The results for the Gosford Shield can be viewed at http://www.gosfordgamers.net/events.

The WFB event was won by Scot Cranfield, of the Denizens of the Coast, with his Skaven army. Scot was pretty dominant right through the event. Oliver Kenyon with his High Elves was Best Junior and came 3rd overall.

The 40K event was won by David Burgoyne with his Khornate themed Chaos Space Marines. Going in to the last round Damien Carter with his Chaos SM was actually leading both on Generalship points and Overall, with Simon Warn and his Blood Angels coming second Overall (behind by only 1 point). David managed a strong win over Simon in the last round while Damien was held to a draw to give David first place and Damien took 2nd place. Marty Sullivan came 3rd with his Witch Hunters and Noel Leslie with his Black Templars was 4th and best junior.

Regards

Mark C

Overall I was very pleased by the event. It gave players the chance to play new opponents, and nearly everyone faced a good mix of armies.

In the WFB event we had all armies represented except Brettonians and Empire.

In 40K we had lots of marines (loyalist and traitor) but no Orks or Dark Eldar. However, only two 40K players (Marty with Witch Hunters and Guy with Chaos SM) faced all marine opponents so nearly everyone got a bit of variety. Given that we had 57% of the armies present were marines (either loyalist or traitor), I was concerned about that.

There are a few things that I would do differently in the future based on our experience.

Having a hall rather than playing under the marquee and under the trees would reduce the level of stress on the organisers before the event. I had been very worried about rain. It was a bit hot, but most players were in the shade most of the day (we moved tables between rounds to follow the shade). However, some players got a bit sun burnt. I also spent a fair bit of the day in the War Room (where we normally play) at the back of the shop as I needed power for my printer and so was away from the action for periods of 15 mins at a time. However, having an event outside was certainly a novelty and I'm sure that it will remain distinct in players minds.

I would redesign the results slips I used next time to make them easier to recognise. Maybe print the different forms on different coloured paper. I would also consider changing the forms to put the opponents name at the top to make data entry easier (though might be more confusing to players).

I think that we ran about 15 minutes late finishing game 4 and handing out the prizes. I apologize for this and realise I should have been more stringent in cracking the whip. I know as a player I hate it when events run late at the end of the day and my wife is waiting for me at home.

I am not sure how I feel about 4 games vs 3 games on the day. Certainly with WFB the numbers were small enough that we could have had just 3 games at larger points values. It could also work with that if we had 3 x WFB games and 4 x 40K games then most the paper work and results collation would have been staggered rather than run at the same time.

With 28 players I think that we probably needed the 4 round in 40K to get a chance for the best players to play off. However, for those new to tournaments 4 rounds in 1 day can be a bit much. I know that in my first tournament by the third game I was exhausted. It probably took me until my 4th or 5th tournament before I developed the gaming stamina to play 5 or 6 games on a weekend and not be exhausted by the end. I'd be really interested to know how other players felt on the day.

My biggest regret on the day was that being involved in the paper work I didn't get to experience it. I would have loved to have two or three clones. One clone could have watched the 40K games and discussed with the players how they felt about the missions, were they balanced, and did the modified alpha scoring system work? Another clone or two would loved to have watched the WFB games. Being fairly new to WFB I would probably have enjoyed watching and learnt something new from nearly every game that was played. Maybe I should make the effort to get down to Dogcon on one day over the long weekend and just check things out.

For those with the tournament bug:

• Dogcon is Australia's largest WFB tournament and is held in North Sydney over the Australia Day long weekend. Not sure if it is already sold out though.
• Clash of the Titans in Cherrybrook (near Hornsby) is both 40K and WFB and held Feb 18/19. This is one of my favourite events and I've played in 40K in the last two years. This year I intend to play WFB (must finish painting Dwarfs).
• Battle in the Vines (40k) in Cessnock is scheduled for April 19/20. Cessnock is only an hours drive from Gosford. Leviathan is also on the same weekend but is probably about 2 hours drive away.

Regards

Mark C

Yay! Im mentioned . Great day Mark. Well done And thanks for having the results up so quickly

Hey Hey Hey I may have run in second, but I had the most generalship points so can I claim "BEST GENERAL" hell yeah!!!!!!

Second in my first tourney I cant complain one whit!

Just a few things that niggled, the wind being number one, Rob and I spent the last game catching everyones flying paper work(we were 1st and 2cnd going into the last round). Slowing our already slow game down (but we both admitted after having run each others armies against each other for the last how ever long that a draw was inevitable).

Number 2 Darren should of played! I kept looking at my opponents lists and how the game went thinking my Eldar would have gone even better.... Then thinking Darrens Dark Eldar would have gone even better than that again. Oh well the pains of running a local tourney I guess.

I shrug about the comp hit I got, I mean it was the lowest score handed out, but at the same time I wouldnt have won the games I did without it. So I'll take my lumps on that one.

I would have preferred more points into painting and less in sportsmanship. Mainly because almost everyone got 17-19-20 for sports and there was some awesomely painted armies there that I dont think a 4 or a 5 really showed the effort they put into it (I wish that marine army with the winged assault troops was finished. Now that was an Impressive looking force, well except for the armless tacticals or were they magnetized obliterators heh)

On the stand out side of things I found my opponents right up there I couldnt have asked for better games!
(and who would of thought 4 SoB would hold up my prince for 8 combat rounds... I was like "what the... thats not right" great game Marty:armata_PDT_37:)

Love the cargo drop mission, I think I'v mentioned that to you before Mark but I just love how that mission ran.

Oh and the 1250 point limit I loved it. The fact that you agonized over every single point and just couldnt take everything you wanted it was brilliant. So much time at work wasted trying to squeeze it all together.

But all in all great day had by all! I heard no complaints and well everyone I spoke to had a great time!

Well done Mark and er crew.
I heard talk of an all WHFB event in the planning phases, how about another one 40k dedicated!!!
Now off to plan what to get with my second place winnings..........

Congrats Mark on running a great tournament, i thoroughly enjoyed it

1250pts worked out really well as did all four missions

Thank you for running the day and thank you to all who were involved

At the end of round 3 I thought that I must have marked Comp just right for Azure Fade and Rob as they had among the lowest comp armies and were heading the field on Generalship points. Azure's army in particular, one Lash of Submission is nasty but two is positively rude.

I was surprised by the sportsmanship scores. The last two tick boxes in the separate section were intended only for exceptionally brilliant (exceeds expectations) or disappointingly bad (I wouldn't want to play a player like this) opponents. However, over half the field got perfect sports scores. Maybe people didn't read the instructions. I did expect a wider range of sportsmanship scores.

With the painting, we deliberately wanted a narrow range. Most tournaments advertise an entry standard which is equivalent to a painting score of 3 or 4 on our scale, and many tournaments threaten that unpainted models will be removed (but they don't normally carry through on the threat). We just wanted to provide motivation for people to paint their models and I would have been happy if everyone had got 4s or 5s. It was because of this that we had a separate painting competition and a separate prize for Best Painted. I only wish that we'd thought to take pictures of the best painted armies.

And never underestimate Sisters of Battle. I'm still reeling from the 20-0 crushing that Simon Harper gave me with his Sisters at the Sydney GT. It was a great game and probably the one that I enjoyed the most at the GT, but I still have to work out how to deal with Sisters (esp Canoness using faith points for a 2+ or 3+ invuln save).

Regards

Mark C

Yeah I knew I would get the comp hit for the twin lash, but seriously one just doesn't cut it. Mind you I just wonder at what my comp score would have been if I had added in the greater daemon that I was thinking of hehe.
With the sports scores I think it was just the caliber of us players (modest aint I). And the younger players well.. I think us olders didnt want to mark them down cause well they er well were younger.

Just on the painting next time can we have a panel of judges. No offense to Micheal but Daniel B and I got 5's for our painting work, but then lost out in the painting to David B who scored 4 (although the army looked great and deserved a 5 as well as best painted). It just seemed like a single opinion....
Oh and if you need photos of armies Damien T, Rob and myself all placed in the top 6(well overall), and are local so something could be organised (after tourney repairs are completed of course)

Oh and for people who saw/played against my chaos army what would you add for 1500?? I was thinking maybe a greater daemon but er what else escapes me.... (remember no tanks and I dont make soft lists )

a nice big unit of chaos marines with an icon of slaanesh, terminators, or chosen

We wanted the painting to be a separate event, and it was. Michael did say that he liked several in each system and it was hard to make a choice. Maybe a panel, like in Australian Idol or Americas Next Top Model (I don't watch them but my daughter does) could be used. The trouble is having enough time to look at all the models (I didn't have the time, though I was impressed by the movement trays of one of the Tomb King players). If it was a two day event we could maybe have a players choice instead (ie all the players vote for their top 3). With the one day format you'd be hard pressed to fit anything more in.

I would modify the painting guidelines for the 5 pts in the future. After I published it I realised that there was no requirement to have the army look like an army (eg you could use separate colour schemes and basing techniques and different army insignia and as long as each model looked good you could get top marks). However, the main idea behind the painting points in the main event was just to motivate everyone to paint their models.

Regards

Mark C

Hmmm slanneshi terminators now that'll be a great option........ or another squad of raptors......

As for motivating us to paint well you could see from my army that well it at least worked im my household.

Yeah thanks Mark, Shane and everyone else involved for running the day, I had a great time, the whole day ran smoothly and efficiently, desputs were far and few between. Wish I could say the same for the Mariners afterwoods . Once again let me say I love the 1500 format, every game is a challenge and any mistake can be critical. The outside locale was novel, I enjoyed it but must admit after game 1 in the sun I was scrambling for a game in the shade. LOL I'm not sure how the 40K's faired but on some tables the choice of sides came down to which side was in the sun rather than which was the most tactical.

I was surprised by my own results, I've now knocked up a whopping 8 games under 7th ed and to be honest I had my own share of luck, poor old Darrell, he's one of my very close friends and regular gaming mates and the number of critical rolls I just made to see me through our game and eventually win me the day has me feeling a little sheepish. Amazing tho one of the best games I've every played that left me totally drained, like you mentioned 4 games is pretty tough and I've no longer the gaming stamina I had a few years back so the final game was a struggle

Now I've put a face to a few of the names at Gosford gamers guild and other gamers in the area I'm looking forward to catching up over a game or two.

As a thought would u be interested in making the gosford shield placque a perpetual one, possibly keep it in the shop, and make it something the locals can fight for the right to retain, let's face it we would'nt want those Sydney siders or sigmar help us the Novacastrians taking it away from the coast..

Cheers

Squid

From the brief glimpse i got of proceedings, everyone looked to be having a ball!

Very well organised and thought out. Wish i could have been there to see more!

The day did go very well, everyone seemed to have a ball.

Outdoors was a bit of a problem, I kinda like the idea but I have red stripes down the back of my legs and stripey red and white feet (I did apply sunscreen but only to the front of my legs-D'oh).
Mark was saying we would probably have the next one in a hall or something. As a learning experience all I can say is the next one will be even better - Ill be in turbo terrain painting mode so that all the boards will be perfect

Scot's Skaven Army was a joy to behold - I had to drag myself away from the table otherwise I would have spent hours slack-jawed and dribbling at how awesome it was. It deserved a painting score well above 5!

I realise too that David's army should have scored 5 as well - my stuff-up. I remember admiring his super rhino- two of the old school ones joined together. I'm just glad it had no effect on the end result. I blame it on sunstroke!

All thanks should go to Mark, Shane and Glenn for putting the event on. Mark in particular put a lot of work into Mission Packs, checking lists, hell a whole heap of stuff
I'm looking forward to the next one.

PS
I would have hated Michael's job of picking a winner for best painted in 40K

Thank you to Mark and Shane and the other organisers from the Cessnock gamers. We had a great day and learned a lot from such a well-run event.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to those we played against.

We would love to invite you to our club.

Check us out on wargamerau under BIV (Battle in the Vines) in the Tournaments forum or Cessnock PCYC in the Clubs forum.

Happy Gaming!

I wished it was finished too...

I took so much time getting the honor guard, death company librarian and chaplain done I only had 5 nights last week to paint the 25 basic troopers... I'm hoping to finish the rest and extras for Cancon.

Mark C and all involved in organising and running the shield it was a great day. Can't wait for the next one

Australasian Tournament Rankings

As mentioned on the day of the tournament, there is a national tournament rankings system for both 40K and WFB.

I have forwarded the results for WFB to the Irresistible Force team. The results may not be processed for a couple of weeks as they are busy painting for Dogcon but I'll let you know when they're up.

The Australasian 40K Tournament Rankings were introduced by GT in Queensland back around 2003 but since the start of 2007 have been maintained by Mark C (me).

Looking at the details of the players it was interesting to see that only one of the players, Damien Thompson, had played in any events in 2007. I see it as a very good thing that we were able to fill a need for the gaming community to provide an opportunity for players in Newcastle, Cessnock and the Central Coast to attend a 40K tournament.

Regards

Mark C

As per previous post

Mark and all involved in organising and running the gosford shield it was a great day. Can't wait for the next one.
( Although my skin is the same colour as my Blood Angels LOL )

Well by all accounts everyone had a great day which I and the rest of the Gosford Hobbies staff are most pleased about. As the first event of this type we ever ran I think it went off without a hitch (more shade would have been a great advantage - I look like an over ripe tomato!)
The quality of the painted armies was amazing (that skaven army was amazing work and there was a tomb king army that was very inspiring - good luck in the Dogcon with it) I hope it inspires others to get their brushes out.
Over $200 was raised for the Guide Dogs which is a fantastic result, so I would like to thank everyone for that (the auction of the shirts at the end was icing on the cake - wear 'em with pride guys!)
As I look out my window now it's raining here on the coast so we were very lucky with the weather (dispite the sunburn)
The main reason for not getting a hall was the cost, a hall we did have in mind didnt have A/C or fans so that would have been far worse, and as Central Coast locals would know we are not exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to community halls (thank you Gosford Council and local vandals) - and while on the subject of vandals, three people were caught on video pulling down the marquees on Saturday night, they were chased off by security from Brian Hilton Toyota, however the one of the bright sparks left their mobile phone behind......(stupid kids, I hear you say) the moron was 27yrs old. He will also be making a sizable donation to the Guide Dogs to get his phone back and avoid any criminal action. Luckily there was no damage to the marquees.
So all in all, the day was great fun, Michael from Games Workshop said he enjoyed himself and it was great being able to talk to the gamers (although he got a big hazing today at work for two massacre losses)
To the winners - congratulations I think everyone played in the spirit of the game and had fun (while crushing their enemies into the dust)
I am glad everyone enjoyed themselves, I know I did, I hope you all met some new opponents and see you all again at our next event.
...oh about the Shield being a perpetulal trophy, It's a good idea, I would like the winners to keep the ones we gave them however. I'll see how much we have left in the wargame kitty to make one here at the shop and get the winners names put on it.
Well I better be off, I need to rub Aloe Vera on my head and I am inspried to paint up my Orks & Goblins (I ordered two GWS cases for myself today to put them in so I better get painting)
Again on behalf of myself, the shop, my helpers and the Guide Dogs - Thank you
Cheers
Shane

I too want to add a big thanks and congratulations on a fantastic day.

To Mark and Darren and the guys from Gosford Hobbies, BRAVO on a fantastic event. I have been involved in holding similar events for sporting clubs, work and with holding tournaments, including National events in another gaming life and know just how hard it can be to pull it all together so great job guys.

My most pleasant experience however was the fun I had with the games I played and the other people I got to meet in the tournament. Noone had a bad thing to say other than the elements and in truth, it could have been far worse. Sure there were things that could have been better but hey, thats the improvements for next time.

And just how good are some of you guys in terms of your painting and modelling skills! I wish I could do 1/2 as well. My hat is off to you.

On a personal note, I must say I was surprised at how well the Tau played for me, especially since I've only really been playing for a few months in a concerted effort. To all my opponents, thanks for a great challenge and for putting up with my questions and queries re rules and such.

My only disappointment was being matched up against one of my play test buddies in the top match in the final round. I may have been a surprise, but it meant that I was familiar with Azure's army (and he with mine) making it that much harder for either of us to get an advantage. A draw was likely and may have meant a vastly different outcome results wise. I never did get to have a game with the Guard!

I can't wait for the next chance to play everyone and hope that we don't have to wait too long for the next big local event.

Oh, and Damien, 2 Demon Princes with lash IS obscene!

Your just jealous girly boy, if you thought that was rude wait for my to-hell-with-comp list on friday (yes that list that scored lowest equal for comp was my "soft" list). Oh and ill send you those eldar lists when er I can be assed typing them up (half are written in "work" time).

Oh on that note any shield players from around the gosford area up for my Shield Grudge match on friday??
I have sent a few PM's to top players that I know of, but it is short notice so ill open it up to anyone who is local and played in the shield.. PM me if you are interested..

Geat day. All of us from the Cessnock Gamers had a great time.

I'm glad people had a good time. I think the event went fairly well and I would like to thank Shane for organising the event, ticket sales, boards and terrain and Darren for the terrain/cargo pods and helping on the day.

As in everything you do, afterwards you review how it went and how it could be improved for next time. After having reflected on the event for a week, I think the lessons I learnt are :

1. Getting the event into White Dwarf was very important. I believe that about half our players first learnt of the event via White Dwarf.
   
   
2. Demand for a one day 40K event in early January is high. We had 28 x 40K players, Cryx Cup had 18 players and C-4 had 12 players (all three were 1 day events within an hours drive of our event). If there wasn't the date conflict with the other events I think that we could easily had sold 40 x 40K tickets. Having a 1250 pts limit seemed to work okay, with most players able to finish their games in the time slot.
   
   
3. Demand for a 1500pt WFB event two weeks out from Dogcon (the biggest WFB event in Australia/NZ) is not high. Either we could adjust the points size to attract people who want to practice/tweak their armies for Dogcon or we could hold the WFB event at another time of year.
   
   
4. Make sure that there is a process so that when tickets are sold we get the players name, contact details and gaming system. We got this for most of the players when they bought their tickets but not all of them.
   
   
5. Having $25 tickets with $9.50 of vouchers (shop/lunch/drink) seemed to be too steep for the Corsairs, but they seemed happy when (back in October) they thought that it would be $20 tickets with no vouchers.
   
   
6. Use a hall (assuming that we can't use the vacant shop next door). Ofcourse this would increase costs and decrease prizes. It also means there is a logistics problem in getting the boards to the hall (the 3' x 4' sections fit in the back of a Commodore wagon or Suzuki Grand Vitara but the 6' x 4' boards would need a van/ute/trailer).
   
   
7. Checking army lists ahead of the event is a good thing. There were several players who had problems with their lists. In many cases these were small problems that the opponents wouldn't have noticed on the day. In at least one case the error would have left opponents fuming. However, be aware that this can take hours. It probably took me about 6 - 7 hours to check 40 lists and follow up the errors with the players.
   
   
8. Number the tables. Most tournaments do this, and allocate players to tables. Ideally the different tables should have different types of terrain to offer the players different tactical challenges. Apparently some of our players wanted to stick at the same table. This was probably more for the convenience of not moving the army or they had a shady spot, but could also be if a player had a board that suited their army.
   
   
9. Don't assume that players read the instructions, or at least don't assume that what you have written is unambiguous. Talk the players through mission rules and how to mark the score sheets before each round.
   
   
10. Review the results sheets to make it easier for the data entry bunny to put in the results. For example in the sports and comp forms, have players name top left and opponents name top right rather than have opponents name 2nd or 4th line. Would also suggest using different coloured paper or very different sized forms for the game results forms compared to the other forms. That would make it easy to separate them.
    
    
11. Have a form (or make a written note) when players come up after they've put in their results to tell you that they filled in the score sheet incorrectly and need to adjust it. This makes it easier when you want to check afterwards that the results have been entered correctly.
    
    
12. Perhaps have a schedule that has distinct 10-15 minute breaks between rounds. This allows time for the data entry. Ofcourse, it leaves less time for gaming.
    
    
13. Show off the prizes and the trophies at the end of the day. We were running 15 minutes late so I just called out the winners and they collected their loot. I don't know if anyone else actually saw what the prizes were.

I certainly need a break before we organise our next event, and I need to have a chance to play some games myself (I haven't had a WFB or 40K game in over 2 months ). However, I am sure that we'll have the event again next year in early January and there may even be something else after the interclub events later in 2008.

Regards

Mark C

Oh can I add : Have the painting judged during the lunch break or at the very beginning, everyone has their armies displayed, out for all to see. (im sure I missed some great armies because they were already packed away )

To add to #8, I was on the same table for three rounds.. not because it was advantageous for me it just seemed like about the only table with the correct amount of terrain. (I always gave my opponents the choice of layout on the terrain just to keep it all fair). So prehaps next time us locals could perhaps donate a tables worth of terrain each of the day.... (yes i know I only have 3 buildings and a black lump... my graveyard is er almost thought of starting....)