Thoughts on organized tournaments

Today I decided to do a post on what I think the ideal tournament atmosphere would be like so that is what I am going to try to do. I don't know a lot about the gaming business or the tournament business so all of this is going to be shooting from the cuff but it comes from a customer willing to shell out 50+ dollars to play in a tournament environment that he enjoys.

As some of you know I have been to a TSHFT tournament, the 40K brand to be exact, and I had a great time. I met many new players and had some fun and exciting 40k games in the process even though I did not win any of them. While I was there I noticed one thing that I think a tournament needs to have, great players with great attitudes about the game they are playing regardless of what that game is. TSHFT certainly had a lot of cool players and the vast majority of the players that attended the show recieved perfect sportsmanship scores. A great group of players can do nothing but spread good news about the tournament and how much fun they had playing in it. Word of mouth is crucial in this type of environment and the only way you get that is to give the players what they want from the tourney.

There are things that go beyond having a great group of players however. You need to have a core group of players that are very loyal to the store in order to start the word of mouth process along. These players need to be welcoming to any prospective players within that stores community. This kind of warm reception and good cheer makes the store a tournament is based out of a better attraction for players that might not be a major part of the store's community. This is something I look for when I go to a store or attend any event of this type. I like to find out more about the people that really support the events that my dollars go to. The friendlier the core unit of players surrounding the tournament is the better chance the tournament has to grow and expand in the future.

Another thing that I think would make an ideal tournament for me would be atmosphere. When I go to a tournament I want it to be more than a gaming tournament eventually. Eventually I want the tournament to grow into something bigger. A real showcase of the hobby in it's own right. The tables that the players play on should be really special, there should be painting competitions, seminars on gaming and the hobby, showcases of upcoming product that makes the gamer excited to be around the hobby and even shows or skits depicting major events in the hobby mythos. Things like this can turn an event that someone might go to into something that becomes a must be there type of show.

These are just a couple of the things that I really think a tournament that plans on sticking around and growing should aspire to. There is a lot of competition out there for this kind of event and in the end the events that stick around are going to get bigger and more elaborate with emphasis on giving the gamer the most bang for his buck that he can possibly get. Thanks for reading. I'll post goblin pics tomorrow if I can. Thanks again.

Sitting at work thinking of TSHFT

I am sitting here at my work related desk in the warehouse thinking about how I am going to play Warhammer 40K at TSHFT. I have not had luck playing the game in the past because I always forget the rules mid game. The last tournament I was in my contact fell out of my eye and I had to play the game blind. I am going to bring my spare glasses this time.

I can't settle on a list. There are so many new models and things to play in fifth edition and I have most of them but I want to be able to be competitive so I am thinking about changing my scheme up. The first list I planned had a little bit of everything but I don't think that is the kind of list that will get me even close to winning a game. I know now that I am going to bring at least 40 to 60 marines to the tuornament as my troop choices. I am thinking about assault marines, bikes, or speeders for my fast attack. I have all three. I don't think I have enough bikes to make a go of it though. Maybe if I buy my ticket this Friday I will pick up another box of bikes so that I can make a proper squad of them.

I have apprehension going into the tournament because of the stuff I stated in the first paragraph but I will be playing many new players so I think that would be a cool thing. I am looking forward to seeing all of the cool paint jobs that are sure to be on display. The people running the event own the store that I go to and there are many very solid painters that go there. Sean Moomey has had his Blood Angels on the Games Workshop website and the artist known as Micah is probably the best single miniature painter I have ever seen in person. When he gets his entire Dark Angels army completed I would be willing to bet that it could win best apppearance at just about any tournament he would choose to enter.

I have begun to ramble with this post if I haven't already slipped into that so far. I might post again in a few hours. I want to continue the fan fiction post I put up on Ordo Fanaticus last week. I have a whole plan for the character that I created. I have a feeling most of the people that may have read the post feel that there is no way that a single space marine with a bolt pistol and chainsword could take out six orks. I hope that's the way they feel. There is a reason that he can do just that.

Have a great day, later.

Moral dilema of wargaming and what I did today.

When I started this post I started talking about the moral dilema of wargaming and decided that perhaps that subject would not work well in a simple blog like mine so I pushed the text on that subject down to the end of the post. If you want to read my thoughts on it you can scroll down otherwise you can just read the section on what I did today for the hobby.

I painted the armor and purity seals onto three more tactical marines today. I use dwarf bronze, shining gold, and a mix of mithril silver and shining gold to top it off. I base all of my marines black. I like the black undercoat because if you miss something it is not as noticable unless you happen to be taking pictures of your minis. The squad is coming around nicely. I have three fully painted and based squads since I started painting and each squad saw me taking another step in learning how to paint them. I love the fact that in this art form, as with many others I suppose, I am always learning how to do new things to make my models look better than they did before. I am probably going to go back and retouch all of my previous marines at some point so they all look uniform but for now I just want to get this squad done.

I finished painting a Marneus Calgar the other day and will try to post a picture of him in a post later in the week or even tomorrow. I am really proud of how he came out. I really like how his face turned out. I wish the armor had turned out a bit better than it did. I had an accident with the model before I got him based. I acidently dumped some glue on one of his arms and could not get it all off of the mini. I did my best to hide it but if you look really close you will be able to see what happened. I also lost the sword bit for him. I made a cheap green stuff replacement but I am looking for the real bit and hope to find it somewhere at some point. If you have the bit please let me know.

Well that's it for today. I have to sleep tonight. Remember if you want to read my opinion on the moral dilema of wargaming read on but if you don't have a great evening.

When I first started the hobby I actually thought about what it would be to play a war game when so many people around the world are actually fighting for their lives everyday. I hate war in the real world. It does far to much damage to the people involved in it and most of that damage is taken by innocent bystanders to the conflict. But after really thinking about it I thought it was silly and perhaps even wrong to even compare the two.

Wargaming is a game based on a medieval or science fiction fantasy of what you think war in that environment would be like. It is hardly a real representation of the struggles that real warriors and the bystanders that live with them put up with on a daily basis. Comparing the two in any way is almost wrong in my opinion. Moving around toy soldiers just isn't on the radar of most soldiers today. There are far to many people that do things to downgrade the efforts of our fighting men and women. Wargamers are the least of their concerns.

First post blues

I have loved the wargaming hobby for about four years now. I enjoy the painting aspect of the hobby more than the gaming but I enjoy both about as much as I enjoy anything in this life. Most of my spare time is spent either thinking about a model I am painting or actually painting figures for games that I play. Pictured to the left are some figures from the Games Workshop line of miniatures that I painted a while back. They are from the Warhammer 40,000 universe and are known as Ultramarines.

The Ultramarines are the most well known chapter of marines in the 40K world. They are the foundation that all of the other chapters are built on and they form the basis around which most of the game material regarding space marines is centered on. I enjoy painting them and playing with them because to me they represent the last bastion of hope for humanity in a world that is being pressed on all sides by alien menace. They fight for humanity and everything that it stands for everytime they step onto a battlefield. They also have some of the coolest looking special characters in the game.

The Ultramarines however are not the only army that I paint. I actually paint a wider variety of armies in one of the other table top wargames that Games Workshop produces. Warhammer Fantasy has been a staple of the wargaming community for over 25 years. They sport some of the best looking and fun to paint miniatures in the wargaming world. I am currently painting figures from three different armies. They are dwarves, vampire counts and orcs. The orcs are currently getting most of my attention on the fantasy side. I like Orcs because of one of their main characters. Grimgor Ironhide is the baddest orc of them all. His statline (statistics for the game) are very imposing and make him one of the toughest models in the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

Well that's all I am going to post for this first blog post. I hope to be posting more soon and I hope that my journey in the hobby might find something for you to take interest in. Thanks and have a great night.