Toronto Registration – Now Open!

We are pleased to open registrations for this fall’s Astronomi-con Toronto event!

Our event format has changed from previous years, to a more narrative themed event. Event details can be found under the Event Rules menu section of the website.
Our schedule for the weekend also has changed so be sure to check that as well to help plan your Astro weekend.

We will be contacting all registered players for some additional information about their armies for narrative purposes, so be sure to provide a contact e-mail address when registering in the Special Instructions section if your preferred e-mail address for correspondence is different than that of the PayPal account you registered with!

On New Editions and 21st Century Changes

And so it begins…

Games Workshop has announced the 8th edition of 40k. Unsurprisingly it draws somewhat on their experiences with their (eventually) successful experiences re-booting Fantasy Battle into Age of Sigmar.

And, of course, a lot of people are losing their minds, preparing to rage-quit etc. etc.

One of the first things I did was read their FAQ on the new edition to get some kind of idea what they were going to do. The second thing I did was think on what this could mean – for our events, for the hobby, for my own efforts etc. The third thing I did was to call Christian – the fellow with whom I run Astro.

So – what does this mean?

Well, let’s take a (capsule) look at what GW has said. The game will be changing. This is a major rules changes that necessitates old Codex books going by the wayside. So – very strong game changes not just ‘tweaks’. GW is also breaking the hobby out into ‘Free Play’ (throw models down and shoot stuff – much like the old unbound, I expect), ‘Narrative play’ (build your forces in themes and campaigns from the 40k universe) and what amounts to Competitive or Tournament play.

I don’t expect Free Play to amount to much. By and large players like some structure. This might be okay for teaching folks, but I wouldn’t expect to see much more of it than that.

Competitive/Tournament style play – this is interesting stuff. GW is taking back the competitive scene from outsiders such as the ETC and ITC crowds. They will have their own lists designed for competitive play, likely limit over the top combos etc. This is very much going to change that side of the hobby. I expect a lot of the ‘broken’ stuff to get taken out. Those playing versus play are likely going to have to really learn how to play their armies. Broken combos will get fixed lickety split. Many very good tourney players will welcome this as it will really emphasize skill. – That is – if it turns out this way. This one – the execution is going to be very important. However GW has promised to look to the community for changes and feedback. It may take them time to get it right – but I think their hearts and minds are in the right place. They will get there – and the hobby will benefit from it.

For Astro, of course, well we’ve always been about Narrative play even while we put the aegis of a ‘tournament’ over it. From the very first Astro the crazy scenarios and the fact that people didn’t all play the same scenario meant that the ‘tourney’ style play we did was a very different experience from more conventional events. I think, at first, even we ourselves didn’t realize how much. Yet a lot of people embraced our vision.

For us – the organizers of Astronomi-con – we have a really unique opportunity. Christian and I are going to go ‘back to the drawing board’ with Astro. We are going to carefully outline our philosophies and, in the light of an entirely new system – we are going to create from Astro – which began as a ‘v3’ tournament long ago – an entirely new creation focused on narrative play, enjoyable times and crazy fun. We will still support our core philosophies of keeping everything above board and out front, crazy fun narrative story based scenarios and having people play armies which are as evocative of the 41st Millennium as we can manage. Within those bounds – we are going to do our best to create something new, cool, and hopefully totally unique – and fun as heck out of the new edition.

Change need not be a bad thing. With all change comes opportunity and this one looks to have a great deal of wonderful opportunity for event organizers like ourselves who have long had a hard time balancing the narrative and competitive aspects of play. With them neatly separated by the rules set, we can focus on what we do best and really try to create new adventures, battles, and wars in the 41st millennium.

Welcome to the New Age. Cadia has fallen. Biel Tan broken. A Primarch has risen and daemon princes stalk the stars. We’re going to take that stage, dress it up and bring your armies to it!

Astronomi-con Toronto 2017

We are excited to announce that Astronomi-con will return to Toronto in 2017, on April 29th and 30th!

We will once again return to the Best Western Plus Milton, the home of Astronomi-con Toronto for the past few years.

Registration for our signature event is now open! Please visit the Registration Page to sign up.

For those that had registered for The Imperium Besieged and have not yet asked for a refund, your registration fees have been transferred towards this event.
We will be contacting everyone on this list to confirm their registration status.

We look forward to putting on another great event for you all!

Astronomi-con Toronto 2016

We’re excited to announce the first Toronto event of the year, taking place on April 30th and May 1st, 2016!  We will once again be returning to the Best Western Plus in Milton Ontario.  Registration information will be forthcoming.

This event will be the traditional 1500 point tournament.

At this time we are working on plans for a second Toronto event later in the year with somewhat different format.  More details on this later in the year as we put it all together.

Toronto Registration – NOW OPEN!

We have officially opened registration for the much anticipated Toronto event taking place this July.

Spaces for Toronto are always highly prized so we encourage you to register as soon as you can to secure your spot at this year’s event!

For those players planning on bringing terrain to help with the event and/or wanting to enter in this year’s Best Terrain competition, please contact the Organizers so we can plan accordingly!

More details with regards to the venue and accommodations will be up later this week.

We look forward to another fantastic event in Toronto and hope to see you there!

Toronto Update

Registrations for our upcoming Toronto event have been coming in steadily and the event is now about half-way to capacity!

We encourage players that are planning on attending register soon to secure their spot.

We are also looking for additional sponsors for the event, for prizes as well as terrain.

Players interested in competing for the Best Terrain award are to contact the Organizers directly.

 

The updated Toronto manifest can be found on the Registration page.

Winnipeg Army Showcase

Dave Violago, a long time pillar of the Winnipeg 40k community, and multi-award winner from past Astronomi-con events has written about the most recent Astronomi-con Winnipeg tournament in his own club’s blog:  Fawcett Avenue Conscripts.

In this first article, he recaps and highlights many of the armies at the event.

Welcome To Astronomi-con!

Established in Winnipeg in 2001, Astronomi-con has grown to become the largest independently run multi-city Warhammer 40,000 Tournament in North America.  Events take place in Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver Canada as well as Dallas Texas which draw like-minded hobbyists from across North America to participate in tournaments with unique scenarios that celebrate and reward all aspects of the Games Workshop hobby!