Three of the leading Dallas-area retailers of the Games Workshop hobby have joined forces to create the ultimate weekend experience for the new Warhammer 40,000 game system expansion—Apocalypse!
HobbytownUSA Dallas, HobbyAnnex and Lone Star Comics will host three consecutive days of Apocalypse-system mega-battles to introduce the new expansion to DFW-area players. The three mega-battles will be linked in content, but stand independent of each other in resolution...so players can participate in one or all three, as their circumstances allow, and still have a complete Apocalypse experience!
The event begins Friday evening at HobbyAnnex, Preston and Campbell in Dallas. This mega-battle will begin at 6pm; in this battle, players representing the united forces of the Imperium will face the dual threat of attacks from the highest tech and the lowest, as players representing the Necrons and the Orks beseige them!
The event continues Saturday afternoon at Lone Star Comics Dallas, Mockingbird and Abrams in Dallas. This mega-battle will begin at noon, with players representing the greater good of the Tau Empire and the ancients of the Eldar diaspora uniting against concurrent assaults from players fielding Dark Eldar and players fielding Tyranids.
Finally, the weekend climaxes Sunday afternoon at HobbytownUSA Dallas, Walnut Hill and Central in Dallas, as the most ancient of enemies draw their sights upon one another once again—with players representing the Loyalist Imperium clashing against players representing the rebel Traitor Legions!
To participate, all players need do is sign up in person at one or more of these retailers, indicating which side in each battle they will declare for and approximately how many points they will field. For the event itself, players will need to bring an accurate, printed army list for the judge's convenience.
Remember—for Apocalypse games, there is NO Force Organization chart. A player may bring whatever he has to hand, in whatever quantity he desires. Moreover, a player need not restrict himself to strictly one army—he may take allied forces, so long as he can articulate a background for the force which the organizing judge rules to be credible. With that in mind, players forces for the three battles must conform to the following restrictions:
- All models must be at least assembled and painted sufficiently far along to credibly represent the force to which they belong. In other words, a Tau Hammerhead need not be fully detailed to participate, but it should have more than a hastily-applied coat of primary colour. The 'three colour rule' is a good guide, although judges will be lenient for efforts made in good faith. No partially assembled, bare plastic or primer-only models will be allowed to participate, however.
- Allies will be allowed on both sides so long as a reasonably convincing background can be considered by the player, but Allies cannot represent more than one-third of the players' total force. In game one, for example, a player fielding 1500 points of Necrons could include 500 points of Imperial Guard in that total, by suggesting that the local Guard unit had been terrified into subservience by the arriving Necrons; in game two, a player fielding 3000 points of Tau or Eldar could easily feature 1000 points of Imperial forces in that total by suggesting they were dispatched to their aid by a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. The restrictions of Rule 1) apply to all Allied models, however.
- No one will be bound by the standard Apocalypse 3000 point minimum because the combined total of all participating players on both sides will far exceed that total. If you have 475 points of painted Dark Eldar, bring them to play Saturday; in concert with others bringing their similar forces, the total will grow grand in short order.
- All three battlefields will feature an urban combat area, so all players are encouraged to construct a based, painted piece of building or ruin terrain to bring to each mega-battle (or all three!). At each mega-battle, the terrain pieces will be played over and judged by all participating players, with the winning terrain piece being awarded a fabulous prize! Apocalypse-specific terrain requirements in particular will be emphasized: in Apocalypse, buildings should be more 'vertical' than in standard 40K games, because higher ruins give cover to such Apocalypse-specific wonders as Titans, superheavy vehicles, and flyers. Have your tower or ruin be selected as the objective terrain piece for a multi-thousand-point Apocalypse mega-battle!
- Legendary units and Apocalypse datasheet formations are not only legal—they are encouraged! These mega-battles will be the perfect opportunity to unleash that Chaos Vindicator Linebreaker formation, or Eldar Scorpion superheavy tank, or Tide of Spawn! Be sure to include the total points for such formations in your points estimations and printed army lists.
The time is coming. The forces of Order are aligning, on one front; the legions of Disorder prepare for battle, on another. In the grim darkness of the far future, there has always been only war...but now, war has escalated to an epic scale. Now, there is heroism and villainy on a massive, galactic stage. And for the Dallas sector November 2, 3 and 4...Apocalypse is NOW.
