Storm over Stirling - not really a tourney report, more a rant!

[khaosgoblin]

Noah has a good point that you cannot please everyone with a comp pack, so it is a fairly ticky business.

I think the UL guys have the right kind of direction with changing the allocations, for a start allowing 50% characters to amke up an army is not a good idea.

By examining the the basic rulebook army composition, then adding in restrictions to army books an effective comp can be built, but it will be trial & error, it took years to get 7th edition to the level where most people where happy with the restrictions.

Mark

[fatolaf]

Define hugely expensive? 

Very few of us have cars in London for obvious reasons..

Most of the Northern Tournies I have been getting early booked tickets and going most of the time for 1st class at around £20 for a return..

Last time I used Virgin (for Tempest 1) I paid around £40 each way to sit on the floor by the toliet..

This time round it's looking like £70-80 for cattle / floor class, which is normally my total outlay for trains and hotle combined, something I am just not going to pay, when I go (or did) to a lot of tournies in a year..

Now my tournie choices are made easy:

1) Is there no comp (or crap comp)?
2) Do I have to take Virgin?
3) Is it a Maelstrom event?

Is the answer to any of these is Yes, then I wont go.
Especially as We are suddenyl getting spoiled for choice down south, with some recent good evenst and venues.

between OG, Hydra, Reading, Basingstoke, Imps, Toldbridge and Watford we have the scope for at least 1 if not 2 wknd events a month..

Up north I will always go to the Slaughter and Cardiff, Warhammer World Doubles if they get the rules right and any UL hard comp event that is not in stockport....

[fatolaf]

Noah has a good point that you cannot please everyone with a comp pack

However Mark, that is not an excuse to simply not attempt one..

As proved the SCGT 'comp'which we all know is a joke, has proved to be the exception in filling an event. All the rest of them (with no comp or SCGT esque) are no where near filling their tables...

[noahtonkin]

Didn't mean not to try, was just trying to emphasise that as mark said, no matter what you do, some people will not want to play under it.

Best way is to find out what people want, and try and build the comp around that.

Now most of us will say some of the following
I want to go to an event where;
a) I don't have to play any tw*ts,
b) I want the games to involve a measure of skill on the battlefield, not just who can write the worst list,
c) I want to play different armies - his not only means making all races equal, but as much as possible not meaning each rach has to play a certain way to win. Now I know this is governed slightly by the books, but if you take out the crutch a race relies on then armies have to find new ways around this.

I understand that some people will go to events where all they can think of is;
1) win at all costs
2) ruin peoples hobby
3) skill is in rules bending, not planning, forethought, tactics etc.

But to be honest, they fall into my part a), not wanting to play tw*ts.

[Meals]

IMO a nightmare idea, let the Ozzies keep it

Just to be clear, Oz/NZ haven't used player marked comp for years. We use judged comp which is a very good system but does require more in terms of the additional overheads of getting non-playing Judges and getting lists in early enough for marking.

[fatolaf]

But to be honest, they fall into my part a), not wanting to play tw*ts.

The OG Games Mantra.....

@ James - Good to hear, I have not listened to Racist Hammer in a long time, so I am very out of touch with the Oceania scene....

[Dave]

Don't worry about that, Podhammer isn't exactly in touch with the scene either!  Listened to the last couple and the warhammer content is building back up again but the quality of that content isn't quite where it was under 7th.  For light entertainment when you've nothing else to listen to fair enough if you find him amusing (which parts of I do), otherwise there are still better casts out there.

[The Trampoline]

I think over-saturation of tournaments has killed the scene a bit. Only big tournaments that are offering at least some comp, 100 players (for rankings) and have the love from being well run (Maelstrom from what I heard, SCGT, and a few others) are doing well. Also knowing when to sell tickets as well, the Midland Open is way too early especially with no refunds, whereas the Club Challenge only had a month of two. Coupled with the bad press the Club Challenge had last time it ran I'm not surprised it didn't attract many people, especially in Fantasy which is where it normally sells out pretty quickly.

The fact that even big events like SCGT and Tempest are not selling out within the day shows that even the big events are susceptible. Other events that are poorly run that stand on the laurels that they are established so must be great might have to think twice now that their is more choice of better events available. 

[Stomm]

Very few of us have cars in London for obvious reasons..

I do, oddly enough for very obvious reasons. Two kids and living out in the suburbs with family and friends all over the place.

Likewise many of the IMPs have vehicular transportation. With this in mind, it may be possible to arrange a London car pool for a trip 'Up North'. I can see the next WH ToS, or possibly the Autumn one as being the easiest to drum up interest amongst the IMPs at least. Since most of us have family commitments of some kind, we do need to plan these sort of things well enough in advance.


Either way, if I take the child seats out then I've got space for four more people and a decent sized boot (my car is the Passat Estate that you would have seen outside the venue at IMPfest III), so a tenner each our a couple of pints ought to cover the petrol to Nottingham and back. Obviously I can't pick up or drop off South of the river, or even very far south of the A406. But I can pick up and drop off from the Northern or Picadilly Lines without going too far out of the way, and Finchley Central has lifts to platform level for those who insist on bringing a 10k army in a KR 1200 wheeled case with them...

[fatolaf]

Coupled with the bad press the Club Challenge had last time it ran I'm not surprised it didn't attract many people, especially in Fantasy which is where it normally sells out pretty quickly.

The last one was in the dodgiest hotel in Liverpool, with no safety or private bar. I was up late, and the hall was open with staff taking bins out etc, to the car park at the back. Which is right in front of the train station and full of wino's etc..

The next day the hall had been disrupted, with prizes knicked (left out over night  )and the stage had been p*ssed on, and they actually had the nerve to suggest it was one of us..

I also got my room burgled, lost an expensive coat (staff could not give a sh*t), the comp was awful, the system mixed up, terrible..

Had high hopes for the new look CC, but they have rushed this, brought it out at the same time as 2 huge tournies and made it far too expensive...

Not sure about their future in this environment...