At last it has happened.

Sydney is getting a premier hobbyist event!

And we are creating an event to decide the "Australasian High Lord of Terra" (which might be called a "40K champion" (or should that be chumpion )) of the entire Australia/NZ region! Not half ambitious, are we?

After the dissappointment of this year's GT, added to the lack of a KF in Sydney, with fond memories of earlier Sydney GTs that attracted hobbyists from all over, quite a few of us have been beavering away in secret to rectify this lack. Now we're ready to announce, and get this ball rolling! This isn't just a Cryx special, although I shall be your head TO on the day, it's a group effort including input from many of Sydney's, and Australia's, top hobbyists. Especially Sydney's, at least, so far!

So what is "Lords of Terra"?

It's a 40K tournament to try and determine Australia and NZ's top hobbyist! To put Sydney back on the map in terms of premier 40K Hobby events!
In the absence of a Sydney GT this year, it also seeks to provide a premier hobbyist event for the NSW 40K gaming community.

Lords of Terra quick summary:
When: 28/29th June 2008. 9 am start. 5 round format (allows for earlier finish on Sunday for travel).
Where: North Sydney, NSW
Cost: $50 (unless we can make it cheaper)
Comp: 2000pt legal army with decent core that is fun to play against: Army comp simplified to peer. Asking players to be a bit more critical than usual because this should be the cream of the top, many of these armies are going to be excellent, so we need to differntiate. Sports will also be peer, probably checklist of 5 + rating out of 5 or similar.
Scoring: 50% Battle, 20% Painting & Modelling, 20% Army Composition, and 10% Sports.

Format: Run as a single event, both invitees and Open draw players vie in the usual Swiss-round format. Invitees are eligible for seperate awards (which will hopefully all be trophies of some description) as well as contesting the overall tournament placings. In the first round and as much as possible in rounds 1,2 and 3, invitees will be matched against invitees, but on day two it will be straight swiss ordering excluding double-ups.

Prize Categories:
NSW Lord of Terra 1st Overall
2nd, 3rd overall
Blessed Hands of the Emperor Painting/Modelling: 1st,
2nd, 3rd painting
Favoured of his Children Player's Choice
The High Lord of Saints Best Sport
Buckets of Guts Best composed army
Emperor's Fanatic Best General (outside Overall, ties split by comp)

Invitee main trophy: The Australasian High Lord of Terra Best overall performance by an invitee.

SInce the invbitees are the cream of Aussie gaming it seems likely the same player will take both overall prizes, however what a fantastic set-uyp for a lifelong grudge if one of the open draw players beat all the invited folk to the top spot! In this case the trophy would go to next higest placegetter who IS an invitee.

Other prizes to be announced as availability/numbers become apparant and allow. As much as possible all major categories will be awarded top 3. Many awards will not allow double-ups on prizes.

Trophies to be awarded for the top categories.

I like to spread the love, and once I've covered all our costs, the rest of the entry pool goes right back into prize support. General philosophy is one prize per place getter. More ppl walk away with prizes = good, right?

Paint criteria: To be judged by our top quality painting judges (That's right, plural!).
Army List submission: due by Friday 20th Of June to allow time for complex marking procedure.

We're inviting over 100 players from across Australia/NZ who have finished in the top 3 in a tourny (30 players or more), top 10% (12-29), or who are on the top twenty for Sports/Painting/or Comp rankings but without a podium finish. We would be delighted if all invited players were able to attend, we can fit you all, and that would definitely make it a rip-snorter!

There will also be an "open event," the "Aspirant Lords of Terra" open to everyone, to allow for locals/road-trippers to get more involved as well. Placing in the Aspirants allows qualification for the Lords of Terra the following year (yes, these are supposed to be annual events). More details for this will be forthcoming.

The "Lords of Terra" (Invitational event) will be available to players by invitation only. "Uh-oh, does invitational mean I need to be well known to play?**" Not at all, we have a very transparent system to work out our invitees:

It's no mystery at all, this is a championship. To qualify, you need a podium finish. Simple.

In more detail, you need to have received a top 3 (podium) OVERALL finish at any 1 event with 30 players or more in the period from January 1st to December 31st 2007. We also use Mark Croxford's excellent ranking system, particularly in the non overall categories, to ensure the top ten Sportsmen, Painters, and Army composers also get to attend. This is a championship, but it's also a celebration of the Hobby, so all top hobby performers are very welcome.

We're considering asking the top 3 overalls from Arcanacon 2008, Cancon 2008, Terracon 2008, and several other events, probably would add NZ NatCon and Conquest to those as well, in the lead up. Part of the reason for this thread is to discuss preferences amongst players, we'd especially like to hear from those top hobbyists. What do they need to entice them to a well-run event? We'll be bending over backwards to sort out more obvious issues such as terrain. Creating a mixture of missions, that encourage a balanced army, makes you think, without being too "fiddly" or unbalanced.

And since we'll be inviting players from across the nation/Tasman, the "Aspirant Lords of Terra" event caters to those like me, who'd still like to join in on what should be an excellent vibe, with a real genuine hobbyist feel, as well as our most competitive gamers battling it out.

** - this is not at all meant to denigrate other systems of invitational. At all. It's just that not every city has someone with Ghetti's touch, unfortuantly. You Melborunites also get Andrew Long! So in lieu of that level of talent, we came up with this idea.

The "Aspirant Lords of Terra" competition will be no sideshow or after thought, but a full blown tourny with full prize support (And those of you who have attended my tournies before know when I say "full prize support" I really mean it, my ambition is to spread the plastic prize-love as much as possible, thanks to GW as always.)

Saturday night: We hope to provide a forum for interstate/international challenges if we get appropriate & sufficient numbers/interest. We'd also like to encourage any who wish to create new traditions, any rivalaries that you think need to be challenged? Let us know. "NSW vs the Mexicans" might be a good place to try to start. Or what about "State of Origins". And who could resist some sort of test series Oz Vs NZ? Assault on Planet Bledisloe?

Numbers: We hope to have over 40 or 50 players in the Main event, but have room for triple that, so "Aspirants of Terra" can be as large if not larger. In short, we have room for the numbers. So come one, come all!

The venue is currently set to be the excellent North Sydney ANZAC Club (Site of this years GT, DogCon, Gathering of Might, and other events). Excellent because it's good value with a decent amount of space to accomodate over 100 gamers, and reasonable in-house facilities including the essential Bar. It's within easy striking distance of accomodation strips at St Leonards/Artarmon as well as the North Shore, and there's plenty of locals to assist with city travel - including airport pickups/drop off and so on. We plan on making our visitors welcome because we'll be delighted to see them!

*Comp in more detail. Your army is marked 3 times. (EDIT: I am rejigging the comp system and will likely opt for a far simpler comp solution, stay tuned.)
1) (Now simplified) Peer comp. Your peers will get to mark your army out of 10 for each round played. Strong guidance for marking philosophy will be provided - expect some tick/flick and then a score out of x for general composition score. Any outlying scores (apparant snipes or boosts) shall be queried.

More details to follow, feel free to make your impressions known here!

Invites shall be going out to players Real Soon Now ™ ! Well, at least we have lists of ionvitees on the other threads now (see "The 118")

Please help us make this a fun event and get 40K rocking in Sydney town once more. Happy for feedback but as we get closer to the date we are firming up the exact format which wont be tinkered with too close to the event allowing us to concentrate on important stuff like prizes.

$50 entry ,

Please email or PM me to notiify of payment, and I shall confirm by putting you on the paid list.

Alex if you get the numbers and have the funds it may be an idea to have a bonus prize as a cross over between the two events, for example have a TO's and support team's choice award for the army that scored highest in comp and painting between the invitational and allcomers events.

The event sounds good so I am looking at signing onto the allcomers event as I don't qualify for the main event and this increases my chances of doing well.

Hey Alex. I am interested in more info on the aspirants tourny, I was away in Europe all year and so didn't get to any tournies at all.

Ta,

Dave

RoV - you'd be very welcome. There's plenty of other local tournys to sink your teeth into in the meantime too, such as Leviathon in April. The monthly Good Games trournies. There's a Feburary (?, maybe March) tourny at Castle Hill. Plenty of 40K!

That's at least 4 people greatly interested in the Aspirants and still more than 6 months to go. Rest assured it will happen but don't expect a great deal of details (apart from relevant LoT onfo that ports across) until March or April.

I'm aware of the Clash of the Titans in Cherrybrook (about 10 mins from Hornsby) on Feb 16/17.

There seems to be at least one 40K event a month in Sydney and surrounds. Sometimes there are several events on the same weekend so you have a choice! (Eg, Cryx Cup V, Gosford Shield and C-4 are all running this Saturday; Leviathon and Battle in the Vines are both on April 19th/20th). Check out the Tournament Calendar and also keep an eye on White Dwarf.

Regards

Mark C

Thanks guys. Unfortunately I am moving house this Saturday, so no tourney for me...

But Clash of the Titans sounds great. I helped out a couple of years ago, but this time I will be gaming!

RoV

Sounds good to me.

Will there be a list of missions that we will possibly play posted befoer lists are due or will they only by revealed on the day?

Missions will only be revealed upon acceptance of lists. There's a good chance we won't release them until the day. If we do decide to, we'll hold off on sending out the missions until the vast majority of lists are finalised and a penalty applied to lists accepted after the first player packs are released.

They will be fairly simple, or at least easy to understand, but will be more than just a few selected missions from the book. Both tournaments will use the same missions.


Missions will be posted on Wau only after the event.

When is the army lists due by? And where do we send it?

Hi Mate,

I thought CANCON this year had some of the best missions I have seen in a tourny and suitable for more experienced players. Given there were 8 you should be able to find a few that may suit your requirements. All the best.

Killermike -

at this stage Im hoping to receive your lists by Friday 21st of June. Ill make an official announcement tieing up the final loose ends no later than Tuesday next week.

Firefox - Good idea, and I'm already on it - Jason and I worked on those missions together since mid last year, so indeed I am familiar and will be looking at several of those missions closely in my selections.

hi there,

a few of my friends and i are interested in going into the aspirant category, since we missed out on going to cancon.

so just have a few odd questions then before we decide.

will you allow forge-world lists (since two of us has armies based on the forge-world list) and will you allow forge-world stuff to be used? ie flyers, tanks?

i have elysians and would like to use my flyers as well.

thanks in advance.

Hi ArchonCryx,

Any more development on comp?

The reasononing is, may have to adjust what models need to be painted.

Regards
L

Check out the web site http://lordsofterra.com for the recent updates. In particular

Timetable

Saturday June 28th
0845 - 0900 Registration
0900 - 0910 Briefing and Draw
0910 - 1200 Game 1
1200 - 1300 Lunch
1300 - 1550 Game 2
1550 - 1610 Break
1610 - 1900 Game 3

Sunday June 29th
0845 - 0910 Players Choice
0910 - 1200 Game 4
1200 - 1300 Lunch
1300 - 1600 Game 5
1600 - 1645 Pack Up & Scoring
1645 - 1700 Prizes & Awards


Armies

Armies are to be a 2000 pt army from currently published Games Workshop army lists, including the PDF Blood Angels codex and the new Daemon codex.

You should take an army with a decent core of troops that is fun to play against.

Decent Core of Troops - Two of the missions will have only troops counting as scoring units. In these two missions you will need at least 4 units of troops to be able to score the maximum points for the mission.

What are Troops - Units selected from the Troops section of the Force Organisation Chart, excluding vehicles and swarms. Note that for these two missions only, troop units will count as scoring until the last model.


Missions

Missions will be broadly based on the 5 standard missions in the Warhammer 4th Edition Rulebook. There will be one alpha level mission and one omega level mission. There will be secondary objectives associated with each mission. Also see the comments above about "Decent Core of Troops".

A mission pack will be provided when you arrive on the morning of the event with complete details for the missions.

In terms of Comp there are no mandatory requirements (well apart from 1 HQ and 2 troop choices). You could take two minimum sized troop units, but as noted above this would put you at a disadvantage in two of the missions. You could still win the missions, but you wouldn't be able to get the maximum points for the mission.

Regards

Mark C

Um, my army only has 3 troop units, 30 grey knights. Once again, disadvantaged before a die is even roll ed.

And those coming from interstate on the sat morning are going to have a hard time making rego - the only flight i could get at the appropriate time was going to be a close call before the change.

We plan to have a draw sorted out the night before the event, but the 15 mins registration is so we can confirm that people have actually turned up. We've seen events in the past where people will buy tickets and just not turn up, or even not buy tickets and turn up on the day wanting to pay.

Interstate travelers are a slightly different case. If you've booked flights and accommodation we can safely assume that you will actually turn up on the day (barring family/medical emergencies).

In your case in particular I know that you sent Alex a PM about two weeks ago letting us know that you expect to be at the venue at 9:00am but can't guarantee it. The mission for Game 1 is a standard 4th edition mission so you should be able to turn up at the event and just start playing.

Regards

Mark C

True, but not massively disadvantaged.

With 3 scoring units you'll still be able to get high battle points from those two missions where only troops count as scoring (there are secondary objectives as well). You will also still be capable of getting 20/20 from the other three missions. Without having the scoring details in front of me, your army should still be capable of scoring around 95/100 battle points. The challenge will be doing so against some of the best players around.

Also battle points are only half the story. Recall that the scoring is 50% Battle, 20% Paint, 20% Comp and 10% Sports.

Regards

Mark C

High BP?

This is assuming I accually win some games!

Thanks Mark. If anyone is driving from that direction let me know:)

Can you put down Spakka as a potential attendee to the aspirant lords of terra tourney?? I'm not going to be 100% sure i can make it there until late next week.

I'll should be seeing markC sometime in the next week, so i'll be letting him know if i can get there and giving him my army list then.

Also, was comp peer marked or TO marked?

Thanks
Spakka

Hi Dan

Still room in the car for another body from Gosford to North Sydney each day. However I'll be leaving Gosford fairly early and getting back fairly late each day because of TO duties.

Comp is marked twice by TO's and once by each opponent. The highest and lowest Comp scores are discarded, and the other 5 scores added together. Check out http://www.lordsofterra.com for more details.

Regards

Mark C

Um, just a couple of quick questions.

1. Are the aspirant lords of terra rules and missions are going to be the same as the high lords comp??

2.It says in the lords of terra link you gave me that some IA variants might be allowed (i'm assuming only if they are variants of vehicles currently listed in a codex such as leman russ, chimeras, land raiders, etc).

If so, how are you guys be with me running a Marine Dreadnought with Twin Linked Autocannons? The upgrade costs +5pts and replaces the assault cannon arm (so base cost without any other upgrades is 110 pts).



I'll have to check whether i can make it on that weekend, but if i can, i'll probably take you up on the offer. Its not a problem having to get up really early to get to gosford, i'd much rather get up early than miss out.

The rules, scoring and missions are the same in both events.

The Dreadnought with TL Autocannon is fine. Make sure that you bring a copy of IA with the points cost for the upgrade.

Regards

Mark C

28th/29th.

Sunday Monday? On a non-long weekend....

Please please please tell me you mean 27th/28th.

Dude this is last years comp.

SO just for Gorechild, the 2009 event shall be run on the 25th and 26th of July...

And you'd be far more welcome then than on the 28th of June!

hey did u go in the shrike sheild, i was the guy who came first, (not tryin to boast jst tryin to make u rmeber me ) or were u one of the staff?

Look at the date mate.... you're a year behind in the posting....

r u goin in lord of terra, i was the guy who played in shrike sheild and had the daemons with the skultaker on the chariot, the guy who came first, did u play in shrike?

kk, sory lost count of time didnt mean ofend u lol, jst tryin to triger someone 1's memory so i may know whos goin