HobbytownUSA Dallas' 40K V5 Academy, which was free with the purchase of the new rulebook, concluded two successful evening skullsessions and practice games with the first fifth-edition tournament in the area, which in three rounds introduced the competitors to all three of the new Missions and Deployment Conditions. Thursday evening's session was attended by eleven hobbyists, with fourteen more on Friday; each received a customized 'V5 cheat sheet' summarizing the major change's from V4 to V5, and participated in exercises and practice games to familiarize themselves with most of those changes. The 'cheat sheet' will be made available to every hobbyist in the North Texas area shortly as a download at http://www.AdeptusNorthTexas.com.
Twelve of the Academy participants entered the tournament on Saturday. The races of the forty-first millennium were well represented, with three Space Marine armies and a Daemonhunter inquisition force representing the Imperium, a craftworld and two Dark Eldar forces, two Tyranid hives, an ork horde, a Necron detachment and a Tau cadre completing the dozen (Chaos was inexplicably absent in any form...). Three players entered the final round undefeated: Juan's Tau and Jackson's Daemonhunters clashed on the Ancient Earthen Ruins top table--but when their struggle ended in a Draw, leaving them both 2-0-1 and tied for Second, the Overall Tournament Victory went to the only undefeated *and* untied player, Brady and his Tyranids.
Over half the armies were fully painted, and several of those which were't because they were fielding new and not-yet-painted squads would have vied for top honours, had the rest of their armies been finished: Jeff's terrific-looking wraithbone-accented Eldar Guardians and Josh T's screaming-bright-red Ork trukk spring particularly to mind. In a sporting display, two-thirds of the armies received at least one vote for Favorite Army, and two-thirds of the players votes for Best Sportsman--and (although it was not prohibited), no one voted for themselves, which reflects that highly-sporting atmosphere. Brady's Tyranids, Josh S's Space Marines, Bill's Space Marines, Tommy's Dark Eldar and Eric's Dark Eldar all received multiple Favorite Army votes--but the clear winner was Juan's beautifully-executed (and perennial favorite) Tau. Brady and Jeff earned multiple Best Sportsman votes, and both Josh S and Bill accomplished the rare and laudable feat of being named Best Sportsman by all three opponents they faced--including each other!
Curiously, Josh S and Bill also vied for the not-exactly-coveted 'Murphy's Luck Award:' ordinarily, when an unit performs as futilely over the course of three games as Josh's Land Speeder did (destroyed every game, killed exactly one model in the course of doing so) it would be a slam dunk--but then Bill mustered a shooting performance in the final game of such surpassing futility as to become the stuff of legend: with a shooting-oriented Space Marine army, and against a ravenous-for-hand-to-hand-combat bug horde, he shot over eighty times, including several multiple-model-targeting template missiles...and inflicted a grand total of five wounds, before having his spectacular ill-fortune wiped from memory in a tide of nearly-full-strength chitinous fangs-and-claws. Frankly, I've never seen anything quite like it...
Kudos to these winners of an outstanding field, which also included Alex's Tyranids (Alex lost only once, also, making the Great Devourer's V5 debut an impressive 5-1), Blake's Necrons and Kyle's Space Marines; and thanks to Games Workshop and HobbytownUSA Dallas for hosting and supporting with fine prizes. The fifth era has begun!
- OVERALL CHAMPION: Brady Allen, Tyranids
- RUNNER UP: Jackson Elliott, Daemonhunters
- FAVORITE ARMY: Juan Diaz, Tau
- BEST SPORTSMAN: Josh Sherman, Space Marines
- MURPHY'S LUCK AWARD: Bill Mikesell, Space Marines
