Watching people play 40k on an aircraft carrier is pretty amazing. The USS Hornet living museum in the sleepy California island town of Alameda was home to the Da Grand Waaagh GT, where for two days and five games armies battle to a result that was very Orky…
Four of the top ten were Ork players and the final table featured an Ork on Ork battle. What was particularly interesting about the Ork armies at the final table was they were nothing spectacular, one had many Kill Kans and the other had the one Nob Biker squad. The other units were pretty random with neither of them using Lootaz.
Timothy Ayres won the match. He won for two major reasons, Walter was overly aggressive with his army and used his fast elements ineffectively, leaving Timothy to play back. The second reason was the game ended on turn three. Once Timothy was up on kill points he proceeding to play the point denial game like it was some 3th edition 40k dance party. He also asked a lot of questions that a jaded person could construe as stalling. In Timothy’s defense was he was a very chatty player regardless, as well as being really methodical.
I think I am becoming the great Ork defender and tourney results keep on making my job easy. For all the Internet bad mouthing even middling Ork lists are doing great things. I cannot explain it, but to say either people are not playing enough against Orks or a lot of good generals have chosen Orks as their bread and butter.
The first place over-all was Walter Denlinger Ork army which was very well played and painted. Walter story is legendary because of his Mr. Potato Head Stompa which while not allowed to be fielded still made quite an impact. To get his full battle report visit Warseer and this link.
The second place over-all was Michael “Doc” Glenboski with his all female IG army. What was great about Doc’s army, it was classic IG with lots of lasguns and heavy weapons with just a few armored elements. It made for a lot of boobies. Doc ended with three wins and two ties in his favor.
The third place over-all was Alex Nelson a Golden Daemon winner, he brought his Space Marines. He had a little bit of everything and even used Vanguard Vets catching a few players off guard. He ended with three wins and two losses.
Here is a link for the complete results.
As you may of noticed the best general overall was in 10th place. The winner caused a bit of a hub bub because there were no prizes for Best General and he was not happy. You also may of noticed no break down of scores. The organizers tired to keep hidden the standings and if I had not said anything the top table would have never known they had the highest battle scores. The organizers wanted to keep the GT very hobby focused. Having rewards going to people that exemplify the hobby not just for beating face.
Here is a link to how the results were determined.
Da Grand Waaagh GT Scoring Matrix
Besides being overly complicated the organizers created “Best Army”. It was an attempt to combine comp and painting into one category that weighted heavy on overall standing. I think it is very important sportsmanship, painting, and battlepoints be including in determining results. What I do not like is the notion of comp in tourneys especially with 5th edition. There is really no unbeatable list, only a-hole players. If you are having a comp system to keep douches from bringing hard lists you will be sorely mistaken; the nature of the douche is to exploit regardless of restrictions. Comp scores are also a very subjective way for players and judges to give other players low scores because no one has the balls to confront and stop bad behavior.
Da Grand Waaagh was pretty much douche free. I commend the organizers for focusing on fun and not competitiveness, if that was their goal they did a great job. Players were given the treat of a tour of the aircraft carrier after the event, not to mention access to a flight simulator. The event was right on the hanger deck, with many muggle on lookers gawking as everyone moved around their little men.
I had a great time sitting down with a few of the organizers and discussing the trials of putting together such an event. You can look forward to the Grand Waagh being bigger and better next year. There are plans for using the ship’s sleeping quarters so players can spend the night, which is infinitely cool. I also found out that GW should be spelling out what the tourney scene is going to look like next year; completely handing the ball over to Indy events like the Da Grand Waaagh. Having spoken to other Indy event folks it seems that GW is also cutting back on prize support leaving the organizers to pick up the tab. For those concerned Da Grand Waaagh is looking to changing their comp and scoring system.
Please check out the USS Hornet Website so you can get an idea on how cool it was to play in such a location.
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| The Grand Waaag 09 |
Questions to comment:
- What do you think about comp in tourneys?
- Does your area have problems with people taking too long to finish games?
- How are tourneys run in your area?
Oh here is 250 pictures from the event enjoy! Thanks Jon for letting me use your camera!