Help For Heroes Charity 40k Tournament

 This past Saturday, a gathering was held to compete in a charity tournament to help raise money for Help for Heroes. Organised by Andrew Wells and the Mid Wales Wargaming Society, 16 participants too part in a Warhammer 40,000 tournament with some interesting limitations. 

600 points per player, 1 troops mandatory, 2 HQ, 4 Troop, 2 Elite, 2 Fast Attack and just one Heavy Spupport slots were available. No 2+ armour or invulnerable saves, no more than 2 wounds on a model either.

Set in St Marys church hall in Builth Wells, our battlegrounds were laid out ready. 

Before the tournament started, some videos were shown and a brief chat about the charity were held. A great cause and only fuelled us to enjoy the day more. 

My first game was against a great guy called Chris and his all Jetbike army. A hugely enjoyable game and incredibly close up until the final moments, when I just couldn't get any good dice rolls! Great guy to play against, had a heck of a laugh and really enjoyed playing against his list even though it was the one I was concerned about the most.

Good to see the players being incredibly thoughtful about their tactics!

Byron's Preatorians decline advancing in favour of standing and shooting. 

This is Tris. I have no idea what was going on here! Tris did well on the day, his Tau doing pretty good but I'll keep the final positions til later.

So Alun, the elfling, took Eldar. Surprise surprise!

Adam, the Gale. One of the events sponsers and general nice bloke. Apart from when he starts crackings out. Then its 'TAKE HIM AWAY!!!'

With 16 competitors and some onlookers there was a great atmosphere at the venue. People were competitive, yet incredibly friendly too and it suited the day.

My second game against Malcom's Eldar went horribly. I'm trying to forget this one! 

Alun took on Byron and his feared Wyverns, and was able to get the better of them.

At the tournement, a best army vote was held at lunchtime, and here are the armies. 

Those pesky Crow Vally boys and their welcoming thumbs up!

My third game, against another lovely bloke called Lee, who I shall forever remember as 'Teaboy'. Had a crackingly close game game against his Grey Knights losing 1-0, more bad dice rolls but again, so bloody close! 

Andrew inspecting players are behaving, his naughty corner was the most feared aspect of the tourney.

Not Adams Apple, a MANS APPLE!

Chris being told his army is about to be wiped out.

Tris looks awfully smug here, another opponent about to be pulverised by pulse rifles no doubt!

Please feel free to add your own captions! 

Alun winning a tshirt, by being the right size. His pose is so professional, admire the elf doing what he does best.

Byron also winning a tshirt by being the correct size, and then winning a dice-off against two others to take it home. I think he needs some tips from Alun when it comes to posing!

'I HAD A FRIEND CALLED LEE, AND HE MAAADE, ALL THE TEA!' Most annoying voice award!

Shaun looking please after passing wind, and winning best army award!

Best potential army award went to this Timelord called Sam.

Narrowingly beating me for the Wooden Spoon award is Chris, going for the Statue of Liberty look I think. 

And behold the top three! Alun finished 3rd, Tris to the right finished second, and Chris finished first with his Jetbike army! All worthy winners, and I'm a tad proud of Alun for representing the club!  Shown below is the final table.

In all a great day, even though I finished winless three of those games were incredibly close and could have gone either way, with all my opponents being great fun to play against and hopefully we'll have some rematches in the future. For me this was a fitting end to 6th edition, as 7th is right around the corner. So how much was raised? 

Andrew Wells, the organiser, wrote this yesterday "Drum roll please, we have managed to raise an impressive £143.07 in aid of Help for Heroes, I would also like to thank everybody that turned up today and made today such a success and would hope to see you all for next years."

So a great amount of money raised, and just from rolling dice and having a good time! Thanks must go to the tea and coffee ladies that kept many of the players fuelled over the day, Adam Gale and Paul Simpson who sponsered the event, the Mid Wales Wargaming Society and in particular, Andrew Wells for making it all happen. Lets see what next year brings as Andrew has said this will become and annual event! 

Six point Five or Seventh.

News broke yesterday, with images leaked from a future White Dwarf that the rumours were true. A new 40k rulebook is coming. Whether this means its an update or 7th has come early, I don't think it matters. Updated rules are there, and this is what we know so far. 

"The FoC chart is still in the new 40k edition and if you follow it you have what is known as a "Battle Forged" army. It awards (unlisted) bonuses for using the FoC.You can also take a unbound army, these allow you to take whatever you want from your collection and toss out the FoC (while still adhering to unit size and heeding the relationships described in the new Allies Matrix.

Another thing is objective cards, so the objectives of the game can change each turn. The deck will be 36 cards.

There is also a physic phase confirmed now. A pool of warp charge dice is created at the start of the psychic phase, equal to 1d6 + mastery lvl of psychers. You can use as many dice as you like, but increase risk of perils of the warp (which is now a table you roll on.) Enemy psychers can draw on warp charge pool to Deny the Witch and nulify powers.
Also Eternal warrior missions still exist but in addition there are 6 new Maelstrom of War Missions.

Additional information that a Battle Forged list can take as many detachments as they wish, and still get bonus's.. The Unbound lists, is very much whatever you want to throw in to do a battle, and you get to choose which you want to play, and your opponent can do the same."

There are also rumours of a Daemonology psychic table to choose powers from, but I'll leave that alone until I know more.

Psychic phase makes a return. For anyone who played 2nd edition, you'll remember the psychic phase. Here, cards were drawn and then used to fuel powers, much like in fantasy in those days. 40k then proceeded to go a different route, where psykers were used a little less and the way powers were used differed until where we are today. Now however, it'll be through using a pool of dice, again, like how Fantasy does things. When 6th edition came out, I remarked to a few people, and likely on here too that some of the changes made me think about 2nd ed. It seems this is happening again. As long as the psychic phase is streamlined but with enough depth to be interesting it'll be a nice addition.

Now the big topic. If your knickers have been twisted, you may not want to read further.

I absolutely love this move GW has made in that there are now battle forged and unbound lists. Battle Forged will be an army using the FOC, much like we know it today. Unbound, will be taking a list with no restrictions whatsoever. Sound familiar? Its like a small scale apocalypse game. Now, while many will cry foul at this and see people be rude with making OP lists, think about this.

Mamy times in White Dwarfs, in various columns over the years some of the luminaries of GW have always mentioned about adapting the rules as you see fit. You spend money on the rules, you can modify them. They've even encouraged people to make their own scenarios and themed armies, this going back as far as I can remember being in the hobby, which is 1994 (ish). What they've basically done, is instead of trying to encourage people to do this things, is made it 'legal' to do this. People are afraid of rules, 'they're written down so I can't break them or change them to have more fun with'. Why can't you? If you and your gaming group all get on well, speak to them about adapting things and changing it up, make scenarios where armies can take 8 heavy support slots but no fast attacks. Whats stopping you? Absolutely nothing now, thats for sure.

Many people see the competitive side of our hobby, and think thats all there is to it. I've always been a fan of mixing things up, one of my favourite battles was against Alun where we made a scenario up that I had to split my force into two and surround his Guard army who was harbouring a traitor commander. Did it favour one of us to win? Possibly, but I think Alun would agree that it was a great match and we both really enjoyed the little stories from it. My vanguard being gunned down by his infantry, blowing up a line of his tanks with terminators, a frantic last dash to catch his commander and bring him down for justice... I still remember them now! With the ability to make unbound lists we could go back and used much more themed armies. Perhaps Alun has nothing but tanks, and they're all waiting for orders. I can only take limited infantry and have to stealthily make my way in and take them by surprise using only a couple of sternguard squads perhaps. Its this freedom that will make 40 even more fun than it is, and I'm currently loving the game!

Whether or not this will apply in tourneys I don't know, and if it is then everyone still has the same 'restrictions' so its all still fair game. This is a bold but move by GW in its key franchise game, but I believe its a good one. Some miniatures will be hurt by this, units that don't do that well may see sales drop even more but other units may make more money due to being able to use many of them.

Its certainly an interesting time for 40k fans, and there'll be a lot more information coming soon as to what rules will be brought in, changed, and kept the same.