Result: 40K Doubles Tournament at Gunslinger Games

Gunslinger Games was full to overflow for Saturday, October 21st's Warhammer 40,000 Sixth Edition Doubles Team Tournament, with these hobbyists achieving notable outcomes:

• Best Overall Team: Billy and Tommy Pistole (Orks/Traitor Imperial Guard)

• Best Sportsmen Team: Barret Allen and Chuck Williams (Necrons/Exorcist Space Marines)

• Best Painted: Michael Sanford (Grey Knights)

Michael Sanford and teammate Will Davis also went undefeated to be named Best Generals (Grey Knights/Salamander Space Marines); Eric and Alexz Smelley (Dark Eldar/Space Wolves) had Best Army List; those two teams tied to finish Third Overall, with Josh Sherman and Brady Allen (Jade Legion Space Marines/Tyranids) finishing Runner-up Overall Team.

Level of play was very high, reflected in close games through all three rounds--and above average Sportsmanship scores for virtually the entire roster of teams. That's well-known as a point of emphasis for events I moderate--play which results in players having fun keeps players in the hobby--but it created a real logjam at the top for the Best Sportsmen prize: when bonus points for being named Favorite Opponent were added to each round's score, three teams were tied for high score, with three more only a single point behind. Winning team Barret and Chuck were the only players to receive maximum scores for each round, which broke the tie, but kudos to Chris LaJudice/John Saxin (Chaos Space Marines/Tyranids) and Josh Sherman/Brady Allen (tied for Best Sportsmen) and John Laird/Ben Chukmuwa (Space Marines/Blood Angels), the Smelleys and the Pistoles for finishing a single point off.

Kudos to the community, as well: three teams cancelled at the last moment (one late Friday, two Saturday morning), yet enough players showed up in hope of playing that the event was still full, with late arrivals staying to play each other and even demo games for interested passersby/potential new hobbyists. It was a fun day of 40K.

Finally, thanks to Gunslinger Games for hosting and providing over $120 of prize support; look for Games Workshop to continue to increase it's presence at the store, based on the success of these events. More of which to come--watch adeptusnorthtexas.com for details!

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Results: V6 Combat Patrol at Gunslinger Games

22 players, representing 12 different armies, clashed over three rounds of 41st millennium combat at Gunslinger Games Saturday afternoon, July 28; emerging triumphant from the dust and mire:

•Best General: Shane (Dark Eldar)

•Best Painted: Donny (Imperial Fists Space Marines)

•Best Sportsman: Shay (Orks)

•Murphy's Luck (sponsored by Hitting On 3s): Juan Diaz (Eldar)

Enthusiasm was high, and considerable fun appeared to have been had; over $75 in prizes was a nice return for an afternoon's pitched battle (thank you, Gunslinger Games). Watch Adeptus for another, soon.

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Results: TTS Arcane Fulcrum Contest

Mary Proffitt won her second Storm of Magic Event Series modeling contest with her entry in Texas Toy Soldier's January event, the Arcane Fulcrum Terrain contest.

In fairness, it was a tie between Mary's throne of skulls terrain piece and Rick Morang's chaos vortex piece, with the terrain master himself, TTS owner Allen preferring the skulls (I liked the vortex, if it's any consolation :).

Mary will collect her prize from TTS as well as accruing benefits to her force in April's WHFB Storm of Magic Megabattle at Gunslinger Games.

Meantime--February is Monster Month at HobbytownUSADallas!

Result: November Lone Star Comics Storm of Magic Wizard Painting Contest

Congratulations to Mary Profitt, whose Empire Celestial Wizard won the November event for the North Texas Storm of Magic series! Submitted to the Dallas Lone Star location, Mary may contact the store at her convenience to collect her prize, and all other participants may retrieve their entries...and get their December efforts, Units, to Comic Asylum to maintain momentum!
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Result: Gunslinger Games 40K Apocalypse Megabattle

Eight players representing both Loyal and Traitor Guard, space marines, Chaos Daemons and Tyranids--including two Reaver battle titans, two Warhound scout titans and a Dactylis bio-titan--clashed atop the plateaus of Scytulus III's primary mountain range at Gunslinger Games' 40K Megabattle Saturday, with every participant taking home prizes as well as at least one memorable moment of heroism (or villainy) for their detachment, before the Dactylis located the objective--a wand of brass, obsidian, amber and lapis pulsing with Warp power--and managed to wade through the combined firepower and physical resistance of all the other players to escape with it!

Although a wealth of other events on the day (and I hope to hear results of both WHFB tourneys and the other 40K megabattle here--as well as Free RPG Day tales!) kept some hobbyists who had made qualifying purchases from attending, the event seemed to have been enjoyed by all participants, the Scytulus campaign storyline advanced--and GsG is onboard for future GW hobby events. Watch Adeptus for details.

See Gunslinger Games' website and the For The Emperor website for additional photos and coverage, and thanks to GsG for hosting a great afternoon of wargaming fun!

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Lone Star Dallas Commanders Challenge Winners!

The staff at Lone Star Comics Dallas named three models winners in their respective categories for the Commanders Challenge series of events, completed over Free Comic Book Day weekend: a Youngbloods winner, a Best 40K winner, and the Overall winner. Congratulations to the winners, and I hope participants in all the events enjoyed them!

+Best Youngblood Commander+ (receiving 4 points, for model submission, Best Youngblood model [painting, conversions and basing], Combat Patrol participation and narrative submission): Brady Allen/Tyranid Swarmlord 'The Pitlord of Tartarus'

+Best 40K Commander+ (receiving 1 point, for model submission): Rick Morang/Tyranid Winged Hive Tyrant 'unknown name'

+++Overall Commanders Challenge Winner+++ (receiving 6 points, for model submission, Best 40K model [painting, conversions, basing], Best Commander model [painting, conversions, basing], Combat Patrol participation, narrative submission and Best Narrative): Juan Diaz/Eldar Autarch 'Corsair Etheniel Starseeker'
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Result: HobbytownUSA Dallas Worldwide 40K Apocalypse Battle

Ten players rostered over 16,000 points (including a total of five gargantuan creatures and two superheavy vehicles) in the HobbytownUSA Dallas portion of the worldwide Imperium vs Xenos Apocalypse 40K megabattle January 22, 2011. The Dallas portion of the battlefield took place amidst a wintry city ruin, with the two forces clashing across a dried-up and decaying canal bed. The Imperial forces were led by a Puritan Daemonhunter Inquisitor with retinue and a contingent of Grey Knights in the center, Soul Drinkers space marines to the right flank and Howling Griffons terminators led by Librarian Ulysses to the left, with the entire battle line buttressed by the guns of the Imperial Guard; facing them were tendrils of Tyranid hive fleets Tiamat and Cerberus, and a small contingent of Necrons awakened by the conflict. The battle was escalated by the unexpected arrival of Khornate Reaver Titan Angrones Irae...for Khorne cares not whence the blood flows.

The Xenos seized the initiative and threw their dominance in monstrous and gargantuan creatures across the crumbling spillway at the Imperial host, taking an early first turn advantage in held objectives 3-1 which humanity could never quite make up. At the top of the third turn, the Imperium adopted a Stalingradian approach to the battle, eventually using their firepower advantage to destroy *every* objective on the field save for the three they either had controlled, or felt they could contest; consensus was the strategy would have worked if initiated a single turn sooner, but at battle's end the Xenos held a 5-4 advantage in objectives held for at least one turn, and held one of the three remaining objectives with the other two in contest.

Apocalypse, however, is less about the outcome than the moments of high drama getting there, and this battle featured them aplenty. Without question the hero of the day was Howling Griffons Terminator Librarian Ulysses: aided by the most effective deployment of the archeotech Asset Vortex Grenade seen in some time, the space marine psyker dispatched a Tyranid Heirophant, most of the Necron infantry and combined with orbital strikes from his battle barge and the guns of his faction's Baneblade to see off the interloper Chaos Titan (inflicting damage with both his psychic powers and in hand-to-hand combat!).

Thanks to all the players who came out and made the day an outstanding hobby event, HobbytownUSA Dallas for sponsoring, hosting and moderating participation in the Worldwide Apocalypse megabattle, and to http://www.apocalypse40k.com for organizing the entire enormous undertaking!
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Result: Lone Star Comics Dallas 40K 'Capture the Flag' Contest

Fifteen hobbyists came out for Lone Star's 'Capture The Flag' bash, and with Space Marines, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids and Necrons represented, forces aligned fairly evenly along traditional 'order' versus 'disorder' factions (the Inquisition and Chaos must've been off battling amongst themselves). Chris' assault marines and Dylan's craftworld eldar had it toughest on the 'order' left flank, tying each other for the most complete wipeouts-and-respawnings, while Dave's destroyer lord on the opposite end seized a flag in turn one and held it the entire game. Glenn's grav-chuting guardsmen won 'boldest move' of the event when they heroically inserted from their Vendetta onto a flag in the face of a wall of Josh's dual-tervigon-created-tyranids...and held out for a visually-impressively-long time against the swarm (Glenn has promised to post photos)...while Brady's swarmlord-templated Pitlord of Tartarus hive tyrant won 'frustrated monstrous creature' of the event, as he spent the entire game trying to find a single opponent from first the 'order' side then the 'disorder' side willing to engage him, without success. Prizes were awarded via random draw, with each flag point earned accruing players an extra chit in the stocking...and thanks to host Lone Star Comics Dallas for sweetening the deal so that every participant took home a poster, hobby paint or some other gift for their effort, at the end of the day!

'Capture the Flag' proved to be a very fun way to get 400 points of one's favorite models onto the tabletop; look for it again sometime early in 2011, so North Texas hobbyists can try out the new armies they receive for the holidays!
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