I just checked out the 11th Company Podcast site: the episode (#93) where I was interviewed on has been posted. It’s a joint interview, where, as I mentioned in last week’s Halloween post, Nathan, Teri and I all talk about how we conceptualised, organised and ran last year’s Massacre On Isstvan V tournament-ish event. 
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Tournaments
All posts tagged Tournaments
Point 1: I was at a Warhammer / 40k tournament last weekend, and one of the participants I know (and who is planning on running a tournament in the not-too-far future) was asking how I felt about lending a hand with his tournament in some capacity or other.
Point 2: On Facebook, I ended up get bogged down in an internet argument lengthy debate with one of the JadedGamerCast’s regular commentors pundits who also follows their podcast, all regarding the place of randomness in the Warhammer games. I try not to engage in such stupidity as internet-fighting, but his comment on what a bad idea it was to make it possible that randomness in the game could still result in you losing, despite your “playing a perfect game” really set me off. That attitude just ignites me: for me, denying that random factors have a place in a battle or game is akin to denying that different troops from different nations/armies can be of different calibres of ability.
Today on Bell of Lost Souls, one of Warhammer 40,000’s bigger fans, Thomas R. (a.ka. Goatboy), inadvertently illustrated just what is wrong with both 40k’s players and 40k’s makers.
Lets Take a Look:
So I just got home from Great White, and there were close to a dozen people ( ! ) there to play in the Week One of the 14th Black Crusade lead-up event (running in the store each week this month). A dozen people! I’m pretty pleased with that; also, everyone seemed pretty jazzed about the perks they got just for showing up to play. I think the re-roll tokens are going to be a hit.
Above, I’ve posted the Special Event cards that will be raffled off at Great White on their Thursday-40k nights (the tables open up for play at 4:30 and people start showing up between then and 5:30; gaming continues until the mall closes at 9pm). The way it’s working is: everyone gets a raffle ticket when they play a game (whether they’ve registered already for the tournament or not), and if they win their game they get a second raffle ticket.
Because 40k is being supported by Great White on both Thursday nights and Saturdays in June, raffle tickets will be handed out on both days, making each week’s draw for the Special Event card happen at the start of the next Thursday 40k-gaming night. Before any games begin that Thursday, a ticket will be pulled from the raffle pile and the winner gets that week’s Special Event card –provided he’s now registered in the tournament; if he isn’t yet registered, a new ticket will be drawn. All tickets drawn that night will be thrown out.
I’m in favour of handling the raffle this way as it doesn’t discourage people from registering later on; if some one has been playing in the lead up all month and finally registers in the last week, he’ll have all those tickets from the previous game already in the raffle box to ensure he still has an okay chance of winning a Special Event card. I’ve always liked formats that focus on being inclusive (rather than exclusive) and think handling the raffling of the special cards this way will encourage more people to participate.
You’ll also notice that some of the cards have added benefits if played in the Rubicon Straits battle zone of the tournament; this is where the Sector passes come in to play. The Sector Passes help ensure that those with Special Event cards in Round One are able to play their cards in the system they’ve fought in all month (at Great White, the system is the Rubicon Straits). If too many people all play their Sector Pass on Round One, preference will be given first to those with Special Event cards, second to maximize on good-evil pairings, and third to maximize variety.
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, everyone showing up to play in the lead-up games gets a Re-Roll token. And they get one each week they show up (and that’s the maximum per week: ONE). The Re-Roll token allows a player to re-roll (duh!) a single D6 roll during any game played during the lead-up event or during the tournament. I’ve decided to go with a ruling that a maximum of THREE tokens can be brought to the tournament –just in case any players end up playing at both Great White and the Games Workshop in Chinook mall (or GW & Myth, or …you get the point).
Tomorrow or the next day, I’ll touch on the grudge matches we’ll be allowing in Round One of the tournament, where players can opt to choose their opponent in the first round of the tournament. Also, the classic Saturday-night mixer at the tournament will be running a Battlefleet Gothic game that will have in-game repercussions on the tournament’s Sunday games. We’ll be providing a certain amount of stuff, so owning your own BFG stuff will NOT be a prerequisite to playing some ‘Gothic.
Until then….
For those who haven’t scoured the players pack, we’ll be doing some lead-up events in the weeks preceding the tournament weekend. Two Games Workshop locations: GW Chinook Mall in Calgary and GW Kingsway Garden Mall in Edmonton will be running lead-up games throughout June. Also, the independent retailers, Great White Entertainment and Myth Games (both in Calgary) will be doing likewise.
So what’s the deal with these lead-up games?
Sneak Attack!
All the games being played ahead of the tournament represent the initial skirmishes being fought before the hostilities fully erupt. These battles give those playing a pro-Chaos army (the tournament refers to these as the Forces of Destruction) a chance to get a head start in the campaign: all victories scored by these factions will lower the initial degree of Imperial control in a select few sectors. Which store you play your battles in determines which sector your victories will count toward:
GW Chinook will be handling all battles taking place in the Perilous Stair (first leg of the Arx Gap: one of the less stable paths out of the Eye of Terror).
GW Kingsway Garden Mall will be handling the hive world, Chima Lomas, in the Nemesis Tessera sector.
Great White and Myth Games will have their battles affect the Rubicon Straits, a treacherous causeway that leads to the naval yards of Bellis Corona …and ultimately Cadia.
Tournament Perks:
Players can also gain tournament perks simply by playing at participating stores during the lead-up events.
Sector Defence
With their determining the initial defence values of three systems in the Eye of Terror, players will earn one Sector Defence card that will allow them to begin the tournament in the battle zone belonging to the store they played at in the lead-up events.
(I’m not sure if I mentioned it already or not, but this tournament will also be different in that tables will be clumped together to represent a battle zone. The combined scores of ALL the tables in a battle zone will be used to determine how much of the defenders the Forces of Destruction have destroyed there that turn. Players will switch battle zones pretty much every round so as to ensure playing the greatest variety of opponents.)
Re-Roll Tokens
Each week a player games at one of the participating stores, they will gain a Re-Roll Token that can be used either in the lead-up event or be saved for the tournament weekend. A maximum of three tokens can be earned by one players.
Special Event Card
Lastly, the most exciting reason to participate in the lead-up games is for a chance to win a Special Event card playable in the first round of the tournament! Even though there are six cards, only ONE card can be won per week: going either to a Forces of Destruction player or to a Forces of the Imperium player. This means not only does getting a Special Event card from the lead-ups gain you a cool ability in the first round of the tournament, it also keeps your opponents from getting one.
(True to the old Eye of Terror world-wide campaign GW ran back in 2003, this campaign will present opportunities for players to earn Special Event cards that can have dramatic effects on the campaign results each round. ALSO, some Special Event cards will enable players to take a special named character in their army for one round free of points cost…!)
I think the Special Event cards are going to be pretty neat. The way that [I'm hoping] they’ll help weave the campaign narrative together throughout all the rounds has me pretty excited. I’m also pretty excited about the way that players will earn Special Event cards: by fulfilling secondary objectives in battles –objectives that won’t be geared towards helping complete that round’s primary mission. I think the secondary objectives will create the feeling of “crazy” missions without forcing the missions themselves to become too crazy.
More info also at: http://conquest-calgary.com/
On Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28 myself, Great White and the fine folks who ran the ConQuest tournament in the fall of 2009 will be doing a tournament weekend unlike what’s become the standard style of tournament in these parts for some time: we’re bucking the trend and running a campaign tournament weekend.
Our tournament will combine competitive tournament play with what makes map-based campaigns so attractive to us gamers–namely, an atmosphere of fun and camaraderie , the feeling that our games are part of a big picture and the sense that at some point the whole thing could turn out feeling, well, epic. Basically, this campaign weekend is all about contributing to an adventure where the story is as important as the games themselves, where it is just as important to achieve victory for your team as it is to gain glory for yourself.
This is campaign weekend will not be a standard tournament where only your score is important!
Games will be driven by the narrative of the campaign; the games you play will be connected to part of a greater battle – the assault upon the Cadian Gate by the armies of Chaos and the forces of disorder. (The link to the full back story can be found at the top of the column on the right-hand side of this page titled, oddly enough, “14th Black Crusade back story”).
How well your team does will matter just as much as how well you yourself do; even if you lose your individual battle, achieving some of your objectives may help out your faction more than you tabling your opponent would.
I’m hoping that players will get into the mindset of the army (and faction) they’re bringing to the campaign and use this weekend as an opportunity to try something new with their armies — without being worried that straying from their tried and tested ‘tournament’ lists will result in them doing poorly over the weekend.
A Win is a Win is a Win
The other thing I’d like to point out that will make this tournament different is that for each player’s personal battles, there will be NO degrees of victory. A minor victory counts as tabling your opponent; a major victory counts as tabling your opponent; tabling your opponent counts as …you guessed it: tabling your opponent. My aim is that we can all play this tournament to win but won’t have to stress over by how much. There will be other factors beyond merely decimating your opponents that will create the points spread necessary to determine winners. With any level of victory counting as the same kind of victory, we should also be able to focus on having some fun: we all know that the best and funnest games are the ones that –win or lose– are close and hard fought.
My hope is that players will make lists where they can try a new thing (or few) without hampering their ability to place in the top five. I’d really like it if this tournament became more about generalship than list-building, about how you play your army on the board than what you put in your army while still at home.
Army Lists& Construction Rules
Though I’m still getting the player’s pack finished up right now, I thought I’d post this info beforehand …for those who want as much notice as possible.
Army Size:
All players will make up a list of 1400 points called your army core list.
They will also make up a list where they add an extra 250 points to their army core list (total 1650).
They will also make up a third list where they add an extra 500 points to their army core list (total 1900).
Apart from the 1400-point core, the 1650 and 1900-point lists need not be the exact same lists (ie: the 1900-point list doesn’t have to be the 1650-point list with an extra 250 points tacked on). Lists must be emailed to info@ConQuest-Calgary.com .
Submission deadline is midnight, Friday, June 18th .
Players should ensure that the rosters include all of the models in their army, the correct points values and all equipment, skills or powers upgrades taken (along with their proper point values). Army lists can still be submitted later than June 18th but run the risk of incurring a penalty on their overall tournament score and MAY be ineligible for the Best General award (called the “Ambitious Opportunist: ( faction name ) ” award in this tournament.
Army army lists must have the following clearly stated at the top of the page:
Army Type, Name of Player, Phone Number, Email Address
Points spent on: HQ / Elite / Troops / Fast Attack / Heavy Support
Army lists can be submitted in Microsoft Word or Excel (versions 2003 or lower), in Notepad or in Army Builder format.
Armies cannot use more than one Force Organisation Chart and must follow their most current codex according to this list:
Codex: Black Templars Codex: Blood Angels (2010)
Codex: Chaos Space Marines Codex: Daemon Hunters
Codex: Daemons of Chaos Codex: Dark Angels
Codex: Dark Eldar (2nd Ed.) Codex: Eldar
Codex: Imperial guard Codex: Necrons
Codex: Orks Codex: Space Marines
Codex: Tau Empire Codex: Space Wolves (2009)
Codex: Tyranids (2010) Codex: Witch Hunters
Other Army Construction Guidelines
- Individual units that may have multiple rules versions will follow the rules presented in that army’s codex. (Yes, this means a Black Templar Land Raider will function differently than a standard Space Marine Land Raider.) Please take the time to review the relevant codex and GW FAQs for clarifications.
- Forge World/Imperial Armor/ units are not allowed; however, players can use Forge World versions of legal unit(s) from their army’s current codex.
- Apocalypse-only units and/or Formations may not be used.
- The Vehicle Design Rules may not be used.
- Allies may only be used where allowed by a particular codex (i.e. only Witch Hunters or Demon Hunters may be allies, and only as per their rules).
For Inquisitorial Armies:
Imperial Guard and Space Marine allies are allowed. As both of these codices have changed substantially since the Inquisition books were originally released, use the following amendments to the lists presented on pg 30-31 of the Daemon Hunters book and pg 26 of the Witch Hunters book:
Troops: Space Marine Tactical Squad, Space Marine Scout Squad, Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon, Imperial Guard Veteran Squad.
Fast Attack: Space Marine Assault Squad, Land Speeder Squadron, Space Marine Bike Squadron, Scout Sentinel Squadron, Armored Sentinel Squadron, Rough Rider Squad, Scout Bike Squad.
Heavy Support: Space Marine Devastator Squad, Space Marine Land Raider (Crusader and Redeemer as well), Space Marine Dreadnought, Space Marine Predator, 0-1 Leman Russ Squadron (Pask may NOT be taken).
NOTE: Grey Knight Terminators may not travel in Valkyries or Vendetta Gunships.
Regarding Special/Unique/Named Heroes:
Special or named Characters CANNOT be used. Period.
…but there will be an allowance made for certain characters whose special rules change how their army is made up or who confer a special cross-army rule when present in the army(Like Belial or Pedro Kantor do). This will be covered in the upcoming Player’s Pack.
That’s all I’m going to go into for now, but I will leave all interested parties with the factions break down –for those with multiple armies who aren’t sure which one they want to play yet.
The Forces of Destruction: The forces motivated to destroy all bastions of the Imperium surrounding the Eye of Terror.
- Chaos Space Marines
- Daemons of Chaos
- Space Orks
- Tyranids
- Dark Eldar
The Forces of the Imperium: The forces seeking to contain Chaos within the Eye of Terror.
- Black Templars
- Blood Angels
- Daemon Hunters
- Dark Angels
- Imperial guard
- Space Marines
- Space Wolves
- Witch Hunters
The Forces of Self Interest: Those forces looking to their own goals and are willing to fight whomever they need to achieve them. They do have a faction they ultimately side with, included in parentheses after the army (this is done so that this tournament avoids becoming a six-way competition).
- Eldar (Imperium)
- Necrons (Destruction)
- Tau (Destruction)
I read this over at The One Ring forum (for all things Lord of the Rings miniatures gaming); it’s about a list a guy brought to Games Workshop’s ‘Forging of Fates’. I posted a lengthy reply and then thought to post it on my blog, seeing as how my opinion about this reaches past just the War of the Ring game.
The Forging of Fates
This tournament is the War of the Rings version of an ‘Ard Boyz tournament. As GW says on their website, “[u]nlike the traditional tournament format you may be familiar with, [one] that takes into consideration your painting and sportsmanship, the ‘Ard Boyz Tournaments focus on one thing and one thing only; how well you play the game! These tournaments are the place to field that nasty list you felt guilty about playing, or that massive horde army you couldn’t hope to paint it in time. . . . There are no sportsmanship or painting scores to hide behind, pounding your foes to paste is all that matters.”
Yeeeesh.
Also with these tournaments come considerable prizes; as GW says–again, on its website–for getting past the preliminary round and going on to win a regional semi-final the winning player “will get a 2,000 point army of the race of their choice and the 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive generous online vouchers for our Web Store. These top three Semifinalists will be eligible to attend the Finals. . . .[and] will compete for buckets of prizes”.
Here’s some quick War of the Rings terminology so the next part makes more sense: a ‘formation’ is War of the Ring’s term for a squad or regiment. A formation can be made up of one or several ‘Companies’ of 8 models–each Company is basically 1 movement tray: for infantry models, a movement tray holds 8 guys. No more than half of a single Company/movement tray can be made up of heroes, but other than that there are no restrictions regarding how many heroes can be in a single formation; and there are no restrictions on how many heroes / points worth of heroes can be in a single army. The only real restrictions are: only 25% of your army can be made up of allies, and once a Formation’s last remaining Company (movement tray) is reduced to half its 8 models, the formation instantly dies, regardless of whether its last remaining models are all high-points cost heroes or just rank and file models.
So here’s the run down of what the guy in question brought with my explanation of what it all means:
One Formation of six Companies of High Elf archers (360 pts). Added to that formation is every elven hero that has the Epic Shot ability [Epic Shot: spend 1 Might point to cause D6 automatic casualties to any Formation within 12"], so Thranduil (125 pts), Legolas (200 pts) and Haldir (760 pts) are added to the army. Also add every hero that can cast the ‘Command’ list of spells: Galadriel (175 pts), Celeborn (175 pts), Elrond (215pts) and Cirdan (75 pts). Added to this mix as allies are Gandalf the White (300 pts) and Radagast the Brown (160 pts), bringing the army total to 1860 points.
Why Gandalf the White and Radagast you ask? Well, Gandalf has Counselor [Gandalf spends 1 Might point to replenish 1-3 Might points of an ally within 24"] and Overlord [any friendly formation within 24" can use Gandalf's Might points]; Radagast has Epic Tranquility [charges may not be made against the formation Radagast is in]. Put these two together with another counselor (Galadriel) and you have an unwieldy amount of Might points that Radagast can use at any time to keep all enemies from assaulting them.
Elrond and anyone with Command spells can bring back the dead [Blessing of the Valar spell can heal D3 or D6 casualties]; also, because four of the heroes have Epic Defense, they can raise the Defense of their formation to 10 (making it very hard to kill them at range). Cirdan’s ‘Gift of Foresight’ ability [essentially a 6+ invulnerable save for every hit made against that formation] makes it even harder for them to be killed–and remember, enemies using their Might points to bump up their dice rolls is not really a solution when playing a game that is going to go on for ten or more turns: the enemy will run out of Might within the first few turns if using his Might for this purpose.
The three heroes with Epic Shot can kill 3d6 members of an enemy formation each turn and the casters are using the spells of Command and Dismay to stop anything that gets in their way with Light of the Valar [reduce the Courage of target enemy formation] and Transfix [on a failed Courage test, enemy formation cannot move, shoot or charge]. Also available is spells of Wilderness’ Nature’s Wrath spell [does D6+3 instant hits to any one formation within 24"].
With your 2000-point army’s last available 140pts, Arwen can be thrown into the list giving the army a total of 7 spell casters. Yes, this is a one-formation army, but it is SO resilient that this one formation went all three rounds in the Forging of Fates Semi-Final without losing a single company of 8 models!
My Rant
I think the ‘Ard Boyz tourneys are a step in the opposite direction for Games Workshop, a company that describes themselves–and the way they do business–as one who thinks long-term, aims to do what is right (as opposed to what’s easy), and would rather make regular, constant growth rather than quick rises and sharp declines. This army list above is a symptom of what happens when you offer HUGE prizes, demand no social graces from players and add in the phrase “anything goes.”
It sounds to me like Mr-Elf-Army knew enough rules to decide that if he were to bone up on the game a bit and do plenty of math-hammer, he’d have an excellent chance at getting GW’s soopa’ prize for winning an ‘Ard Boyz tourney. I haven’t met this guy, nor seen him play; I’m not trying to say he’s an all-around terrible guy (really, I’m not…but I bet he is!). For all I know, he could be a really nice guy, on the table and off. But lists like Mr-Elf-Army’s are rarely concocted and played by all-around great guys; even if I’m wrong about that statement, I do know what I think about the people who bring point-and-click armies (you know them, even if you haven’t heard the term: armies that practically run themselves, that even drooling post-lobotomy patients could win with; all that’s required is a warm body to roll dice…and possibly move the models forward). I will concede that it does take a certain level of skill to construct lists such as the one above…around as much skill as it does to make a killer deck for Magic the Gathering. I really dislike Magic the Gathering.
Full Disclosure:
I suck at MtG, deck construction and optimized army-list building, so some of my attitude could just be professional jealousy.
It seems to me that the purpose behind tournaments, at their most fundamental level, is to create and nurture a community. Some would argue that tournaments exists solely to sell more miniatures–it isn’t; but sales are the (some might say wonderful) side-effect of having a healthy gaming community. With all I’ve said already, I don’t think it’s surprising that I my opinion is that ‘Ard Boyz tournaments do nothing to create or nurture a community of players. Whereas I’m sure ‘Ard Boyz tournaments probably do create some increases in sales, I don’t believe there’s any honest enthusiasm for the hobby driving players’ involvement in ‘Ard Boyz. I get more the feeling that GW is endorsing Cold-War style escalation tactics rather than player excitement: ‘Ard Boyz aims to force people into buying more stuff (so players will feel their armies are competitive enough to win the final prize), and that mindset will do more to harm GW than help them.
Let me explain: there’s an old parable (or what have you) where the sun and the wind are discussing which one of them is stronger and decide to prove themselves by seeing who can remove the coat of a man, walking by below them. The wind blows as hard as he can, trying to blow the jacket off; the man bundles himself against the blowing wind…and the coat stays on. On the sun’s turn, he decides to shine as bright as he can; the man decides to sit down and enjoy the now beautiful weather and takes off his coat to do so. And the moral: persuasion is better than force.
To quote Princess Leia talking to Grand Moff Tarkin upon her arrival to the Death Star, “the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.” The more GW “forces” people to buy in order to feel competitive, the more people will decide to get out of the hobby–which is not to say that GW wanting people to buy more stuff is itself bad, it’s the way they’re trying to make people want to buy more stuff that’s bad.
In contrast, creating and nurturing a decent gaming community gets pretty similar end-results (sales and increases) but does so in a different way. The result of assembling a group of like-minded people together to take part in the activity all of them are passionate about is that enthusiasm greater than the sum of its parts is generated. I know I’m saying this pretty wonkily, but it is a truism: despite the fact that television and stereos exist, people still go to hockey games, people still go to rock concerts and people still go to movies instead of just seeing / experiencing them in the comfort of their own homes. And why? Because the social and tribal nature of our psyches relishes the shared experience that all these events give us. This also applies to games: despite the existence of computer games, console games and online MMOs, board games are still played. A lot. Indeed, they’re even enjoying a renaissance right now. The shared experience of a healthy, active player community does the same thing for us gamers, and tournaments are just one facet of a gaming community.
If Games Workshop was trying to do the “right thing” as opposed to the easy thing, they’d encourage as much community construction as they could. Instead of having the vitality and perpetual motion that communities provide, GW has thrown their hat in with their ‘Ard Boyz tournaments. which give the players ONE event, one where they are not asked to contribute or have a hand at creating long-lasting excitement, just to win. “Pounding your opponent to paste is all that matters.” The camaraderie, the excitement for creativity, the good-natured rivalries created by networks of players gaming together regularly are tossed aside in favour of a once-a-year spectacle that stresses only that we think about ourselves and give no consideration to others.
At their best, ‘Ard Boyz tournaments might give us a small taste of community, but that taste–all of us gaming in the same room for a day is fleeting: GAmes Workshop has no intention of going past their win-at-all-costs douche-fest. Is it GW’s responsibility to create a community for us? Not at all. But it’s in their best interest to not undermine healthy gaming habits. Encouraging play styles such as Mr-Elf-Army’s list above does NOTHING to help bring people together, and quite probably does a certain portion of harm to any community that is till fledgling. I know if I faced that player’s army, I’d be wondering why I was still in this hobby….and if maybe it was now time for me to check out. Heck, just seeing that list has had me angry at Games Workshop for FIVE days now and not at all interested in playing any of their games.
So kudos to Games Workshop: this round of ‘Ard Boyz helped them sell ten hero models and a half-a-dozen “Last Alliance of Men and Elves” miniatures boxes. All for the mere cost of cheesing off several established players-and making me want to throw away 21 years of loyalty to Games Workshop’s games. (And contrary to what they think about ‘veteran’ gamers such as myself, I have not stopped buying product because I have an army for each game). I’m having a hard time seeing how their love of this style of tournament is good in the long run, how this provides for regular, constant growth or how this is the ‘right’ way to promote the hobby, as opposed to the easy way.
Rant over. Sorry, just needed to vent.
OH THE IRONY!
More full disclosure:
It burns! It bites! It stings–did I mention my store will be running a 40k ‘Ard Boyz preliminary on may 15, 2010?
I think part of the reason I’m so upset by the abuse-the-rules-at-all-costs Elf army above is that I’ve realised that by agreeing to host an ‘Ard Boyz preliminary, I’ve agreed to shake hands with the devil. Whereas my motivation back in the first week of January for agreeing to hosting this was just to get the store’s name out there: so people who probably never come to my mall (which is often perceived as being at the far south tip of Calgary–which it may have been back in the late seventies but certainly hasn’t been for some time now), who might not even know of the store’s existence might actually have us register on their radars through GW’s promoting the tournament in White Dwarf and on their website.
After seeing the above War of the Rings list, I’m realising just what level of assholery is inside the realm of possibilities for me to expect on May 15th. Ugh. Already the store has had one of the more…ahem ” ‘Ard ” players from past tournaments phone us repeatedly trying to be the first to sign up for May 15th. When he was told we’re not yet taking registrations, he demanded we phone him the moment we start accepting players; just last night he phoned the store repeatedly after we were closed–eight times in a row, to be precise (we don’t answer our phones while doing closing procedures)–presumably to, again, be first on the ‘Ard Boyz list. the more I think about this, the closer we get to May 15th, the more I just want to pull out of doing this ‘Ard Boyz preliminary round.
I feel like the price of this tournament is my dignity.
Quick edit: looks like I’m not the only one with disdain for ‘Ard Boyz.
Well, looks like it’s painting competition time again!
I was striving to get something going for March fifteenth, but with my running the Rolling Thunder tournament for Warhammer 40,000 and with getting prepared for my shop’s attendance at Cal-Con this year, a March painting competition just wasn’t in the books.
Ah well. Mayday has as much ring to it as Ides of March.
This competition will follow the same format as the previous ones I’ve run: two categories determined by model size where models from the three main Games Workshop systems will be judged against each other along with a third category for inexperienced hobbyists. The departure this time will be the addition of a staff-painted models category. All those who enter will be allowed to judge (through voting) the models submitted by the store staff. From the sounds of it, all the staffers want to paint up larger models, so I need to figure out what I have that’s of comparable size to what they’re all talking about; there’s no point in submitting a Sartosan Vampire three contenders are talking about Carnifexes, Steam Tanks and Carnosaurs.
I have a few things in the works: Buhrdur (Angmar Troll chieftain from Lord of the Rings). an Eldar Falcon grav tank, a Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought and Gulavhar (again from Angmar-Lord of the Rings). Both Buhrdur and my grav tank are about 25% done, while Gulavhar and my Venerable Dreadnought are just past the gap-filling stage. I’ll have to make up my mind pretty quickly as to which model will be my entry. (And if I really have my act together, perhaps I’ll even do some work in progress posts!)
Rolling Thunder Results
On the sixth of March, 2010, I ran my fourth tournament put on by Great White. Rolling Thunder was the store’s second Warhammer 40k tourney (and my third one which had custom scenarios whose aim was to give players two challengers in the each game they played: the player opposite them at the table and that scenario’s victory conditions). All in all, things went extremely well: despite being the consummate procrastinator, I’m managing to get more and more organised with each passing tournament (I’ve left the realm of ‘simply embarrassing’ far behind and can now be solidly ranked among those ‘a tad disorganised’); I’m also still managing to avoid gaining enemies in real life due to the tournament missions I put the players through.
This time through, we had twelve players: eleven registered plus a ringer spot (which was occupied by a couple of friends who helped me once I realised I was in a jam: twelfth player had registered quite early on and then summarily dropped off the face of the earth–and I hadn’t figured it out until a couple of days before the tournament). Still, things went off pretty smoothly, even with the mall stealing some of our tables first thing in the morning!
PLAYER LIST
Player – Army
1. Kevin K. — White Scars Marines
2 . Trevor B. — Space Wolves
3 . Jason H. — Eldar
4 . Rob D. — Tyranids
5 . Scott S. — Space Wolves
6 . Mike D. — Tyranids
7 . Alem A. — Salamanders Marines
8 . Nick G. — Chaos Marines
9 . Ryan F. — Necrons
10. Conor M. — Khorne Marines
11. Peter H. — Ultra Marines
–an okay variety of armies but still a bit too Marine-heavy for my tastes. Despite that, I am pleased that every list was distinctly different from every other list.
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- Kevin K.
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- Trevor B.
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- Jason H.
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- Rob D.
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- Scott S.
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- Mike D.
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- Alem A.
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- Nick G.
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- Ryan F.
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- Conor M.
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- Peter H.
Again, I’m very pleased with all the work put into the armies that took part in Rolling Thunder; the players that keep showing up for the tournaments I run are doing a lot to claw back the poor reputation that ( in my experience) a bulk of 40k players have established: namely that 40k players care more about gaming than they do gaming with good-looking armies.
Let me explain that comment. During my five-year tenure at Games Workshop, from the GW staff down, I had noticed Fantasy players always tended to have their armies fully painted while 40k players’ armies–who, I might add, had less models–tended to be works in progress…or painted only to the barest of minimums. I had even been to a couple of the annual staff tournaments (held for all the Ontario staff and cell managers, plus one staffer from each province); both years I went, there were one–maybe two–armies that showed up being either bare plastic/metal or primer only–and remember this was a staff tournament during the era of “you can’t play in a GW store if your army isn’t completely painted–invariably the offending armies were 40k armies. And I’ll reiterate it: this was happening at a tournament attended by those who were supposed to be setting the standard for their customers. (In following years, I had also heard similar accounts of a 40k army or two showing up for the staff tourney sans paint job.)
I’m not trying to crap on 40k players by saying all this; I’m trying to describe the level of pleased I am at the quality of paint jobs brought to the tables at this tournament; not only were all these armies fully painted, but all were painted to a level well above bare minimum. Up until this tournament, I had always lived under the presumption that 40k players were more gaming-minded and Fantasy players were more hobby-minded; it looks like the two may have reached an equilibrium.
Tournament Results
| Name | Army | Battle |
Sports | Comp | Painting | Total |
| Kevin K. | White Scars | 21 | 32.5 | 28 | 35.5 | 117 |
| Trevor B. | Space Wolves | 19 | 34.5 | 26 | 23 | 112.5 |
| Jason H. | Eldar | 39 | 49.5 | 23 | 39.5 | 151 |
| Rob D. | Tyranids | 24 | 32 | 25 | 25 | 106 |
| Scott S. | Space Wolves | 29 | 34 | 34 | 41 | 138 |
| Mike Davey | Tyranids | 41 | 34.5 | 31 | 47.5 | 154 |
| Alem A. | Salamanders | 31 | 34.5 | 29 | 20 | 114.5 |
| Nick G. | Chaos Marines | 42 | 37 | 20 | 24 | 123 |
| Ryan F. | Necrons | 21 | 34.5 | 31 | 23 | 109.5 |
| Conor M. | Khorne Marines | 31 | 32 | 30 | 30 | 123 |
| Peter H. | Ultramarines | 27 | 25 | 23 | 8 | 83 |
Best Overall: Mike D.
Best Sportsman: Jason H.
Best Painted: Scott S.
Lessons Learned
Organise! Organise! Organise! The opportunity to do this tournament came at me quickly and unexpectedly, with a local gaming convention organiser approaching me to run a tournament with tickets to the con as prizes. I agreed running a tournament would be a win-win situation, thus leaving me only a few scant weeks to organise, advertise and create all the missions. It was pretty hectic for me at times because I wasn’t well prepared to get all this up and going in just a few weeks; luckily I have a (very) little bit of a routine with how I put together my tournaments that this was able to fall together with a bit of hard work and late nights–but thankfully not much stress.
The show went off without a hitch (more or less); and what’s better: I had not only new attendees, but three first-time tournament players! I also noticed quite a few players exchanging contact information,which I suspect is a pretty good indicator of a community growing. And I mean, really, that’s the main hope I have behind doing tournaments: grow the gaming community and have a hand at bringing what I love about gaming to the table.
So, Christmas is done. Post-Christmas is over. Year-end analysis is completed. And I’ve attended the trade shows for the new year.
Now to get back to semi-regular updates of the blog!
CalCon is coming at the end of March, and I’ll be running a 40k tournament to give some tickets away for the event–and to get myself back in to the swing of things. I’ll include more information over the coming days.
As is what’s looking to become a tradition, I’ll be running a painting competition this fall at the store. I’m following the same format as previous competitions in that the divisions will be based on model size not genre or game system. This means that Warhammer Fantasy, 40k and Lord of the Rings models will all be competing directly against each other (and also means that every entry can use bits from all GW’s lines without fear of disqualification / no recognition for winning).
Also following my previous competition formats, Forge-World-produced models will not be allowed entry into the competition UNLESS the model has rules for it in a current GW army book or codex. I choose to do this as the shop doesn’t have the storage or display space to accommodate huge models, and it’s easier for me to nix 90% of the Forge World line than it is coming up with crazy-specific height/width entry restrictions.
DETAILS
Here’s the rules as I have them so far:
-A maximum of THREE models may be entered across both divisions (Single & Large models). Also, no more than TWO entries may belong to the same game system (Warhammer Fantasy, WH 40k, Lord of the Rings).
-If entering the Neophyte Division, only TWO models can be entered, and no models may be entered into the other divisions.
-All entries must be a Citadel or Forge World miniature that is usable in any current GW army book or codex.
-Models that have been entered in a previous painting contest will not be accepted.
-Conversions are allowed, but should be consistent with the atmosphere of the game world and spirit of the miniatures.
-Overall, the judges are looking for entries that adhere to the imagery and ethos of Games Workshop’s different fantasy universes.
-Models that do not fit into the above criteria cannot be entered nor even be put on display alongside the competition’s other entries.
DIVISIONS
There are three divisions, with entries divided according to model size. For the sake of fairness, model size is determined according to the type of base originally packaged with the entered model.
SINGLE MODEL
Models that come packaged with cavalry bases (25x50mm), Terminator bases (40mm round) or any base smaller.
LARGE MODEL
Models that come packaged with bases larger than 25x50mm or 40mm round bases. By default, ALL tanks, vehicles and monstrous creatures that do not come on cavalry bases (or on any base at all) automatically count as large models for this competition.
NEOPHYTE
This division excludes experienced painters. Only young painters and those who have been painting for about a year are allowed to enter as a Neophyte. Only TWO models may be entered into the Neophyte Division, and entering a model in any other division automatically disqualifies one from the Neophyte category. Model size and base size parameters in this division follow those of the ‘Single Model’ division.
BASING & CONVERSIONS
-Models may be mounted on a base larger than their conventional base, but must be on a stock Games Workshop base.
-Whereas scenic elements on bases are encouraged, for storage reasons DIORAMAS ARE NOT PERMITTED (the term, “diorama,” refers to the creation of a scene on a base larger than is game playable and where the scenery is the focus as much as the model is).
-ALL models must be entered on fully painted or flocked bases (tanks and the like are exempt from this).
-Conversions (the modification of stock models) are allowed and encouraged; but in this competition, more points will be scored according to paint job than to conversions or sculpting, so it is prudent to focus one’s effort accordingly.
FINE PRINT
Painters have the option of displaying their entries at Great White for an additional 2 weeks after the competition, BUT All winning models must be left at Great White for 1 week, to be kept on display in the store’s showcases.
Great care will be taken with every entry, but Great White cannot accept any responsibility for any models accidentally damaged or broken. Entry into the competition gives Great White the right to display, photograph and publish images as they see fit. The Judges’ decisions are final; no correspondence or debate will be entertained regarding the judging process.
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