The Painting Bunkerc y

 

Hello everyone!

Its been ages since my last post and I’ve been anxiously wanting to put this post up for some time.  However due to life etc I’ve not had the time.

Let me assure you, it’ll be well worth your wait.  You’re all in for a very special treat today, the wash up of my 30k Horus Heresy comp that I ran at the beginning of March.  The Emperors Legions.

So a little bit of back ground.  I’ve wanted to run a comp for quite some time, however for many reasons I haven’t.  Mostly due to terrain.  Also, the main reason is I want to run an event.  As some of you reading this know, I’ve been playing 40k since 1st ed, waaaaayyyy back in the late 80’s, early 90’s.  Let me assure you when I say I’ve been to my fair share of comps.  I’ve seen it all, ‘con’ style comps, shop comps, stand alone comps, the list goes one.  Well one runs, and one that had plenty of room for improvement.

The one thing that I’ve always wanted though, is for a comp that also includes the hobby and fluff side of what we do.  Also one that caters for just guys wanting to get together and just enjoy the hobby, meeting new players and enjoying themselves.  The ‘comp’ side of things is really just an after thought.  I wanted the event to be really high quality.  An event where the scenery was 1st class, same with the venue, everyones armies were well painted and effort had been put into creating them.  I also wanted to create a bit of back ground to the event too and the games that would be fought.  ‘Forging a narrative’ if you will…

So thats what I did.  It took a lot of effort, let me tell you.  But the first time you try something new it generally does.

The basic format of the event that I programmed was

Two teams (traitors v loyalists), 5, 1000pt games of 30k.  2 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon.  The event was held in a hotel on the south side of Brisbane, the event was fully catered, with lots of prizes (I’ll get to that later) and at the end of the games, there was a 30k triva night.

The first step I took was set up a website for the event.  This doubled as the ticket purchasing portal, terrain brief host (more on that later) and registration and players pack location.  I did this because of my aim to make this event to distinguish it from other competition style tournaments available.  It was a massive learning experience making it, and in the unlikely event that Jen is reading this, thanks again for showing me the ropes on doing this.

My next thank you goes to the 10 brave and courageous  souls that parted with $139AUD of their hard earned to come along to a wargaming event format that had never been tried or tested before (that I’m aware of anyway).

Thanks guys, it was very humbling that you all had that belief in me and without your support the day would never have happened.  Below is a pic of those handsome devils who came along and from all accounts, had a great day.

As a thank you to everyone that came, I made (free of charge) a set of 30k Objective markers that were exclusive to the event.

Something that I wanted to try out for the attendees was to actually send them terrain briefs on the tables they’d be playing on.  I thought this would be an interesting twist on the usual format and also enabled me to incorporate rules that you wouldn’t normally see in a game (especially a tournament) due to the players just not having time to consider them before their game.  This just meant that the attendees would have exposure to more scope in the nature of the terrain they’d be playing over, rather than just the usual ruins, or hills and craters etc.  Yes its more complicated, however they had the time to consider how their army would best perform over the terrain etc.

For the five weeks leading upto the event, each Monday the attendees received an email with a link to the next terrain brief.  Below are the 5 tables that got used, along with a (now declassified) link to the brief.

 

Table # 1 Industrial Sector #8

Table #2 Industrial Sector #2

 

Table #3 Abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus Research Station 

Table #4 Adeptus Mechanicus Underground Laboratory

Table #5 Air Strip One

 

The big day arrives.  I’m as nervous as ten nervous things.  So below are some photos of the set up and the play.

The medals for ‘Lord of War'(Overall first place), ‘Magos Reductor’ (Best Painted Army), ‘High Remembrancer’ (Best Army List Presentation) and ‘The Mournival’ (The winning team of the trivia comp)

The calm before the stomp.  All the tables and admin areas set up and ready to go

Play under way

At the last minute I also had (donated) the five etched glass mugs that went to the winning team.  They were kindly donated by Dragonfly Engraving

Ok, so the moment you’ve all been waiting for.  The pics of the day.  Brace yourselves.

In case you cant tell the calibre of the armies present was exceptional.  The best I’ve ever scene at a tournament actually.  Here are the photos of each army, plus your opportunity to cast your ‘peoples choice’ vote

Army #1 – Traitor Mechanicus

Army #2 – Loyalist Blood Angels 

Army #3 – Traitor Death Guard

Army #4 – Loyalist Imperial Fists

Army #5 – Traitor Sons of Horus 

Army #6 – Loyalist Iron Hands

Army #7 – Loyalist Dark Angels

Army #8 – Traitor Emperors Children 

Army #9 – Loyalist Mechanicus 

You’ll notice that the 10th army is missing.  Thats because at the last minute I had a cancellation.  In the spirit of the event thought, the attendee who canceled donated their ticked.  Big respect to John M.   So the 10th player got to use my World Eaters.  You’ve all seen enough pics of them so I’ve spared you more…

Have you’re say on who you think has the best painted army.  I’ll announce the winner of the pole on Monday the 14th of April. The owner of the army will be notified and they’ll receive their next ticket to The Emperors Legions FREE.  So get voting!

So overall, the day was a huge success and everyone had a great time.  One or two players may have over indulged at the bar after the event (Danny I’m looking at you) however everyone had a great time and lots of good times were had.

So the results!

The Lord of War – M. Keep (Loyalist Mechanicus) – taking home a badass Fell Blade kit

Magos Reductor – M. Cantrell (Loyalist Imperial Fists) – taking home a Spartan kit

High Remembrancer – T. Coupland (Traitor Mechanicus) – taking home a Sicaran battle tank kit

The Mournival – The Loyalists – all taking home the Legion Praetors models

Battle competition winners  (hadn’t thought of a cool name) – The Traitors

 

Where to from now?  Well I plan on running this event again.  Not sure when though.  The format next time will be a doubles event with two teams of six players, two players to a team.  Three games and 2500pts over one or two FOC’s.  I may announce the date of the next event when I announce the winner of the peoples choice prize.

Well thats it folks, hope you’ve made it this far.  Thanks for dropping in.  It’s always a pleasure.

John Sutton