Hi guys, this is Daniel aka CadianRanger from Team Firebug, Germany. This is the start of a series of articles about creating a local competitive 40k community and the growth of the ITC in Europe and especially Germany.
All ideas and recommendations are just my personal opinion, so feel free to add your comments.
I hope you like the insights.
Let‘s get competitive…
As we all know there are different types of hobbyists. People who just collect plastic. The ones who love painting but don’t know any rules. Others that like to push grey masses over the gaming tables and the ones that stand next to an active game and tell you every fluff story they know until your ears fall off. Luckily there is also a handful of people who enjoy all parts of the hobby and are also interested in competitive gaming.
Side note:
I personally like the idea of giving something before asking for something, so after joining the 40k community in the local hobby store in 2017 I made the offer to run a 40k league for the community and also provided two full gaming tables with terrain for our hobby store.
Let´s get competitive…
First of all you have to get some people of your local community interested in competitive 40k. With all the different types of hobbyists this is a challenging task.
Setting up a 40k league seemed to be a good start. Using the rules from the core rulebook and chapter approved was the best way to go to keep it simple for everybody. Along with three “house rules“ for clarification of terrain, cover and line of sight the frame was completed. No painting, list format or any other requirements. The points limits for league games was kept flexible between 750 to 2.000 points to keep the league accessible for players who just started or already own a ton of miniatures.
The league was free for everybody and did not cost anything.
The ranking was just a simple victory, draw, loss ranking and the only limitation was that a pairing between the same players only counted two times throughout the season.
Personally I was surprised how much a league activates players and their sense of comparing their skills in piloting an army to each other. Within 3 and 1/2 months we got 20 players and about 100 games in a local hobby store that has seen like 2 games a week before.
One of the main ideas was to run the league as a self-operating system in order to create a common sense in the gaming community and keep everybody responsible for the league. As always, with lots of different characters, some people participate more than others, but that‘s fine for a league with no requirements.
For running the league a free homepage was used in order to track the results of the games played, updating the ranking and making it accessible to all participants.
For the games themselves the two players who took out the game were responsible to report the result of the game by using the homepage. No judges were required for games played and discussions were always meant to be solved by a roll-off.
Even with some players having played more games than others the ranking felt „okay“ for all participants. For just activating the competitive sense of the community the league totally worked out.
To attract more players a fluff story around the whole league was developed. All players were invited to contribute their part of fluff to the storyline. Moreover a map of space sectors and planets was created to underline the fluff part. Even the most competitive players participating in the league had lots of fun working on the fluff and at the end a little booklet with some kind of a storyline came out. I added a very short extract to give a small impression.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Incoming Transmission…
Harpy I: Karuh Prime, this is Harpy I.
Position: Sector Saar, passing Saaris Prime.
ETA Karuh Prime: 48 days.
File transfer recon files Harpy I to follow.
Karuh Prime: Karuh Prime. Copy Harpy I.
Ready for File transfer.
File transfer started… 0 %
…
File transfer at 47 %
…
File transfer aborted.
Karuh Prime: Harpy I. File transfer has been aborted.
Give…
Harpy I: WE’RE UNDER FIRE!!!
MASSIVE FLEETS!!!
MULTIPLE…
…Transmission aborted.
Orbital alarm protocol activated…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The 1st Tournament…
A tournament seemed a good finale for our league and with 4 gaming tables in our local hobby store there was plenty of space for setting up a first small tournament. The idea was to involve as many players as possible, so a team tournament was the way to go.
Three missions in total from the rulebook and chapter approved were selected and a simple rules package was created:
- 2 players a team, 750 pts per Player and each faction was only allowed once per team
- 3 rounds per team using battle points for scoring
- Matched play rules of the rulebook and all actual and official GW rules and errata were applicable
- Entry fee about 3.00 EUR per player to establish a small price support for the first three teams (All in, all out)
Within one day all slots for 16 players were booked and teams consisting of players, hardly knowing each other before, came together. Everybody wanted to participate. The tournament gave the players a first look into the atmosphere of a full day of competitive 40k gaming. The feedback was all positive and everybody liked it, so after finishing the league with the tournament another league followed to keep the momentum going.
Side note:
If you plan to run an event in a local hobby store make sure to involve the store owner/manager in your plans.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
