Fred Reed's response to recent comments on BoLS article

This past weekend an interview I wrote about Gabe Dobkin and his award winning Death Company army at BeakyCon2 aired over on Bells of the Lost Souls. Here is a link to the interview...

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2012/11/beakycon2-interview-with-gabe-dobkin.html#comment-713409606

An anonymous poster made a series of rude comments that Gabe did not paint either his Death Company army or his Cobra themed Imperial Guard army. The anonymous poster claimed that both armies are the work of Fred Reed, an award winning painter and former employee of Games Workshop, whom now resides in Florida.

I've known Gabe for a long time and these accusations did not ring true to me so I personally contacted Fred Reed to get to the bottom of this fiasco. Here is what Fred had to say in regards to whether or not he painted Gabe's Death Company army or Cobra themed Imperial Guard army:

Hi Steve
Gabe has also been a good friend of mine for 6+ years. We've been painting together since we met... have I helped him yes, have I taught him most of what he knows yes. As a result his techniques and results are very similiar to mine (not as good and it takes him much longer) but did I paint them for him... No. Anyone who doubts Gabe's ability should sit down with him and watch him work... they will see that he is a great painter and very capable.

Fred Reed

BeakyCon2 Interview with Gabe Dobkin - Best Army

This evening I have put together an interview with Gabe Dobkin who won the Player's Choice award this year taking the top spot for Best Army by a land slide. Gabe is no stranger to the podium and has won many awards at various GTs as both a general and painter. Last year Gabe won the award for Best Overall at NOVA with his beautiful and highly converted Cobra themed Imperial Guard army.

This year Gabe went 4W-2L with his beautiful Blood Angels Death Company army which was quite a feat seeing he only had one scoring unit and four out of six missions featured objectives as the primary win condition.

I met Gabe several years ago when I first moved to Florida at the Necronomicon GT in Orlando. He is a great guy and highly respected throughout the state. Gabe has a knack for developing very unique armies that do quite well in play and that is one of his traits I admire most! Gabe has been kind enough to share some pictures of his Death Company army with us... w00t !!

So let's go ahead and get started now that the introduction is over.

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Q1. My first question is what drew you to build this particular army and what was your inspiration?

A1. I am traditionally a xenos player and tend to be drawn away from so-called "cookie cutter" MEQ builds. I was a big fan of "Null Deployment" in 5th edition and have always enjoyed coming up with out of the ordinary builds and tactics. When I read the Blood Angels Codex, I was blown away by the variety of available themes within the army and intrigued by the potential of the Descent of Angels USR. It seemed like I could apply xenos tactics to an MEQ army. It felt like Eldar Marines!

As a painter, I loved the Sanguinary Guard models. After NOVA 2011, I set about feverishly assembling and painting a Dante led, "Null Deployment" DoA army of Sanguinary Guard and Assault Marines. When 6th Edition hit, I was nearly finished with the army only to discover it was no longer legal! At that point, NOVA 2012 was only a couple months out. I looked at the units I had painted and really had no idea what to do or which direction to go. I spent a couple weeks unsuccessfully trying to adapt the list and the units I had already painted into something viable for 6th edition. I had completed a Death Company squad with bolters and a Death Company Dreadnought both with Drop Pods as part of my DoA army (the only non DoA units in the list!).

A day or two after giving up on creating a 6th edition list for the Blood Angels, I just had an epiphany of swapping Dante for Astorath and bringing an all Death Company themed list.

I sort of stumbled into the idea as a last resort, but it really took off from there as I gained inspiration and motivation for the project. I also knew the points cost of jump pack equipped DC was so prohibitive that it would allow me to get up to 2k with a limited number of models, which is important as I paint slowly.

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Q2. Would you mind sharing your army list with us? Seeing that you have only one scoring unit what tactics and strategies do you employ to win objective based missions?

A2. The list I ran at BeakyCon 2 is listed below. As for tactics, I basically try to kill everything with a particular focus on opposing scoring units. I added the one assault squad, which I attach Astorath and the Sanguinary Priest to, in order to potentially hold one objective. If I can limit my opponent to one objective, I am now playing for KPs. DC Tycho embarked on the Stormraven was supposed to be a late game "ace-in-the-hole" denial unit.

Astorath the Grim
Death Company Tycho 

Sanguinary Priest - Jump Pack, Melta Bombs

Assault Squad (10) - 2x Melta Gun, Power Fist, Infernus Pistol 

Death Company Squad (9) - Jump Packs, Power Fist, Power Weapon
Chaplain Lemartes 

Death Company Squad (10) - Power Fist, Power Weapon, Infernus Pistol
Drop Pod 

Death Company Dreadnought- Blood Fists, Magna Grapple
Drop Pod - Searchlight 

Death Company Dreadnought - Blood Talons, Searchlight 

Stormraven - Twin-Linked Multi-melta, Hurricane Bolters, Searchlight

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Q3. What types of armies had you most worried? Did you face any of them and if so how did you go about fighting them?

A3. I hadn't actually gotten a single practice game in with the army prior to BeakyCon 2, so I think I was pretty worried about all opponents!!

If I had to choose one prior to the tournament, I would have to say Grey Knights are always going to be a threat to Blood Angels as they are basically just better equipped Marines. The biggest problem is any guise of flyer spam. With the exception of the Stormraven, my entire army basically has 12" range and nothing to hit zooming flyers or swooping monstrous creatures.

I did face an Ork/IG list that featured 3 Fighter Ace Waagh DakkaJets along with a pair of Vendettas and 36 Lootas. It was quite the game of cat and mouse as I basically spent the entire game hiding in ruins and trying to keep a few things alive. Amazingly, that worked like a charm and I was able to win objectives at the end! I also fought a Daemon Army with 4 flying monstrous creatures, which I just had no real answer to.

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Q4. What changes to your army would you make now after playing at BeakyCon2? Why would you make these changes?

A4. I think DC Tycho was not an optimal use of 175 points. As the Stormraven tends to eventually get shot down, Tycho has a 50/50 shot at being instant-deathed in the crash! Even when he lives, he ends up being well out of position to do anything. The Hurricane Bolters were not particularly useful for 30 points. I definitely think dropping those two things in exchange for a second Stormraven is going to be happening in the immediate future.

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Q5. Tell us about your favorite game and why you enjoyed it the most.

A5. I think my favorite game at BeakyCon 2 was against Chris Winans who had the above mentioned Ork/IG list that featured 3 DakkaJets along with a pair of Vendettas, 36 Lootas behind an Aegis Line, 2 mobs of 30 Shoota Boyz led by a BigMek, etc.

I literally looked at his army and thought that there was absolutely no way for me to beat it. I had nothing to deal with 5 flyers and not only did he out number me like 4 or 5 to 1, but he had massive amounts of ranged shooting. The mission was objectives and there were 4 on the table. The table was a city fight board featuring several large LoS blocking buildings.

This was the only game where I combat squaded the Assault Squad. My saving grace was rolling a "1" for the Warlord Trait Conqueror of Cities which gave my entire army stealth and move through cover in the ruins! I gave him first turn and stuck the combat squad of 5 normal assault marines in regular reserve. I spent the entire game literally cowering in ruins and attempting to deny him LoS to my units. I used my Drop Pod Death Company to box in his Shoota Boyz Mobz and keep them entertained. The Stormraven came in and dropped a DC Dread and Tycho in to the same area to keep those two gigantic units occupied and boxed in his deployment zone.

It was a pretty insane game! I didn't reveal my Jump Pack Lemartes-led Death Company unit until the bottom of turn 5. They were able to jump out and charge into his Loota brigades, killing many and contesting the objective in his deployment zone. On the bottom of the 6th turn, Astorath, the Priest, and the Sergeant of the other Assault Combat Squad (which was all that remained) were able to jump out and capture the objective in my deployment zone. The last 2 marines from the other combat squad then jumped out and captured an objective in no man's land. My Death Dread that had been delivered in hiding behind a large ruin in his Drop Pod earlier in the game was able to move out and destroy enough of the IG Vet Squad that was holding the final objective to give me the win 2-0!

It really was a thinking game, quite silly, and a very non-aggressive way to run psychopathic Death Company!

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Q6. What is your next 40k project you have planned?

A6. I am going to tweak the Death Company by adding the second Stormraven and maybe one or two other bits. I am also in the process of finishing up the new additions to my existing Necron army as an update of sorts. Both of these projects will be finished here in 2012. Next on the agenda is the giant stack of unopened Dark Eldar I have been hoarding since that codex released! 2013 will be the year of the Dark Eldar!

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Q7. How did you like the overall system and rules this year? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

A7. I really had a great series of games and I enjoyed BeakyCon 2. It was great having a large event here in Florida. My main suggestion for improvement would be posting the scores at the end of each round along with table assignments. It would keep the judges from having to walk around the room shouting them out, which was difficult to hear at times, and would also of course let players know how they are doing in the rankings.

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Q8. Feel free now to discuss anything you wish that I haven't covered above.

A8. I would like to drop a shameless plug in here that...

I am entertaining the idea of selling my Cobra-themed Imperial Guard army which has won quite a lot of awards and notoriety. In different iterations it has won Best Painted at the NOVA Open 2011, Coastal Assault 2012, and Best Army at the Necronomicon. These are all very large events.

The army is huge and far larger than the 2k army featured around the internet. This army is truly one of a kind and painted to the highest standard.

I do not want to part with it and will never undertake another project quite like it. Times are hard and if anyone out there may be interested, please contact me at:

jainzaar@comcast.net

I guarantee you will not be able to purchase an army of this quality on eBay. The attention to detail on every model is far superior to pro-painted armies on eBay that have asking prices of $3500 and up. My asking price is $5000 obo.

Thank you Battle Brother Steve!

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That's it for now. A big congratulations to Gabe !!

BeakyCon2 Interview with the Warmaster - Teddy Woody

This evening I have an interview with Teddy Woody who won the highly coveted Warmaster award this year taking the top spot as our Best General. There was a lot of great players this year and I watched as they knocked each other out of contention. The second day was very intense as each of the three final rounds passed by one slowly after another. I had thought Teddy was done on the first day after losing an extremely close match in the second round to another Necron player. As fate would have it Lady Luck decided to smile upon Teddy when the one last undefeated player lost in the last round. Teddy won Best General by the slimmest possible margin of a single bonus point... It was just that close.

I met Teddy several years ago when he came down from Georgia to play in a tournament I helped run in Sarasota, Florida. He is a very easy going guy and seems to get along well with everyone. Maybe one day he will figure out my last name is Turner... heh !!

So let's go ahead and get started now that the introduction is over.


___________________________________________________________________
Q1. My first question is what is your intent with the dark eldar army you won? I know some told me they were planning to sell it if they won it. Will you actually play any games with the army?

A1. I’m going to keep the Dark Eldar army, even though many other players would have sold it immediately. It’s a trophy, it not meant to be sold, its meant to be displayed, and played. I did play a game this week with my new Dark Eldar, had fun with it.

___________________________________________________________________
Q2. How did you go about developing your winning Necron army list? Did you have time to do a lot of playtesting?

A2. The developing of the army was basically watching and learning from other players’ mistakes. Nova was the best place for me to learn, a lot of Nercon’s players were bringing too many flyers on the board able to control the sky, but no troops on the ground. So, I needed to bring a balanced list, which was able to control the sky and the ground. The MVP of my list was Immotekh. His ability to control the night fight was a key element, and kept my units to survive and deny my opponents from shooting at me. To tell you the truth I didn’t play test this army at all.

___________________________________________________________________
Q3. What types of armies besides other Necron lists had you most worried? Did you face any of them and if so how did you go about beating them?

A3. I feared drop pod Sternguards….., but no one was playing them. The other army at the tournament I feared was blob squads of Orks, or even IG. I would have to focus all of my fire power into those units that could have up to 30 men per squad. The odd thing is that I didn’t play against any these type of army….I guess I was lucky.

___________________________________________________________________
Q4. I know there was a little bit of discontent from a few that the award did not go to an undefeated player - Other top players eventually knocked each other out of contention over the course of the final two games. How do you feel about winning the Warmaster award with a 5W-1L record and what were your thoughts on day 2 to stay focused on the top prize?

A4. Well, if you did the math at the beginning of tournament there could have been a 5-1 winner, due to the odd number. I believe that happen at Feast of Blades last year. I ask the TO, what was the battle points were going to use for. Got my answer… tie breakers [and Swiss pairings]. Going into the second day with a loss, I knew that I had to be on top of my game. This is year has been great for me as a 40k player. Able to get Best General in WarGamesCon in the RTT and then winning my first GT, that the achievement that every 40k players wants. This win was the icing on the cake.

___________________________________________________________________
Q5. Tell us about your second game versus the Necron player. Looking back now is there anything you could have done differently to have won that game?

A5. The player name was Kai and I tip my hat to him, he was the only player that was able to defeat me in the tournament. Would I have things differently? Why yes, I would have played with more reserve, rather than aggressively. Kai played a great game, it came to one objective, shot everything and there were only two troops left. I would have won if was able to wipeout his unit, but I didn’t. So at the end we have to go to third tie breaker, 9-7 close game, Kai wins.
___________________________________________________________________

Q6. Who was your favorite opponent? Please tell us why.

A6. My favorite opponent was on the last day, last game Necrons Vs. Necrons, Scott Hutchens. Scott looks at my list and stated “I played this army already.” He did, the other Necron player that placed third had a similar list….and he was only one that defeated him. It was like Scott knew what the outcome was going to be, before the game started. We both had Immotekh and laughed to see how long can we keep the night fight going and who would strike with Immotekh 's Lighting. I also stated that we should hire someone to play with the light switch…. just for the effect of night fight. It was a great game even though it was one sided. Scott - it was a great game, had a really great time.

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Q7. How did you like the overall system and rules this year? Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

A7. I like the rule that there was auto turn 6, this was key to my victory. The backup system, if we didn’t have an even number of players to get an undefeated player at the end of the tournament. I hope that next year, we will have a top player’s bracket, for players that do go undefeated in the first day and silver bracket for other players. Each bracket will have a prize, and you will have a true Warmaster at the end of day two.

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Q8. Feel free now to discuss anything you wish that I haven't covered above.

A8. Now there has been discussion on Dakka... Hulksmash and BloodofKitten about loaded dices. Look I don’t like drama and I’m too old for that shit. In any GT level tournament, you’re going to have players that are either asshole, rules lawyers, cheats, or just rage quit. I could talk about it, but I won’t. Steve Tuner and Matt ran a great tournament and I will attend BeakyCon3. This was my 4th tournament which Steve Tuner has hosted, never had a single problem from either TOs or from any players. I’m glad to see a GT here in the south. Y’alls did a great job, keep up with the great work and see y’alls next year.

This is BlackSunShine saying “Scouts Out'.

BeakyCon2 Round 4 Batrep - Tyranids vs Grey Knights-Imperial Guard

Here is a battle report from my good friend John who brought his Tyranids to BeakyCon2. I have played John a few times and every game has been quite epic going down to the last turn, some times even the last roll. I consider this one of the top matches, if not the top match, from BeakyCon2 this year. Unfortunately there are no pictures... Sorry !

John's Tyranid Army

Walking Hive Tyrant (#1) - Armored Shell, 2x Devourer, Old Adversary (Warlord)
1x Tyrant Guard
Warlord Trait: useless

Winged Hive Tyrant (#2) - 2x Devourer

3x Hive Guard
3x Hive Guard

2x Zoanthrope

10 x Gant
19x Gant
20x Gant

Tervigon (#1) - Toxin Sacs & Adrenal Glands
Tervigon (#2) - Toxin Sacs & Adrenal Glands
Tervigon (#3) - Toxin Sacs & Adrenal Glands, Crushing Claw

2x Biovore

Tyranid Psychic Powers
Tyrant #1 - Endurance & Enfeeble
Tyrant #2 - Iron Arm & Hemorrhage
Zoanthrope #1 -  Crush & Telekine Dome
Zoanthrope #2-  Telekine Dome & Shockwave
Tervigon #1 -  Endurance, Warp Speed & Enfeeble
Tervigon #2 - Iron Arm, Life Leech & Enfeeble
Tervigon #3 - Iron Arm, Warp Speed & Life Leech

Updated 10/19 - Discussion on the topic of loaded dice at BeakyCon2

First I want to say that this news has been public since October 7, which was the second day of the Grand Tournament. You can find relevant discussion here...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/480973.page;jsessionid=DD5E0B3E68A13FF4F8B9025EC31205C9

Some have claimed we tried to sweep this under the proverbial carpet which is not true. In fact I posted a link to article on Tasty Taste's blog over on the Wrecking Crew forums as soon as I saw it.

I want everyone to know that we the TOs of BeakyCon take the subject of cheating very serious. Some have said that simply assigning an automatic loss and disqualifying the player from winning any awards was not strict enough. Maybe that's true but I'd like you to know there will be lasting ramifications set in place next year that we have discussed with the player who was cheated.

In general I'm very strict as a TO - for example this year all army lists had to be submitted ahead of time for review and those that sent theirs late were docked battle points as a penalty - which turned out to be important since the award for best general had to be decided by the margin of victory. Note that we did this mainly since 6th edition is very new and we wanted to make sure we didn't run into any problems with illegal army lists for any reason and this was successful to the best of my knowledge.

As a TO there is a myriad of checks and balances that can be implemented to prevent cheating. Some have suggested that dice should be provided for everyone who attends. While that sounds good in theory and might be practical I can say I have never attended any major event that did so and I have played around the country for well over the past decade. Further on this particular subject I saw this posted online elsewhere by my good friend Thomas Reidy (aka Goatboy):

"I have always thought dice should be provided - but then there are issues with custom tournament dice as well. I think they should buy just a tub of dice - give everyone 20 and just call it a day. Hell I use cheap as hell dice I bought in Vegas. They are easy to read and look decent. 12 for a buck - and they come in all sorts of colors. 

"Either way - it is ass to cheat with dice in any event - especially one your opponent might have shelled out a ton of cash to play in. If I caught it I would be making all sorts of hell because well - it isn't cool to waste people's time and energy for whatever needs you have to win. It is just a game."

I am very interested to see if in the near future and over the next year if other TOs provide players with dice. Note that to prevent someone from tampering with tournament dice it would be necessary to collect them all at the end of the first day then hand them out again at the start of the second day. Remember that all it takes to cheat is one cooked dice so there is more to it than meets the eye at a first glance.

Here is what Nick Rose (aka Darkwynn) had to say in regards to TOs providing dice:

"It's too... expensive to provide dice on a grand scale. People need to get over it and move on. It's better to take the risk and make it too high for a person to cheat. If the risk is too high people will have to reduce amount. No reason for extremes to be put back on the business or the TO. These things are already run on a low bottom line and this breaks the bank."

By the way both Thomas and Nick are TOs for WarGamesCon.

Some have said in the past that I'm too strict and this was the subject of much discussion a couple of years ago. This year if we had elected to eject the player found with the loaded dice in all likelihood his two friends that came with him from Miami would most likely have had to leave as well if he decided to go home the first day and that was a concern for me. I probably should have been more strict.

Here is a sales blurb from an ad on the Internet that sells these loaded dice:

This is a set of three loaded six-sided dice weighted to roll sixes, specifically designed for rolling up 18 stats for your D&D characters. Let's be clear here: when you use these dice to roll a D&D or Pathfinder character, you are cheating. Blatantly and flagrantly. There is no excuse for this, except possibly if your GM is evil and cheats as well, killing off characters unfairly, and using these loaded dice is just the next step in the escalation that will inevitably lead to rage-fueled table flipping, dice throwing, and eventual man-hugging as you become cool with each other again.* 

These are standard-sized black six-sided dice with silver pips for numbering. They are numbered normally, but are weighted so that they're more likely to roll six. They won't always roll six, but are far more likely to. In general the longer they roll, the more likely they are to land on six -- after a short drop they'll land mostly on whatever face is up, but after a nice long roll they'll usually come up all sixes. If you want to be extra sneaky you can mix one or two of these in with some other dice, just to slightly edge things in your favor without being super blatant about it.** 

With a little bit of practice you can pretty frequently get a natural 18 on a roll of the three. The dice will easiy pass casual examination, but anyone who picks them up or rolls them a bunch will pretty quickly realize that they just about always roll sixes.**

They sell these dice clearly to make money and at first they tell you not to cheat but then they say it's okay in certain situations (*)... That's a load of total bull shit. They also provide some tips how not to get caught (**)... LOL that really takes some balls.

Finally some have said the player who had the loaded dice should have his name made known publicly which I have and will refrain from doing. I have seen his name mentioned elsewhere and I imagine it is easy enough to find if you know how to use an Internet search engine. I hope he has learned a lesson - he is banned from play in the future.

Note (as of 10/19) that upon further investigation into this matter I was informed by his first round opponent as follows...

"However one thing made it not fun in my first game, the guy... who was using loaded dice and got caught in game 3. I caught him on it the beginning of turn 2 in Game 1 and he just stopped using it, so I was like, OK I guess.

"He used it for many things in the first couple turns, especially cover saves from my Manticore blasts on his parking lot of Land Raiders and vehicles. 

[So] I was wrong and should have reported him to the judges right away, I apologize to the Game 3 player he got."

BeakyCon2 Final Report

Another year has gone by and the results are finally in again...

Warmaster - Teddy Woody, Necrons (Best General)
Emperor's Champion - Alex Simon, Grey Knights w. Imperial Guard allies (2nd Best General)
Honorable Mention - Remy Colins, Necrons (3rd Best General)

Player's Choice - Gabe Dobkins, Blood Angels
Best Army - Scott Hutchens, Necrons w. Chaos Space Marine allies

The Grand Tournament was held again at the Marriott in the Tampa international airport here in sunny Florida. Some flew into the airport and never had to step outside which I think is pretty cool. We had 64 players originally signed up with six rounds over the course of two days (three rounds per day) but had a couple drop right before the weekend. As fate would have it there was one undefeated player going into the final round but he lost his last game so we ended up with six players accumulating 5W-1L records. Bonus points were used to determine the final ranking (total aggregate of kill points, objectives held, First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker summed from all six rounds).

Next year we are planning to increase the player base up to 96 with two final brackets to ensure we end up with one undefeated player. It's ironic how it ended as so often there is a lot of heated debate on the Internet regarding whether a pure win-loss system or margin of victory (MoV) is the better system to determine who is actually the best general. We had planned on using total bonus points as a tie breaker to cover the case of such a contingency so in the end everything worked out quite smoothly. The irony is that it turned MoV was used to determine the top player... Advocates of MoV so often claim that this system allows any player to lose one game while still having a shot at grabbing the top spot which turned out to be the case.

It's obvious from the results that Necron flyer spam is one of the top (if not the top) armies in the current meta. Necron flyer based armies are highly mobile and can pour out a lot of high strength (S7+) fire power. They also have excellent dedicated melee units in the form of Canoptek Wraiths and Scarabs coupled with either Overlords or Destroyer Lords sweeping through the field. The two Necron armies that finished in the top three to eventually climb their way back to the top both featured lots of flyers and obviously racked up lots and lots of bonus points. Also note that the top Necron army suffered its one loss to another Necron flyer based army and that game came down to a very close hard fought tie breaker on the tertiary win condition.

There was only one Grey Knight army in the top three (taking second best general) and it was quite an interesting list featuring lots of Grey Knight fire power coupled with Imperial Guard as its ally. Note that this army did not feature any flyers. This player suffered its one loss to one of our youngest players (John Lennon) fielding Tyranids which eventually ended up knocking the Grey Knight player out of contention for the top spot which was also quite ironic in its own way.

There were some other exotic lists such as Marc Parker's ork horde army which did quite well along the way until finally losing to the same Tyranid player mentioned above. Another army I think worth mentioning that did well was Kenny Boucher's (Next Level Painting) daemon army that only had one one flying monstrous creature (Fateweaver of course) and lots of Flamers and Screamers. This army also did quite well until finally losing to the Grey Knight army mentioned above.

Top 2 Army Lists
Here are the top two army lists:

Necrons (1994)
Imotekh the Stormlord
Harbinger of Eternity - Chronometron
7x Warrior - Nightscythe
7x Warrior - Nightscythe
7x Warrior - Nightscythe
6x Warrior - Nightscythe
Doomscythe
6x Canoptek Wraith - 3x Whip Coil
6x Canoptek Wraith - 3x Whip Coil
3x Canoptek Scarab
3x Canoptek Spyder - Gloom Prism
3x Canoptek Spyder - Gloom Prism

Note - I played a pick up game during the Friday evening preceding the GT versus this army with the professionally painted dark eldar army (by Next Level Painting) we gave away as the top prize playing an objective based mission and was crushed. It really brought home to me just how powerful are Necron flyer based armies as I could do nothing but play run and hide most of the game while the Stormlord's lighting continued to rock my puny xenos world over the course of the majority of the game. I was playing a fun raider based army with two Voidravens, Reaver jetbikes plus Vect and Drazhar leading a small squad of Incubi mounted in a Venom. Necrons in general are very resilient and their flyers can easily match the speed of dark eldar... It proved to be too tough of a match up for my dark eldar and I don't think I would fared any better in a kill point or table quarters based mission. Drazhar and his Incubi did manage to shred one squad of Canoptek Wraiths (in melee obviously) - that was the one highlight of the game for me. Oh well you can't win 'em all. I'm happy to see the dark eldar go to someone who will enjoy playing the army. I'd be hard pressed to think of any major event that handed out a better prize - this one came with two carrying cases from Sabol along with the codex. : )

Grey Knights Allied Imperial Guard Fusion (1999)
- Primary Detachment -
Coteaz
4x Jokaero - Chimera w/Searchlight
3x Acolyte Henchmen - 2x plasmagun - Chimera w. Searchlight
10x Grey Knight - 2x Psycannons, Daemonhammer - Psyback
Vindicare Assassin
Psyfleman
Psyfleman
Nemesis Dreadknight - Heavy Incinerator

- Allies -
Company Command Squad - 3x plasmagun, Officer of the Fleet - Chimera
Infantry Platoon:
- Platoon Command
- 2x Infantry Squad (naked)
- 4x Heavy Weapon Squads -3x autocannons each
Manticore

This was another interesting army as well and generates lots of fire power. I didn't get to watch its demise to the Hive Mind and I'm sure that must have been a very intense game.

So there you have it... Another year has gone by and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

BeakyCon2 Final Results

Warmaster - Teddy Woody, Necrons (Best General)
Emperor's Champion - Alex Simons, Grey Knights (2nd Best General)
Honorable Mention - Remy Colins, Necrons (3rd Best General)

Player's Choice - Gabe Dobkins, Blood Angels
Best Army - Scott Hutchens, Necrons

Note that we had a few players drop right before the event and ended up with six players who finished with 5-1 records. Bonus points were used to determine the final ranking.

I have some more pictures to post and will write a full tournament report this week. Thanks to everyone who came out and all the fantastic support !!

BeakyCon - Round 2 Begins

Here is a shot of Aaron Hagney's Nemesis Dreadknight...

And now for some shots of Gabe Dobkin's amazing Death Company army...

BeakyCon2 - Some Shots from 1st Round

Marc Parker sheds a tear after watching his ole Warboss spawned.

Teddy Woody's Necrons on a roll.

Kenny Boucher's beautiful daemon army.

Beaky World

BeakyCon2 Army Count

- Grey Knights -
Aggro, Ian Beard, Thomas Burton, Wes Chamblee, Scott Lester, Ryan Marsh, Zachary McLeod, Carlos Morales, Benjamin Polmear
(9)

- Necrons -
Remy Colin, Scott Hutchens, Alberto Narvaez, Kris Prusac, Craig Sniffen, Kai Sterling, Robert Stevenson, Kurt Williams, Teddy Woody
(9)

- Chaos Daemons -
Chris Anderson, Kenny Boucher, Aaron Hagney, Nathan Maurer, Jason Sniffen
(5)

- Imperial Guard -
Adam Alessandrini, Blake, Sam Durbin, Blake Gerber, Cameron Zareie
(5)

- Space Marines -
Rob Carr, Robert Paredes, Manuel Ugarte, Cesar Vasquez, Clark Welch
(5)

- Space Wolves -
Rich Banks, Carter Leach, Ray Ortega, Brian Poole, Joseph Sledge
(5)

- Chaos Space Marines -
John Kocenko, Justin McCord, Brandon McSween
(3)

- Dark Angels -
Alex Aguila, John Hopkins, Curt Oliveira
(3)

- Tyranids -
John Lennon, Phillip Morales, Heather Runyan
(3)

- Blood Angels -
Gabe Dobkins, Nick Maxwell
(2)

- Dark Eldar -
Ryan Kirby, Bruce Merker
(2)

- Eldar -
Mason Martindale, Devin Schafer
(2)

- Orks -
Marc Parker, Chris Winans
(2)

- Sisters of Battle -
Jason Driver, Jake Harai
(2)

- Tau -
Luis Alcala, Norse Hutchens
(2)

BeakyCon2 Hall of Fame

Last year Brad Bitler went 6-0 to close out the silver bracket and take home the award for Emperor's Champion. Unfortunately Brad won't be able to return again this year due to having to attend his brother's marriage. He will be missed by all.

Blake (Alan Blakesborough) took home the award for Warmaster to close out the golden bracket and will be back again this year to defend his grand title... Blake has some stiff competition this year indeed.

Brian Poole will return and was the first runner up last year in the golden bracket.

Marc Parker will be attending this year for the first time and has won many GTs during his illustrious career.

Kenny Boucher of Next Level Painting will also be attending for the first time this year. Kenny was part of the team that won the prestigious Adepticon Team Tournament two years ago in Chicago and is also a member of the team that won the national ATC championship two years straight now.

Gabe Dobkins who won the NOVA best overall award last year will be playing this year. There are also several other players such as Devin Schafer and Craig Sniffen who placed high at NOVA this year who will attending as well.

There is some awesome local talent that will be there this year such as Clark Welch (Ard Boyz champion), Aggro and returning John Lennon.

There plenty of great players attending this year - too many to mention them all. We hope that everyone attending has a great time. Our goal is simply to make BeakyCon a top event ranking right up there with the likes of Adepticon, Feast of Blades, NOVA and WarGamesCon. Your support is so important to realize this goal and we appreciate that very much. We want BeakyCon2 to be the most fair and competitive event in the country. It's certainly a high goal and we think it's in reach. This year we've expanded the number of players to 64 - there will be six rounds to produce one undefeated player at the end and that's very exciting. That means there will be more tables and a lot more fantastic terrain as well. Each mission has been thoroughly play tested... They do not favor any particular type of army. Everyone has a chance to win each game.

This year we will have three judges - myself (BBF), Matt Douthat (head judge) and Hsrold Cowan. We have no favorite players either. Each and every army list has been thoroughly reviewed to make sure they are legal.

See you all soon !!

w00t !!!

Beaky Dice

Designing the Perfect Tournament

First I want to say how ironic I find the 40kWC banner floating on top of the peaceful image of a green environment. For some people peace is war - that is when they feel the most comfortable. Heh!

I want to discuss how BeakyCon2 was designed. It is and will not be perfect but I think that is what we should strive for however we as individuals perceive that to be. First and foremost we want the tournament to be as competitive as possible but also as just as fair. I personally believe in doing as much research as possible. We can learn from others successes and mistakes. I like to use WarGamesCon and Feast of Blades as my models for success - I really like what they are doing. :D

The national tournament scene has changed a lot over the past five years with a shift away from comp heavy soft scores to a more competitive environment. I still am a firm believer in the hobby aspect of the game and that is truly the heart of the game. Beautiful armies with an awesome theme should be rewarded. As a TO I find the competitive element the most thrilling. NOVA did a lot to promote the competitive element and shift tournaments in that direction - I respect that very much.

It takes a lot of planning, which is part of the preparation, to do a great job. You have to assemble a great team of individuals with many skills - fellow judges and awesome terrain builders are part of that equation. Everyone involved should have a lot of enthusiasm and be totally committed. Execution is the other part that is so important but the planning is what can make things run smoothly. You have to be totally focused.

I like to be as fair as possible. I will play games with participants to help them test their army list but I am not going to design their armies for them. Playtesting the missions using a wide variety of different armies is part of the preparation. This allows you to fine tune your missions so that everyone has an equal chance. The worst missions are those that heavily favor a certain type of army. I think you should provide enough information ahead of time so that everyone playing has the opportunity to be well prepared as well. For the most part no one likes surprises. Randomness and silly objectives are two things I try my best to avoid.

I also believe in making myself accessible to everyone involved. You should take a professional approach to running a large event if you want it to be very successful. It is the things that go wrong for whatever reason that will bite you in the arse and come back to haunt you. Being as fair as possible to everyone helps to minimize those kinds of errors. Your goal should be to not make any mistakes in any regard and that is part of the reason why taking a professional stance can be such a great thing.

The more you do the same thing the better you should become in practice but at the same time I also believe in some variance. Changes to how the missions work and your scoring system keeps it fresh and interesting for everyone. I focus on what I know well and stay away from things I know little about in actual practice... as one example I am not a fan of home brewed FAQs. I think in general GW has done a fantastic job with the release of 6th edition and they have stayed on top of things with their most recent errata and FAQs. Please note that I will answer any questions that come my way in regards to the rules and sometimes it can take a lot of work to provide the best answer.

I am also not a big fan of the inclusion of Forgeworld - it might be my own short coming but I find it hard to keep track of all their rules. I think on the other hand most of the dedicated players are quite knowledgeable in regards to the existing codices - they are easily accessible and don't tend to change much over time. Forgeworld on the other hand is spread amongst many books... As a TO it would be quite time consuming to exhaustively be familiar with every single Forgeworld unit. In my opinion there is place for Forgeworld and that is in a specialized type of tournament that specifically caters to this element. I think Adepticon has done a great job overall in that regard and I proverbially tip my hat to them.

We are working hard.

Army lists still needed-Ryan Marsh

One army lists was lost in the shuffle... please resend !!

Thanks !!!

BeakyCon2 Google Docs Open to Public Now !!

Sorry about that !

:  )

BeakyCon2 Rules & Sample Missions

BeakyCon2 Google Docs

Here is a link where you can download and view the rules and two sample missions for the GT via Google Docs. You don't have to create a membership to view these files.  :  )

BeakyCon2 Rules & Sample Missions

The rules document will explain in detail how each mission will work. The sample missions will give you a good idea how objective based missions work but note there may some differences to the actual missions. This will allow you to play some games to prepare for the GT.

Let me know if you have any questions or have comments you'd like to share.

BeakyCon2 - Shiver me Timbers... Itz duh Orky Cruiser !!

This is some of the awesome terrain you'll be playing on this year courtesy of Chris Winans !!