On the 10th of June the Central California Regionals took place for A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game. The event was hosted by Ender’s Games in Clovis but was Organised by Trash Panda Batz and Preston from the Fresno Community. The 1-day 4-game event saw many factions fight for the win, however unlike other events, two players ended with 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, Trash Panda Batz, and Preston for all the details.
The Event
There are 33 active players in Fresno, but most are casual. Preston says that some key Fresno players had to pull out of the tourney for personal reasons with himself included but did end up with 12 joining those from the LA and Sac/North Bay area to make it an 18 player regional. The players were treated to Pizza that was provided for them which I have to say is something I wish for every time I go to an event.
Shout out to JT Parnell, the owner of Ender’s Games. After covid the community’s store was gone, they had 6 people. He gave them a home, their own night to play and monthly tournaments. That led to tremendous growth and they are the biggest mini game in the valley.
Neutrals and Targaryens did not see play at the event whilst the most represented factions were Baratheons, Starks and Lannisters.
Prize Support
The winner of the event was awarded a replica of Prince Oberyn Martell’s Spear! Many events are now doing replica weapons from the Catspaw Dagger to Longclaw, but I have seen none delve into the rare weapon types such as a spear in this instance. It is also thematically quite pleasing since the Martells are now hitting their stride in events proving to be more of a faction then some older ones.
Baron of Dice sponsored part of the event and were extremely generous by providing a bunch of promo prizes. There was individually wrapped single die promos for every player as well as dice sets in tins. If you don’t know Baron of Dice, they make various different accessories for tabletop wargaming and have a section for A Song of Ice and Fire dice with some dedicated designs for various smaller houses such as Tullys and Freys. There was also a pack of 25 not yet released Umber dice which is exciting to hear.
There were 5 decorative coins, 1st through to 3rd received a coin, and then a painted squirrel coin went to the player with the strangest lists which Ryan won with the 5 Lightbringers. A bard coin was awarded for the funniest person to play against which was won by John The Merchant who brought Starks.
The rest of the prize support came from the generosity of both Trash Panda Batz and Preston. There were countless other prizes from measuring gauges, card sleeves with nice artwork to match your faction, to even Map Markers. Here’s an image of some of the prize support.
The Lord Commander – Jeor Mormont a.k.a. James Cosmo
The Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch gave Joe some encouraging words for the tournament and Joe took first place!
Event Stats
Martell had 4 games and ended with a 100% win rate. There was only one player who played Martells and ran Obara for three of these games. Baratheons played 12 games and ended with a 67% win rate. There are quite a varied number of Commanders taken for the Stormlanders but Axell Florent played 6 games and dropped only one so ended with a 83% win rate. Night’s Watch played 8 games and ended with a 63% win rate. Most of this was carried by Vargo Hoat who won 4 out 4 games he played sporting a 100% win rate. I was surprised to only see two games featuring Jon Snow here, but it is a refreshing change from the norm.
5th – Ryan Graves (Ryan Deads) – Axell Florent/Justin Massey
Those who know Baratheons well would probably say Mel is the crazy one. Others who wouldn’t likely say Stannis in general is the mad man here. But not Ryan. No. Ryan says Justin Massey is the crazy one, and when he shows up to the battle with 5 Units of Lightbringers there are few people who wouldn’t spit out their drink. Sprinkle in some Bronn, Roose, and Davos and the list is complete. At least the Axell list is more what we would expect from a Baratheon player and lost to a Renly Charismatic Heir list in round 2. However, Ryan did fantastic with the forces of Dragonstone, congratulations on 5th place!
4th – Karl Kersten (PapaBear) – Greatjon Umber/Roose Bolton
Something nice about Starks is that most lists aren’t the same. There is no one list that is above the rest like Night’s Watch Jon Snow or Pre-nerf Mance Rayder. Greatjon and Eddard are great Commanders, but the rest is down to how you want to play them. Some things show up often like the Tully Cavaliers and Rickon/Shaggydog but there is always a surprise that I have not seen before. For Karl it is the support network of War Cry Mormont She Bears to help with Roose Bolton’s cards. Or Daario in Umber Berserkers that makes me think “Why has this not been done before?”
Both lists are really unique and look quite fun to play with. Congratulations Karl on 4th place!
3rd – Robert Macauley (Ormaziaum) – Renly Charismatic/Axell Florent
Baratheon players are blowing my mind at this event. I have never seen a unit taken more than twice other than Addam Marbrand’s Warrior’s Sons or the Ironborn Bowmen. Robert has done it with both lists bringing triple Champions of the Stag with Renly and triple Queen’s Men with Axell. Fighting the toughest cavalry in the game backed by Cortnay healing and Charismatic Heir would have been a slog, whilst trying to take down the vigilant Queen’s Men whilst being orbital striked by the Mel twins is another equal slog. Robert lost one game against the first-place winner and from the stats this looks to have been a very close game. Congratulations on 3rd place!
2nd – Patrick Stiles (Stiles) – Obara Sand/Harmen Uller
The Obara Cavalry list that is filled with Glory Seeker mercenaries performed very well. I often question CMON’s decision to change the Glory Seeker as it has essentially made cavalry harder to take down and output some more damage just to remove Rally Cry. However, seeing a Starfall Rohan army is an awesome sight with Obara and the Royal Guard marching up the field. Uller also appears with his Scout list utilising the Sand Skirmishers very well whilst having the two guys in the chair backing the NCU board in Doran and Walder. Patrick succeeded in 4 wins throughout the event but had some close games in comparison to the crushing games of first place. Congratulations on 2nd place!
1st – Joe Batz (Trash Panda Batz) – Cotter Pyke/Vargo Hoat
A Night’s Watch player who won an event without Jon Snow. I would have said this was not possible, but Joe has proved it can be done. The usual combo of Vargo and Othell was not utilised here, however the new Qhorin and Ranger Vanguard combo was a part of this force. A rare sighting of the Builder Stone Thrower chirped me up followed by the Ranger Hunters and Coldhands featured in a lot of forces. Joe managed to break through the impossible healing of Renly with dual Rose Knights, then moved onto another form of tough with Addam Marbrand and double Red Cloaks. The third round had Vargo lead the crows against the aggressive Umbers, before facing the heavy cavalry of Renly. Joe won the tournament by having the most SP and UD points, congratulations on 1st place and being the new holder of The Red Viper’s Spear.
Best Painted and Factions
John Grande won best painted army with his Starks which came with a prize of a full crate KS edition scale 75 instant paints. His Zorse Riders were a particular favourite from the other players.
There were several tokens made as prizes for the ebay in faction awards, these tokens were from Dracula Tokens. Baratheon Tokens went to The Knight of Summer (Austin), Free Folk tokens went to Hecaton (Joseph), Martells and Greyjoys defaulted as they only had one player each, there were no Targaryen Players, Neutral Tokens went to Beatnizzle (Nick) because he lost the Lannister one by one vote, Karl won the best Stark Tokens, lannister Tokens went to Lannister Debt Collections (Connor) and Trash Panda Batz won the Night’s Watch Tokens.
Future
The event looks to have been fantastic with some refreshing Commanders showing up in lists. The prize support was beyond anything I have seen for an event of this size so hats off to Trash Panda Batz and Preston for sorting that for the players. I do look forward to covering more from their community in the future but hopefully closer to when the event took place.
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