Drkmorals here, Monger subtly dropped the guilt trip about the neglect of the front page.. So I plan to drop in and spill some letters then smear them around on the front page a bit more often. So let's chatty a moment shall we?
So I spent all this time getting my army up to a tabletop standard through the week without any issues, only to have a family issue come up and have to cancel my trip to the INDYOPEN... complete bummer. I was busy all weekend and I didn't even get to try and hit up the Local CincyCon event since I missed Indy... OH well.. sometimes life happens. However let's talk about the events a bit and let's take a look at the Bay Area Open as well.
The Back 40k guys through what appeared to be a fantastic event and improved on every area of last years. I haven't spoken to anyone or read anything that wasn't positive about this even yet. So looks like I really missed out and big Congrats to Aaron/Spag, and the Back 40k crew for putting on a fantastic event!! The event looks to be dominated by Crons and CSM's a trend I have seen locally in my area too.
I believe they said top tables ended up being
first place CSM/NEC with 3 flyers and a hell drake
second place NECRONS with 2 flyers
third place CSM with hell drake
fourth place NECRONS with 6 flyers and a hell drake
fifth place GK
sixth place NECRONS with 6 flyers and a hell drake
seventh place IG/SW with 2 flyers
eighth place SW with all wolves and no scoring units. Very interesting
Locally this is very much the same style thing going on, CincyCon ran a 40k event called CAG which I think had around 30ish people show up..
1st place ended up being Crons with CSM allies. ran by Dan, I believe I posted about this list before. I played against him at a local RTT and had a great game. He's a great guy, and the list is brutal and walks over you if your not ready for it. If your reading this Dan I still want a rematch. =P
2nd place Grey Knights
3rd place fellow Martial Law Member Monger and his Crons.
So again Crons and CSM have been doing very well locally just like at INDYOPEN it appears. With a few GK players still hanging in there including myself when I actually get to play. Crons have been a codex that reminds me of orks because I have heard several people say that it isn't overly great but honestly it has been doing well for some time. Wraiths are still solid enough , plus Crons continue to dominate the air, and bring a decent troop option or two while doing it. A-barges are amazing for points let's not lie, although I seem to see scarabs less and less.
On another random thought, Cincycon and INDY seem pretty close together to be happening on the same weekend. I can't help that feel these guys would get together and slide one event so they are a week or two apart that both events might get more players. Perhaps? Perhaps not I am not in the running large events circle to know if this is a statistical fact, although since I originally mentioned this Aaron from Indy is going reach out to the CincyCon guys and see about discussion options of different dates in the future. Fingers crossed as having two great events to attend in one month is great for the local area.
So I wanted to mention the Bay Area open results.
What I am talking about is Forgeworld. The inclusion of Forgeworld basically changes the meta in a major way and really balances or crushes flyers depending on your opinion of the matter. CSM and Crons did not dominate the event or even show up in full force compared to most other events. The top two players ended up being Alan from Chicago a good friend of a friend and a guy I have met a few times. (Shout out to Alan if your reading this congrats on doing well.) He took a IG/SW list that really focused on the meta and the forgeworld allowed to be taken. His full list and a write up can be found here. His list really took advantage of the interceptor and skyfire rules taking flyers out of the equation in his match ups. His only loss was to the over all winner of the Event
Elizabeth Foster who took a very cool underwater themed Demon army. Her army pictures can be found on Facebook she provided a link on the BOLS article about BAO. So these are a few of her pictures copyright to her and all that. (Don't sue me girl =P ) I just wanted to show her fun theme and as a old school Dragon QUEST player jelly horrors are COOL and I wish I had thought of that.
The Mermaids are flamers in the list, and she took a mono Zinch build that didn't abuse flamers and screamers but took enough to get the job done.
The real take away here for me is first off the jelly horrors again really cool, but the meta seemed to shift because with Forgeworld you really take away alot of the flyer dominance. Helldrake isn't so tough when skyfire is easily passed out to everyone. The flyer rules is what really makes that thing durable and shine. Just like the rules for transports made Razors so good last edition. So its interesting because there is a very big possibility that as skyfire and antiflyer units become more available we will easily see Crons and CSM loose ground on the tourney Scene, or are the books diverse enough to shift to another build and still hang with the tourney crowd? I think both are very decent books and they won't vanish any time soon, but the flyers are what really make the shine right now there is no arguing that point.
I leave you guys today with those thoughts and Ms Foster rocking the first BELT trophy from a 40k event. Another cool concept I wouldn't mind seeing more events do.
