Last week the Bay Area Open event for A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game took place. There has been some fantastic praise from the players about the event with it also being tied to Kubla Con. The event was hosted by Frontline Gaming but was organised by Karl from West Coast Bannerman who has become the go to name for events in the US. The 1-day 4-game event saw many factions fight for the win but only one player got 4 wins. Thank you to ASOIAF-Stats.com for providing all the stats for the tournament so we can peek into the lists and games as well as West Coast Bannermen for all the details.
The Event
The BAO was held at the Marriot Hotel, which is situated on the waterfront boasting a beautiful view of San Francisco. You can see the planes land and take off from the hotel as well across a small inlet of the bay. It looks like planes are hovering slowly above the water as the runways are just above sea level which is truly gorgeous.
The event is tied to Kubla Con held at the Hyatt Hotel and your ticket granted you access to the Con. Some of the players ended up at the Con’s Game Library checking out a board game for the night to finish up their fantastic day with drinks and hilarity on the tabletop.
“Frontline Gaming is always very professional and on top of things. They made sure we had the right amount of space with our game extras on the side of the battlefield.” – Karl, TO
Prize Support
Every Song player received two Song dice and a Bay Area Open die, a BAO 2023 challenge coin, and a sticker upon check in. Frontline always has merchandise like t-shirts and dice for their events. This merch is a pre order that only the early bird can grab on the Sunday once all orders have had a chance to be picked up.
CMON also sent some prizes for the players, this included each one of the Starter Sets and selection of the most recently released boxes. 1st place got a choice of two boxes. Every other player went home with a box of their choice, in order of awards, wooden spoon, then 4th-13th. No name being called up for a prize twice.
Andrew L ( LVO head T.O. ) – “The highlight of the event for me was to see the prizes were already there and we did not have to wait for shipping.”
Best Painted and Sportsmanship were amongst the awards featured at the event and the 40k Paint Judge even came over to help with the decision.
Event Size
The event hall was packed full of players and Karl spoke with other TOs for the various other wargaming events taking place. Those he got to speak to had 100% attendance rates just like the Song event.
The way FLG events work is they rent out a hall or multiple halls in hotels, casino hotels or even a cruise ship, and they need to sell every seat they can which is a big MUST. So, at a certain point, or at multiple points leading up to an event, they will reallocate seats from non-selling events to those with waitlists. This happened to the ASOIAF event about a month ago and was capped at 14 players.
A good thing to note, buy your tickets early. TOs need to fight for space against all the other systems so the earlier the better. Buy. Early. And if they sell out, they will likely provide another chance to grab a ticker and grow the event in size.
Karl also said that at least in his region, there seems to be a huge demand for narrative/mini-campaigns at the Opens. He is planning to implement something in this style as soon as possible. He also said that the attendance at the BAO is easily less than 10% of his local players (3 hours or less away). But at 14 players, a little better than normal for a competition. There was only one player from the local area with people travelling from all over filling out the rest of the spots. It’s time for a different type of way to play, and to bring players together for less competitive focused events.
Thanks
Karl would like to make sure that we give a big shout out to the International Community FAQ and its contributors. He is happy to be a part of that discussion and is thankful for it as it helped him to produce the BAO event FAQ. He would also like to give a big shout to ASOIAF-Stats as they had zero issues with the pairing system which helps to relieve a lot of stress on the TO.
The Awards were designed by Pat Stiles, so massive thanks to Pat for providing those, they look brilliant!
4th – Steve Garcia (Sleepy Stove) – Daenerys Targaryen(MoD)/Khal Drogo
“My highlight was meeting all these cool people and being able to bounce ideas back and forth. I had a lot of really good games. I would also like to apologise to Kyle A. DeLima for spiking like five to six 6s on defence lol.” – Steve
Got to say I love Steve’s lists. For too long we see Dany in Bolton units (although it makes the most sense with her cards), and we don’t see much of Drogo in his very own Bloodriders. Remaining thematic whilst having a grand performance at an event is hard to pull off but it is one hell of a satisfying feeling. Steve was in the running to take the event with him being on the top table for the final round, however judging by the points it was a close game. Congratulations on finishing 4th!
3rd – Pat Stiles (Stiles) – Obara Sand/Harmen Uller
“BAO was incredible. 4 super competitive games in one day. Great sportsmanship and camaraderie. We have an incredible scene for ASOIAF in California and BAO was a shining example of that” – Pat
Pat brought some incredibly well thought out lists with a Cavalry themed Obara and Scout themed Uller lists. Pat played well and gained only one loss from a close game against an Obara player, which were two very different lists. Their Uller lists are identical which would have been a peculiar game to play. Congratulations on finishing 3rd!
2nd – Joseph Yull (Hecaton) – Mag the Mighty/Rattleshirt
Monster mash list accompanied by the National Beyond-the-Wall Zoo courtesy of Varamyr was alongside an awesome Rattleshirt list bolstered with Frozen Shore Bear Riders, Thenn Warriors and the Bonelord’s Chosen. Some cool lists and a very refreshing take from the Raider, Trapper, and Chariot spam from pre-patch. Joseph did drop a close game against Pat in third against Uller’s shooty scout force. Congratulations on finishing 2nd!
Honourable Mention – Nick Katchmer (Beatnizzle) – Joffrey Baratheon/Vargo Hoat
“I was happy to help a fellow lannister learn that our crossbowmen are better these days.” – Nick
Before jumping the gun into first place, I wanted to highlight my personal favourite lists from one of the players at the event. I name this honourable mention, the Brave Award. If someone told me a few months ago they were going to bring Joffrey to an event, then I would have called them mad. But to do this alongside a Vargo list is insanity. Not only did Nick take a tumble-down madness lane he did a stellar performance with the lists against three of the top Commanders in the game; Kevan, Mag and Jon Snow. Whilst it looked like he struggled against Kevan and Mag, he pulled out a win against the forever OP Jon Snow! He is the chosen one! I have one question Nick, “You can see the matrix, can’t you?”
1st – Mitchell Ryan (ALogicalFallacy) – Obara Sand/Harmen Uller
“Big thanks to everyone coming out, and to all my opponents for being understanding with me for not knowing my own army.” – Mitchell
Mitchell managed to pull out 4 wins after the last two very close fights against third and fourth standing players. He brought Uller for most of his games which is a Scout themed list utilising the Skirmishers in the same way that Pat was. For the first few games he brought the force of Renly to his knees and his ally Eldon as well. Congratulations on 1st!
Other Players
Matt Cave (5th) – “Made new friends in other games and with FLG staff. Really happy with the whole community. No sourpuss or mean ppl in the room…. I had a great time.”
Kyle De Lima (8th) – “It was good to play against other people from different regions! Making connections, having a laugh. It was my first time ever coming to BAO and I liked how smooth everything was.”
Phillip Barbour (13th) – “The best part of BAO for me was getting to meet more players in the community and to learn from all my mistakes after each match. Did I play great? No. Did I get top 8 and an invite to nationals? No. But I played great games with great people and I learned a hell of a lot I can’t wait to hit up another FLG event, I’m looking at you Lone Star!”
Bob, ( Ormazium) – “Pros: Great community and fun, Good prizes, Good variety in game modes, and Everything ran more or less on time. Tournament Highlight for me: One shotting Champs of Stag with triple panic turn. Tournament Lowlight: Running the wrong list in Dance with Dragons.”
Best Painted and Sportsmanship
Best painted was between an expertly done Thorn Watch unit by Kyle De Lima and a beautiful Mountain That Rides by Seth Strader. It was a tie between the two but was later settled as Seth being the victor for best painted as Kyle won the Sportsmanship Award.
Future
Congratulations to the top 8 players for their earned paid entry to CMON EXPO 2023 and US nationals. Kyle DeLima (Zontarz) 8th, Nick Katchmer (Beatnizzle) 7th, Andrew Le (AndrewL) 6th, Matt Cave (Raidok) 5th, Steve Garcia (Sleepy Stove) 4th, Patrick Stiles (Stiles) 3rd, Joseph Yull (Hecaton) 2nd, and Mitchell Ryan (ALogicalFallacy) 1st.
There are more upcoming Frontling Gaming events for A Song of Ice and Fire. The Atlantic City Open and Lonestar Open which you can get your tickets to now on the website here.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
