Saturday, April 09, 2011

Blog Wars Update

I'm hoping to release the tickets for Blog Wars towards the end of this week. Looking at the current list of people who've expressed an interest in attending it seems like we should have at least 20 ppl competing. Not a massive number by any stretch but at least we'll all get games against different opponents and there'll be a decent prize pot. Over the course of planning this event a few things have come up which I'd like to address and get some feedback from people in order to make final decisions and write the rules pack.

Refereeing & My Participation
As I've mentioned before I'd very much like to be able to compete in the event as well as run it. I know this isn't the norm but it'd seem a shame not to be involved and get to meet people from the community. Essentially if I get an odd number of attendees then I'll play to make sure everyone gets their full compliment of games and if there's an even number I'll consider not competing. 

On the subject of refereeing, there won't be any formal "marshalls" wandering around for rules clarification. Having taken some comments from people on board I think the best way to do it is for players to try and find an amicable agreement between them. Failing that then players on the adjacent table (presuming they're impartial) will hopefully be able to make a decision that people can agree on. Either that or put it to the dice gods and roll to see which way it goes. If there's really a problem then Matt or myself will have the final say but I'd hope it won't need to come to that and we may just make you roll for it.

Special Characters
It seems a few people missed the line in the tournament page that says that a single Special Character is compulsory. There's been a few people who've expressed concerns about the concept as they feel it will limit army selection and penalise armies without a recent codex and therefore selection of SCs to choose from. I toyed with the idea of simply scrapping the requirment but I think it's in keeping with the spirit of this blog to try to avoid having the same old generic lists. Granted some armies have SCs that are fairly obligatory choices such as Eldrad, Mephiston and Ghazghkull but I'd encourage people to think outside the box a bit more. To use Space Wolves as an example, it seems that people believe Logan to be the only real option but it's pretty easy to find room for Ragnar, Ulrik, Arjac or even Lukas if you're a bit flexible with the listing. 

I'm conscious that by making them compulsory we'll actually make them less "special" but it'll be interesting to see how people utilise them. For reference, I use the term "special character" to refer to any unit that's referred to as "Unique" in their codex entry. These would be, for example, Mephiston/Dante/Tycho/Lemartes etc. for Blood Angels, Marbo/Yarrick etc. for Guard, Yriel/Eldrad/Phoenix Lords for Eldar. You get the idea. If there's any that you're unsure of then feel free to contact me. Similarly if you find yourself struggling to write a list then let me know and I might be able to help out.

The armies that will struggle with this are probably Tau and Sisters. I can't say I'm all that familiar with Sisters but I can understand the problems for Tau in that there's only probably Shadowsun that's even half viable. However, since these armies aren't normally all that popular at the moment I think we can perhaps make an exception for them since they (tau in particular) already struggle due to their older codexes. If you're thinking of taking one of these armies then please get in touch beforehand to clarify.

Finally, for the special characters I'll accept counts as (within reason) i.e. I'll not allow a terminator SC to be represented by a power armoured model etc but I don't see a problem with a lictor as a death leaper, a guardsman painted a little different couunting as Marbo or a regular librarian being used as Mephiston. Similarly, if you have your own name and model for one of the special characters then as long as you play by the codex rules I don't have an issue. At the end of the day I'd like as many people to come as possible so I don't want to force everyone to go out and spend a tenner on a model they might only use for this tournament. As long as armour, weaponry, etc are represented then it's fine. 

Painting
Fully painted armies will be preferred but anything that isn't to a "three colour minimum" may possibly be excluded from use. Most people attending are bloggers or tournament players so I don't think it's much to ask that we see some nice looking paintjobs. 

Results and Matchups
The initial rounds will be determined at random as people register on the day. After that they'll be based on the results of the previous round(s). If there's any repeats then swaps will have to be figured out. At the end of each round either Matt or myself will enter the results into a spreadsheet which will automatically generate the matchups for the subsequent round. This should mean that the 15 minute break will be more than enough to get everything sorted for the next battle.

Since there's going to be groups of people who know each other i.e. Sons of Sanguinius, Claws and Fists, my lot etc. then there's a fairly good chance that people will end up facing someone they know. In the first round I'll try to avoid this as much as I can but it's inevitable in the later rounds. I'm going to have to trust people to play fair and remember that it isn't a serious tournament so they don't try and rig anything in friendly games.

Prizes
The difficulty here will be choosing prizes that are of equal use to everyone. Any army specific stuff won't be great so that leaves scenery or gaming aids. The other option, which I prefer, is to simply issue vouchers for Maelstrom so that people can pick how they spend the cash. Granted this isn't very exciting but it's certainly fair. If people don't live in the vicinity of Maelstrom then they can always use their website, bearing in mind that they're pretty good about matching the prices of other webstores.

I think I'll limit it to say, half a dozen prizes with 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Best Painted being 4 of them. The other two I'll figure out nearer the time but they'll basically be thrown in to add another element to the battles.

So what do people think about everything in this post? Anything you think needs changing? Anything you think would put you off attending?

14 comments:

  1. since you are organising it is, of course, up to you. i am happy enough with the use of special characters because this isn't going to be a 'serious' event. you never know, it might encourage people to try something a little different, i know i will be doing o
    so.

    as for prizes, gift cards sound like the best plan :)

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  2. 1 Request. Is it possible to make it on a saturday (4th). This is mainly because maelstrom is fairly far away for some of us, and having to travel back on a Sunday evening and having work the next day is fairly draining.

    Apart from that, the SC's thing is fine, I personally see it as something different and fun.

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  3. I'd love it to be the 4th but sadly Maelstrom is booked up until late July. It was a choice between making it a Sunday or doing it in the school hols when those with kids are likely to be on holiday.

    I'm not overly keen on it being a Sunday for the same reasons but I hope it doesn't put too many off.

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  4. Sounds good to me pal, now I just have to work out an army list and get some painting going.

    Quick question, it's £7.50 for lunch etc from Maelstrom on top of the £15 entry right - any idea what the lunch comprises i.e should we bring other stuff with us?

    Cheers

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  5. As for refereeing:

    With such a small group of gamers, and hopefully most of us have our heads screwed on properly that we could just go by a "majority" verdict if a answer cannot be found in the BRB/Codices/Q+A's etc.

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  6. @jimbo it'll be £15 including the 7.50 for lunch. The other 7.50 is for the prize pot.

    Last tournament I went to there it was a cold buffet. Sandwiches, sausage rolls, etc. They have stuff like crisps & choc for sale but you aren't meant to bring your own stuff unfortunately.

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  7. This is all sounding brilliant, I'm more than happy with the way you are organising it and would have no problem with playing in a game with you even if you were judging, as has been pointed out, its a friendly tournament and people going all seem to be pretty level headed. I'm really looking forward to it.

    For the last two prizes, how about something like "most bloody" and "whipping boy" for the most KP/VPs scored and lost respectively. Give a little something to whoever ends up having the "worst" days results.

    Is there any way to put together some kind of mail-list, doodle poll or similar for organising lifts? I know I'd either have to catch a lift off someone heading that way (petrol contributions would of course be made) or hire a car for the weekend as the trains from Oxford take over 7 hours each way!

    Can't wait.

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  8. Sounding great Fang, you gotta participate man, this is all your hard work mate. It'd be wrong not to.. and if anyone kicks up a fuss about a rule or whatnot, well...I'm a big lad, we'll give 'em the 'Emprah's opinion' on it... lol. I'm sure as others have said, we ar all either tournament players, bloggers or both, we'll not have problems...

    Special characters...does an Emperor's Champion count for black templars in that he is unique and adds special rules to the army etc?

    Just a query...

    Prize's - vouchers work. Blood for the Blood God style, most bloody prize based on VP's is a great shout....as is something like the LEAST given up VP's? Protect the remaining Eldar civilization...Marines are a valuable resource etc etc..? Or just plump for wooden spoon...

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  9. I would say that the EC is a special character even if you have to take him.

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  10. Thanks for all the support guys. I was worried that with it being a Sunday it'd put lots of people off. It's only a one off (unless it's a success). Anyone coming from Sheffield direction is welcome to grab a lift with me or if it's easier to get to Sheffield station I can pick up from there.

    @venerable - I'm not familiar with the Emperor's Champion but having a quick read through the codex he doesn't really seem to be an SC. I can see what you mean with him but in those older codexes all the SCs specifically said "Special Character". The modern ones have "Unique" in brackets which is what I was referring too. Since BT codex is old anyway I don't see why he can't count though. What do others think?

    @bG - I'll try and setup some sort of mailing list. If anyone has specific requests for lifts etc I can appeal in a blog post too.

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  11. Glad you are cool with him...just bought a wicked model from Scibor Miniatures to represent him...

    Other than that..its any model that is "Unique" for clairities sake?

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  12. Hi Alex, I need a bit of time away from tournaments to get my mojo back so I'd be happy to help organise, set up and marshal if you like.

    Plus, I'm sending my blog's champion (Darren) so I don't really need to play anyway ;-)

    Yes, he's coming to kick arse and chew gum, and he's all out of gum...

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  13. My Space Wolves are ready to rumble!

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  14. Hi

    I'm listed to attend with my Necrons, but have just seen the latest attendance list and seen there is a REBEL ALLIANCE army... I have had a complete change of heart and decided to bring my IMPERIAL guard and hope for ultimate showdown :oP

    Could you please alter my army selection. Army list to follow shortly.

    Ian Connolly
    Need More Tanks

    ReplyDelete

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