FoodMachine / Giving Back as Gamers - Please Read, esp. if in NorthEast

MasterMoulder is involved with leveraging our miniature wargaming hobby to give back up in the NorthEast.

The following is clipped from a post he made about it on dakka/etc.:


Here are the particulars for the Foodmachine event at Maplewood. Lets beat back hunger together!


1970 Springfield Avenue 
Maplewood, NJ 07040
            (973) 378-3839       


-11/18/2012
-50pts
-Up to 2 Lists
-Divide and Concur, Character Restrictions
-$10.00 Entry Fee
- 53 min Death Clock, CP Tie Breaker, Followed by SOS, AP Points
-1-3 Overall Winner
-Best Painted Army
-Smoking Boots
-Iron Man
-Fastest Castor Kill
-Lottery Drawing
-9:00am Registration, 10:00 Game Time
-paypal maplewoodhobby.gaming@gmail.com



Foodmachine 2012 Cheats

“Breaking the Rules”
At any point during a game, a player may donate a canned good to create an in-game effect. These canned goods are in addition to any canned goods that were donated for the registration fee. The following are the in-game effects that are generated by extra donations:

During your game, you may donate 1 canned good to:

1. Add +1 to your initiative die roll per can donated. Secretly decide a number of cans to donate and after your opponent decides how many cans to donate, reveal the total bonus amount and then roll for initiative.
2. Re-roll 1 of your dice. Each subsequent time you break this rule, whether for it’s for the same die or a different die, the cost to break this rule doubles. For example the 1st re-roll=1 can, 2ndre-roll=2 cans, 3rd re-roll=4 cans, 4th re-roll=8 cans. The cost resets back to 1 can at the start of your next turn. You cannot re-roll the initiative roll.
3. Force your opponent to re-roll 1 of his/her dice. Each subsequent time you break this rule, whether for it’s for the same die or a different die, the cost to break this rule doubles. The cost resets back to 1 can at the start of your opponent’s next turn. You cannot force a re-roll your opponent’s initiative roll.
4. Shift damage one column/branch to the left or right or shift grids on a Colossal/Gargantuan once per damage roll.

During your game, you may donate 3 cans to:

1. SATED: Trigger 'Shake Effects' on a warcaster/warlock or warjack/warbeast instead using of using Focus/Fury. Can only be used once per turn on one warcaster/warlock or warbeast/warjack.
2. FREE LUNCH: Give your warcaster/warlock an extra focus/fury point during the control phase. This may be in excess of their focus/fury stat, but does not change the stat itself. Your warcaster/warlock receives this focus even if other effects do not normally allow him focus/fury points. Can only be used once per turn.
3. DINNERTIME!: Generate 1 free non-charge power attack. Each subsequent time you break this rule per turn, the cost to break this rule doubles. The cost resets back to 3 cans at the start of your next turn.
4. REMEMBER REINHOLDT: Measure the distance between any 2 models on the board at
any time.

You may donate 10 cans to:

1. STARVATION: At the start of your game, force an opponent’s advance deploy model/unit to lose the advance deploy ability. Decide this after seeing your opponent’s list but before you roll for the initiative roll. Can only be used once per game.
2. At the start of your game, give 1 non-character jack/beast (non Colossal/Gargantuan) HUNGRY. HUNGRY adds +1 MAT, RAT, DEF, and ARM to the stat line for the duration of the game. Can only be used once per game.
3. GAUNT: At the start of your game, prior to the starting roll, designate one of your warrior
model/units to have Terror. Can only be used once per game.
4. FRIENDS IN NEED: Designate one Mercenary or Minion models/unit as a friendly Faction model/unit for one game round.


The following cheats can only be used once per tournament. Once paid for they are in force for the duration of the tournament.

You may donate 50 cans to:

1. Take one out-of-faction non character (non Colossal or Gargantuan) Warjack or Warbeast for your Warcaster or Warlock (respectively). This Warjack or Warbeast counts as a friendly Faction model. May only be used for a single Warjack or Warbeast per tournament.

You may donate 75 cans to:

1. Take one out-of-faction Character Warjack or Warbeast for your Warcaster or Warlock (respectively). This Warjack or Warbeast counts as a friendly Faction model. May only be used for a single Warjack or Warbeast per tournament.
2. Take one out-of-faction battle engine for your army. This model counts as a friendly Faction model. May only be used for a single battle engine once per tournament.



You may donate 100 cans to:

1. Take one out-of-faction Colossal or Gargantuan for your Warcaster or Warlock
(respectively). This Colossal or Gargantuan counts as a friendly Faction model. May only be used for a single Colossal or Gargantuan per tournament.


Foodmachine Cheats
Donate 1 can to:
1. Add +1 to initiative die roll per can.
2. Reroll 1 of your dice.
3. Reroll 1 of opponent’s dice.
4. Shift damage 1 column/branch left or right.

Donate 3 cans to:
1. Free shake effect.
2. Get an extra focus/fury point.
3. Generate 1 free non-charge power attack.
4. Measure the distance between 2 models.

Donate 10 cans to:
1. Force an opponent model/unit to lose
Advance Deploy.
2. Give 1 non-character jack/beast Hungry (+1
MAT, RAT, DEF, and ARM).
3. Give 1 model/unit terror.
4. Merc/Minion becomes Faction for 1 rnd.

I just spoke to our food pantry, St. James Church in Woodbridge New Jersey. They are very grateful for our assistance in trying to rebuild their food pantry was is very low. This church and pantry had inherited 250 homeless families prior to the Hurricane, and are now trying to help those individuals out. With the economy being the way it is, donations are also low. Any help they can get would really help, especially with Hurricane relief. I will be contacting the pantry to see if they have a PayPal account so those that want to contribute can, even if they are not able to make our event.
Also, a commission painter is trying to work on a model for our event to auction off, which all the proceeds will go to the pantry. Hopefully he can make it!
Spread the word! 

 For those that can't make the event, and would like to donate cash to the pantry, you can. However, they don't have a paypal account so you will have mail checks in: 

St. James Church
"Social Concerns"
148 Greenville Street
Woodbridge, NJ 07095 

No reason you can't give back ... even if it's sending a check for a little bit of good will to the Church directly.

This was scheduled to post last week, but I fudged it up and so it's only posting today ... Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays, and prayers/thoughts (depending or your persuasion or lack thereof) for those hard hit in the NE.

Deeper Dive - Internet Army Balance Whines

So, I'm going to go off the top of my head here a little bit.

In August/Sep, Space Wolves won the NOVA Open 6th Ed; foot Dark Eldar, screamer/flamer Daemons, mix-and-match Necrons and Sisters all came exceptionally close to being the winners instead

In October, Grey Knights won the Battle for Salvation 6th Ed, against Eldar in the final; Tyranids and old Chaos placed among the highest, with Nids as 2nd Generalship

In late October, Daemons won the Feast of Blades 6th Ed, handily

In November, Grey Knights won DaBoyz GT, with Tau/Eldar at 2nd, pure CSM at 3rd, and Cron Air as Best General
On the same day in November, Orks won the 11th Company GT (all of these events are at least 64 players, btw, and nationally or internationally attended), over Tyranid in the final

Can we please stop freaking out about the game being broken or needing comp? Good players win with good lists, and every codex can put out at least a good list or two with that codex as the Primary Detachment.

What needs to be understood is that people will still always choose to take extreme builds in 40k. Extreme builds are much more difficult for some codices/lists to deal with, and much EASIER for others to deal with. They are a gamble, and it's INHERENT to Warhammer 40,000, and always has been. Just as Draigowing and Nob Bikers and other lists were natural gambles in 5th Edition (while lists like Strakenguard and Coteaz GK were more natural "balanced" lists), screamer/flamer spam and Cron Air are gambles in 6th Edition.

Certain tournament formats also ENCOURAGE GAMBLING, which isn't a criticism. It's just natural that the points level, mission format, scoring systems, etc., all contribute to what lists are slightly better or worse (note: slightly, these things only impact the game but so much) over a given weekend. If taking a loss but crushing a bunch of people is rewarded, people will take gamble lists more frequently. If winning is winning and it's not valued beyond that, you'll see less gamble lists.

Either way, understand please that a) a HUGE variety of codices are performing well AND winning at the GT level already into this edition, and b) No matter what you try to do to the game, nothing will ever stop people from bringing list STYLES that suit them - big crazy swing for the fences rock-paper-scissors gambles, or all-comers balanced builds that trade max battle points for min losses.

I'm not prone to all too many list-build "this is great and you're bad" articles, but I'd happilyrespond to e-mailed requests with lists that can tackle all of these types of gamble lists at a tournament (or go toe to toe with them). Just understand that 6th Edition is still the wild wild west ... your local playgroup is NOT the be-all and end-all of what's good and not in the game ... and there's a MILLION ways to play a game that's by nature heterogeneous. There isn't one set points level by game design, there isn't one set army build per codex, and now there are literally dozens of competitive "codices" due to the allies system.

To give an explanatory strawman here, by the way - if I brought a guard list with nothing but as many flamers as I could possibly afford, I'd TOTALLY WRECK an ork foot horde without vehicles. That Ork player might come out of it going "there was no way for me to beat that list!!!!" Well, true. But no one would claim it's a good list, because there are a ton of bad match-ups for it. The same is true to an obviously lesser extent for some of the extreme builds out there right now. Points levels only impact WHAT the extreme build is or may be. One way or another, if someone brings a hammer to deal with any problem he runs into, he'll seem ridiculously well-equipped if he only runs into problems he can solve, but will instantly fade into obscurity if he goes up against a problem he CAN'T solve with just a hammer. Toolkits are always relevant and useful, but less flashy and less overwhelming when they work. Yada yada.

In short, internets, chillax ... the evidence is mounting that you're WRONG about certain codices or armies being unbeatable and/or totally broken ... and yeah, I'm specifically looking at anyone losing their mind about Daemons or Cron Air.

Quick Congrats - NOVA's Finest Rocking at National GT's

Four friends and NOVA Volunteers headed to a couple of different GT's this weekend, and I wanted to give both them and the GT organizers props.

Andrew Gonyo and Eric Hoerger went to DaBoyz GT. Andrew won the whole thing, and Eric placed highly while going 4-1-1.

James Watkins and Jon Pryts went to the 11th Company GT. James won the whole thing, and Jon placed highly, going 4-2 in the top bracket alongside James.

Congrats to four great people on representing themselves and the DC area well at two of the finest and best-run GT's in the nation. Congrats to DaBoyz and 11th Co on another successful year.

More blog content coming later today!

Indy Open Announcement

From Garrett Hunter and the Indy Open Crew (primarily The Back 40k crew)

We are happy to announce that The Indy Open (a Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament) will be held in Indianapolis, on March 2nd-3rd 2013!
We will have a 1750 point 64-man, 6 round win/loss Grand Tournament, with Separate prizes for the best Painted army, Best General, and Renaissance Man (best combined Paint and Generalship).
There is a three color painting minimum for the Indy Open tournament.

Best General and Renaissance Man will receive invitations to the Nova Invitational Tournament  and a $250 Visa Gift Card!!


The  format will be a Win-loss style (like NOVA Open) utilizing Adepticon primer missions and Adepticon set up.  There will be prizes for the top person in each of the W/L brackets (3-1, 2-2, 1-3, 0-4) after round 4, as well as other door prizes totaling more than $2000.

On Saturday, March 2nd we will have 4 games, followed by two games on Sunday for the final 8 in the championship round, or 7 other tournament events. 

Your registration includes free entry into any second day tournament (except the championships).  Any second day tournament may also be purchased as a stand alone event for non-GT players.

Registration fees will be as follows:
$50 Pre-registration (Nov. 1st through Dec 31st)
(The first 24 pre-registered players will be put in drawings for 5 prizes to include Adepticon badges, 40k prizes, and even a Warhammer 40k battleforce)
$55 Early Registration (Jan. 1st through Feb. 24th)
$60 At the Door Registration (if slots are available)
$10 2nd Day Events  Any second day event if not registered for the Grand Tournament. (Except the Championships){Free with GT registration}
$ 5 Non tournament Badge Allow anyone not playing in any paid event to participate in demo games, open miniature gaming, free tournaments, utilizing the board gaming library, browse vendor hall, etc.
There will also be non-miniature wargaming available starting March 2nd in a separate room of the hotel to include: 2 Magic the Gathering tournaments, Warhammer Invasion, Star Wars X-Wing, Netrunner, Board Gaming, ETC.     (See non-miniature wargaming page)