Summer Slaughter GT was a 102-person Age of Sigmar tournament in Pennsylvania on the weekend of July 22. Traditionally, this event has made itself into the first major tournament to happen after each annual General’s Handbook release. It is a great environment that encourages tons of army variance and skill levels because people just don’t know what works or how to adapt to the new missions and secondary mission tactics.

The event took place at Saint Gabe’s Lodge, an Italian social club in rural PA, and checked off all the boxes for a great time.

Let’s start with a major shout-out for this table with a matched army. It was a giant cheese and meat table and their Skaven army was built to match! I am here for any and all armies like this.

The Pros

• Private event hall.
• Lunch is included in the ticket price.
• Beer on tap included in the ticket price (maybe problematic lol, I am curious about the total keg count for the weekend).
• Lots of Judges and staff.
• Great prize support and awards.
• Raffles.
• A charity game ran on Friday before the GT.

The Cons/Improvements/Out of their control

• Game schedule: Three-hour games made for a long day; I wish we started earlier. 9:45am. I wish Game 1 was bumped up to 8 or 9am.
• Lighting: Standard for event spaces, dark lighting, hard to avoid.
• Very hot: Tough to AC chill two different rooms filled with sweaty gamers … I guess drink more beer?
• Beer: Open bar? Good idea or bad idea? The jury is still out.
• Lunch Service: Put lunch out 1 hour before the games are scheduled to finish so people who finish early can get through the line when they are finished. Was tough getting 100 people through a buffet line in 45 minutes.

The games were hot and fast-paced and tense! Sadly I failed to get many photos.

Event Goals

I am constantly working on myself to establish and abide by goals for events. I too frequently get all hyped up and delusional and think I am going to walk out as the champion.

Goal: Win Best Painted
Goal: Have five great games, win or lose.
Goal: Help win our Club Grudge Matches.

Club Grudge: Our friendly rivalry with my club, Wicked Dicey vs Tough Crowd was in full swing. When there are 5+ members from each club in attendance, a Grudge is called. Points are scored in the following ways:

• Head-to-head matchups.
• Awards won.
• Top 10 finishes.
• Most points wins the grudge.

The Army: Frog Nation

My frogs continue their development and exploring their design space. This is the third and final version of their display. Each previous version just ran of out time and could not reach its true scope and potential. I chose the pieces for the army solely based on my favorites and best painted units for my event goal. So, game rules wise, it was not optimal.

There was an I Spy game attached to the front of the display for folks to try and find all the little vignettes and easter eggs.

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Day One
Game One vs. Skaven

We will keep this short due to some unfortunate situations.

Mission: Four objectives across both our back lines. You can burn an opponent’s objective if you control it for bonus points.

Highlights from the game:

• This was my opponent’s first five-game tournament and was using the new Skaven book that recently came out. The game was unfortunate due to some measuring inaccuracies and rule confusion. None of which was done maliciously, just what is probably more common than folks realize.
• Rubber ruler: This is when a gamer either measures from their models at a high elevation or measures a distance, removes the ruler and then moves the models with no marker for the spot. So, you are always gaining or losing ½ inch here and there. It all adds up.
• When there is a new rulebook and I do not know all the rules and my opponent is playing a rule incorrectly, I should have asked to see the rule, but when you are on a clock and already having some contentious moments…
• I made some mistakes tactically that I for sure learned the hard way on and won’t do again. The game resulted in a loss, 25-17. I know it would have been closer and or different with all the previous items corrected.
• I offered some advice and etiquette for my opponent moving forward. Hopefully, it helps them in the future.

Result – Loss

Game Two vs. Lumineth Realm-Lords

Mission: Corner to corner, objectives in each table quarter. Special rules let you teleport corner to corner.

Highlights from the game:

• As fate would have it, I got paired with my arch-painting rival, Martin Orlando, the previous Best Hobby/Painting boogie man of the Age of Sigmar scene. HEAD TO HEAD!
• Met in the middle, and got stuck in.
• Took one turn too long clearing a sneaky unit of elves, and got stuck out of position.
• The score was close all game.
• Ended 23-22 loss. Lost by not completing for armies Grand Strategy.
• Great technical game with pretty models.

Result – Loss

Another great opponent and exciting game! Tight all the way till the end. Turns out him sacrificing the weakest Giant was all part of a plan that I walked into … Got stuck in combat and out of position. The Giants won the long game.

Game Three vs. Daughters of Khaine

Mission: Five objectives, cross pattern in the center, compass points. The special rule is that no objectives are active at the start, each turn the player going second chooses one to activate.

Highlights from the game:

• Was given the first turn, as expected.
• Miss-measured my deployment so I could not shoot the targets I wanted Turn 1.
• Toed onto some objectives, keeping it tight.
• The enemy came to my lines and my screens were able to keep them out and counterpunch.
• Tabled my opponent, and got a bunch of points.
• End of Day One, 1-2.

Result – Win

Day Two
Game Four vs. Beasts of Chaos

Mission: Corner to corner, three objectives diagonally perpendicular from the deployment zones.

Highlights from the game:

• Sniped the Demon Prince Turn 1.
• Cleared his screens as he advanced.
• He got onto the objectives first so took an early lead and I was clawing back the whole time.
• Last turn of the game, I had the lead, but he could flip it, if he killed my last squad of skinks on an objective, I survived and passed my Bravery check to keep them around.
• We tied. Which is also wild and totally the way the game should end. Really great and back and forth.

Result – Draw

Game Five vs. Nighthaunt

Mission: Four objectives on both back lines, L shape deployment, each turn the person not going, chooses an objective to be the alpha, worth more.

Highlights from the game:

• First time playing the new Nighthaunt book. More familiar with them than Skaven.
• He kept two squads in the grave (off the board).
• Was given the first turn, shot off one-third of the threatening units.
• He charged and killed some stuff.
• I countercharged and cleared most of his units except for some heroes.
• Was able to spread out Turn 5 and force my opponent to bring on their last reserve unit to try and win a Hail Mary, which in turn, let me kill that unit and secure my army’s Grand Strategy.
• Result, win 30-24

Result – Win

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Results and Recap

I did my best to impersonate Andrew and end right in the middle. The final standings had me 52/102! One away from the exact middle. Overall a fantastic event. Many of the drawbacks were out of their control and just par for the course for a large, summer wargaming event. Great value for the price. They could easily charge $25-50 more a person.

Goals: I won Best Painted! It was amazing. I got to go head to head vs the previous painting champ of multiple events and from what I could tell was an overwhelming victory. Lots of compliments and people loved the display. Super happy it could blow some people’s minds.

Games: 4/5 good games. Nothing was maliciously done, just hope the player can work on improving themselves for their wargaming career. End of the day, it is a tournament setting, not a pickup game, accuracy and intention do matter. Ended with 2-2-1.

Grudge: We tied! Dead even tie. Despite crushing in head-to-head matchups our crew had fewer top 10 Finalists, but Best hobby and The Wooden Spoon award helped secure the tie, so never count out the “soft score” awards!