Golden Throne GT Review

Random Tervigon eating a Grey Knight

The Golden Throne GT has come and gone, and let me say that it was an immensely enjoyable event. This tournament was the first GT put together by Rob Pace of Heroes on Paper. The event took place August 4-5, 2012 in downtown San Jose. If hosting his first ever GT was not enough, Rob decided to continue forward and be the first 6^th edition GT in the world even when it was unclear of how the competitive scene would look. On top of that, the store that he owns was broken into two weeks before the event, and the events that followed took up a lot of his time. Despite it all Rob put together a fun event.


 Scoring based on nine categories after the jump!

Pre-Event - 5/5

I do not recall how I found out about the Golden Throne, but I do remember that it was the same day I found $140 in a garbage can at work, and I bought my ticket that day. Why was I able to commit to giving up a weekend and some cash to drive to a first year tournament? Because Rob was so forward with his communication in regards to everything.

The website for the Golden Throne was great. It had all the details, and the rationales behind them, for everything I needed. This goes all the way to having the exact missions listed on the website a full three months prior to the event. Rob also utilized both facebook and dakkadakka to communicate. The only thing that was missing was a log of participants who would be attending.

When 6^th released Rob continued to be transparent and efficient in announcing changes. He also was very involved working with attendees to build a coherent FAQ.

Location - 3/5

I think we could have used more direction here. This isn’t really Rob’s fault, but he could have given us more info to mitigate the issue. Many players got lost on the way to the event, even those coming form hotels on the same block. The actual convention center grounds are massive, and so anyone who is trying to find the event will most likely just go to the main building. In fact I ran into four or five gamers wandering around this building looking for the event. This building doesn’t have any mention of Parkside Hall though. Letting us know the event is actually in a museum would have helped greatly, especially because there was no parking (especially cheap parking) in the immediate vicinity.

As for the actual hall, it was plenty big and was clean. The bathrooms worked and employees were present in case any issues came up. Rob also arranged for the hall to sell food and beer on Saturday which was great, though there also was lots of fast food within walking distance. I chose Subway both days (two different Subways to boot!). It was not overly fancy, but certainly not a trash hole.

Structure - 4.5/5

This event was win/loss to the point of the score sheets simply asking players to check who won. There was literally no recording battle points and no incentive to obliterate your opponent to score a high margin of victory which was nice. A win was 3 points and a tie earned you 1. There was an elaborate tie breaker system to sort out players with the same points that I believe has something to do with opponent performance which makes sense and I think I prefer to victory point collection.

My only issue was that there was no means of breaking ties within the games before scores where calculated. I can understand the arguments for this though so it is not a huge issue.

Missions - 3/5

We played every rulebook mission once and each deployment twice. This worked, especially so early in the edition, but led to a fairly linear (though fun) series of games. This could be improved by adding secondary objectives, bonus points, or mission tiering.

Judging - 3/5

There are some claims and accusations about judging in the finals. I did not watch those games and my score does not reflect that issue.

That said, it seemed only Rob was judging. If there was other judges neither me nor my opponents were not aware. Luckily, considering the new edition, this did not prove to be an issue. Rob knew his rules and covered a lot of bases with a firm FAQ, he could not though be in multiple places at once.

My suggestions here would be, A) get another person or two to help officiate, B) get a bright shirt for all helping that says ‘staff’ or ‘judge’ (this could even be generic enough for all of his Heroes on Paper events), and C) have a public clock (can easily be done with a projector) so that players can all see how much longer is left in time limit.

Terrain 1/5

This is the biggest issue and I am sure many who followed the event are already aware. There was a lot of Shrine of the Aquila kits without bases. There were some craters. One table had a pyramid. There was a huge lack of area terrain. I had to clarify before each game whether it would be ok for lurking gants to go to the ruins even though there was no first floor base to make them area terrain. I know other Tyranid players were forced to place Ymgarl Genestealers on the table because there was no area terrain. This was a problem. I know from facebook Rob was working hard on terrain and I know the break in put him behind schedule, but being in the Bay Area there are lots of events with terrain able to be borrowed. I am sure if a TO got a call from another explaining the situation they would be willing to share some terrain.

The skyshield gave this table more terrain than most.

 Less coverage has gone toward the actual physical tables. I appreciate almost all of them having a sideboard to place things. The actual tables were green plastic held down with blue tape. Problems included the plastic ripping, the plastic sliding (which did move models), and the tape coming undone. The tape coming undone actual changed the board dimensions. I played on one table where one long side was 71 inches and the other was 72 while the short sides were 48 and 50. At the GT level where movement is precise and game plans can involve exact distances this is a problem. I believe that boards on the tables is a near must for even RTT’s, so this might be my biggest issue with the event.

Edit - Apparently the green plastic is the result of the convention center falling through on something they were supposed to provide. Not sure if that is the case, but that is what I heard and to be fair to the event I though I should put it in.

Soft Scores – 3/5

There were none. Painting as a score was removed when 6^th came out as Rob knew armies would be changing. I am not sure how sportsmanship was handled. This was most likely covered on the website. It certainly wasn’t an issue.

That said Rob organized a Crystal Brush qualifier with Cool Mini or Not which included lots of prize support including a travel package to the finals, so don’t think Rob just cares about winning and not the hobby side.

Prize Support – 5/5

Phenomenal. First place got an $800 army of their choosing and a $200 battlefoam bag. Second got a $500 army. Third and fourth each got the Space Marine mega force. This is great prize support. In the team tournament two KR cases and a battlefoam bag were given as prizes. This is great for a first year event and shows Rob’s commitment to the tournament scene.

There were also door prizes and bounty prizes given out including four packs of varied primer and battlefoam gift certificates.

Turnout – 3/5

Back in May before when there was a chance 6^th wasn’t coming out until July or August Rob put on the website 200 would be attending. On facebook over 100 listed themselves as going, so with that in mind 55 was disappointing. That said, 60 is the mark I put for a first time GT, so this is not disastrous.

Swag – +2

Swag bags included four Secret Weapon bases and a free model, I believe from Zombie Forge. These were nothing to write home about, but it is always nice to get free stuff. Most of all it shows Rob had initiative and tracked down sponsors to give me free gifts. When you put it like that, swag bags are pretty sweet.

Final Score – 3.61/5

All around, I would recommend giving the Golden Throne 2013 a good look. I am positive Rob will handle the terrain issues by then and have even more sponsor support.