It's Been A While

Well, like the title suggests; it's been a while

I've had a lot of things going on in my personal life, and as a knock on effect I haven't had the motivation to write stuff for the blog. I'm going to try and get back on track now and get more stuff written this year. Look out for gaming reports, photos of stuff as I get it painted, reviews and the opinions you've come to enjoy.

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Working on a Tournament logo

Branding is important, so I'm currently trying to design a logo for Baron Administrator Tournaments.

This is my current first draft, done via Inkscape. It's useful to give an idea as to what I'm going for. I've even found a Font for the text. Now to actually find someone skilled to improve it....

Quick(ish) Hits - March 2019 Assassins

Our first Quick Hit of 2019 is Index Imperialis Officio Assassinorum. As there are only 4 pages or rules, this will be a slightly more in-depth look than a regular Quick Hit.

Special Rules

Execution Force  
The standard way to add the Assassins to your army. It's been updated to still give you the Command Point bonus for the Detachment if it contains one of each Assassin.


Independent Operative 
Assassins can't be your Warlord or gain a Warlord Trait via other means. They can also Deep Strike.

Lightning Reflexes 
Their universal Invulnerable Save, letting them shrug off 50% of hits.

Elites  

Vindicare Assassin
A Sniper par excellence with his ability to pick out Characters and ignore Invulnerable Saves. He always hits on 2s unless he moves now, and can do additional Mortal Wounds if the initial shot didn't slay the target. He is much improved over the original Index version, but still has a 1 in 6 chance of missing the target, and then a 1 in 6 chance of failing to wound the target when he does it. The flipside is he is more likely to one hit kill lesser Characters when the dice are average.  

Callidus Assassin 
She does the least damage on the tabletop still, although she can be pretty good in melee. Where she shines is the Reign of Confusion rule. This potentially increases the cost of your opponent's Stratagems across the first Battle Round. With the FAQ change to Command Point regeneration, this can really demolish opponents that are reliant on a bunch of costly Stratagems during the early game.
With Polymorphine, she has a decent chance of coming in from Reserve and being able to charge a key target. She'll probably be gunned down the turn after, but by then the job should be done.

Eversor Assassin 
The melee blender, with the explosive centre, the Eversor is still a monster. Adept at killing elite units of single- or double-wound models. Killing Rampage increases their attacks as he slays models in the unit and increases their Consolidation move to keep them in the thick of the opponent's force.

Culexus Assassin  
The anti-Psyker, Abomination makes it much harder for your opponent to cast and deny powers by subtracting 2 from their tests. Etherium makes them hard to hit, although the weight of fire will still kill them.

Stratagems

Operative Requisition Sanctioned  
This allows you to add an "Assassin" to your army and decide which one during deployment. The flexibility of this, 85 points and 1 Command Point to have a toolbox of whichever Assassin you think is best against your opponent.

Priority Threat Neutralised  
When your Assassin kills a Character, gain some Command Points. A solid way of getting them back, though it isn't currently clear how it interacts with Tactical Restraint.

Double Kill Vindicare
After the Assassin shoots, it can shoot again at a different target. Great for killing multiple support characters in a turn.

Turbo-Penetrator Round Vindicare  
If you hit a Monster or Vehicle, do some Mortal Wounds. Good for finishing off a Flyer, as the Vindicare will always hit it on 2s.

Acrobatic Callidus  
Allows you to Advance and Charge, as well as giving your opponent -1 to hit the Callidus. Makes it easier to reach targets, while slightly upping survivability.

Supreme Deception Callidus
Re-activate Reign of Confusion for another round. Great for really punishing the armies with high-impact early game Stratagems.

Stimm Overload Eversor  
Have your Eversor fight again. This can let them make a mess of more units in a  turn.

Hypermetabolism Eversor 
Give your Eversor a 4+ feel no pain. Critical for surviving Overwatch.

Soul Horror Culexus 
Make nearby units strike last. Useful when your opponent gets to the Culexus in melee.

Pariah's Gaze Culexus 
Ups the damage of the Culexus' ranged weapons to D3. Good against armies like Thousand Sons.



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Baron Administrator Tournaments - Standard Star Wars TCG Events

As I and a few local players love the game so much, I'm going to rededicate some time to running monthly Star Wars the Card Game events again. These will be held at Dark Star Gaming.

I will charge for the events to pay for prizes, time and tablespace. This will recoup the costs of the prize kits I've already bought.

As I have a complete collection, this will allow me to experiment with different deck ideas and as there isn't a competitive scene anymore I can try really outlandish decks.

The event will be 3 rounds, as per the FFG Tournament Regulations, with no top cut and run as per the Relaxed tier;

"Tournaments at this level are welcoming to all players, regardless of
experience level. Players are encouraged to help each other improve and
learn, so long as it does not significantly disrupt the game. The focus is on
creating a fun and friendly environment. The Relaxed Tier is used for Wave
Championship-level events."

Price will be £5, and prizes will be drawn from our available prize pool. All players will get a prize.



That's the event structure I'll be using. Let me know your thoughts, especially if you are planning on attending one.

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Baron Administrator Tournaments - Standard Keyforge Events

I'm going to run twice monthly Keyforge events. While the event style and Prize Kits are aimed at weekly league play, I feel the time is spent better over two tournaments a month, one Best Of One and one Best Of Three. I'll be running these at Dark Star Gaming.

I will charge for the events to pay for prizes, time and tablespace. This allows me to keep ordering prize kits for Keyforge from Asmodee themselves, through G.I. Games.

Initially, I'll be running Archon Format, Solo Play, to gauge the player base and to see what they want both format and variant-wise. As the game grows and interest is shown I can look at the other ways of playing and talking to Dark Star about stock for a Sealed Format event.

Archon Format, Solo Play, Best of One

In the Archon format, each player brings a deck to the tournament. This deck must be an official, unaltered KeyForge Archon Deck that the player either obtained ahead of time or bought at the event itself. 

The standard way to play for both Archon and Sealed formats is referred to as Solo play. In a Solo tournament, each player uses the same single deck (that they either brought themselves or received at the event, depending on the format) for the entirety of the tournament.

Typically, each round of a KeyForge tournament is a one-game match with a 35-minute time limit. 

The event will be 3-4 rounds dependant on attendance, as per the FFG Tournament Regulations, with no top cut and run as per the Relaxed tier;

"Tournaments at this level are welcoming to all players, regardless of experience level. Players are encouraged to help each other improve and learn, so long as it does not significantly disrupt the game. The focus is on creating a fun and friendly environment. The Relaxed Tier is used for Store Championship events."

Price will be £5, and prizes will be drawn from our available prize pool. All players will get a prize. 

 
  
Archon Format, Solo Play, Best of Three

In the Archon format, each player brings a deck to the tournament. This deck must be an official, unaltered KeyForge Archon Deck that the player either obtained ahead of time or bought at the event itself. 

The standard way to play for both Archon and Sealed formats is referred to as Solo play. In a Solo tournament, each player uses the same single deck (that they either brought themselves or received at the event, depending on the format) for the entirety of the tournament.

Typically, each round of a KeyForge tournament is a best-of-three match with a 90-minute time limit. 

The event will be 3-4 rounds dependant on attendance, as per the FFG Tournament Regulations, with no top cut and run as per the Relaxed tier;

"Tournaments at this level are welcoming to all players, regardless of experience level. Players are encouraged to help each other improve and learn, so long as it does not significantly disrupt the game. The focus is on creating a fun and friendly environment. The Relaxed Tier is used for Store Championship events." 

Price will be £5, and prizes will be drawn from our available prize pool. All players will get a prize.
  


That's the event structure I'll be using. Let me know your thoughts, especially if you are planning on attending one.

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Baron Administrator Tournaments - Standard X-Wing Events

I'm going to run monthly X-Wing events, aimed at local players but welcoming anyone. There are two good venues for this, Dark Star Gaming and Antics Model Shop.

I charge for the events to pay for prizes, time and, in the case of Dark Star, tablespace. This allows me to keep ordering prize kits for X-Wing from Asmodee themselves, through Antics and G.I. Games.

As we have two venues, I feel now is a good time to try running two different formats for events, alternating venue each month. Hyperspace and Extended. This keeps the events different, as I will often run them back to back on the same weekend, and allows people to practice for events like the System Open and Hyperspace Trials. It also provides an event for the players that have started their gaming experience with Second Edition, and feel overwhelmed by the selection of ships available in Extended.

Extended 

"Explore all the starfighter battles X-Wing has to offer. The Extended game mode encompasses every component for X-Wing Second Edition, including the ships only found in the Conversion Kits. Choose a faction, then select up to 200 points of pilots and upgrade to create your squad."

The event will be 3-4 rounds dependant on attendance, as per the FFG Tournament Regulations, with no top cut and run as per the Relaxed tier;

"Tournaments at this level are welcoming to all players, regardless of
experience level. Players are encouraged to help each other improve and
learn, so long as it does not significantly disrupt the game. The focus is on
creating a fun and friendly environment. The Relaxed Tier is used for Wave
Championship-level events."

Price will be £7, and prizes will be drawn from our available prize pool. All players will get a prize.

Hyperspace   

"The Second Edition game mode is an ideal introduction to players new to X-Wing. This game mode includes only those components found in the second edition Core Set and ship expansions. Choose a faction, then select up to 200 points of pilots and upgrades to create your squad."

The event will be 3-4 rounds dependant on attendance, as per the FFG Tournament Regulations, with no top cut and run as per the Relaxed tier;

"Tournaments at this level are welcoming to all players, regardless of
experience level. Players are encouraged to help each other improve and
learn, so long as it does not significantly disrupt the game. The focus is on
creating a fun and friendly environment. The Relaxed Tier is used for Wave
Championship-level events."

Price will be £7, and prizes will be drawn from our available prize pool. All players will get a prize.



That's the event structure I'll be using. Let me know your thoughts, especially if you are planning on attending one.

Did you enjoy what you read?
Do you have something to say?
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2018 - 2019

It's that time of year when the Roman God Janus encourages us to look back at the year we've just had and to look forward to the year ahead. Following this tradition, I shall be discussing what I have achieved over the past 12 months, and what I intend on doing over the next 12. As I did this last year, I can also compare what my hopes were versus what I managed to do.

2018  

It's been an interesting 12 months.

I've been juggling trying to find the correct format for some events against working more events away and also some personal life stuff. This lead to me being a little hit and miss on things in 2018.

I only managed 50 posts this last year, falling 2 posts short of the 52 posts a year target. Failing by two posts isn't a huge deal, but I want to make sure it doesn't become a habit. Everything I said about the purpose of the Blog last year still holds true.

The Quick Hit series helped, not only to give me a regular source of content but to allow me to analyse all the Codexes as they released at a break-neck pace. Thanks to all the people that let me borrow books from them to facilitate this effort. I've had positive feedback on the series, so will be looking at something similar to replace it.

Local events have been a little bit wayward compared to my intended amount as well. Star Wars X-Wing has managed to be regular, but others have fallen to the wayside. This is far from ideal and something I seriously need to rectify. The Christmas Star Wars Day events was a success though, and so were the Store Championships.

I worked quite a bit with Asmodee and had a great time doing so. From judging at Nationals and Euros to demoing at Tabletop Gaming Live and Insomnia, it's been fun. The best bit is the colleagues, there are some wonderful people at Asmodee and on the Judge and Demo teams. I look forward to seeing more of them all.

I played more at my own events. This lead to those events being more enjoyable for me and let me get back into playing those games properly. I still have the option of building more fun decks/lists, but now when I don't I end up playing games against people on a similar level. The easy solution to get around claims of dodgy rulings on my own games is to not claim prizes. This leaves me only playing for pride while not actually denying people a prize. if it's a semi-important event and I do well, then the prize I would earn gets passed down. If it's a regular event, then any promos I would win simply stay in the prize pool.

I've attended a few X-Wing and Final Fantasy TCG events run by other people in 2018, but other than that mostly failed to play outside my own events. I have gotten in a tonne of casual 40K games as well as some Keyforge and a lot more MTG Commander than previous years though.

On the personal side, I have had 3 close relatives pass away at various points during 2018, an Aunt, a Grandmother and a Grandfather. Between funerals and my mental state around those events, it's been difficult to focus on doing the gaming side of things.

The lowest point was the Cornish Nationals. My Grandfather had recently been diagnosed with Terminal Cancer, and that weekend had been readmitted to the hospital. I debated not going to the event, as I wasn't in the best of moods, but it was for Charity so I did travel down with the rest of the Marauders hoping that the team's presence would help.

Round one, I got smashed largely down to zero evades present on my green dice. My red dice were hot, but I was only managing to do 1-2 damage a round versus losing a ship in return. A bit jarring, but whatever. I spent the rest of the round forcing myself back into a positive attitude, watching the games around me. Pairings for the next round were called and, due to a player having to drop out, I received the bye. 20 mins later, all my enthusiasm dropped away. With a lunch break due after the round, it was going to be 2 hours before I'd get another game of X-Wing in. I went outside for a break and an attempt at clearing my head, but it was too late.

I played the next round with the intention of dropping and did so. It wasn't worth forcing myself to continue to play a tournament when my heart just wasn't in it. I relaxed for the rest of the day and played in the Hanger Bay side event in the evening.

It's a sobering lesson; if you aren't in the correct headspace to play in a tournament, don't force yourself. Nothing is wrong with just hanging out and spending time with fellow players, and that in itself can prove to be a helpful escape. But the point to playing a game is to enjoy yourself, and sometimes outside issues will make that impossible. Don't play for the sake of playing, make sure you take care of yourself first.

2019  

So moving forward, it's time to put the bad stuff in the past and get back on the improvement train.

The blog will continue. I still feel like I have plenty to say and the written form is my preferred way of expressing myself. What I need to do is both promote the blog more and make an attempt to get more engagement from you, the readers. Currently, I'm basically putting my thoughts out on the internet, and I'm not getting much in the way of online response. It would be nice to see more comments from readers on the Blog, especially if they disagree with me. I want to see more alternate viewpoints on things, rather than come across as some sort of all-knowing oracle, even though I do give that impression some(most) times.

Local events need more work. I need to get better on the promotion side of events, as well as improving the visibility of my "brand" Baron Administrator Tournaments. Going into 2019, I will be focusing on running weekend events for the following games;

• Star Wars X-Wing
• Star Wars the Living Card Game
• Warhammer 40,000
• Keyforge

With these core four games, I can focus my efforts on getting them running monthly and promoting them across social media. I also want to use the Blog to help with this, putting up reports on the events. It's going to require a lot of discipline on my part, as well as a lot of time, but it should be worth doing.

More work with Asmodee is on the cards. I had to turn down a lot of Christmas Demo work due to the aforementioned family issues, but I will get back into doing it soon. I'm also on the Judge team for the UK X-Wing System Open in Milton Keynes. It's going to be a great opportunity to hang out with Judge friends and see some of the best players from across Europe play X-Wing. I can't wait.

UK X-Wing System Series Open - Milton Keynes 2019 

I'm going to continue to play in my own events, and try to get more gaming done in general. I enjoy gaming and have stuff for plenty of games that I found zero time to play last year, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to play more of them this year. Especially games like the Game of Thrones Card Game or VS2PCG where I keep buying new cards, but failing to find time/opponents.
I'll also try and reflect this in the blog, posting about a wider variety of games as I play them.

Finally, I want to try and get to more events run by other people. There is always something to learn from seeing what they are doing, as well as how the players are enjoying the event. It also lets me play against people I wouldn't normally see, in the case of events that require travel, or play games I don't normally have the time to play, in the case of Yugioh.

All in all, I'm taking a positive outlook on 2019. As an aside, it's kinda weird that I'm writing and publishing this on the 7th of January, exactly one year after the last one. Here's hoping I can manage the same thing next year.


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