SnowCon 2012 40k Tournament: A Review

Well, the event went off with only a few hitches along the way.  I want to say thank you to everyone who participated, helped set up, ran for coffee, food, or anything else myself or any of the players needed. It became evident to me that in the process of organizing the event that a 40k tournament is way more than just throwing dice and moving little plastic men around the table. In some ways, that becomes the least important part of the event, at least from the Organizer's perspective.

We started just after 10 AM as one of my players was running late, but we finished almost an hour before my self-imposed 6 PM deadline. We had Ten players who showed up, with many new faces! I was happy to have the new guys, but at the same time, I wished more of the regular tournament attendees could have made it, too.  I'd have liked to have them see what I have planned for the future in the Bangor 40k scene.  The one thing I did not expect was how hard it is to keep ten guys focused and close at hand after each round. I gave 20-30 minutes for lunch after round one, but even I got back a few minutes late!

I gave out three prizes: Best General, Best Overall, and Player's Choice. Each winner received $50 in store credit to the wonderful FLGS, 3 Geek Gaming.  Beyond that, my good friend Warren Falconer donated a box full of Warhammer novels and audio dramas to the cause for everyone who did not get a cash prize. The Winners were: Best General - Warren Falconer, Player's Choice - Tyler Emery, Best Overall - Tony Spero

I uploaded over 100 photos from the day to Facebook. If anyone can't find them there, please leave a message here and I will upload them somewhere more accessible.  My head is still spinning and I am sure I will have lots more to say about the event as time goes on, but for now, Thanks to SnowCon for having us, thanks to Brenden, "Thor," and the guys at Crossroads in Standish for creating and playtesting the missions we used, all of my players who came to play and made it all worth doing (and we will be doing it again... if any of you were impressed by this year's event, wait til next year!) and especially to Colin Mansfield who volunteered to help me transport and set up all of the tables and terrain to and from the shop. I could not have done it without his help, and I'm very much in his debt. He also agreed to be my "bye guy" so that should we have gotten an odd number of gamers, they had the option to play a friendly game with him rather than waiting around for two hours for their bye to be over.

More to come later!

So, We Had A Tournament!

This past Saturday, we held a little tournament at 3 Geek. We also used some of the missions I am considering using for SnowCon.  I am pretty happy with how the missions played. I am also happy and proud of the guys for the fun, relaxed environment that we had, despite the tough fight we all had going on for the prize money!  I managed victories in all three rounds, but finished second in battle points to Will York, who I managed to beat fairly soundly in round two.  He tabled his other two opponents and manged to eek out the win in one of the closest top three finishes we've ever had!

I'm very happy with my generalship over all; I can't complain about my 3-0 record on the day. Couple that with the fact that no lead is safe with the battle points system means that almost anyone has a chance at prize support if they put in good games. Will proved that you can have a bad game and rebound to great effect! That reason more than any other is why I enjoy the missions and the points system that we used for the tournament. The missions were designed to allow people to catch up and never really be out of the hunt for the winners podium. Shifting to this style of tournament will probably lead to a better event overall, and better attendance once the word gets out. Most importantly for me, the missions are going to make sure that SnowCon is a lot of fun!

We were missing a few of the tournament regulars, but we also had a couple fresh faces show up.  As many of you know, we've had some issues with tournament attendance lately.  There are several factors for this:  People leaving the hobby, a shift away from competitive play toward the modeling/hobby aspects of Warhammer for many of the more active gamers, and/or basic economics keeping people from wanting to spend the $20 to throw some dice.

All of the above factors are normal over time for any play group. People come and go, their priorities change, or their ability/availability prohibit them from playing in events.  I would actually argue that we have more people playing Warhammer than ever in the Greater Bangor Area, but the focus of the group has shifted!  Come in to the shop on any random Wednesday around 6 PM.  Without fail we will have anywhere from 8-12 guys there, hanging out, playing games, painting, and talking about their armies.  We even have a few females painting and playing.  That is right boys, our hobby has girls in it!  Despite their cooties, it is pretty impressive that they want to/can stand being around that many male nerds in one place.  Two years ago, when I first started trying to have a 40k night at the shop, we were lucky to have more than a handful of guys show up. The growth and vitality of our Wednesday group has much to do with the group of guys (and girls, eww!) and their open, welcoming approach to the hobby. 

The reverse could be said for our tournament scene.  A few years ago, we regularly had 8-10 guys show up for our tournaments. Since then we have lost a regular tournament goer here and there, and for a while it was difficult for us to get more than three or four guys interested in showing up.  Maybe, just maybe this trend is turning around!  As I said above, we were down at least three of our regular tournament players on Saturday.  I hope this is a portent of the future. 

Again, thanks to everyone who attended, and I hope to see more of you playing at the shop in the future. And congrats that you made it to the end of this marathon blog post!

Operation: "Shock and Awesome," or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Terrain!"

The Mission:  To make my tables look as cool as possible for SnowCon.

With just under two months before the big event, I wanted to get the word out now that I will be making my own terrain with the help of a few friends.  Along with the terrain I will be borrowing from 3 Geek, I am hoping to be able to put together 8ish really awesome and fun tables to play on.  There are a few reason why I want to build more/better terrain.  The first reason being that some of the terrain at the shop is starting to look pretty haggard and worn out.  It seems like every Wednesday one piece of terrain (I am looking at you Cities of Battle buildings) needs to be re-glued and what little paint there was on the piece has worn off.  I think 40k, and war gaming in general, is as much about the cinematic "shock and awesome" that happens when you see really neat terrain being fought over by two nice looking armies!

The second reason I want to add to my pool of available terrain is because I happened to review the pictures of the 40k 'Ard Boyz regional event that 3 Geek Gaming held a few years back.  At the time we thought we were "the poo" for being able to host such a large, cool event.  A few years later, a few years older and wiser in the world of hobby, I came to realize after looking at those photos, just how poorly our shop terrain managed to do the job.  Granted, we have had quite a few new foam buildings and hills donated since then, but still, take a look at the above photo as my open and shut case on why we need more terrain for a larger event!

To put it bluntly, we don't have enough cool, diverse terrain to do the eight or so tables that I have in mind. The next few weeks are going to see me doing nothing but terrain TLC and building new foam creations for you all to fight over.  The best part is that most of the terrain that I make will be donated to the collection at the shop as well.  I am always a fan of city fighting, so expect to see more buildings and urban terrain features... it is the 41st millennium after all!

Until next time,

40k SnowCon updates!

Hello to anyone who is reading!  I am proud to say that there is very little left to be done before SnowCon, and we are still two months out!  I finished the player's packet last night, received permission to use the missions that I wanted to use, as well as the go-ahead to use 3 Geek's terrain for the tables!  The last piece that needs to fall is that I am waiting for the Schedule-Dude (clearly the technical term,) to get back to me about space availability so that I can officially make the event 1500 and not something smaller to fit onto a 4x4 space instead!

I really want SnowCon to be a lot of fun for everyone who attends this year.  I am hoping to use this as a template for how I would like to see events run at our FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store,) in the future, with a few minor changes.  I don't know about the rest of you, but playing the same 3 missions out of the back of the main rule book gets boring.  This is my attempt to make our games more fun and enjoyable for everyone involved!

Once I get the go-ahead on space, I will probably post a little more detail about what I am doing with the event itself.  Stay tuned and keep on rolling sixes (except for leadership tests!)