With 2018 coming to a close, we want to take a look at how the Southern Tournament Circuit (STC) played out. Seven events, with more than a hundred players battled for supremacy. Here’s the breakdown and some highlights:
Vegas Crusade (Jan 20th)
Check out our Best Armies of article here.
To start off the year we hosted a prep-tournament for the upcoming ITC Major LVO. 27 players met to do battle. Armies ranged from Chaos marines of all flavors, to Aeldari by the score, to several Tau Septs, a multitude of Imperial forces, and even a Genestealer Cult.
Players used the LVO missions, though the secondary objectives were fixed. With one of our biggest turnouts, this was a massively successful event with players coming in from all over the state. When the dust settled, the winners were as follows:
Best Overall: Doug Henningsen with Cadian Guardsmen
Best General: Michael Walsh with Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines, Thousand Sons, and Chaos Daemons
Best Painted: Philip Kohrman (of Dark Bunny Creatives) with his Harlequins
40k Doubles (March 3rd)
To change things up, we held a Doubles event for the second event of the year. With 36 contestants (making up 18 teams of 2), with armies from Ynnari/Ynnari to Thousand Sons/Necrons, to Harlequin/Custodes. Some of the combos were terrifying to behold (such as the Double Ynnari team with it’s near infinite Soul Bursting).
An After Action Report can be found here for all the juicy details.
Best Overall: Hobby Town Low Rollers (Greg Steiner + James Hemstock) Black Templar / Iron Hands
Best Generals: BroPack (Michael Walsh + Michael McCaffrey) Alpha Legion / Thousand Sons
Best Painted: Philip Kohrman (of Dark Bunny Creatives) with his Harlequins
40k Tournament (April 14th)
Our largest event to date, clocking in at a whopping 36 individual contestants, ranging from T’au to Adeptus Mechanicus, Death Guard to Cadians, Tyranids to Necrons. Players came from three states (VA, NC, and SC) to attend this event. It was a monumental undertaking, with a surge in our pre-registration efforts (nearly selling out before the event even began!). But, without a hitch, we pulled it off as a crowning achievement in the STC up to that point. Mission Packet
Best Overall: Austin Wingfield (Wobbly Moddlers), with a perfect score fielding a devastating list of triple Cadian Shadowswords
–2nd Jeremy Knox with a nasty list of Necron C’tan
–3rd Chris Blackham commanding a force of Druhkari
Best General: Geraint J with Necrons
–2nd Jeremy Knox’s Necrons
–3rd Chris Blackham’s Druhkari
Best Painted: Philip Kohrman (of Dark Bunny Creatives) with his Harlequins
–2nd Jayce A and his T’au Yvvara battle suits
–3rd John Karuza’s Ulthwe Aeldari
ATC-Prep Showdown (June 9th)
Coming of the heels of our biggest event, we chose to model the next event after the biggest American Team event of the year: the American Team Championship. Unlike the event who’s name we were borrowing, this was a singles event, with 20 total players, but all of the army build restrictions and mission packet in use were the same as the Team GT slated for a couple weeks later in Tennessee. As it was a prep tournament for a major event, competitive lists were expected and brought to the fore.
A full breakdown of the Best armies can be found here.
Best Overall: Jayce Ackerman with his Borkan T’au
Best General: Rob Melish with his Sisters of Battle
Best Painted: Philip Kohrman (of Dark Bunny Creatives) with his Harlequins
Sun’s Out, Guns Out (Aug 11th)
With NOVA on the horizon, we used that event’s mission packet for SOGO. Seeing as NOVA does not use ITC rules, it was an interesting mix to see how armies that function under one set of rules react to the changes to true LoS, objective distances, and the scoring itself. We even had a Warhound Titan make an appearance!!
Best Overall: Chris Blackham’s Drukhari
Best General: Clark Welch with his Aeldari jetbikes
Best Painted: Philip Kohrman (of Dark Bunny Creatives) with his Harlequins
Warptober + Narrative Event (Oct 13th)
This was a joint event alongside of our first Narrative Event. A more low-key style, we chose not to use any particular event’s mission packet for this one. 15 players arrived, fielding all manner of Imperial armies as well as several Xenos and Chaos factions.
Best Overall: Greg Simpson with his AdMech
Best General: Doug Henningsen with his Ynnari/Bel-Tain Aeldari
Best Painted: James Hemstock with his Cadian Guard tank company
On the Eve of Warzone Atl + Kill Team Event (Nov 3rd)
Our final event of the 2018 season used Warzone Atlanta as a basis, taking from it army building criteria and missions. 23 Players took the field. Another popular GT, this brought in a plethora of lists all looking to get in that last minute testing. Several flavors of Aeldari, Sisters of Battle, and Marines of many types took the field. Concurrently, our first Kill Team Event took place. (You can see the AWESOME promo we shot for it here).
Best Overall: Clark Welch with his Aeldari jetbikes
Best General: Rob Melish with Drukhari
Best Painted: Cory Peterson with a stunning Spacewolves + Knights list
Conclusion
We’ve had a great year with the Field of Fire Gaming, the STC, and look forward to 2019 to be even better! Starting off, our first event: Bolter’n the New Year has sold out, with attendees coming from all over the state and beyond. More plans are in the works in the days ahead. We thank all of our attendees, fellow TO’s, and the staff at Event Horizon Games for being great hosts. The final talley is being tabulated as we speak, with the champion to be announced.