August. I'm back.

Well, I'm back from my August hiatus. It was a good month, which included nothing on the gaming table, some white water rafting, couple misc. trips, some in laws, barbecues, landscaping, and just a ton of things outdoors. To make a long story short, I'm back, and readers can expect me back to my normal 40k blogging.

It looks like I have a little catching up to do. New demons, Ultramarines movie info, and a ton of projects I was working on before August hit. Game on.

P.S. this boat wasnt mine, but what a picture.

Tournament Play, Suckage

I know I don't get tired of winning games. However, I especially enjoy the games were my opponent is putting up his best, playing his best, both armies are painted, table looks great, and we have a hard hitting game. Those games are absolutely the best of what warhammer 40k has to bring on the tabletop. The hard part becomes when you don't know the player very well, and you don't know his army and play level. Here I tend to blow someone out often too quickly. There is nothing worse than playing a single round of game play, and your opponent surrendering. 

I've come to the conclusion that most often, I have the most fun, bringing a very sub par list. It helps game play, helps my opponent last a few rounds, and in general it helps improve the game talk afterwards, which I enjoy tremendously. League nights, Saturday 40k day, etc, I have started doing this where ever I am going to play. I only bring out my faeit 212 list when asked to, or prepping for a tournament.

Tournament play. Here is where I have been having issues with tournaments of late. To start. I don't enjoy soft score tournaments. Ive never played anyone that acted like a prick at an ard boyz, or ard boyz style tournament, even know I am sure they exist. (its up to the store to get rid of these players). Painted scores tied into the tournament are often far too subjective, it should just be called a popularity contest.

Even through all this. What I do not enjoy about tournaments is the fact that they don't encourage good games. You are judged simply on how well you blow out your opponent, or how lucky you get with your opponent. If two top players face off, they will knock each other out of the running in the tournament. This is what I am a little bored with. The game should be a simple win or loss. Play more, not less, this is how you get the best of the best. I know 40k is not a sport, but I cant think of any game out there competitively, that you are judged on how well you blow each of your opponents out. You either win or lose.

What I am proposing any tournament system that gets rid of the current blow your opponent out of the water scenarios.  Take 8 or 16 or whatever number of players, and play a single elimination tournament until you have a set of winners. Even a round robin tournament would work. What I am proposing is to get rid of tournament scenarios that we see every tournament, that rely upon point systems based on how badly you kill your opponent. I want good games, not blow outs, especially on the top tables. I want a finals match, that is mind blowing, not one that knocks both players out of winning the tournament, so that a lesser player wins.

I am going to work hard on a tournament type here. I will be posting it once it is done, and hopefully running such tournament here in a month or so at a local store. No tournament that relies upon your chance of playing the weakest link in the tournament, or relies upon soft scores.

Your comments on tournament types are welcome.

Not playing by the rules.

It seems to me, learning the rules of 40k seems to be one of the biggest learning curves of almost any game out there. It's almost unbearable seeing a game played where someone is so obviously breaking the rules, that I don't say anything anymore. It often leads to far too many arguments in games that I really don't care enough about. Despite knowing this, sometimes I can't help myself and will put in a very quick and discreet, "you didn't do this correct, if you want to look it up, its on page such and such".

A buddy of mine recently moved, and was checking out the local scene. Apparently their so-called top player was very much in the wrong on how he was assaulting. Multiple assaults apparently don't need to stay in coherency in that town, and if they do, you can move as little as you want  in order to maintain that coherency in order to assault in two complete different directions.

So where does all this come from? It is after all a pretty simple rule set, with the least amount of grey areas that I can remember in an edition of warhammer of 40k. Even so, 5th edition is somehow ridden with more misinterpretations and misreading that I have seen in previous editions. Number one problem, silly Internet interpretations. Not to smack dakka dakka, but their forums are full of some pretty extremely silly Internet rulings like obscurement (see here if you are in that crowd http://natfka.blogspot.com/2010/05/obscurement-much-to-your-demise.html). Second problem, mathhammer. Math hammer tends to lead to sometimes creative min/maxing, and the rules sometimes get lost or overlooked at this point. It's not that math hammer is bad, knowing the probable chances of something happening can explain why your single lascannon shot cant kill a rhino. Some people just get carried away with min/maxing. Back in 3rd ed, it was all about it, with 5 man squads and heavy weapons. Last problem, is bad advice. Know who you are listening to, and look it up..... please.

While these reasons are valid, they often lead to the most disputes. If someone just doesn't know the rules well, or makes a mistake, its often very very simple to correct, and the game moves on. A mistake is a mistake, who cares, and move on. I am on purpose leaving out comments on the just plain dumb, or the double dumb. There is no need to expand on that.

Just remember, that when you come to the table, and both people are playing by a different set of rules, it makes the game hard, and sometimes frustrating. I hate rules lawyering, but I also dislike long drawn out dumb arguments about a rule that is pretty damn simple.

Have fun, no fist fights, and try not to geek out. Its a game, and even in tournaments, most people that I tend to face have been fed a bunch of garbage. In tournaments, just call a judge over, and don't take things personal if they don't know what they are talking about (I tend to have my rulebook highlighted, and my army list specific things marked to speed things up). During pick up games, try and correct it, if that fails, just don't play the person again or change stores if they just don't get it.

Wine and Cheese

This is not an article on fine dining, rather a discussion on a local player problem. Mostly that I hear the word "cheese" all to much around the game table. I'm going to be very direct with the problem, and why it is heard at almost every league night. For the most part, there is a severe lack of understanding of the rules and game mechanics. Players that play this game, even much more than I, seem to somehow never read the rulebook, much less their own codex. Then when something comes up, someone uses a combination that works well in a game, its suddenly called cheese.

Here is an example. I've had my dark eldar out lately, for no other reason than they suck, and with a new codex, I wanted to get in some games with the current codex. So, I grabbed my 30 mandrakes, 2 webway portals and hit the table. Everything came on and hit the table round three. When it did, it was brutal, my timing was perfect. What I heard was how cheesy mandrakes are. How ridicules a talos is. All this whining about cheese units and combos really leads to only one thing. Lack of understanding and reading. While my timing was impeccable, and my use of my units went near perfect, there was a lack of understanding of even how his army should be working.

I could understand his frustration if I was being a prick, however, I was offering up everything on what each unit could do, long before they were even deployed. Instead, each webway was approached with his melta units, and troop choices. They were easy pickings for units that could assault right out of the webway. Definitely I must have fielded a cheesy army. OMG, you mean that archon has an initiative of 7?

I was asked to write this article by another player. Hearing that this and that are cheese, gets really old. You cant even discuss game tactics any more. Now I know its only a small group of players that are like this, but remember cheese spreads, and it has become sort of an epidemic. Even taking a crap list to the table, I still hear it, and other players that tend to win most of their games are hearing a lot. It's a severe lack of understanding, most often of 40k's game mechanics, and sometimes of special rules or combos that someone is fielding.

OK. Here is my positive spin. Read the rules. Re-read the rules. Your codex too, and others when you get the opportunity. Instead of saying cheese, which reeks of poor sportsmanship, say "Oh wow, that can be really powerful (or cool), how could of I have beaten it?." In these friendly games, look up the rules, and ask your opponent to show them to you when something you haven't read or seen comes up. Its all there in the rule book. Just read it. This is warhammer 40k 5th edition. It is a game with dice, and no army is unbeatable, and everything on the table has a counter to it.