Hi guys, this is Daniel aka CadianRanger from Team Firebug, Germany.
With this article I would like to give you an overview of the Alliance Open North West GT, which happened on the 5th-6th October in Bremen, Germany.
The International…
74 players met not only for the first 40k ITC major in Germany, but also for the first internationally organized 40k ITC event ever.
The event was run by the tournament organization company Alliance Open, from the Netherlands, together with the hosts of TargetPriority40k, the pretty competitive 40k podcast in Germany.
The organizers went “all in” by adopting the US-format of how to run an event and not just a simple tournament.
A Hotel at the old horse racing track provided an excellent venue. All attendances had the possibility to stay right at the hotel for a special offer price, including breakfast. Staying right at the venue is great as you don’t get in a hurry. You can really enjoy the entire event in total.
So if you booked the whole package there was almost nothing more to think about than playing games and having fun. The event ticket also included a pair of Alliance Open dice and 2 vouchers for lunch on every day of the event.
An excellent rulespack in English and German was provided for the event, giving guidelines and answering almost all possible questions about the event. Including detailed information about the required list format, painting requirements and scoring, terrain rules and judging processes. The event used the 40k ITC champions missions plus soft scoring points for list format, list correctness and paint scoring.
If you’re looking for an event in continental Europe, have a look here: https://www.alliancearmoury.net/i/upcoming-events
Alliance Open Team (Dennie, CJ and Martijn)
As far as I know there were no bigger issues for the judges at the tournament. Head judge Cees Jan (CJ) and Martijn did an awesome job by enhancing their strict judging in a very communicative way to all players.
The gaming room itself provided plenty of space for all of the tables and the TO’s desk. All tables were set up in an absolute top notch quality regarding terrain. Every single table had a clear displayed table number and a battle mat along with enough ruins, line of sight blockers, crates etc. Varying the layout from table to table gave the players some diversion and always a new challenge in every single game played. A countdown on a big screen displayed the remaining game time in the round the entire event.
A separate room provided the space for a streaming table on which one game was streamed live every round. Benni and Seb themselves were responsible for the comments during the strem being joined by a guest now and then and answering all questions in the chat while shoutcasting.
Check out twitch to review all streamed games: https://www.twitch.tv/targetpriority40k or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJhbUXK_ZrY1eJxIO2QNl_A
Benni (Basecap) and Seb at work
As on nearly every event a painting contest was run on day two and again some players nailed it by displaying gorgeous armies on the top level of painting skills.
Congratulations to Nils Vinson, who did a fantastic job with his Sisters of Silence. Well done!
Best Painted – Sisters of Silence – Nils Vinson
Besides the insight of the tournament as an event I would like to give a short overview of the games I played by myself while participating in the event.
My personal goal:
I always set myself a realistic personal goal before a tournament starts. This time I wanted to achieve a 3-2 and as always have fun games. As there was a special price for every player who placed “Best in Faction” during the event, this price was another aim to achieve.
My Army: (the entire list is available here: https://punpun.nl/p/98)
Tallarn Emperor’s Fist Tank Spearhead
- 2 Tank Commanders (1 Exec., 1 Relic Battle Cannon) + 3 Russ Conquerors
Catachan Emperor’s Wrath Artillery Battalion
- 2 Company Commanders (Warlord with Old Grudges)
- 3 Infantry Squads
- 1 Lord of Ordnance
- 1 Basilisk, 2 Wyverns
Catachan Battalion
- 1 Tank Commander with Battle Cannon, 1 Tempestor Prime
- 2 Infantry Squads, 1 Squad Scions
- 1 Scion Command Squad with 4 Plasmas
- 2 Armoured Sentinels
- 1 Griffon Mortar Carrier
Game 1 vs. Tau’ Empire (Thorben)
The tournaments could not have started better than playing with one of my friends. Thorben brought Tau (list here: https://punpun.nl/p/85) and played them like I’ve never seen before.
His entire army came right across the table while deployed super aggressive before. Thorben had first turn, so in turn 2 I was already facing 3 Riptides, a Ghostkeel and 3 Commanders pretty much right in front of my lines.
Due to very poor shooting I was not able to take out anything big the entire game, which resulted in a big victory for Thorben. Well played.
Deployment
Lesson learned: That’s the way Tau should be played – right in your face.
Game 2 vs. Astra Militarum and Dark Angels (Matthijs)
The next game was with Matthijs from the Netherlands. His list could be checked here: https://punpun.nl/p/69. So my very first game to play in English. Even losing the game this was my absolute favorite game of the weekend. We had so much fun at the table.
I had first turn, but Matthijs managed to hide almost his complete army in ruins. Only my Wyverns were able to kill 2 guardsmen squads and luckily some of my Russes had line of sight to one of the Vultures, so I was able to take one down. In Matthijs first turn the march of the Bullgryns followed by the 3 Dark Angel Landspeeder characters begun and I was not able to stop them for the rest of the game. So besides the Landspeeders, the Bullgryns and one Tank Commander, I managed to kill his entire army, but when his “Deathstar” got to my lines, my tanks were destroyed.
Favorite moment of the game was, when Matthijs almost ate one of the Reeses peanut buttercups, I brought, entirely with the plastic shell.
Super fun game.
My first turn
Lesson learned: Reeses peanut buttercups come in a little plastic shell.
Game 3 vs. Tyranids (Flo)
Flo’s Tyranids were next on schedule. His list is available here: https://punpun.nl/p/123
Luckily I faced Tyranids with a quite similar list in another tournament before, so I knew how they work. During deployment I already outranged his Hive guards and built a proper screen against his first turn Genesteler charge. Luckily I had first turn again so, all Hormagaunts and a lot of Termagants were already gone when Flo started. I’ve to consist that Flo’s dice were not in his favor the entire game. He managed his first turn Genesteler charge, but combined Catachan and Eversor close combat power erased them all in my next fight phase. With exception of the Hive Guards almost everything was wiped out after my second shooting phase. Then all his deep striking units in turn 2 managed it dealing almost no damage. Finally after my shooting phase in turn 4 nothing besides the outranged Hive Guards was left. The last two turns all my tanks used “Full Throttle” to get on the objectives and the game ended in my favor.
My second turn
Lesson learned: Stay patient and then “Full Throttle”
Game 4 vs. White Scars (Tom)
The “new” Adeptus Astartes came next. See Tom’s list here: https://punpun.nl/p/75
For my favor one of my friends played a very similar list as the one I was facing. So I was able to get some good recommendations how to deal with White Scars before the game started. This game went definitely in my direction due to the hot dice I had on my “amount of shots” rolls for my Leman Russes. An average of 10 for 6 Leman Russes is a crazy output that even Space Marines couldn’t stand. Nothing more to say, that the White Scars got tabled turn 3 and I only lost my Sentinels plus the Infantry.
My second turn
Lesson learned: 10 on 2D6 can be average.
Game 5 vs. Orcs (Philipp)
For the first time in 8th edition I had to play against Orcs. Philipp’s list can be found here: https://punpun.nl/p/108
First turn again on my side giving me the opportunity to destroy nearly half of his Mek Guns and then get my tanks back behind LOS blocker by using the order “get around behind them”. My Infantry “moved, moved, moved” forward to grab objectives and “block” deep strikes as Philipp put his two Gorkanauts and three Deffkoptas in Reserve. In the following shooting phase I only lost some Infantry and his Boys that dropped on my right flank did not made their charge to catch one of my Russes. So in my next round I continued moving up the board, giving the Orks only one spot on the table were only one of the Gorkauts could arrive, besides moving some more Mek Guns had to leave the table. Long story short, killed the Gorkanaut that arrived turn 2 in my turn 3 and did the same to the next Gorkanaut in turn 4. After that it was clearing out Grots and killing the remaining Ork characters.
My third turn
Lesson learned: Run up the board and block everything you can.
Conclusion
With a 3-2 I achieved my personal goal making me pretty happy.
Personally I think my army composition was not very balanced which I conclude from the results of my games. There were only two results in the end, either almost tabling my opponent or getting wiped out by myself. So back to list designing. I will definitely stick to pure Astra Militarum as I play Guard for over 25 years now, but it’s time for some variety.
Before the final award ceremony a raffle was held, giving everybody who bought some tickets during the event, the opportunity to win some extra special prices, including a three course dinner for two at the hotel and an Apocalypse Box of choice.
I really liked the idea, because it keeps players staying at the award ceremony, even if the already know that they did not place in the top ranks.
Award ceremony
Before the best painted and top players were announced, the “Best in Faction” prices were given out and our Team scored maximum here. With four players we brought three different armies to the event and scored “Best in Faction” Genestelers, Aeldari and Astra Militarum. Even having only a handful of each Faction at the event, these prices meant a lot.
At the end “Best General” was Dean Kho (list: https://punpun.nl/p/112) from the Netherlands with his Chaos Space Marines list.
“Best Overall” went to Basti Mueller (list: https://punpun.nl/p/72) from Germany with his Ultramarine Successor Chapter indicating in which direction the Meta is drifting. Well done and congratulations to all winners.
Final standings and all lists can be checked out here: https://punpun.nl/t/4-north-west-gt
For me personally this event was the “unofficial” start of ITC in Germany. Achieving 74 players at the first major event is a big deal and the fact that a lot of die-hard TTM players tried the ITC champions missions for their very first time shows the growth of ITC in Germany and our neighbors the Netherlands.
Moreover the ITC ranking has reached a lot of other TOs in Germany by today. More and more TOs have started to report their tournament results to Frontline Gaming or directly use the Best Coast Pairings App. This will include the TTM finals in Germany, taking place in December. Big shout out to both organizations at this point for all their work, time and passion they put in our hobby.
At the end I would like to quote one of the organizers from Alliance Open, Dennie:
“Let’s have a great weekend altogether and let the hobby be the winner.”
Last but not least big shout out to all organizers, supporters and helping hands, who made this event a fantastic experience for everybody. Special shout out to the “Target ladies”, who supported by setting up terrain, interviewing players or just catching the atmosphere with photos and videos.
Thank you.
CJ and myself (ITC Regional Rep Netherlands and Germany)
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
