Berks PA Gaming Club: 2012

The Road to Mechanicon

Berks Gaming Club members attempt to hone their skills as we all make our way with this learning curve of 6th Edition rules for Warhammer 40,000.

Our friends who run the Mechanicon Grand Tournament have joined forces with The Warstore.com to combine into one weekend of events and activities. Even the Berks Gaming club is hosting 3 separate Warhammer 40K Kill-Team Mini-tournaments that weekend. The Warstore Weekend.

Some of our club members are going for the main feature: The Mechanicon Grand Tournament. This is a "throw back" style Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament that features ALL aspects of the hobby. This is the 4th year for the Mechanicon run by Tony Spino and the crew from the Gaming Garage L.L.C.

These guys sure put on a great show.   The event itself lends to a more relaxed yet competetive atmosphere with gamers who apprecaite all aspects of the hobby.   It isn't all just about winning and losing, but includes Sportsmanship and fair-play, painting and appearance and the modeling aspect of the hobby.    For true game-enthusiasts, this is THE event to be at.

For those of us who attended the GT last year and plan to again, we appreciate having fun, yet competetive armies that are fully painted and look well.    Nothing is more satisfying than playing a fun and solid game against someone else who apprecaites the hobby as much as you do.   Fully painted armies, nicely made battlefields with lots of wonderful quality terrain to play over, this IS why some of us got involved in this hobby.

The atmosphere is also laid back and friendly.    We have built up friendships with many gamers from all over the USA at events such as this.    Berks players are always looking to make our impressions on and off the battlefield and last year, two of us took Best Sportsman and 2nd Best Sportsman in the Grand Tournament.

There are also many other events to look into for the weekend that are included with your weekend pass, such as the Warhammer 40K Kill Team events, Battlefleet Gothic, Heavy Gear by Dream Pod 9, Flames of War, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warmachine and much more.

With the growth of Heavy Gear in the Berks club, some of our members plan on attending and playing in the Heavy Gear tournaments as well, run by the Mid-Atlantic Pod-Squad, who always put on fun events.

If you're looking for something to do the weekend of October 26-28th, we strongly recommend attending the Mechanicon Grand Tournament. Even if you can not play in the 2-day main event, there are plenty of 1-day events to take advantage of, meet fellow gamers and of course, the Warstore will have products available for purchase.

Summer Camp-aigns!

Summer time is here and we bring in a new edition of Warhammer 40K along with that. To get thigns started off in our Gaming Club we have decided to launch a new Narrative Campagin with the help of Eric Bates, (Known around our club as "Apothecary"), as well as helping 2 locations launch small escalation leagues to help folks take baby steps into the new rules of 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000.

Of course there are many more activities happening this summer around our club. Some of our club members have been getting more and more involved in Heavy Gear by Dream Pod 9. This is a very fun game that to me seems like a nice blend between Warhammerm 40K and Battletech.

There are also more folks in the Berks Club delving into Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and we've had some folks recently log in more games with their fantasy armies. All in all, it looks to be a very fun summer.

Locally in the Berks area we have been fortunate to pick up 2 more locations to play games publically. The franchise union with 1-Up Colletibles in West Reading, franchising with Humungo Comics in Pottstown has now created 2 linked store locations both with growing terrain and space to play. Expect to see some smaller in-house tournaments and special events held at either location.

Currently both locations feature a "Paint Night" on Tuesdays from 5pm-close and Open Gaming pretty much any day of the week.

So, what is happening with the Campaign and Escalation Leagues? We have links on both our facebook page as well as follow up information on the Northeast Gamers Hub, but we can review it all right now and here.

Berks Warhammer 40K Narrative Campagin:

Cataclysm Prophesy.

This is a Narrative campaign being run for the Berks-PA Gaming Club by Eric Bates. This is primarily for club members and friend associated with our club who plaly games in Berks county PA.

This campaign will use actual locations and maps to represent tactical locations with potential game-altering effects. During this current installation of the campaign, ALL games collected by report will have been considered played for the west reading sector narrative to follow.

To Join the Berks Campaign:

Choose the Army or Force you will represent, by Army Codex. You may play more than one Army, as some veteran gamers may own more than one army, but 2 is the maximum limit. (NO MORE THEN 2 ARMIES TO START PLEASE)

Based upon your Codex, you may then select the faction you are affiliated with.

Good Aligned Xenos: (Tau & Eldar)
Evil Aligned Xenos: (Necron & Dark Eldar)
Greenskins (Orks)
Loyal Imperial: (Imperial Guard, Space Marines, variant Space Marine Codicies).
Chaos: Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, Traitor Guard, Renegade Space Marine Factions (variants of other codex books, like Blood Angels, ect)
Tyranids ( and affiliated options such as the Tyranid Cult list)

Find an opponent and choos to play either that Week’s Selected Mission Objective OR choose any standard mission or Battle Missions book scenario.

Record your battle with Apothecary (Eric Bates) on the Berks-PA Gaming Club’s facebook page or via email to Eric. ( Apothecaryixii@aol.com )

How To Record A Battle:

Name of the Winning army
Player’s Name
Force Name, Codex, and Affiliated Faction
Number of Points Played
Type of Scenerio
Please Post your results to the Berks-PA Gaming Club main facebook page OR email your results directly to Eric Bates at: Apothecaryixii@aol.com

Campaign Scoring:

A win is worth 2 Campaign Points for every 500 Army Points played (Kill Team games are wortgh only 1 point)
A Loss is worth 1 Campaign Point for every 500 Army Points played. (Kill Team loss is worth Zero.)
Victory Points will be used to sort out tie breakers. If the game is a draw and within the 10% margin of victory by Victory Points, the army with the Most models that are completely painted wins. (We want to encourage folks to get their armies built and painted.
In the result of a draw where both armies are completely painted Victory Points will cut below the 10% margin of victory to decide a true winner.

This Campaign is all about Bragging Rights for now. This is the Beginning stage of development. Some Campaign situations and criteria may change with the advent of 6^th editions rules upon us.

Results will be posted on Sunday or Monday night for each week.

Games for a particular week will run from Friday at 00:00 hours (Midnight) till the following Friday at 23:59

Fog of War: If your information is not in on Saturday morning by 00:00 (Midnight Friday that week, same thing), than your battle will NOT be counted towards final victory conditions.

ALL Games must be actual games played with actual models. Not virtual games using any type of internet or computer connection. (No Vassal Games!).

Narrative will kick off shortly after players all register. The first week will start June 22^nd, 2012 and will run into August 23^rd, with a new mission and special rules coming out each week. You can play any mission, but the Campaign Specific missions may generate bonus points for the event.

* Mission 1: Clear the Drop Site

* Mission 2: Ambush!

For more information on the Escalation Leagues, follow the link to our facebook page here:
* 1-Up Collectibles Warhammer 40K Escalation League in West Reading, PA
* Humungo Comics Warhammer 40K Escalation League in Pottstown, PA

Ground Zero: Apothecary's view of Berks Spring Assault 3!

The following post is from "Apothecary" our club's own real-life paramedic, Eric Bates, who called forth a Black Crusade going into Berks Spring Assault 3!, leading his Chaos Space Marines. His call was heeded as Chaos Marines were the most prevalent army represented this year.

Apothecary (Eric) is a veteran gamer and Elite club member of the Berks-Pa Gaming Club. He plays Chaos Space Marines (The Heartbreakers) of a Slaanesh bent, Salamander Space Marines, and Blood Angels. He is responsible for getting me (Club president Mike B) into the hobby and his son also plays 40K with us with a growing Necron Army.

Apothecary has played now in a variety of local tournaments and is truly a fun sportsman to play against. Win, lose or draw, it is hard to not have a good time playing against or with him no matter if you are at a Grand Tournament, local hobby shop, or at home in his game room slinging dice.

(Edited: Mike Biancone)

Okay, now here is Eric's take on Berks Spring Assault 3!

Ground Zero.....

Just to touch bases with my fellow club members and gamers, I was ground zero and thought it would be good to hear from the war front.

Gaming at BSA3 was an experience. This being my third time on the floor and tossing dice I want to point out the highlights and then the critiques.

Highlights this was the most spacious tournament that I have ever played in. In most tournaments your bumping into people during the entire game. I do not recall any incident of running into someone for space.

My games were all well played and I did not face any gamer that I would not play again. This was from (facing players from) multiple clubs and I did not play against any one army of same codex in each of my games.

As for the scoring, I thought that each of the scoring systems was well done, though some people did not play the scenario and had trouble understanding that it is not capture and control or annihilation games. (The missions were non-standard)

The catered lunch was good, all you could eat sandwiches and salads. for me this is lunch fare. if I am jumping up and down and yelling and screaming, I do not want heavy lunch food or there would be fresh terrain added to the tables.

The Golden Grot Painting Competition was fun and listened to people you hear a mix of what art is. A few folks did not like the pimped rides with pinup art and prefer the basic Heavy metal painter look. to each their own. there was a lot of artistic impressions on those tables. I was happy to take third with the open.

I at least felt like I am moving into the artist ranks.

Finally prize support there were thousands of dollars given away from raffle and top prize for people playing with little plastic men. There were a few that were overwhelmed when they won not one but 2 prizes. (ok I did not win anything, but got fead and blew up Bob Evers Land raider. My day was complete. )

A few future critiques to touch base:

Lateness and timing: there was a lot of down time were we could have almost played an additional game in between scoring and pairing. Mike was aware of this and I am sure we can get this better organized for the future

A wonky scenario with a troop swap (Mission 3). Even trades would make sense but some people were able to take heavy weapons and apothecaries from troop selections. One guy got a grey knight termie apothecary, a value close to 100pts for a 6 pt eldar warrior.

Model swaps would have to be more closely regulated if similar scenerios are used in future events. I was fortunate in that I lost a power weapon for a melta gun sgt salamander in squad of CSM slaanesh troops. (they promptly run off the board from a land raider crusader's shooting the next player turn. Yes that's 7 inches and yes they failed on a 12 on their leadership check and 11 on fallback. And no they are not fearless.)

These were my only problems in the 12 hour day. After that there were beautiful models and some really well converted armies.

alpha legion CSM

Dark angels strutting

Blood angels deathcompany (AKA ANGRY MARINES!!!)

Space marine Master of the Forge with 4 dreads.

In closing, this was a great event went off with little difficulty. Players had a blast. There were no major squables and most people ended the night laughing and having good time. I ended up middle of the pack with great scores for sportsmenship and just above average painting score. i did turn out 0-2-2 on the day (not very good).

I can not wait for next year and ready to start touring east coast to promote next event bsa4.
Apothecary.

Berks Spring Assault 3! Results!

BERKS SPRING ASSAULT 3!

Well we pulled it off, sorta. The Largest Warhammer 40K tournament to hit this area ever, perhaps even the region. We had 77 players show up for our local club's 1-day event! 77 Players!!!! All having fun in one location! It was crazy, it was fun, and it was a logistical nightmare, but we had fun despite all of that.

Berks Spring Assault has been growing as an annual 1000-point format with the idea of keeping the event friendly and fun for newer players, yet challenging enough for veterans to also participate. Addmittedly we as a club are "Noobs" at running tournaments, and this is only the 3rd time we ran an event of a large size, but the first time ever with something of this magnitude.

As a club we had a few mistakes and situations we could address, and we are working dilligently with other experienced Tournament Organizers who participated in this event. Their input has been very valuable and very positive. So, despite some logistical setbacks and time delays, we still had a very great turn out and a wonderful time.

We had 22 sponsors for this event. They donated a variety of prize support for us, from KR Multi-Case with miniature cases, to Secret Weapon Miniatures with custom resin bases for handouts to put into our swag bags for pre-registered players along with our custom-made Berks Dice from Chessex. Our local game store and supplier, 1-Up Collectibles was very supportive in prize support and really helped us out a lot as well as providing space in their 2 stores for local players to meet and play games at.

We held the event at the Riveredge, a nice banquet hall center located just North of Reading, PA near the Municipal Airport. The room we had was very large and had ample space for all of our tables. Lunch was included and was a NY deli style buffet. One of our club members is also a baker for Jebbie Cakes and had made us a full sized sheet cake for the event. That provided a nice snack and much-needed sugar rush between games 3 and 4.

All in all we had 77 players show up to play 4 games of Warhammer 40K. Our ref's rotated around as our "ringer" army with Brian Zhu of Brave New Worlds taking the Tournament Organizer's son Ethan under his wing for the last round, game 4. We had a variety of armies, with all 16 codex books being represented. The missions were non-standard, and while some seemed fun in play-test, perhaps one or two were not quite so balanced ona larger format. But we are learning and will make the proper adjustments for our next event.

In addtion to our normal awards, we had 20 special bonus one-time-only achievements for fun with a box of tokens and 40K-styled stickers for the winners to select from. We also had over 40 raffle prizes for a basket-style auction and that was a huge hit with everyone.

So, despite the crazy turn of events we had, 77 people is a lot to handle. To think BSA1 had 38 players, BSA2 had 50, and now we hit 77!!!! Our club is getting busy on fixing the issues we had so that BSA4 in 2013 will be an even better event than this one!

Army Domination Awards:

Black Templars: Jon Kissinger, Berks-PA Gaming Club: 43rd
Blood Angels: Chris Smoker, Mohnton PA: 8th
Chaos Daemons: Jae Jesudason, Alternate Universes: 3^rd place
Chaos Space Marines: Eric Cacase, 11^th Company Podcast: 5th
Dark Angels: Jon Sullenberger, Lancashire Wargaming: 7th
Dark Eldar: Phil Heinz, Brave New Worlds: 38th
Eldar: Matt Defranza, Alternate Universes: 1^st overall
Grey Knights: Ross Famous, Lancashire Wargaming: 2^nd
Imperial Guard: Samuel Duguid, Brave New Worlds (Imperial Guard): 4th
Necrons: Dustin Zachman, Mohnton PA: 40^th.
Orks: Colin Galen, Lancashire Wargaming (Berks): 14th
Sisters of Battle: Erik Lydon, Humungo Comics: 10th
Space Marines: Bob Evers, Grimm Open: 15th
Space Wolves: Dave Setzman, Brave New Worlds: 9th
Tau Empire: Dave Scarlatela, Brave New Worlds: 19th
Tyranids: Lovell Harmon, PAGE: 23rd

Top Overall Winner: Matt Defranza, Alternate Universes (Eldar)

2^nd Overall: Ross Famous, Lancashire Wargaming (Grey Knights)

3^rd Overall: Jae Jesudasen, Alternate Universes (Chaos Daemons)

4^th Place: Samuel Duguid, Brave New Worlds (Imperial Guard)

Top Sportsman: Thomas McCole, PAGE (Chaos Space Marines) 24^th overall

2^nd Best Sport: Bill Olstein, Snake Eyes Gaming (Space Wolves), 25^th overall

3^rd Best Sport: Dave Scarletela, Brave New Worlds (Tau), 19^th overall

Top Appearance: Chris Smoker, Mohnton (Angry Marines/Blood Angels) 8^th overall

2^nd Best Appearance: Eric Cacace, 11^th Company Podcast (Chaos Space Marines): 5^th overall

3^rd Best Appearance: Andy Miller, Brave New Worlds (Blood Angels): 54^th overall

Best Youngblood: Issac Nohr, Lancashire Wargaming (Black Templars): 45^th overall
Best Youngblood Sport: Nick Fitzpatrick, Brave New Worlds (Chaos Space Marines): 52^nd overall
2^nd Best youngblood sport: Alex Fulmer, Lancashire Wargaming, (Orks), 66^th overall

Berks Spring Assault 3 Rankings:

4 missions, 20 battles points max. 10 sportsmanship max. Appearance: 12 by judges.

* bonus: up to 4 max bonus sport, 8 max bonus appearance, and up to 2 Judge Discressionary points. 146 highest maximum possible.

#: Name Army BP VP Sport App. Total

1. Matt Defranza Eldar 76 7200 41 14 131

2. Ross Famous Grey Knights 74 5796 41 7 122

3. Jae Jesudason Chaos Daemons 68 6860 42 7 117

4. Samuel Duguid Imperial Guard 58 5400 40 13 111

5. Eric Cacace Chaos Marines 51 5230 42 17 110

6. Mark Van Horn Eldar 56 4558 40 12 108

7. Jon Sullenberger Dark Angles 52 4100 42 14 108

8. Chris Smoker Blood Angels 46 3776 41 19 106

9. Dave Setzman Space Wolves 58 5200 39 8 105

10. Erik Lydon Sisters of Battle 55 5180 41 8 104

11. Michael Kiesling Sisters of Battle 58 4738 40 6 104

12. Steve Smith Space Wolves 54 3858 41 9 104

13. Gary Klinger Grey Knights 56 3328 41 7 104

14. Colin Galen Orks 60 6113 39 4 103

15. Bob Evers Space Marines 47 4171 41 14 102

16. Brandon Waldon Space Wolves 52 4598 41 8 101

17. Mike Mirobelli Space Wolves 52 4770 42 6 100

18. Myke Moll Grey Knights 51 4180 40 9 100

19. David Scarlatella Tau Empire 49 3878 43 7 99

20. Chris Opdyke Eldar 50 4460 38 10 98

21. Todd Roy Grey Knights 56 4300 38 4 98

22. Ben Leisey Chaos Marines 51 4075 40 7 98

23. Lovell Harmon Tyranid 50 3844 36 12 98

24. Thomas McCole Chaos Marines 38 2067 44 16 98

25. Bill Olstein Space Wolves 38 3908 44 15 97

26. Derek Aspche Grey Knights 47 3944 41 8 96

27. Darryl Hartman Jr. Dark Angels 48 3475 41 7 96

28. Marc Smith Space Marines 39 3129 43 14 96

29. Colin Kielick Chaos Marines 40 4100 40 11 95

30. Nate Snelbaker Orks 49 2235 37 8 94

31. Travis Stauch Orks 47 4700 39 7 93

32. Patrick Joseph Space Marines 45 3700 41 7 93

33. John Tinney Imperial Guard 41 3503 42 10 93

34. Jared Kunz Blood Angels 46 2710 39 8 93

35. Jeremy Webb Blood Angels 38 2300 43 12 93

36. Liam Power Space Wolves 46 5740 39 7 92

37. Paul Parke Tau Empire 44 4086 40 8 92

38. Phil Hienz Dark Eldar 46 3621 39 7 92

39. Jason Santiago Grey Knights 49 4978 40 2 91

40. Dustin Zackman Necrons 44 2623 41 5 90

41. Wilson Badillo Jr. Chaos Marines 39 3415 39 10 88

42. Jeffery Michel Dark Eldar 34 2180 42 12 88

43. Jon Kissinger Black Templars 44 1778 37 6 87

44. Kevin Troost Space Marines 48 4190 36 2 86

45. Issac Nohr (Y) Black Templars 44 5342 37 4 85

46. Justin Harmon Space Wolves 44 4176 36 5 85

47. Jason Bushore Necrons 36 1615 40 9 85

48. Corey Roth Dark Eldar 37 4787 39 7 83

49. Eric Bates Chaos Marines 30 3030 42 11 83

50. Tucker Stienmetz Chaos Marines 36 3011 40 7 83

51. Patrick Stelmach Orks 33 2910 42 8 83

52. Nick Fitzpatrick (Y) Chaos Marines 30 3368 40 12 82

53. Tony Spino Chaos Daemons 35 3000 39 8 82

54. Andy Miller Blood Angels 30 2410 37 15 82

55. Scott Thompson Necrons 33 1408 41 8 82

56. Forest Dougan Orks 38 2350 41 2 81

57. Micha Allen Imperial Guard 27 1950 43 11 81

58. Daniel Collision Tau Empire 38 1452 39 4 81

59. Ben Collins Space Wolves 30 1380 41 10 81

60. Billy Shoellkopf Space Marines 38 2819 34 8 80

61. Jeffery Ziggler Eldar 36 2724 41 3 80

62. Rob Morris Orks 33 2043 39 8 80

63. Jack Rosen Imperial Guard 32 1036 39 9 80

64. Mikael Neville Eldar 45 4000 31 3 79

65. Pat Sachse Chaos Marines 34 2210 39 6 79

66. Alex Fulmer (Y) Orks 33 3380 38 4 75

67. Lorenzo O’Branty Grey Knights 27 950 39 9 75

68. Akil Harmon Dark Eldar 34 2510 37 3 74

69. Andrew Di Rondio Tau Empire 27 802 40 7 74

70. Tyson Wise Tau Empire 32 2342 37 3 72

71. Paul Bates Necrons 30 3950 36 5 71

72. Tom Lazareck Eldar 27 1430 39 4 70

73. Buford Culver Space Wolves 30 2180 33 6 69

74. Brandon Blizzard Chaos Daemons 24 2638 41 2 67

75. Jayson Locke Space Marines 24 100 38 5 67

76. Eric Shirk Space Wolves 27 985 36 0 63

77. Bret Kieleck Orks 32 2499 19 5 56

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