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View Full Version : review of thrown of skulls 40k jan 2011



davel
01-30-2011, 03:40 AM
Hi

for a long time i have been attending the grand tournament in nov. I would not put my down as a power gamer how ever I have been raising my painting game over last 3 years so am well practiced with my force. I tend to be the sort of gamer that ends up mid to lower tables having fun but never going through to final ( though finals are now defunked) i tend to roll 1's at wrong moments. Thats why I paint well.

booking ticket = big negative

Nov sold out in 3 hours. tickets sold on MON? my mate has to book time of of, I can't do that. Jan tickets the computer system crashed for 2 days? this may be a one off but not good.

fri registration = plus

my mate registered friday. Though I could not get there in time the queues on sat were non existent

hall lay out = plus

tables aer in rows width wise not length wise this reduces the amount of dodging around fellow gamers.

random tables =mixed blessing

no longer is waiting out side early on and dashing in to scoop table 1 an option ( yes I'm guilty of this). according to ref the tables work like this1st day it's all random 2nd day there are 2 groups upper ( 2 or more wins) and lower, with in groups random draws.
It's no good looking around the hall to work out how well you are doing, it does keep some suspense. it depends if you like suspense.

placings list =mixied blessing

again this is the suspense thing. only names tick no and table are printed so you can't work out how you are doing.

scoring system = seems to do what it was intended

the vote system kept power gaming and argumentative players to a min. though I'm not so hot on BA and SW spam I only spotted 1 army I'd describe as cheesy. I heard from my opponents that 1 person that he played was difficult/ argumentative.

of my games 3 were great (2wins and a draw)
1 was not doe to my opponent just having drawn wrong mission against wrong army.
1 was that in reverse i picked wrong stratergy and my dice came up 1 all at the wrong times
these opponents were also sound players.

It was when I revealed to the player I had nominated as my best opponent that he revealed that HE HAD FORGOT TO VOTE.

Looking at the scores the biggest factor in tournie success is winning. How ever for 3 races SW, DE, and BAthe top general did not win as many games as other players ( of their race) so it can matter.

My self I got one vote, and my army got nominated as best painted. I think most players logic is that there are separate prizes for painting.
most players got 1 vote, an ork player got 4 so I'm interpreting that as being most fun to play.

the compete against own army meant we saw some necrons and tau. SM had a hard time being most numerous, added with their variant lists made up a 3rd of the forces present.

NEWs from the front = plus

this is were tales of lone guards men stabbing to death hive tyrants appear. my mate dark crozius appeared here a fair bit and yes there were awards given. a nice touch.

painting =mixed blessing

Ok for 3 years I have been trying to get nominated and it finally payed off. Now instead of laying out army on a table you have to place them in a display cabinet.
If you have done a large basing board you can forget it ( although it may help in the spotting your army after game 1) it can be tricky to get your army in and out and have time to eat.
how ever the lighting makes them look great.
the winner/ 2nd place a heavily converted historic daemon hunters ( well looked like one but was probably using a marine dex) army with all models with non metalic/ metal paint and a heavily converted plague marine force.

army list prize = Plus
of course I'm going to say plus, I won it. Though the staff really weren't expecting any one to go to the lengths i did. be warned i have another Idea brewing.

5 game in to days =mixed blessing

they probably have had many complaints from police after car accidents on the sunday. for those who have a long drive It is probably a good thing for those who live nearer a bad thing.

40k quiz = Plus

This replaces the GEN knowledge quiz on Sat night ( has no bearing on results of tournie) at first I though too easy but the devious guess the special chariter round was genius

accoustics = negative

listening for announcements was suffered the british rail effect.

And now the killyness of armies average points for winning games not best army votes. Any discrepancies from official data is due to human ( me) error.

1 witch hunters 10 ( 1 player)
2 chaos deamons 9.6 9 (3 players)
3 Imp guard 9.25 (8 players)
4 SW 8.9 (14 players)
5 BA 8.2 (13 players)
6 DE 7.9 (10 players)
7 orks 7.75 (8 players)
8 eldar 7.7 ( 10 players)
9 tyranids 7.4 (9 players)
10 csm 6.5 (8 players)
10 SM 6.5 (27 players)
11 necrons 5.5 (4 players)
12 Tau 5.2 ( 5 players)
13 dark angels 3.2 ( 2 players)
14 deamon hunters2 ( 1 player)

my tournie

3 wins 1 draw 1 loss, best army nomination and best army list and it was fun against some good opponents.

dave l

isotope99
01-30-2011, 05:09 AM
Thanks for the review. I think that army list is up on the GW site, it's "frickin' ridonculous".:eek:

This is the one right?

Whilst we are on the subject of GW's review, why post picture of the gamers and not their armies for the best painted award, they must take photos?

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1640597a_WHW_tos_40k_winter_2011_the_army_list_87 3x627.jpg

Overall it sounds pretty good, they seem to have added a bit more flavour since November. I still think fluffy prizes should stay separate, but if it moderates lists that aren't fun to play against, maybe it works.

I missed out on the January ticket, sold out before I even realised it existed, but am lined up for April. Not even going to try and compete on the army list front, but I'm hoping for another best painted nomination. Not keen on having to cluster round display cabinets to look at the armies but it should make it a bit fairer, I remember there being 3 tables that were off to one side that people never saw although now there will probably be grumbles over how gets the shelf at eye level. ;)

Brass Scorpion
01-30-2011, 10:24 AM
review of thrown of skulls 40k jan 2011 Um, it's not "thrown of skulls", it's "throne of skulls" as in a throne made of skulls.

davel
01-30-2011, 10:42 AM
Um, it's not "thrown of skulls", it's "throne of skulls" as in a throne made of skulls.

Yes that's my list and yes I'm dyslexic

dave l

Denzark
02-04-2011, 05:14 AM
I am muchly vexed by the fact that a player in any given race can win more overall games than any other player of that race but not win supreme player of the race when someone else gets points for most sporting and then best army list.

Its a tournament not an arts and craft competition - whilst I respect players with the time to do this a tournament should be based on wins.

davel
02-05-2011, 01:57 AM
One thing occurred to me. Dark eldar have the best chance of winning overal general

before any one gets power gamer ideas let me explain.

dark eldar are either win big or lose big. as long as you consistently win there will be players brining your army scores well down.

consistently winning may of course is the tricky part.
a dark eldar player may win as many games as say imperial guard, but if guard have a better average then the DE general comes out on top.

first tournie 2 DE players 1 wins overall general ( from what was reported)
the tournie i went to dark eldar (interms of beating their own average) came 3rd

Space marines oddly also fall into this catagory. The tournament had a third of players playing them or other marine based chapters.
bottom line your tournie army has to deal with marines. This factor i think kept their overall score low and there fore for generals that can win lots with them a high margin.

so to sum up not only does the best general have to win many games, but do it with a race that is difficult to win with.

dave l