed.) and there is a good diversity in both player styles, and army compositions.

The Master’s League is comprised of 6, 5-man divisions with each player playing every single person in their division once, and 4 randomly drawn wildcard out of division opponents for a total of 8 games. After everyone completes all of their games (we have a limited amount of time) the division winners, and the top 6 best players after that get seeded into a 12 man playoff with the top 4 players getting first round byes. The playoff games are all best out of 3 matches, so no single person can lose their chance at winning on one bad game. In addition, players are allowed to change their lists in between games (including in between playoff match ups) but must not change them once they’ve seen their opponents list (duh). We all got together and drew both division opponents, and wild card opponents Friday night at the Tilted Kilt (beautiful ladies in kilts, and booze, huzzah!). In addition to drawing opponents we also had some votes to decide certain rulings that would differ from the ITC’s generic rules template. The votes and results were,

• Borrowing Restriction: At first we flirted with the idea of not allowing people to borrow models at all but thought better. Doug didn’t want people with larger armies to have an advantage over people with smaller model counts, and I see ultimately how that might rob a few people of their matchups because they didn’t have the flexibility to be able to deal with every faction they were matched up against. So, we voted on restricting borrowed models and we came up with this. An opponent may not borrow models from someone who is also competing in the Master’s League. (10/16 votes for)
• Detachment Amendment: Doug felt like the 3 detachment ITC limit was a bit stifling in a 2000 point environment (and he’s an imperium player) so we originally had a choice between a 5 detachment restriction or no detachment restriction at all. Naturally we all vetoed Doug’s original decision on the grounds that 5 isn’t really a restriction at all. So, we voted on 4 or infinite. 4 detachment limit (10/16 votes for)
• Primary Detachment Requirement: Doug, and ultimately the group, feared that by not placing a minimum points cost on the primary detachment in an army, players would Cheesely (yes I made that word up) mask their actual list and be able to run any ally, and thus nearly any army depending on who they were playing. This was a big problem in particular when you considered a player who took inquisition primary could just take a 25 point inquisitor and then be able to run basically any army he wanted without telling his opponent beforehand. I don’t think anyone in our playgroup would do this, but hey we voted on it anyways. Your chosen Primary Detachment must contain the most amount of points, out of all detachments in your army lists. (11/16 votes for)
• Gargantuan Creatures Nerf: The final amendment to the rules format was the only unanimous vote of the night. We all felt that GCs should not gain a cover save from being only “toe-in” ruins. A gargantuan creature must be at least 25% obscured by a piece of terrain, and within it, to be granted it’s cover save. (Unanimous for)

After we got the voting and pairings done there was a lot of speculation and bracket-hammer talk about who would win each division, as well as which armies would do well. We are using the ITC missions, and rules, so that probably factored into what everyone picked, and who might be favored. I’m sure you guys are curious, so I will post the army counts here, as well as Reece, and Frankie’s schedule, along with my own, and some brief analysis about all of our match ups.

The Army Count

• Space Marines 8
• Khorne Daemonkin 5
• Astra Militarum 4
• Necrons 2
• Tau 2
• Sisters of Battle 2
• Dark Eldar 1
• Chaos Space Marines 1
• Chaos Daemons 1
• Renegades 1
• Militarum Tempestus 1
• Grey Knights 1
• Eldar 1

Space marines are the most popular army unsurprisingly, however there is still a lot of diversity with 7 players all solely representing their primary factions, and even 2 sisters players to boot! The ITC format does favor Space Marine battle companies and KDK has been rising in popularity however, I do think our playoffs is going to be just as diverse because everyone has a lot of experience playing against Marine players. Which army are you guys rooting for? I personally hope Sisters take home the gold, that army needs some love.

Frankie’s Opponents:

• Necrons (division opponent)
• KDK (division opponent)
• Space Marines (division opponent)
• Chaos Daemons (division opponent)
• Sisters of Battle
• Sisters of Battle (!)
• Chaos Space Marines
• KDK

Oh Boy, at first glance Frankie’s grav-cav army might have some trouble against those Chaos players however I think Frankie has a good chance at performing well. He is the best 40k player in the world after all. I love how he was the only person to draw both sisters players on his schedule. If he beats them both I will forever refer to him as “The Sister Slayer.”

Reece’s Opponents: Quick side note, Reece and I are in the same division so looks like I am already one loss in, seeing as how I have never beaten his IG army.

• KDK (division opponent)
• Necrons (division opponent)
• Space Marines (That’s me!)
• IG (division opponent)
• Space Marines
• Chaos Daemons
• Sisters
• IG

Reece, has a couple of mirror matches here as well as two marine players. I feel like Reece is really gonna have to think hard about how he maneuvers his schedule because he does have a nice variety of opponents. Reece is probably a favorite to win the division but the Necron player has a good shot because of the lack of assault oriented, mobile armies in our division.

My Opponents:

• KDK (division opponent)
• Necrons (division opponent)
• IG (division opponent)
• IG (division opponent)
• Tau
• Grey Knights
• Necrons
• Militarum Tempestus

My Ultramarines definitely have their work cut out for them. I have a very diverse pool full of armies that give space marines a lot of trouble. I think it’s safe to say that the only game I give myself a shot at winning is the Grey Knight player. But only if he doesn’t bring a Draigo Star (which he might do) Necrons, and KDK give me nightmares and Tau, and IG have the power to shoot a battle company off the board if played properly. The Tempestus player is a wildcard, I have no idea what he is going to bring, so I’m not sure how I would build my list against him. All of these opponents know how to play against marines, and I imagine I’m in for a rough time. But hey, it should still be a fun league, and there is even talk of someone doing a fantasy league for the event.

We will all keep you posted, and if you have any questions, or would like to know more about the format or anything else go ahead and post down below.