Tournament Report - Battle for Astaramis – To the Victor, the Spoils
The dust has settled after the conclusion of Singapore’s first Warhammer 40,000 tournament using the new 8th Edition rules, and three have been crowned for their excellence in generalship and painting. Who are they? Zack speaks to them, and weighs in on what needs to be done for the competitive scene here.
Introduction
20 players fought four 1000pt matches over the course of a single day in the “Rookie Rumble: Battle of Astaramis” tournament. In the end, Chang Wiloon emerged as the “Master of Rites” – decided by equal parts generalship and painting. Keith Lee won the “Master of Battles” and Russell Ng won the “Master of Relics” – Best General and Best Painting respectively.
A mix of Eternal War and Maelstrom scenarios were played – No Mercy, The Relic, Contact Lost, and Seize and Capture. All battles were fought on a 4’ by 4’ table with no house-rules implemented.
*Keith's 1k point Tzeentch Daemon Army
Keith Lee – Master of Battles
8th Edition can be treated as a “clean slate” of sorts - no one really knows what to expect. Which lists would be powerful? How will players in Singapore select their lists?
Keith approached the tournament with an open mind, but nonetheless still emerged as Best General, unfortunately edged out from winning the Best Overall when he only snagged a Minor Victory in Round 2 (despite having four wins).
We spoke to him previously on his list – a tide of Brimstone Horrors shielding several Daemonic Heralds and Exalted Flamers. “It did work mostly as intended, though the 4 rounds of the tournament did expose some potential pitfalls and weaknesses of my list, which I am already working on patching for future events,” Keith shared.
Keith remarked that the Eternal War mission, No Mercy (earning Victory Points based on number of units killed), would be toughest for him. No surprise – Keith’s list had 17 units in 1000pts!
“I most enjoyed my game against Ryan, as he had a pretty thematic and well-rounded force. Also seeing his expression when it took him multiple lascannon teams to kill a lone brimstone horror!”
- Keith, on his favourite match of the day
His mindset towards competitive 40k in 8th Edition has not changed since we last spoke to him. “Some changes will be required to balance the competitive scene, such as addressing the advantage of going first,” Keith shared. “I preferred Maelstrom in this tournament, as the Eternal War missions tended to be quite extreme and predictable. I would prefer a combination of both, as I feel it worked well for us in 7th edition and will continue to do so in 8th edition.”
Keith was referring to the ITC-inspired missions during previous editions’ tournaments that combined both Eternal War objectives as well as Maelstrom of War objectives. The
Crossroads understands that a draft version of these missions for 8th Edition is currently being used in a number of US and EU tournaments.
The best thing for Keith though was that there were plenty of new faces during the tournament. The event saw a few rookies getting their feet wet with competitive play, with one, Rai Tan, even winning second runner-up in Generalship.
“It was good to see people besides the usual suspects taking home the top spots,“ Keith said. “Hopefully we see more new faces join the upcoming tournaments.”
*Russel's 1k point T'au Commander army
Russell Ng – Master of Relics
“If you asked me 10 years ago, I would not be answering this,” admitted Russell, when we asked the winner of the Best Painted award what his inspiration was. “But as more and more hobbyist locally and around the world start to showcase their work and workflow, it opened up my world to see what amazing stuff has been built and done before. And all that inspired me to be better and try more things!”
Russell snagged the Master of Relics award with his tan-coloured Tau army, made up of Tau Commanders leaping amidst chunks of flying Imperial debris. It is a practical colour scheme that would not look out of place in a sci-fi setting. “I wanted to do an urban base because in my mind, my forces are attacking an Imperium homeworld.”
“My army is a mash of what I think is good and also to field a fully painted army that is close to WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get),” Russell said. “That is why I have the quad fusion (blaster) Commander, which is statistically the best unit from the Tau index, to Commander Farsight, who is there to look good even when he falls in glorious combat.”
“Try things, fail, continue, till you succeed. People think painting is purely about talent if you can match the colours properly, but they don't see the hard work, the failures, the time and effort the hobbyists and artists put in to achieve the result they want.”
- Russell, on advice for would-be Best Painted contenders.
It is a unique approach towards building an army list; to pick units that are not only efficient but also obeys the “Rule of Cool”.
“It helps that GW has produced my all-time favourite model, which is the Tau Commander, who looks aesthetically pleasing (but) yet have so much options and joints to make him fully pose-able. Thus every time I build a Tau Commander or (a) Crisis Battlesuit, I would think, ‘what is this particular model doing?’
“That is why I have Farsight floating down with his sword outstretched to challenge his opponent, and Brightsword rushing headlong with his fusion blades.”
*Wiloon's Monolith prepares to use its Particle Whip on an approaching Ork horde
Chang Wiloon – Master of Rites
Meanwhile, the Master of Rites is still coming to terms with his victory. “I still can't believe I actually won as every round was a very close shave,” said Chang Wiloon.
He had won every match he played in, as well as produced a cleanly painted Necron army, to snag the Master of Rites award. This is an award that rewards players who put an equal emphasis on gaming and painting.
Wiloon’s list contained a mix of infantry, firepower (in his Heavy Destroyers) and tankiness (in his Monolith). As he shared each of his matches with us, we saw how he understood the strengths and weaknesses of his list.
He won his first game, No Mercy, against an Imperium list led by St Celestine, by understanding that while his opponent’s Warlord is extremely survivable, he need only keep ahead in Victory Points while avoiding being tabled.
Wiloon used his Monolith to bait his third opponent, an Ork horde led by Ghazghull, into the open and hammered upon the Boyz with firepower, crippling their combat potential.
All of his games were exciting tales of tactics and displays of sharp generalship. His second opponent for example, was a Deathwatch player who seemed to offer his Warlord to Wiloon for him to secure First Blood and Slay the Warlord.
It turned out to be a ruse to distract all of Wiloon’s firepower, minimising the Deathwatch’s losses and allowing the Astartes to launch a counter-attack.
Wiloon’s last match was against Stephen Kyriakou, a returning player who unleashed the Sons of Guilliman upon the Necrontyr. From the get-go, Wiloon was forced to fight on the backfoot when Stephen seized the initiative and exploited loopholes in Wiloon’s deployment, one that nearly saw his Destroyers and Lord reduced to one wound.
Unfortunately for Steve, it wasn’t enough. The Monolith arrived from Reserves to sit in the middle of the board, and the wounded Necrons literally stitched themselves back together over the course of the match, and the game ended with a 1 Victory Point difference.
“I would like to thank all 4 of my opponents who made the experience so much fun. The outcome could have easily swung either way and I'm just a lucky bloke that day.”
“If there really is a 40k ‘kids’ tourney - say 500 pts or 1000 pts. 3 rounds. I will try to send to two of my kids just to support the event and for laughs… There (are) many dads out there who like to build armies but not very into the competitive side of gaming. So they may be interested to build the list for their kids and let the kids have a go!”
-Wiloon, on encouraging young gamers
Afterthoughts
While this is the first tournament of the 8th Edition ruleset, there are plenty of lessons that can be applied for future events. I would like to offer some observations:
Currently, while Games Workshop is actively supporting a fair, competitive game system, it still has some way to go before it can achieve it. There are a few reasons, the rigidness of the “going-first” mechanic for example, but the biggest is a lack of consistency between all of the Eternal War missions, and the Maelstrom of War objectives. The former does not have a consistent scoring system (Minor Victory only exists in the Relic mission, and secondary objectives are irrelevant), while the latter still features high variance in viable objectives (good luck manifesting psychic powers, Black Templars!).
Tournament Organisers will have to bear these in mind, in planning missions for events. Also, the current interaction between St Celestine, the Relic and how she does not drop the objective when she dies (magically appearing with it anywhere else on the table due to Rules-As-Written) is a troublesome thing to note.
Currently, we do not know the real impact of the codices on the game. Some report that we will see yet a greater variety of lists due to more viable options. Some opined that the simple fact that the codex offers such much more flexibility is problematic for factions with no codex.
Should codices be allowed, or limited? Will players drop out due to perceived imbalance? What can be done to mitigate these? These are questions the Tournament Organiser needs to bear in mind. (Editor's note: on the bright side, we will be getting 3 Codices this month alone and GW has promised 10 by year's end)
Does the organiser dictate the direction of the hobby simply by running an event? The organisers can choose to place greater or lower emphasis upon generalship, painting or even other soft scores such as sportsmanship. Should a player be penalised for a simpler paint job, for only wanting to play the game? Does the reverse – placing emphasis upon winning games than painting armies – lead to lousier paint standards?
At the end of the day, it is a two-way relationship between organiser and player - the tournament organiser plans events for players to take part, while the players trust the tournament organiser to create a fun, enjoyable environment for them to play in. This arrangement actually gives the Tournament Organiser the sacred duty of ensuring this environment be it through the mission pack, any house-rules, or even the prizes awarded. But the Organiser is not omniscient, and needs to constantly reflect upon each event and feedback given, to plan the most fun and enjoyable event.
Based on these accounts as well as other feedback, “Rookie Rumble: Battle for Astaramis” may have been rough around the edges but overall, it was a fun experience. I am sure the organisers of “Rookie Rumble: Battle of Astaramis” know their duty very well, and that they will continue to do their best for future events. (Editor's note: Thanks to Gamersaurus Rex for organising a great first 8th edition event)
About the Author:
Zackary "Ol One Eye" Ong is a handsome, charming and intelligent hobbyist and wargamer with a flair for the written word. Until he stops daydreaming, then he's just your average Joe who's out to prove that one eye is as good as two.