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2016 was crap, wasn't it? Since my last post I've been to three funerals and about twelve Job Interviews, all of which have gone equally badly. My job has been getting steadily worse and it's looking increasingly like I'm going to have to leave my home town to deal with a family crisis too tragic to go into. The only constant has been wargaming, and I think we all ought to take a minute to appreciate the value of the hobby we have.

2017, I hope, is going to be a much better year. I'll start it by resuming my posts here, and that, ironically, means revisiting one of the negative experiences from the-year-which-shall-no-longer-be-named: my first ever 40k Tournament.

Now, one cannot exist near a broadband connection these days without hearing one of two rather extreme views of the competitive side of our hobby. Tournaments are either the only way it's possible to play now (because it's well-known that living rooms don't exist), or they are a blight on all human existence and should be bombed without exception. I'm not here to espouse either one of those views (despite the content of report that will now follow), and I certainly feel that no good ever comes of holding such absolutist views. However, I can say with relative certainty, that the three games presented hereafter did nothing whatsoever to endear the idea of Tournament gaming to me, and that the next time an even like this is run at my local shop, I fully intend to ignore the crap out of it.

Right, without further ado: the event was a little doubles tourney organised by my local games shop. mostly they actually do card games (God knows why), but they have a small 40k community, so my club decided to send a couple of teams. We play a decided non-competitive brand of 40k at our club (even our more competitive players are pretty toned down), so I wasn't expecting any great results, but I thought we might have fun and perhaps make some friends at the same time. Anything that swells our numbers is good by me.

I took a fast-moving assault force with Captain Korvydae and I was partnered with my friend, Ben, who'd brought an altogether more shooty Raptors army involving small Tactical units and a couple of tanks. I won't go into massive detail here, but suffice to say that I think I came across all the worst types of people at this Tourney. Games were 2*750pts, Maelstrom Objectives, and we could expect to have a Bye Round due to the odd number of teams.


Game 1 put us up against a team of Tau and Necrons. The Necron player was new to the faction and didn't know most of his own rules, while his mate had brought a Stormsurge and a massive chip on his shoulder. Right from the get-go, I found myself regretting this whole silly venture. Every card we drew seemed against us, and between our two ridiculous opponents, I reckon we had a few rules pulled askew. I wasn't too bothered, being perfectly open to fun with defeats and victories alike. In hindsight, it was probably an unwise stance.


My Land Speeders swept the central objective clear of Tau, and I came in for a lot of bitching from their owner, who apparently had not reckoned on Heavy Flamers ignoring both his cover and his armour saves.


My Vanguard Veterans wiped out these Destroyers, only for the opponent to bring them back in a rather dubious manner.


My Assault Marines claimed points from the objective here, then overran the Necrons (eventually). Meanwhile, my partner copped an earful for having the audacity to bring a Whirlwind.


We only got to play four turns. The game ended just before this combat began, which probably worked in my favour. Incidentally, we completely ignored the Stormsurge.

Game 1: Loss.
Lesson Learned: don't rely on the enemy to know his own army. Expect rules to be misinterpreted in his favour. Don't provoke sleeping bears.


Game 2 had us face a couple of older blokes who we were actually warned about. One had brought Red Scorpions with all the trimmings, while the other was using Ravewing and a Knight Acheron! The Tourney organiser came by during the game and took him to task on it. More on that later. A friend of mine on another team had faced them in Game 1 and been utterly trounced, and his army was designed for this sort of thing. Realistically, I knew this wasn't going to go well, but again I know that it's perfectly possible to have fun while being utterly trounced. Unfortunately what we got instead was four turns of total statistical supremacy and codex knob-measuring between our opponents. 'These fellows,' I thought, 'will not be invited to the club.'


Face full of 4+ FNP from Turn 1.


Red Scorpions owner was very proud of his army, which he'd just got back from the painters that morning.


This Dread was some cheesy Special Character, who completely wiped out my Vanguard before charging and destroying both of my partner's tanks.


The combined fire of these units killed I think two Marines.


By the end of Turn 3, this was my army.

Game 2: Loss.
Lesson Learned: Some people are just awful. I believe the line was 'No, you don't understand. If you don't explicitly ban this sort of thing, I HAVE to take it.'


Game 3 was, if anything, probably the best of the weekend, in that only one of the opponents was intolerable. Up against a team of Orks and Dark Eldar.


This was the Ork player. I'd been looking forward to playing him, and I have to say he was a thoroughly fun chap. Think the hat might have given him an unfair advantage, though.

Turns out I needn't have worried about the hat. The man underneath it was great. Exactly the sort of player I like: he laughed and joked at the expense of his Orks, did silly voices, made movie and book references all the time, wasn't too caught up on his measurements or Rules-to-the-letter. Absolutely in the spirit of the game. Great fun. His partner, on the other hand, was a right pain in the arse; spending every minute of his extremely long turns quoting from the rulebook, insisting that every measurement be accurate to the micron, standing over my like a gargoyle as I moved my models into combat and doing all of this with a voice that inhabited that peculiar niche between piercing and gravelly that made it rattle the windows and shake roof-tiles down.


My Storms took up forward positions and hammered the Boyz.


My Assault Marines struck and, for a brief moment, I was having fun. Until the other player got involved, that is.


Then there were Deldar. Seriously, this guy spent more time quoting chapter and verse than actually playing the damn game.

Game 3: Loss
Lesson Learned: The rules are there as much for the player's entertainment as their guidance. Obsessing over sentence minutiae is deeply tiresome.


And that was it. At the end of the 3rd game was our Bye Round, and after that it was clear that even if we won both our fourth and fifth games, my team were still going to be bottom of the table. We'd done that badly, and my earlier easygoing attitude had soured to the point where I could no longer stomach any more. One thing I hadn't really anticipated going into this is that each game would only last four turns. Not sure if this is common, but it certainly made the whole thing a lot less painful than I fear it might have been otherwise. It was also only the second time I'd ever played with Maelstrom objectives, which may have gone some way to ensuring our downfall. Played three, lost three, never again.

So yes; in one event I'd had a whiner, a goldfish, two Power Gamers, a brilliantly fun 'true hobbyist' and a Text-to-Speech generator. Does that cover every Tournament stereotype?

Unfortunately, it sounds about right for a tournament. I've not been to one myself but my friend went to a hobby event where they were hosting one and he even said that the people there who were usually pretty easy-going were very particular about every little detail during the tournament. was there any prize for the victors of the tournament? if so, that can alter how people play as they wouldn't like to lose over the misinterpretation of a rule or a game-clinching shot or charge that should have been an inch out of range if it was properly measured. However you do get your golden souls who don't care about whether they win, they turn up just because they want to play and a tournament provides guaranteed games.

As for Game finishing, I think it depends on whether or not there's worth continuing on further. I have had a game in store where one of the guys who oversees the games called out game at the start of my third movement phase after I'd pretty much cleared the last undamaged units my opponent had (all the rest were severely reduced or locked in combat) after ripping apart his Storm Raven with Heldrakes (killing 7 of the 10 marines inside and the librarian) and I still had a unit of Night Lord marines and raptors fresh in reserve. Granted that was because there was another group waiting for a table, but the overseer clearly acknowledged that my opponent would have been merely delaying the inevitable. If they release any rule sets for the tournament, see if you can get a hold of them. it might have been one of the conditions.

I think you have been really unlucky! I play 2-3 tournaments a year and can count on 1 hand the number of tossers I have had to deal with.

I think there is a big difference between local tournaments and bigger national ones. When I was first playing competitively I went to local 1 day brawls and there was always a few "that guys" or toxic/annoying people. There was one guy who was in his 30s but his mum would always go the tournament with him and she would get really upset and screech if someone won against her "baby". HOWEVER, the majority of people that went to these events were all nice friendly people and we would go out for drinks after.

After a while I started going to bigger events. Most of them are 2 day affairs and its treated as a big social event: people book hotel rooms together, big night out after the first day, big dinner together after the first day etc. People travel from all over Europe and even 1 or 2 yanks will turn up and It tends to cost about £30 per ticket. I think this is the main reason for these events to visted by nicer/better people, there is that barrier but also a level of expectation/standard of person willing to make that investment of time and money.

Also for myself as a Guard player, to a certain extent some of the pressure from going to the tournament is gone: everyone is going to be bringing a power list so I expect to lose most games but I know I can go down swinging and if I win 1-2 games then I did pretty well . And because everyone knows that every list is gonna be brutal then no one really complains/whines about it! Of course there are a few guys like me that go for the fun so what normally happens is the first days is spent getting smashed down to the bottom tables and the second day is spent playing against like minded people who are also on the bottom tables

Last thing I wanna say. I felt EXACTLY the same way as you after my first big national event, even worse as it was a team event so I felt like I was letting my team down. However, I kept going and got to meet some of the best people I know and my army/collection has really evolved as well

I highly recommend that you do not give up on the competitive scene just yet. Hell if you want, shoot me a PM, I am looking for a 4th team member for an event that is coming up in June!

I'll have to concede this to FatBoy, as he says he's played more tournaments. Maybe my friend just got a poor lot on the day.

Either way he has a point, don't let them ruin the game for you. focus on the games where the players get along with a common interest, not the ones that try to weed in every advantage.

Thanks for sharing OP and I love your Raven Guard! Beautifully painted!

I have faced every one of these tropes which basically forced me to quit tournies. If it's not fun anymoe then I suggest taking a break from tournie play. It helped me and now enjoy the game so much more.

I don't play any more, but I once went on an invasion day to Warhammer world. Lots of fun. My friend and I got trounced, but we weren't playing power gamers, we were taking the most god awful lists imaginable. It was a lot of fun, but I did see a few arseholes around (one guy had two riptides at 1000 points and spent planet of time bragging), I guess you just ended up with the arseholes. Also woop woop for the raptors, great to see other lovers of the best chapter around.

I've been playing in local tournaments for over 2 years, and guess how many people I've ever had a problem with: one. And that was probably not that bad, it just seemed worse to me at the time because I was frustrated about losing badly. The guy was friendly enough, but he just seemed so smug about beating me. He didn't brag in my face or anything, but his manner of speech and facial expression just seemed to scream superiority, even though he won less through his own skill but rather because I played like a moron that game.

I guess I've got one of those rare communities that has a bunch of people who get along well. Even when we have people come in from out of town to play, I've yet to see anyone do anything that was blatant TFG behavior. I hope it stays that way.

Thank you all for your encouragement.

Unfortunately, whether this is indicative of the wider tournament scene or not, I think I'll be sticking to my little, casual games for the foreseeable.

Definitely a rough scene. Sorry that was your experience. Hobby gaming is real hit-or-miss as to what kind of people you're going to meet: I think I learned more about being calm and patient with frustrating people as a kid hanging out at Games Workshop than from anything else!

And of course, I always love to hear that it's the Ork player keeping the spirit alive!

2016 was indeed crap, I had a similar year, mother with a brain tumor, fraud and a whole host of other things that I would rather just forget but fortunately yes we do have a consuming hobby which helps us forget all about the real life stuff. Personally I love modelling (not L'oreal) but making 40K models, and I love painting and I paint 99.9% of everything myself (I have to outsource some very small symbol's as I cannot see the details close up) as it relaxes me and I will paint for hours and take great pride in my painting.

I also love to play 40K games and actually enjoy tournaments and competitive play for a few reasons, firstly, if the game isn't played to a reasonably competitive level its boring, I have played games where the opponent just doesn't care and it is neither fun nor challenging. I love to meet new, interesting people, have a laugh and a joke, see new armies, discover new tactics and if there is a win then all the better because everyone likes to win sometimes!

I played in a very similar game last September, 5 games over 2 days with 2 x 1000 points (Doubles) and I went with my friend to a local shop and the tournament started awfully, first death of the entire tournament was my friends knight - opponent stole the initiative then D weaponed it in the face and then proceeded to table us over the next 3 turns, not a great start at all.

That changed though, we played a nice couple of chaps game 2, one with Raptors (I love raptors and their fluff and this is the first time I had played them, and Ben was a nice chap too), and Raven Guard with Korvydae, again, never played this chapter or Korvydae so I was excited to see what they had. It started with a bit of a chat and me mentioning that they didn't look like they had enough units, they assured me they had so we carried on.

Lias Issodon's pre-game infiltrate, isolate, destroy went off like a damp squib due to some bad dice rolls and I think our Knight lost a hull point. The first round was a bit in your face for the opposition as we have a deathstorm drop pod land (I love the fluff of these, clearing the way for other angels of death) which due to the small amount of units did very little closely followed by Sgt Brother Halar, a character dread with a flamestorm cannon and a special rule so if you don't explode him he hangs round for another turn. Very much a one trick pont and a great distraction, well there was Shadow Captain Korvydae 6" from the back table edge so it would be rude not to....oh wait, some of his men died and he ran off......8" you say, isn't that off the board?

The Ravenwing bikes whizzed forwards shooting wildly at the Raptors Tanks (I mean, who brings tanks to a fight where raptors can hurt everything bar heavy armour) and a few hull points were lost, and our knight strode forward and was....out of range of everything!

The opponents turn was quite quick as the Raven Guard were running late so we had another turn of shootiness and punching things before they arrived! HURRAH! so hey, lets park all these open topped flyers that rely on jink next to that HUGE flamer, thats a great plan.....oh...wait...no, that kinda hurts, please stop....noooooooo

Then turn 3, well I guess you have kind of gathered I am the Red Scorpions tosser. Yep, thats me, oh mighty evil one with a CAD of mainly men - yep, that's right - mainly marines (admittedly with a 5+ FNP, not a 4+ as spineless guy stated) my list was:

Loth (175 points of hard to kill no eternal warrior 2 wounds psyker, and no I dont use invisibility)
Halar - 180 points of dreadnought and pod with a str6 ap3 flamer and a little more resilience.
Deathstorm - a 100 point 1 shot wonder whirlwind launcher
3 Tac Squads and 2 drop pods with a couple of special weapons.

not a bad force for 1000 points, very little "OP" just things that can be a pain.

My friend had a knight Acheron (yes, hes mine too because I am a right royal bellend) which dies very quickly to Tau, Eldar, grav, etc and is 415 Points
A load of bikes with plasma, some attack bikes with melta and a librarian (I think)

Just to clear up a few points from the original post however;

Craig isn't actually that old, he is just hairy.
You looked at our rules more than we did (don't moan people don't know their armies, then complain that we do!)
The only part of my army I haven't painted are the little red scorpions, which admittedly I do pay a guy to paint for me because I cant see them, but everything else is hand painted painstakingly by me.
Scorpions get a 5+ FNP on Tac Squads only, not 4+ (The SGT gets apothecary for free, kill him and it goes)
It was 2 x 1000 points, not 2 x 750 (And we told you that you were short on points)
The staff on hand didn't "take anyone to hand" about the knight.
There were no statistics involved - Craig was a "can opener" and I had to hold objectives.
We aren't Awful
We don't want to go to your club if its full of whiney bitches.
What kind of fool doesn't expect competitiveness in a competition (clue there guys - competition)
If you go to play and not be competitive why are you moaning about losing?
You do realise its a "war game", I am not sure but I am fairly certain before wars people meet up and say "just tone it down a bit lads, we don't want it to go overboard" or "Hey, they don't look really that good, lets not use the big guns today"

But hey, putting up posts about me is OK, I am a big boy and I can take it which is why myself and Craig would like to challenge you to a 2 x 1000 point rematch, you can specify any limits you want on the armies - no superheavies, no Forgeworld if you want although Korvydae and raptors are FW aren't they?).

Oh, your game against the Orks and Dark Eldar - completely agree on the rules guy!

Hope to hear from you soon

Scott (AKA The Old Beardy Red Scorpions Tosser)

I have to apologise for the negative tone of my post from the offset however, I was at said tournament too and I saw things differently. FYI wye brought ultramarine scout force and deathwatch (without drop pods).

Yes Scott and Craig were brutal in the tournament and much abuse was given for some of the stuff they brought but they were not unbeatable.

The necron player is one of the nicest people I have ever gamed with and knows his arm pretty well but wasnt hugely familiar with 7th ed at the time.

The tau player comes across as brash and aggressive but he is a nice(ish) guy when you get to know him. He had played about 5 games by the time you played him but hey lets abuse new players I mean who would dare join a tourney without decades of experience?!

And talking of bringing nasty stuff how about you try reading the tournament requirements before you have a go at others as your team had an illegal list!

Sounds to me like you threw teddy out the pram because you thought a FLGS tourney would be easy meat to stomp around in.

TLDR: tournaments are made to attract people who are competitive if you want less then do a campaign. Don't take out your lack of skill or incompetence out on people who can play the game better than you especially when you cheated (intentionally or otherwise) from the start!

And before you moan at me for being one of those players I think we lost every game but somehow still managed to have fun.

If you take toy soldiers seriously enough that when you lose you throw an online tantrum then I feel you should reevaluate your outlook somewhat. Grow up and realise it is just a game.

 chronostinator wrote:


Loth (175 points of hard to kill no eternal warrior 2 wounds psyker, and no I dont use invisibility)
Halar - 180 points of dreadnought and pod with a str6 ap3 flamer and a little more resilience.
Deathstorm - a 100 point 1 shot wonder whirlwind launcher
3 Tac Squads and 2 drop pods with a couple of special weapons.

Ouch!

PS: Nice army and quite in keeping with the old Red Scorpions. Would love to see pictures of it if you have any kicking around.

Thanks I have loads from when I was painting them, i will dig some out - but here's one on my favourite battle mat (hence the lava bases) and a few in production ones and a recent battle

Just because I have been asked (and I do love my Red Scorpions) here are some more pictures, however I have realised I need to do some proper ones for a gallery!

Lovely army, ta muchly for posting those. I'll be adding a bunch to my inspirations library. They'll help me get a move on with my Sons of Medusa force I'm working on.

How do you find the Land Raider Helios by the way? I've got one to be built and any tips on using it?

Wait, how the hell were there 4+ FnP Red Scorpions?

I know their Sgts can be upgraded to apothecaries, but apothecaries only give 5+ FnP....

I play in a couple of tournaments a year on average and I very seldom run into unfriendly people. I almost always encounter someone who doesn't know his army's rules, but most of my opponents are good players who are polite in that vague, sort of soulless way. They're not there to have fun, they're there to play the game by the rules and exploit the codexes to the max. They're perfectly fair, but they aren't good sportsmen.

If you've ever read The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis he describes the affliction perfectly, It's highly disconcerting to leave a tournament and realize that, while I have no complaints, I also didn't have any fun either. I suppose that's why I can only stomach going to a couple of tournaments year (also, the 40K rules are so horribly imbalanced that tournaments are always going to be, at least in part, an exercise in sadism and masochism).

 commander dante wrote:
Wait, how the hell were there 4+ FnP Red Scorpions?

I know their Sgts can be upgraded to apothecaries, but apothecaries only give 5+ FnP....

They dont, he has loads ofstuff wrong, they had a 5+ fnp unless loth uses endurance ( which i dont really use)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 zedmeister wrote:
Lovely army, ta muchly for posting those. I'll be adding a bunch to my inspirations library. They'll help me get a move on with my Sons of Medusa force I'm working on.

How do you find the Land Raider Helios by the way? I've got one to be built and any tips on using it?

I love the helios, i tend to use it to deliver honour guard or vets into combat, with the faq stating i can use pitms on the whirwi d its a great close support wespon allowing great diversity of fire - lascannons at gmc/ veh and whirwind at infantry then disgorging ap3 weapons

Man, that was painful to read. On one hand complaining about not knowing rules, on the other hand claiming impossible things (4+ base fnp on red scorpions).

Also, I simply refuse to believe that someone who played 6 people actually played 5 complete jerks. It really sounds like OP has had a rough year, was having a rough time, and hoped that winning some games would help. However that didn't happen so he was mad. Hey, it happens. The only opponent he enjoyed playing against was the ork player, which, hey look at that, assaulty marines tend to win against orks in combat.

I just really hope other people realize that tournaments are more fun than you make them. If you run into one jerk, they're a jerk, if you run into jerks all day, maybe adjust your definition of jerk.

Well, I was hoping the challenga would be accepted but in typical raven guard style he has skulked into the shadows, his raptors partner however has no such fears and we are having a game next week!

Just reading the intro to this post. It seems like you brought your own baggage in to this tourney and every one who wasnt playing a friendly army sucks at life. I would venture to bet that you were not the only one there with life issues. I dont mean to come across as a jack but just in the tone of your post thats what i got. I always saw tourneys as a chance to see just how tough you are. If your looking for a friendly army, then maybe look for one that is geared twords that or put your own on. Man i am sorry your life is hard right now and lord knows alot of people on here can relate to that. However i am sure there are others that have used this as a coping mechanism. I know as i watched cancer take my dad i painted a ton of minis just so i could turn my brain off enough to not think about it. So i guess if this is your happy place then play to enjoy and try as you can to leave you baggage at the door. Best of luck to you though, and i sincerely hope it starts to turn around for you.

 chronostinator wrote:
Well, I was hoping the challenga would be accepted but in typical raven guard style he has skulked into the shadows, his raptors partner however has no such fears and we are having a game next week!

Will you post up a report?