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 Jancoran wrote:
Its been a long time since I saw anyone but the one I mentioned. It's actually a bad sign for the hobby though. As in many business models, the most important customer is the newest customer. Ifyou're not generating them you're going to see what happened with Dungeons and Dragons. They nearly lost it all to Pathfinder with the way they went about things and as soonas someone is smart enough to make a great rule set with remarkably similar models and excellent fluff which can "also be played with Games workshop or any model line" that people can latch onto I think GW is going to see it. They kind of already have with X-Wing and WarMachine. They are drifting into boutique land.

So I would love nothing better than to see a whole flush of new blood. Price is just too tough an issue for too many.

I might counter by saying that tournaments may not be the best gauge of interest. Of my group in high school back in the day, I was the only one out of six of us to ever go to a tournament. I knew of at least two other groups back then as well, but none of them went to tournaments. I can compare that to a miniature painting class I taught a little over a decade ago, I had anywhere from 6-10 young students on a given Sunday. My current gaming club ranged from 40ish down to early or mid teens. There are a few high-schoolers, a few twenty somethings, and a number of 30-40ish. IMO it's a decent mix at the moment.

I went 2 Wins 1 Draw in a Gamesday Tournament when I was 15. Had an opponent confused and asked if he was playing my dad. Had an extremely salty game

 Stevefamine wrote:
I went 2 Wins 1 Draw in a Gamesday Tournament when I was 15. Had an opponent confused and asked if he was playing my dad. Had an extremely salty game

That sounds almost identical to what happened to me during my last tournament

We don't play tournaments, but my son, who is 13, has a fair grasp of the rules (maybe not all of the nuances), but is respectful of the other players, can talk fluff and contribute to team planning discussions. I think he's made himself pretty welcome in our group.

The kid was 15 maybe? (I'm terrible at judging ages...) I don't he had even read the rulebook.

I started playing when I was 10 years old. I had literally no grasp of the rules whatsoever and I got tabled almost every game unless it was against someone who was my age and also misunderstood the rules. I think the funniest instance of this was when I fielded 27 Death Company marines with jump packs. Where it said "a jump pack is 15pts per model" I thought it meant 15pts per squad. I ran w/ Astorath and brought 2 of these units (proxy obviously) which meant i took around 800pts more than I was supposed to. I literally decimated both of my best friends armies consecutively in the same day. The worst part is that I was a really obnoxious kid back then and proceeded to brag about it for 3-4 days before I did it in front of another BA player who was in his 20's and he just went "yeah that doesn't sound legal" and told me I should tell my friends. I did and they have never let me live it down Thats why I'm always as patient as possible with new players and do my best to make it a learning experience.

Well if anyone is going to the Luton Tabletop Gaming Club Tournament tomorrow you will see me there

Unfortunately age discrimination is a thing.

I played in a 2 player team tournament some time ago. My teammate and I faced off against two kids, couldn't have been older than 12. Their grasp of the rules was tenuous at best and their play methods loose and chaotic. My teammate was annoyed to no end and rightfully so, but I tried to make the most of it.

It was the last round of the tournament and we were on the very bottom table - so no chance for anyone here; we're basically just going through the motions / playing for fun.

The kids were both playing Chaos Space Marines. I played to make situations where they could roll on the Chaos Boons table as much as possible and then allowed them to just choose what they wanted to happen. Needless to say it was a Daemon Prince every time. By the end of the game there were several DP's flying around (proxy' DP's - and I loath proxies like no one else), but the kids were obviously having a great time and in the end said it was the best game they had had all day... SOoo... Yea, we lost again, but whatever.

 oni wrote:
Unfortunately age discrimination is a thing.

I played in a 2 player team tournament some time ago. My teammate and I faced off against two kids, couldn't have been older than 12. Their grasp of the rules was tenuous at best and their play methods loose and chaotic. My teammate was annoyed to no end and rightfully so, but I tried to make the most of it.

It was the last round of the tournament and we were on the very bottom table - so no chance for anyone here; we're basically just going through the motions / playing for fun.

The kids were both playing Chaos Space Marines. I played to make situations where they could roll on the Chaos Boons table as much as possible and then allowed them to just choose what they wanted to happen. Needless to say it was a Daemon Prince every time. By the end of the game there were several DP's flying around (proxy' DP's - and I loath proxies like no one else), but the kids were obviously having a great time and in the end said it was the best game they had had all day... SOoo... Yea, we lost again, but whatever.

It's quite refreshing to here this come from an older player