1) Scale - The last time I played, it was 6 players putting whatever the hell they could on the board. Frankly, it was a right, mess, and while it looked pretty cool to see such a ludicrous number of models in one place, it took an insane amount of time to set up and play a turn. Hell, that game didn't even really get very far past Turn 3. And despite the huge area we had available, the table was crowded as hell. It really didn't look like 2 skillfully wielded armies as much as 2 colourful mobs mashing together in a riot.
In this game, it was a 3 vs 3 battle, Chaos Marines vs Regular Marines + 2 Blood Angels (I was on the Chaos side), with each player fielding ~2,000pts, for a neat total of 6,000 pts a side. Big enough to be significantly bigger than a regular game, and small enough not to eat up an entire day. In fact, due to a cunning strategy from my team and a little luck, the game took about 5 hours, including lunch.
2) Organization - This event was planned flawlessly. Hats off to Wong for the insane amount of effort he'd put in to a game he wasn't even playing in. Over the course of a month, the players were briefed, army lists compiled, checked, strategies discussed, army lists checked again, minor battles affecting the main event were organized, strategies rethought, debated again, all contributing to an excellent buildup to an excellent event.
 |
| There was Photoshop and characterful trash talk, too. How awesome is that? |
When the day actually came, my team reviewed a plan that took several days in the making, deployed with military efficiency, and executed the plan magnificently. The result? By the end of Turn 4, the enemy was left with 3 models on the board, huddling in the crater where their Stormraven had crashed and burned, whereas the Chaos side had lost 4 units.
