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

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.