Sporting 24 players, the tournament was held once again in the Rolling Thunder format, with players getting in as many rounds as they could over the evening. Running till roughly 8 PM, most players played between 3 and 5 games.

Both seasoned veterans and brand new faces to the HOTT scene were in attendance, with some remarkably interesting new army concepts. Even some of the older armies were fielded with a facelift, sporting new elements and modifications.

The Warband/Shooters rules seem to be popular, or at least begrudgingly accepted, among the tournament crowd; though the proposed Sneaker changes have failed to drum up significant interest in the troop type. Armies continue to maintain a fair variety, with combined-arms leading the way and most armies fielding multiple element types.

We've noticed that there has been a pretty sharp reduction in the number of rule questions and interpretations, indicating not only a more widespread availability of rulebooks (more people have managed to acquire a copy of the rules this year than in years past) and a generally improved comfort level with HOTT within the DBA community. The clarity and definition of the rules paired with their retained simplicity and the flexibility of army design have steadily gained popularity among our DBx crowd.