Tuesday 8 August 2017

North West Open result

As you saw in the last post I was off to Wargames for the North West Open and the picture below clearly indicates I had some success. Typically it also reveals 'I'm a lover [of the hobby], not a fighter' as I came 49th out of 54 or something. I was actually on the bottom table for the final game!


That's not to say I was disappointed with my tournament result - far from it. Every match was fun for one reason or another and each person I gamed with was the very definition of what is great about the hobby. I was really hoping for the wooden spoon but actually managed to be successful and win my final game while all my other losses belie the insanely good dice rolling in most of my games - fortune was on my side, success was not ;)


YouTube legend and all round good guy Aceface hisself, John Hickton ably managed the crowd, with Martin from Wargames and Dave [the real brawn keeping the socring and pairings on track. Ace, was well aware by the time you got to the second floor, and those lower down the tables the chill factor, and fun factor, was so much more evident. This reaffirms my view that the bottom tables may not be where the cool kids are at but we're definitely having the most fun :)


And lets not forget all the chickens that were sacrificed for us gamers!


Anyone for a baguette? If you recall one of the main reasons for picking up the spare ticket was to try and get to grips with 8th and as much as I loved all my games and all the players were amazing sports I'm not convinced of how 8th plays. To me it's become geared to a cuthroat all or nothing first turn and that's just not something I'm comfortable with - either by skill, unit choice or basic lack of a killer instinct. Equally it might be the nature of matched play, although the narrative game I played the other week felt similar. In fairness the ITC format, although a little weird did help mitigate those unfortunate rolls on the Maelstrom table in normal games.


But I think it also becomes apparent that the way I'm learning to play bears no resemblance to how someone trains in other activtities. When you look at most sports, or my kendo past, the activity is proken down and you work on techniques and skills - creating scenarios so that when you take part in a competition or any kind of one-on-one you will have muscle memory and visual cues that when the moment arises you can act without thinking and confident in your ability. And yet my 40k experience is always just the one-on-one now and I'm not sure that's the best way to develop but I'm not entirely sure of how you can engineer 'real world' training exercises in 40 to develop greater understanding and tactical nouse...

My 8th Edition Wound Marker Transport Case
 Anyway, I took these pictures of some Forgeworld Rippers as I want to try and get some of my plastic ones and recreate these, regardless of how ineffective my Rippers were all weekend.


They scored me a Linebreaker though so I shouldn't be too hard on them.


But overall the NWO was great, Wargames were fab, my partners were all awesome, my army was rewarded for being pretty [if not effective] but there's still a ways to go before I love 8th. Luckily though the gaming crew will be off on tour to Warhammer World in February for the third heat of the 40k GT, so if you're going we'll see you there! Now, on to my battle reports...

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