Hey, everyone, Chandler here with a rundown on this past weekend’s Come the Apocalypse GT. The event was held in Enterprise, Alabama at our local FLGS, Fanatix Enterprise.
We had 32 players register and 30 people played in the event. Although we have held several ITC and non-ITC tournaments here over the years, this was our first ever Grand Tournament level event. I’m going to include a rundown of what we did leading up to the event, as well as the results.
Planning the Event
As I stated above, this was the first ever GT level event that our group was putting together and we faced a number of challenges. First, our location is rather rural. If you’ve never heard of Enterprise, AL, well, welcome to about 95% of the rest of the world. We are a small town located in the southeast corner of the state. The closest major cities to us are New Orleans and Atlanta, both about a 4 hour drive! We knew coming into this event that filling it would be a huge undertaking given our location, but one we were willing to take on. We have a strong community of players here, despite our rural location, and it continues to grow every year, but we knew we would be leaning heavily on people willing to travel to attend our event. Thus we began an aggressive internet advertising campaign.
We began planning this event late in 2016 which gave us nearly a year to prepare. We setup a website for the event, created a social media page and a Facebook event and got our event on Best Coast Pairings. Additionally, we started doing a podcast, which you can find on iTunes and Google Play Music called, Come the Apocalypse. We are currently 8 episodes in so check us out if you need something to listen to while you slug through those painting sessions. Over the past few years we have also networked with a lot of players via social media, but most importantly, by traveling to events and meeting people. That was probably one of the most important things that helped us make the event happen. Getting face to face interaction with other like minded players really helped give us credibility and encouraged attendance.
Second, the biggest hurdle any group faces when organizing an event of this size, is terrain and tables. Fortunately we got a good sponsorship through gamemat.eu who provided us with some help in that department. Our local FLGS shop owner, Mike Campany, also managed to get us quite a bit of terrain and the rest we set out to build/make ourselves. Our goal with the terrain, especially after the launch of 8th edition, was to provide good line of sight blocking terrain in the center of each table. I feel that we definitely were able to handle that. Our community came together and got the terrain done with pieces to spare.
The Event
We had people come in from all over the tri-state area. Many came up from Florida as well as Mississippi, and northern Alabama. We filled the event with no problem and had only one no-show on day 1. We wanted a very chill vibe which encouraged sportsmanship and positive attitudes and I feel we accomplished that. As a TO I never once got called over to a table to resolve a heated dispute. For a GT level event that is really awesome. So kudos goes out to the attendees for being such wonderful people.
The lists were tough and there were some amazing players in attendance. Our event was scored on a combination of sportsmanship, painting, and battle points accrued over the course of the tournament. Sportsmanship was a simple default to thumbs-up for every player with the requirement being to thumbs-down a player, a judge would have been called over well before the game ended. Painting was done using the Warzone Atlanta painting rubric, which doesn’t necessarily judge quality itself, but rather a guideline of items that cover painting.
For our missions we used modified Eternal War missions with secondaries with battle points being based on margin of victory. Overall this went over smoothly and we didn’t really get any complaints over mission design.
Prizes and Awards
Our prizes were as follows:
- Best Overall: Player with highest combined score between battle points, painting, and sportsmanship
- Best General: Player with the highest number of battle points in the event
- Best Painted: Voted upon by peers
- Best Sportsmanship: Voted upon by peers.
Additionally we gave out some random door prizes, the good old wooden spoon award, and gift certificates for 2nd and 3rd place in battle points. We knew coming into the event that we wanted some unique trophies as well, and our FLGS owner, Mike Campany, put together two awesome trophies for the event.
Best Sportsmanship was a 5 way tie which we felt was really awesome. Each player got a Primaris character.
Best Painted went to Doug Kus for his amazing Nurgle themed Black Legion army. Doug had a lot of conversion work in his army and it was beautiful. A well deserved honor. He was also one of our winners of Best Sportsmanship as well.
Best General went to Michael Lee who brought a brutal list featuring four Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknights and two vanguard detachments filled with assassins and Celestine. He went 5-0 in the event with his list (more on that below.) In a field of strong competitors Mike was a stand-up guy with an absolutely savage list designed to contend with a meta full of conscripts and horrors of which there were plenty of both in abundance at the event.
Best Overall went to Mark Perry who went 4-1 with an amazing Black Legion list revolving around Fabius Bile, Abaddon and recycling cultists. His army also was beautifully painted and received a max paint score which put him up at the top. Mark is a great guy and had a fantastic army to boot. A well earned Best Overall win.
The Undefeated List
Michael Lee’s Dreadknight list was absolutely brutal. With an army full of characters he was able to really take advantage of the 8th edition rules on targeting them. With the speed of Celestine and the Eversor assassins as well as the utter psychic denial with the Cullexus combined with the conscript deleting Dreadknights, Michael was able to come away 5-0. That said, it wasn’t an easy road for him and all of his opponents were tough as you might imagine. And here’s his list:
Supreme Command Detachment
Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight – 285
– Teleporter
– Heavy Psycannon
– Gatling Psilencer
– Nemesis Great Sword
– Dreadfist
– Domina Liber Damonica
Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight – 285
– Teleporter
– Heavy Psycannon
– Gatling Psilencer
– Nemesis Great Sword
– Dreadfist
Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight – 285
– Teleporter
– Heavy Psycannon
– Gatling Psilencer
– Nemesis Great Sword
– Dreadfist
Grand Master Nemesis Dreadknight – 285
– Teleporter
– Heavy Psycannon
– Gatling Psilencer
– Nemesis Great Sword
– Dreadfist
Vanguard Detachment
Primaris Psyker – 40
Astropath – 15
Astropath – 15
Astropath – 15
Astropath – 15
Cullexus Assassin – 85
Cullexus Assassin – 85
Vanguard Detachment
Celestine – 150
Cullexus Assassin – 85
Eversor Assassin – 70
Eversor Assassin – 70
Eversor Assassin – 70
Eversor Assassin – 70
Eversor Assassin – 70
Total 1995 Points Command Points: 6
Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a wonderful event. We set out to have an event that would encourage all aspects of the hobby and I feel we accomplished our goal in that regard. Feedback from the attendees was all positive and we were happy to host our first ever GT. It was a lot of work by a lot of people in the community, but it was well worth it.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
I’m starting to think assassins days are numbered…
As they should be since some people cant play nice. Easier to gut the culuxis than change all the character rules.
There has always been cheese tournament lists, but this type of list is the kind of list that will flat out make me not travel to tournaments anymore (im a non winning threat but tournaments need guys like me to fill out the field). We should include a photo of the winner so we all know what a WAAC player looks like.
correction there was a picture, he looks rather pleased with himself, as expected.
Oh no… someone is playing a list you can’t beat. How about instead of witch hunting and name calling you give credit where credit is due?
His list is already unique, and that list concept isn’t winning every 60+ player event (not even close actually).
People like you are toxic, and tournaments don’t need guys like you to fill out the field. Tournaments need guys like everyone else who show up and have a great time despite the fact that there are other people who play the game differently from them.
Post removed by mods. Let’s behave like adults, please.
We sure will miss all of your insightful contributions and sexually-themed insults. Just won’t be the same without you.
Yeah that’s quite a leap of judgment dude. Michael Lee is actually a standup guy and a class act. He was a good player who brought a good list. This was a competitive event with some of the best players in the south in attendance. No one there complained about him or his list. He played tough opponents and had a nasty list. It’s a tournament come on.
Well ….. yes …… and no. I’m sure the player is a great guy, but its a silly list that would be absolutely no fun to play for the vast majority of players. If I had travelled for hours and given up 2+ hours of my time to play something like this, I would be a bit disappointed TBH. And saying “it’s a tournament” isn’t good enough if the vast majority of the people who are coming to the event, giving up their time and paying their money aren’t having a good time.
Fair enough and that would be a valid conclusion except not a single one of his opponents bitched about playing it.
You don’t define fun for others. Right now, YOU are being “that guy”.
To clarify, as replies here aren’t the best, I’m on your side, Chandler.
As someone who played him in this event round 1, I honestly didn’t feel that I was crushed from the get go. Had some key mistakes that cost me but I had the tools to make it a fight if I hadn’t been an idiot.
Sure it’s an annoying list but it was far from the most annoying I saw.
this is exactly what i mean, though i fail at expressing it so nicely. Travel hrs to face a list like this that is pure rules exploiting, no thanks, and im done with it and the tournament mentality. Though to be fair, i dont care i wont be going anymore, nor does anybody reading this post or visiting this site care about my future lack of attendance.
Ujayim-if you cant look at that list and what its designed to do and realize its not fun to play against period, than thats on you.
If I CANT REALIZE it’s not fun?
Jesus, what’s the world look like up on that enormous horse?
I can feel the neckbeard growing twice it’s size today, based off of the insinuations that I’m not having the appropriate amount of fun on my own terms.
Not sure I understand your logic. A guy brought one of the strongest list he could think up. And it isn’t necessarily just challenging for his opponents, but I don’t think you understand the level of strategy and forethought his list requires. His list isn’t one that you just plop down and say GG I win. You can have strong competitive players and them not be assholes or “WAAC”.
It was a GT, it was meant to be competitive. If you don’t like that, then that is cool, don’t attend GT’s. But I think it is quite rude to bash a guy you don’t know at an event you didn’t attend. I don’t know the guy, but I met him and hung around him during the event and I don’t care how many times he would kick my ass with that list I’d play with him and I’d buy him a beer. Very friendly dude.
This^^
Super good dude
Oh I’m fine with this list. At I’m fine with “WAAC” players at tournaments where the goal is to win, assassins just make it difficult to play anything else. I would be fine to limiting assassins to 4. Still can deploy an assassin kill team but it limits the spam.
I assume that when we get a Inquisition codex that assassins will become one per detatchment.
So you’re saying 5% have heard of Enterprise? You’re being generous! 😉 I grew up about an hour away. He’s not kidding about it being rural.
Soapbox meta rants aside…nice job on running a great event!
I just wonder why assassins aren’t unique…
Well, I mean, presumably the rationale is that they _aren’t_ unique in the 40K universe. Each of the four major temples has what we can assume to be hundreds of assassins of their type, and possibly even more.
That said, it does feel unthematic to be deploying four or six or ten assassins to the table, so I wouldn’t mind seeing something done to limit them.
Any list that removes or reduces player interaction with the game is a bad thing (see 7th ed kennel star), but that’s for the designers of the game to address, or even TO’s. To bash the player’s personal character for bringing it is not cool
^^^ This! It is not OK to personally bash someone (especially someone that you don’t personally know) here in the comment section.
It’s a tournament. Everything goes when it comes to list building. I’m hopeful that Games Workshop will solve the assassin conundrum in the near future. Until then, expect it and have some answers for it in your list.