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07/28/06
We're currently accepting army lists for the SAWS Challenge. The deadline for army lists is August 17th (this gives our comp judges time to validate all the lists and check the paper comp scores, as well as decide judge-rated comp and set up the first-round matchups). We've already had a couple army lists turned in, but for the rest of you - the sooner the better. :) Send any army lists to me at mark.havener@eds.com (mark.havenereds.com).
Also, I've got some information up on the main page about the FOW and Warmachine tournaments. I'm still waiting for the tournament guidelines for the Warmachine tournament from the organizer, so that will be posted (as well as a registration page) as soon as he sends it to me. But if you want to register for Flames of War, the registration page is build and ready to accept your submissions! I plan to have space for 20 players for each of these tournaments (any more than that and there'd be no room for Friday night open gaming). And I expect to have folks registering from outside (in other words, folks that aren't playing in the Warhammer tournament, but will be there JUST for FOW or Warmachine), so if you want in, register ASAP. Registration for these two Friday night events will be FREE for folks who are playing in the Warhammer tournament, and we WILL have prizes (generously donated by Great Escape Games).
07/10/06
Well, we knew it was going to happen, and it has - the SAWS Challenge is full! We now have 54 paid registrants, and we're at capacity. So we're running a waiting list. The waiting list is as follows:
Gilbert Vizcarra
Robert Hambrick
Roy Scaife
Michael Klasko
Patrick Burdine
Thomas Ma
Yukio Egashira
The waiting list is in order of sign-ups, and I'll be going down the list in that order if slots become available (i.e. people have to drop out or I figure out a way to cram another table in without reducing elbow room). I'll be looking at my floor plans real closely and trying to figure something out. I may be able to fit another table or two outside...everybody likes sunshine, right? :)
Thanks to all who paid and locked in their spots, and to those on the waiting list--if I can make room for you, I will be in contact!
07/04/06
Well, the SAWS Challenge keeps rolling along, and everything is falling into place. We now have 62 people signed up for our 54 player slots, so we're going to have a waiting list! The good news is that we only have received 47 payments, so only 47 of the 54 spots have been secured. That leaves 7 spots unsecured. If you have signed up but not yet paid, I recommend paying right away to ensure you don't lose your spot. And if you haven't signed up yet for whatever reason, there are only a few spots left open, so don't wait any longer--sign up and pay us right away or risk missing your chance to play in this year's event!
In other news, I haven't updated the website with this information, but I've now scheduled Warmachine and Flames of War tournaments for the Friday evening! These tournaments will start at 6pm, run 3 rounds, and WILL be supported with prizes! These tournaments will also have limited capacity, so if you want to sign up for one of them, email me and let me know. Also, while these events are FREE to SAWS Challenge participants, they're also going to be open to the public as well (a $10 registration fee will apply if you are not participating in the SAWS Challenge Warhammer tournament). We've got a strong local following for both of these games, so I'm very excited to be able to add these events to the schedule.
On Saturday there will be participation/demo games. I know one that will be run is Saurian Safari, a wacky romp where players take Victorian-era hunters into a "Lost World" setting to bag dinosaurs! Still a miniatures game, but very much a beer-and-pretzels, wind down after tournament games type of event. Should be great fun!
As a final note, I'd like to personally thank our sponsors again (Port City Games, Double E Gaming, and Gary Lane) for their continued support. It's been a tough year for some of them and I am definitely more grateful than ever for their continued support. Thanks guys!
06/10/06
Well, we're one week out from our early registration price deadline of just $40. After June 17th, the price goes up to $50, so if you haven't paid yet, get that money to me ASAP!
New registrations and payments keep trickling in, and we're up to 44 registrations. 27 of those are secured with payment at this point, so if you want to secure a spot at our tournament this September, better register and pay now. I expect we'll have to start a waiting list this year, and a waiting list is not the place you want to be if you want to play in the tournament. :) Our capacity limit this year is just 54 (so yes, that means there are only 10 spots left unclaimed at this point, and we're still 3 months out!). This year we're going to have even better terrain, even more impressive prizes, more elbow room, less complicated scenario and table rules, and that adorable Mr. Hunter as M.C. again, so what are you waiting for?!? Sign up today!
Registration is easy, it's a (mostly) automated process this year, and it's located here: http://sactosaws.com/SAWSChallenge/SAWSChallengeReg.php
We're also taking Paypal for payments (only pay after you've registered of course...I need your info if you're sending me money!). Links to Paypal payments show up after you've registered (and if you're already registered, there's a 'Pay Now' button on the registration page to take you right to payments). You don't need a Paypal account to pay us via Paypal...you can use your credit card and pay us that way. Easy!
05/17/06
Well, the tournament organization is marching along, and we're getting closer
and closer to the important dates. As of today, we're one month out from the deadline for the early registration price ($40). So
if you want to guarantee your spot and do it as cheaply as possible, send that payment in! And if you haven't registered yet, go
here and do so: http://sactosaws.com/SAWSChallenge/SAWSChallengeReg.php
Right now we're sitting at 36 spots spoken for and 18 locked in (read: paid). So while theoretically we only have 18 spots left of our 54
person cap, in reality if we have more people add themselves and pay, people who have signed up but not paid could get bumped...don't let
this happen to you! Give me money! :)
Scenarios and table special rules have been posted for awhile now. In addition, I've posted the revised comp checklist that we'll be
using this year. It's along the same lines as last year's system, but there are some significant changes, so make sure you take a look
at it when you are planning your army if your comp score is important to you. :) You can find the link here:
http://sactosaws.com/SAWSChallenge/SAWSChallenge.htm
I've been working on getting artwork for the t-shirts and securing prizes for this year's event...but there is a lot more work to go on
that front. Fortunately, since the bulk of our tables and terrain will be supplied by Double E Gaming this year (sechols@gmail.com),
that gives me more time to take care of these other items. :) If you want to see some examples of boards Double E rents, Email Shawn and I'm sure he'll be happy to send you some pictures of them! Just click
here.
These won't necessarily be the same boards we'll be using (though some undoubtedly will), but it'll give you an idea of what you'll be
looking at if you weren't at the event last year.
I hope to post up pictures of some of the items we'll be giving away as prizes as I receive them. Ditto on t-shirt art. I'll be calling
for final t-shirt orders in mid-July, so if you want a t-shirt, order it then (I based my order on what y'all order, so while I'll probably
have a couple extra, there is no guarantee that you'll be able to purchase a t-shirt the weekend of the event, so buy early).
I'm also trying to line up some fun 'after tournament' events on the Friday and Saturday. I'll post up more info as I have it available.
I'd like to run a small Warmachine tournament on the Friday night, but don't know anyone who can facilitate this. So if you know of someone
who can run a Warmachine tournament on Friday the 15th and is willing to do so, please contact me ASAP and let me know. Of course we'll have
tables available for pick-up games as well, starting late Friday afternoon (hopefully earlier than last year).
As many of you already know, Port City Games has generously agreed to sponsor us again, so they'll be on-site with gaming supplies and other
goodies for sale (including picture CDs again I hope!). Port City
Any questions or comments, shoot me an email and I'll do what I can to answer ya.
09/19/05
WHEW! What a weekend! Well, we had a couple bumps in the road, but
another SAWS Challenge is now officially in the books! First of all I want to thank Port City Games (www.portcitygames.com), without
whose support the event simply wouldn't have happened. And having the lovely Mrs. Lund taking those awesome pictures once again added
a lot to the event, I must say. I also want to thank Craig Hunter, Tim Hixon, Tom Van Dyke, Heath Hatheway,
and Brian Hinshaw, each of whom contributed enough that I have to say without any one of them the event wouldn't have been the success
it was. They did a fantastic job of keeping everything moving and the trains running on time (we were 1/2 hour late in finishing the games
on Saturday, but only 10 minutes late in getting the awards ceremony started on Sunday...as head organizer I think that is fantastic!
Everyone seemed to have a good time, and we've gotten great feedback (both positive and negative) that we'll be looking at to help us
make next year's SAWS Challenge even better than this one.
The two most common bits of constructive criticism we've had are regarding space at the venue and the combination of table-specific
rules and scenario rules. On the former, we'll probably use the same venue next year, but cut the attendees down to a max of 54.
this change would allow us to remove 3 tables, making it a little more comfortable. We could move to a larger venue, but believe me,
we've shopped around and this venue gives us the best combination of space, nearness to a decent hotel, closeness to decent restaurants,
and price. Larger venues have issues that we're concerned about tackling - a convention center room would be inconvenient to get to
and expensive - we'd have to raise the pre-reg rate to $50 minimum AND cut out some of the extras like door prizes, JUST to pay for
one of those rooms, and if we didn't get at least 60 folks in the door, we'd be sunk (and I can guarantee you that we'd lose some of
this year's players just from a $15 drop). A veteran's hall would be affordable, but again inconvenient for the players, and still
more expensive than the Expo Best Western. Other hotels are simply more expensive and don't give us more room (for example, we paid
almost $1500 more for the room we had last year at the Red Lion, for less room, and that was after much shopping around...downtown hotels
are much worse...).
The combination of scenarios and table rules will be looked at next year. We'll either drop all the more complicated scenarios or the table
rules. Probably the former, as the tournament being a 'Warhammer World Tour' is one of the things that makes it unique. But we've
definitely heard you, and this is one of the areas we'll be working on. I think one of the advantages that playing during the tournament
gives me as an organizer is that when something feels a little wrong, I feel it too (in a very personal way! ;)).
Some of the other feedback items we've gotten are things like too many advantages were given to Dwarfs (none of the 4 Dwarf players got more
than 2 wins, so to say I'm not concerned about them having had too many advantages would be an understatement! :)), players with personal
hygiene issues (I'm not sure what we can do about that, but we're considering giving away sticks of deodorant as our souvenirs next year! ;)),
and other issues like that. We may not fix everyone's concerns next year, but we ARE listening.
And as much as I've focused on the constructive criticism, the overall feedback was VERY positive. Of the exit questionnaires returned, only
ONE said the player did not have fun, and only ONE said the player wouldn't return next year. I think that speaks volumes for
both how well the event went and the quality of the players we had present (after all, if the players are a bunch of jerks, why would you return?).
So on that note I want to thank all the attendees - locals, Leadership 2 guys, Hollywood guys, SAWS guys, and CATS guys. I want to give a special
thanks to the CATS guys and locals who helped us out in the beginning and end of the tournament...that was awesome, and I think kept me from
dropping from exhaustion (especially on Friday when they screwed up all our tables and we had to sort that mess out! And we collected a total of
$379 toward Katrina relief, so I think we should all feel good about that as well!
The results are now up on the results page (http://sactosaws.com/SAWSChallenge/SAWSChallengeResults.htm), and we'll be posting up the actual
spreadsheet (and some pictures) in a few days. Congratulations to all the winners!
08/16/05
Added a new company to our Sponsors Page - Miniature World Maker!
This Australian company has generously donated a box of terrain to add to our prize pool. Those of you playing in the Flames
of War demo will have even more chances to get FREE stuff! :))
Army list submission deadline is tomorrow! Who will get their lists in on time, and who will incur a penalty? The comp judges
have been receiving lists steadily, but are expecting a veritable flood of them over the next few hours...
07/18/05
Well, our last set of changes certainly generated some comments! :)
In the end we polled a group of participants representing the big clubs attending our event, and let them decide what we
should do about Dogs of War and Regiments of Renown. The final decision is up on the Rules page, and basically consists
of opening up availability of 'normal' DoW/RoR units again, and restricting DoW/RoR units that consist entirely of characters.
Now these 'character units' can only be taken in DoW armies, which should make them less likely to show up, and yet gives a
little boost to DoW armies (which I personally like! ;)).
Another change that was made this weekend is that I added an Events Calendar. Before when the Events button on one of our
pages was selected, you got my temporary, in-progress page. Now we have an interactive calendar that folks who have events
that we should know about can add to! Hopefully this will prove to be a useful resource for both our club and other players
in our area who might like to know what is happening locally.
Okay, now that we have the rules pretty set now, we are officially accepting armies for the SAWS Challenge! Please send your
army list to our head Comp judge, Tim Hixon, at hixont@CRC.losrios.edu. Army lists
are due by August 17th (a month before the event, give or take) in order to give our comp judges enough time to evaluate them
(and send back any lists we find with errors that require correction). Any lists turned in after this date will be levied a
$5 fee for each week they are late. Also, we'll be charging folks if they want to change what's in their lists (mistakes are
one thing, but deciding you'd rather have unit X than unit Y is another!) after they've been turned in. Please make sure that
what you turn in is what you want to field, as lists that are late or that we have to re-evaluate actually cause some logistical
problems for us.
07/12/05
I've added a couple of things to the rules page today, so look for
that. In brief, due to some concerns that were posted to the SAWS Challenge yahoo group, the
tournament committee has decided to implement a change that was originally intended for next year--Dogs of War and Regiments
of Renown may only be taken by Dogs of War armies (with a couple notable exceptions, which are listed. This should give a
slight bonus to anyone who is actually brave enough to play a Dogs of War army in our tournament, and should quell concerns
about the seeming arbitrariness of forbidding Special Characters, but allowing single character RoR/DoW. On a related note,
Amazon Priestesses from this month's White Dwarf have been added to the allowed rules (for DoW armies only, sorry folks! ;)).
Finally, a small change has been made to our comp checklist, clarifying that Wood Elf Kindreds and Chaos Marks on characters WILL
be counted as magic items this year.
We do not intend to make any further changes to the tournament rules from this point on, and hope
that these latest changes don't cause anyone too much heartache!
07/11/05
We've had our 60th spot secured by payment, so we are at our tournament capacity now! Folks signed up but not paid are
now on the waiting list. I have updated the registration page to reflect the latest registration list *and* noted down which
folks have secured their spots with payment!
07/03/05
As of today, we only have one spot left that has not been secured
by payment. As the signups were already over 60 (and keep coming!), send in your payment today if you want that last spot!
Added links on the main SAWS Challenge Page and the Sponsorship page to the Indy GT information page. Follow these links to
find more information on the other great tournaments in the Indy GT circuit!
06/11/05
WE ARE NOW OVER 60 SIGNUPS!!! So if you don't
want to be relegated to the waiting list, better get your money in as soon as you can!
06/10/05
Updated information on the Sponsors page, including
a link to our main sponsor's website (finally...text link should be replaced by an image soon!), and added
text for each sponsor to give you some idea of what they're about. Also included thanks to a couple notable
folks who have helped us out--Gary Lane and Cody Johnson. Thanks guys!
06/07/05
Posted the 2005 Composition Scoring
document. This is very similar to last year's system, with a couple notable changes:
Removed the 50% Core item.
Loosened the missile unit item (changed from 4 -> 6 units).
Added a dispel dice item.
Changed the "two core units" item to make it clearer (and encourage larger blocks as well).
Updated the list of signed up players. Also updated the tournament rules to allow the new
armies from the Lustria campaign book, sans Special Characters. That's right, you
can bring the new armies, but you have to leave the Special Characters at home!
05/09/05
Updated the
site with the latest of our sponsors - Double E Gaming supply! Also
corrected some bad links.
On the SAWS Challenge progress front, we have
ordered all the trophies, and have secured a LOT of loot for the door prizes.
There will be more of both this year than last year, guaranteed! We've
also been working on getting prizes for each of the participation games. The
goal will be to have at least a few items to give away at each of those events,
and right now it looks like that goal is easily within reach!
04/26/05
Updated the
site with the infomation on the event for 2005 - SAWS CHALLENGE
V! New (better) venue, lower prices, more prizes...this year
should be bigger and better than ever before!
08/17/04
Updated the
main SAWS Challenge page with new information on the confirmed
demo/participation games. We've moved the Warhammer WWII game to
Friday night and added some Flames of War gaming on Saturday! This
is THE hot new historical game (15mm WWII...run platoons, or
even whole battalions!), so take part and see what the fuss is all
about!
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