Tits for Tournaments: MechaniCon vs. Feasts of Blades

This weekend will be an interesting one for many competitive 40k players. Now only are two great events going on at the same time, but the new Chaos Space Marines will be seen for first time in major tournaments. Will Necrons continue their recent tournament dominance or will another army finally bring a no fly zone to the 40k meta?

What I really want to talk about instead, is just how different these events are from one another.

Many of 40k friends are heading to Feasts of Blades this weekend, but if I had to choose between the main events at each (based on format alone) I would pick MechaniCon. If you added in everything else it would be Feasts of Blades without hesitation.

The reason is simple MechanicCon is actually playing Warhammer 6th edition.

Here take a look…

 MechaniCon 40K GT Basic Rules

– 5 games at 1500 points. You must use the same list in every game and lists are to be exchanged with your opponent before each game.You must have the rulebook and codex books for your force and allies – NO PIRATED SCANS
– We will be using ALL the rules from the new 6th Edition version, As-Is.
– Forge World models and lists are permitted – the most current version of the rules/FAQs from 6th Edition are needed and you must have the proper book – NO PIRATED SCANS
– GW FAQ’s will be used – no House Rules
– Scoring to be roughly 50% Battle / 22% Sports / 22% Paint / 6% Quiz + Bonus categories

The latest FAQ’s will be used if published prior to October 20, 2012
The latest Codex may be used if released prior to October 7, 2012
You will receive a bonus score for submitting your list by October 20, 2012

Conversely, Feasts of Blades has gotten all twisted and it wasn’t till after I played a few games using their missions that it really became clear.

Take a look at their mission packet.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwv4A2MZxWOnek5RY1FSNGdDcmM/edit

Confusing much?

Playing Warhammer 40k edition 5.5 wasn’t what I had in mind when 6th edition came out.

It is also battle points on crack with Win/Loss mixed for kicks. Trying too hard to be everything to everyone.

I get it though just like NovaOpen, Feasts of Blades got scared by 6th edition. They saw “imbalances” and had to make changes, but of course they made changes based on the old 5th edition meta and rules.

On the plus side, the Feasts of Blades Invitational separates soft scores which MechaniCon doesn’t.

After years of the “competitive scene” battling out for who is the most “balanced” and/or “hardcore” I thought it was about time players were ready for just playing the bloody damn rules as written!

Sadly, I was mistaken.

MechaniCon is the rare and should be praised for actually having the balls to just go with the rules!

I think one of the reasons for the divide between the larger events has a bit to do with ego and listening to the very vocal minority known as the 40k punditry.

They have somehow convinced the largest events that they must make some sort of “perfect system”, when the goal should be listening and playing to the vast majority of players –ones that live local and not stuck behind a monitor.

Then there is the part called ego, where each TO just has to out do the next one creating a never-ending cycle of who is my bigga.

It started with who can make the best system based on local meta and no real game development backgrounds. After that it progresses to, “Look I added this fluff event, see I care really, I do”, for Feasts of Blades they run a “Golden Age” event that mirrors Games Workshop GTs of old.

This ends up separating players and in the case of NovaOpen’s system can back fire when players drop after a few rounds of losing and having nothing to play for, but meaningless brackets.

I just don’t get what these TOs are so scared about?

They are the rules.

Rules that are new, so why would you want to throw on another layer, complete with house rules and house FAQs frosting.

Who cares if 6th is broken?

Trust me you cannot do better, besides the rules are universal and everyone will know them better than what you cooked up.

Play the book missions use W/D/L and compare with strength of schedule and be done, simple as that.

Another amazing thing about MechaniCon is the they are playing at 1500 points when Feasts of Blades is playing at the silly 1999 +1 . It has been long chronicled on this site how I feel about 1500 and smaller games in general. I could go on, but in general lower points bring out more skill and less reliance of weight of dice to determine outcomes, but that is only possible if you play straight out the book.

Enough bitching.

In the end, I plan on covering the results of both events.

If you want to know more about MechaniCon this Dakkadakka thread has the best info about it.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/437739.page

As for Feasts of Blades their website is a treasure trove of information.

http://www.feastofblades.com/

Feasts of Blades does have events for every type of player and overall is a bigger event. My critique is about the Invitation nothing more.

I am also pretty sure Feasts of Blades also has a Ustream for main event here is a link to that.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/feast-of-blades-top-table

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