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I am absolutely terrified about the Semi Finals. What will I wear? Should I arrive a little early, or would that make me seem to eager?
No, seriously how is everyone feeling about the Semis? I am not scared, but I am curious about the levels of competition, and types of people that will come. I will admit to being worried, because as of yet I have yet to make an army list, and quite frankly find myself playing an army I have never played, and have limited options with :(

Borrow models from friends to make a good list.

I'm a little nervous, but just because I don't know the people I'll be playing and I really hate dealing with TFGs. I just have my fingers crossed that I'll be able to avoid that kind of opponent, and that my dice don't hate me.

I'll be mentally steeling myself against shenanigans, doing warchants in my head the day before to put me in a merciless mindframe...*sigh* Sucks that I have to think that way, but the world is full of tards....

Double post.... never done that before, didn't press twice either! Weird..

LOL... I had most of the guys in my area calling me TFG for a while. I have since taken vast steps to change that. I must say I think it has been successful.

Good for you! I always want to be "Oh, hey, glad you came, I hope we get to play" instead of "Oh, no, not him again!" It also generally means that you get cut a little slack when you make mistakes or aren't at your top form.

I learned my lesson a couple of months back when a rules issue arose, and the guy who it arose with is one of the nicest easy going opponents I have ever met, in any game. He threatened me saying if I kept it up no one would want to play with me, and cursed me. I had a stance which I thought was right and wouldnt budge on. I told him he could get a judge, but it was something that was legitimately a mess up on my end. Since then, I have become a little less confrontational, and a little more smiles .

FYI He went through my turn, got to assault, and then started a conversation with a guy that was leaving while I did mine since I had initative. I pointed out after it was over that it was his turn. He took that to mean that it was his actual turn and started moving his pieces. He moved 3 or 4 units, and it got brought up that he didnt finish his assault last turn. I argued (wrongly, and I was TFG at that moment) that since he skipped it he couldnt go back and do it now. It turned into an arguement until he finally went and got a judge and I was shown that I was wrong, and an ass.

I really examined who I was after that. I strived to be
1. More informed about the rules.
2. Less of an Ass.
Since then I place
2nd at our state tourney
and 3rd at one of our Ard Boyz.
I even got to redeem myself against a friend who said he would never play me again. He got paired against me in the second round of the State Tournament and took fifteen minutes to decide if he would even play me or just quit :( I repaid him by making sure it was a nice clean, respectful game, with no arguing and a jolly attitude.

I'm alittle nervous about the second round, because this is my first ARD BOYZ and going to be tough. The other thing is that if you are travling and going to another store that you haven't played, is going to tough as well. Good luck

Fearspect wrote:Borrow models from friends to make a good list.

I agree, borrowing models can really help you, but make sure they look kinda like ur army!

camboyaz wrote:

Fearspect wrote:Borrow models from friends to make a good list.

I agree, borrowing models can really help you, but make sure they look kinda like ur army!

Why exactly?

To look good ?

Good for you, mike_houghton98! Very inspiring to read someone who was labelled as an opponent that people didn't want to play, and turned that around. Hope you do well and have a good time!!

mrblacksunshine_1978 wrote:I'm alittle nervous about the second round, because this is my first ARD BOYZ and going to be tough. The other thing is that if you are travling and going to another store that you haven't played, is going to tough as well. Good luck

Look at it as an opportunity to meet new people, see some amazing armies, and get 3 games in. I find that one of the best way to "fit in" is to arrive early, chat with people, listen respectfully, and ask to join them for lunch. Remember that you have an advantage when going to a new store in that they are not familiar with your army or your play-style. Sure, if you're using a bog-standard internet list, they'll know what the list is capable of, but you probably play it slightly differently. Make sure that you cover any rulings that tend to nip you frequently, and be nice to your opponent from the start. If you're nice, they'll likely be nice right back.

edit : Oh, and syanticraven, you've pegged it. If you show up with a well painted & modeled army for Ard Boyz, people will automatically give you a bit of respect and assume that your probably know what you're doing. If OTOH you show up with 5 armies worth of random stuff, they're likely to peg you as a Noob and assume that you don't know the rules and how to play. It's a subtle thing, but quite common place in my experience.

barontuman wrote:

mrblacksunshine_1978 wrote:I'm alittle nervous about the second round, because this is my first ARD BOYZ and going to be tough. The other thing is that if you are travling and going to another store that you haven't played, is going to tough as well. Good luck

Look at it as an opportunity to meet new people, see some amazing armies, and get 3 games in. I find that one of the best way to "fit in" is to arrive early, chat with people, listen respectfully, and ask to join them for lunch. Remember that you have an advantage when going to a new store in that they are not familiar with your army or your play-style. Sure, if you're using a bog-standard internet list, they'll know what the list is capable of, but you probably play it slightly differently. Make sure that you cover any rulings that tend to nip you frequently, and be nice to your opponent from the start. If you're nice, they'll likely be nice right back.

This is truly some excellent advice, maybe not applicable, for some reasons, i've never been to a tournament with a lunch break.

barontuman wrote:edit : Oh, and syanticraven, you've pegged it. If you show up with a well painted & modeled army for Ard Boyz, people will automatically give you a bit of respect and assume that your probably know what you're doing. If OTOH you show up with 5 armies worth of random stuff, they're likely to peg you as a Noob and assume that you don't know the rules and how to play. It's a subtle thing, but quite common place in my experience.

I must take offense at this statement. My nicely painted Chaos force is five armies worth of random stuff. That's what the Chaos Daemons codex says to use.

Silly people expecting Chaos armies to show up in matching uniforms.

Heheheh, but if they're all based the same, then it'll probably be obvious that it's a complete army. And if they're based differently, then they very well might assume that you're a noob. No offense is meant, just commenting on my observation of player psychology!

I kinda understand where you were coming from with the start of this. I've only played in a couple tournaments and my army does it's competitive best but when playing with people I know at my Local place, I know we're all there to have fun but playing with people I don't know is different. Sometimes at the the tournaments people get a little too hardcore, i'm just as competitive as anyone but I do remember it's a game. If my dogs of war don't get their pardon and are put down, it's still fun. But every once in a while, at the hardcore tournament levels, I wonder what some of these guys do when they lose. I've seen one or two meltdowns before and man, that can get ugly when it's two hardcore gamers...after all that, i would say have fun, win or lose, and remember that more than likely the other guy is there to have fun also. Take your list and be happy with it, whether other people look down on it or not.

I saw my first meltdown at a tournament recently... I've seen a bunch of arguments and tension over the years but actually seeing someone spazz the feth out was pretty spooky.

Monster Rain wrote:I saw my first meltdown at a tournament recently... I've seen a bunch of arguments and tension over the years but actually seeing someone spazz the feth out was pretty spooky.

You can't just leave me hanging...

Heh heh. I don't know if he posts on this forum... Let's just say that he's got a lot of gluing to do after he took his frustrations out on his models.

Monster Rain wrote:Heh heh. I don't know if he posts on this forum... Let's just say that he's got a lot of gluing to do after he took his frustrations out on his models.

Hehe, i've never seen a melt-down, worst thing was a friend throwing a tape measure at another friend, all in good fun though.

Ive seen tons of meltdowns.. Grown men throwing models, temper tantrums, etc..

Some people just shouldnt be involved in competitive.. well anything

Only competed in local tournies before this...will be the first time going somewhere and competing at a location where i dont know anyone else.. hadnt really thought about it till now, but i guess i just hope i dont draw any TFGs.

19 out of 20 players are just like anybody from your local game store so odds are you won't have to deal with anything over the top. I've had a lot of opponents get sulky, grumpy, and do things like toss their models back in the box, but nobody has ever gone off on me.

I try to be polite and friendly to anyone new I meet, and the advantage of a tournament is we already have something in common. Every once in a while I'll run into somebody who realizes early in the game that they are beaten, and they try to slow play, question rules or make stuff up that must be refuted, and pretty much try to take you down with them. The only real defense against this is a calm professional attitude and preparation. Don't ever be afraid to call the judge to get a rules call or keep the game moving.

If you have questions about the rules, codex, or tournament standards, ask in advance, and make sure you speak to the man (or woman) in charge. Be very businesslike and thorough with each opponent about the mission, table terrain, how you treat cocked dice, anything that has ever become a problem in the middle of the game. Make it plain that you are here to enjoy the game, but more importantly that you intend to play as quickly and fairly as possible to complete the full game. I respect every opponent unless they give me a reason not to, and I hope to be treated in kind.

In the end, even if you lose the event and/or play nasty small minded people, you can carry the victory of being an upright and honorable competitor.

Kirasu wrote:Ive seen tons of meltdowns.. Grown men throwing models, temper tantrums, etc..

Some people just shouldnt be involved in competitive.. well anything

Agree.

My friend last year made it to round 3...

Now... I wasn't there, but he claims that when playing against a deamons player there were 15 minutes left in the round (round 2 i think it was) but there were only a handful of models left on the deamon players side (my friend says 2-3, but it could have been slightly more)... anyway the deamon player claimed there wasn't enough time to finish the game... John really didn't care since thats the kinda guy he is...

Now I wasn't there... but something you should do if this happens is ask the TO if he feels that there is enough time and explain to the TO it will only take you 5 minutes to finish a turn... but at the same time you should be willing to let your opponent finish the game if there really is time... Thats just being a good sport.

I haven't played that many tournaments yet, but as with basically any other event in life, I've found that two things really help with this kind of stuff:

- Getting enough sleep beforehand.

- Eating and drinking enough throughout the day.

It sounds kind of stupid---after all, it's just wargaming, not a marathon or something (which I also do, so this kind of thing's on my mind)---but those are really easily overlooked things that do matter, even here. At something like 'Ard Boyz you're on your feet for a good 8--10 hours; you're quite possibly stuffed in a hot, cramped room all day with no sunlight; you're dealing with new people in a more or less competitive environment; your mind's on overdrive; and so on. If you got enough sleep and you stay on top of keeping fed with decent food (not chips all day), it can really help make you more comfortable, both improving your game and making you better equipped to respond favorably to problems, and/or manage problematic opponents and ride through incidents without it ruining your whole day.

I'm convinced a significant portion of the blowups out there happen not because the opponents would not otherwise be fine to play against, but rather just because people get tired, hungry, and frazzled as the day goes on, so even totally fine players get cranky, don't want to budge, don't act charitably, assume the worst, and small issues rapidly escalate into real problems.

I'm not nervous at all because i'll be playing a table top miniature game at 'Ard boyz instead of using 40k as a way to boost my ego.

LOL So the people that are nervous are so because we are trying to boost our egos? Thats a rash generalization.

My advice: Don't go in expecting to win a free army. Infact, forget all about that big prize, it tends to mess with ones thinking. The best thing you can do is play each game fully focused and if in the end it works out so much the better, AND you've avoided alot of stress.