Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Greeting Dakkites,

I'd just like to drop some words on here in the hope that some Games Workshop UK employees read this. On behalf of me, my friends and the coach-load of people that travelled a ten hour round trip to get to yesterday's tournament I'd like to thank you, because it was a complete and utter shambles! I shall go on to list why:

--> Doors were supposed to open at 9am, this involved our party setting off on a coach journey at 4am. When we got there and started queing, the scenery for the gaming tables hadn't even arrived yet. We stood around in the brisk Scottish morning air for almost an hour before we were even let into the venue. Queing, incidentally, in a position that was blocking traffic for other events nearby.

--> Despite pre-registering, details of several sets of team details had been lost and only by showing our receipt at the door did we manage to gain entry.

--> The first round was against whoever the hell you liked, but people walked around confused for a further half an hour before this was explained and everyone got matched up.

--> The itinerary showed 90 minute rounds, the first round was an hour, the second round was 50 minutes and the third round was also around the hour mark. The lunch break was shortened to 25 minutes.

--> Some absolute had been given the job of talking over the PA system every ten minutes in a ridiculous voice. The place was already very busy, so it was often difficult to hear your opponent as it was... without this idiot shouting his mouth off for no reason so often. If I could've jumping roundhouse kicked him in the face, I would have.

--> Even though the win conditions had been clearly printed and distributed months in advance, the judges ignored them. Because the tournament was only 3 rounds, a number of teams were deadlocked on 3-0, but there was also a 'Best painted army' competition which, according to the rules, awarded extra points. One of the teams to be 3-0 won this, but didn't get credit at the awards ceremony so they ended 3rd instead of 1st! When some friends and I pointed this out to the organisers after the awards, they just shrugged. Again, I was implementing my fifth jumping roundhouse of the day in my mind's eye. Why not pick the mic back up and say "Sorry folks, we made a mistake."... instead they said "Yeah. Nevermind. We'll send another trophy to your store.". I couldn't believe it! Winning isn't all about trophies, it's also about standing up in front of your peers and being able to say "That's right, we're the best!" which the winners were denied.

Absolute shambles. All three of my team's games timed out in Turn 3, our tickets were £50. I sincerely hope when we right our letter of complaint to Head Office that something is done about it.

Write and ask for a refund.

If you were promised three 90 minute games and didn't get it, you have a good claim under contract law.

You should be abe to get a full refund for services not rendered, however, the contract law side of thngs should be sufficient.

Yeah, a bunch of us are writing to them to complain. I'd like my money back, but I'd also like to see that their tournaments are run more efficiently in the future... What a waste of my time!

If you smack them around by getting a bunch of refunds, that hits them in the wallet, which is the only language companies understand.

So doing a well written, polite but firm letter is the best thing to do.

Moving to tournaments.

Wow. That sounds totally lame.

Sounds like a complete waste of money. I shan't be attending any GW Tournaments in the near future. Thanks for the review.

Valk

Valkyrie wrote:Sounds like a complete waste of money. I shan't be attending any GW Tournaments in the near future. Thanks for the review.

Valk

The same bunch of friends and I went to the 40k Doubles tournament in Nottingham in January... that was excellent. I didn't have a single complaint about the entire weekend! If you get the opportunity to visit an event at Warhammer World I'd strongly advise you to take it.

I guess it was a different bunch of guys that organised this one though, and what a bunch of absolute fools.

I was at both the january doubles event and conflict as well and I have to agree. I was not impressed at all with the organisation and indeed if you had only mentioned I would have held the guy with the PA mic still for you whilst you kicked him. The problem clearly was stunningly poor organisation and I won't be going back to this one. Roll on next january as far as I am concerned it will be off to warhammer world again.

You know, there's always Adepticon...

Oddly enough, Sunday's Conflict was better organised than the previous year. From memory, we only had around half an hour for game two due to the doors not opening until 10am.

Regarding the guy with the PA, during game two a friend of mine politely told him to shut up and made a complaint to the event organiser. I believe that wasn't the first or last complaint of the day.

I can understand why the system of picking your first game was introduced however, it doesn't really have a fair reflection on how your team performed.

We knew a couple of teams who played against young children for their first game. Their opponents knew very few of the core rules and didn't understand how the strength of a weapon impacts the armour value of a vehicle. (For example they used bolters against armour 12 vehicles). Both teams ended up winning their first game very easily, with one of them being ranked at one of the top three tables for the second game.

After being so highly ranked, both teams where thumped and then demoted to around table 30-40. They then went on to win their third game which would place them fairly high in the rankings.

We ended up playing a very close first game against Space Marines (adults lol) and played our second and third game on table 18. Out of 60 odd I was quite proud of being ranked fairly high however, due to our loss in the final game, we will actually end up being lower than others in the results table despite playing a higher quality of opposition.

During the previous year's event, we were thumped in our first game, drew our second and at one of the bottom tables (around 54 or 56) grinded out a win against a couple of kids lol. Points wise, we did just as well as the previous year however, regarding table positions and quality of opposition I'm counting it as a vast improvement!

As pointed out in a previous post, the time restriction on the second game meant that players who would have typically won their second game or would have gained more kill points (and in turn ranked higher) did not have enough time in order to complete their game. (more so the previous year). That in itself had an impact on rankings and disturbed the balance of opposition which essentially happened to us (crazy, beardy, invincible army).

I'm guessing that we were not the only team in that situation and the only way I can think of to help balance out teams is by having an age restriction and perhaps changing the second game to a slot with more time available.

malfred wrote:You know, there's always Adepticon...

i believe that's a bit more of a commute for those attending conflict SCOTLAND.

warboss wrote:

malfred wrote:You know, there's always Adepticon...

i believe that's a bit more of a commute for those attending conflict SCOTLAND.

But worth it!

Is a 5 hour flight worse than a 5 hour bus ride?

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Is a 5 hour flight worse than a 5 hour bus ride?

5 hour flight from the UK to chicago? either they're busting out the spare iron man suits or they unretiring the concord, lol. it's probably closer to 7 hours not including the hassle of airport security, checkin, and customs. all in all, you're lucky to get door to door across the pond in 11 hours each way.

Ah just go to NY then.

Still worth it

warboss wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Is a 5 hour flight worse than a 5 hour bus ride?

5 hour flight from the UK to chicago? either they're busting out the spare iron man suits or they unretiring the concord, lol. it's probably closer to 7 hours not including the hassle of airport security, checkin, and customs. all in all, you're lucky to get door to door across the pond in 11 hours each way.

As Einstein said, time is relative. Once when I was flying back from Europe to the States, I sat next to a rather obese man who had one two many drinks. I was told the story of his daughter's divorce no less than 3 times in that 8ish hour flight, each tale becoming progressively more exaggerated and loud than the former.

That same year, I was flying to Korea and there was a small Korean child sitting in front of me. You know what's worse than a crying child on a plane? A crying child screaming in a language you can't understand. To this day, I'm unsure what "Seut crit!" or whatever she was yelling meant....but I was damn near ready to offer the parents money to give it to her.


On topic, 30 minutes to pay a game of tournament 40k is rather silly. It usually takes 10ish minutes to introduce, look over army lists, classify terrain and setup..

It surprises me that GW, who have 20 years experience of running this kind of event, haven't got some training and organisation to make sure every official event runs to an acceptable minimum standard.

I'm a little annoyed that I didnt get my 1st place trophy :(

And the fact they gave one Best Painted Trophy between the two of us was annoying too... I let my team mate have it as I have one from Throne of Skulls

Dezartfox wrote:I'm a little annoyed that I didnt get my 1st place trophy :(

And the fact they gave one Best Painted Trophy between the two of us was annoying too... I let my team mate have it as I have one from Throne of Skulls

Ahhah, so you're one of the chaps on this photo, and my last round opponents. Very good! Ladies and Gents, I give you the TRUE winners of Conflict Scotland 2010.

I still think it's a disgrace the way it was handled. We're drafting a letter to send to Customer Services, although when I phoned them this morning the guy said "I can't guarantee that you'll get a response." which was pretty shocking. I'll keep you posted!

Amazing XD
I'm the one on the left with the Best Painted Trophy.

Selorian wrote:
Regarding the guy with the PA, during game two a friend of mine politely told him to shut up and made a complaint to the event organiser. I believe that wasn't the first or last complaint of the day.

Hi,
yep that was me. Didn't think I was that polite but it did work for a while.

Gazza

Tantras wrote:

Dezartfox wrote:I'm a little annoyed that I didnt get my 1st place trophy :(

And the fact they gave one Best Painted Trophy between the two of us was annoying too... I let my team mate have it as I have one from Throne of Skulls

Ahhah, so you're one of the chaps on this photo, and my last round opponents. Very good! Ladies and Gents, I give you the TRUE winners of Conflict Scotland 2010.

I still think it's a disgrace the way it was handled. We're drafting a letter to send to Customer Services, although when I phoned them this morning the guy said "I can't guarantee that you'll get a response." which was pretty shocking. I'll keep you posted!

Are all Scots that furry? I'm impressed.

We're not Scottish XD

Just fuzzy

yep that was me. Didn't think I was that polite but it did work for a while.

I couldn't imagine you not being polite heh. I'm really glad you told him to be quiet and I'm sure that everyone appreciated him shutting up for a while.

Your team ended up being picked by a couple of young kids to play the first round. After blowing away your first opponents and being highly ranked in the second round, would you have preferred to have played a more difficult team for the objective round? (resulting in being ranked slightly lower for the second game).

aye we were lucky that we only really had 6 figures to move around and still ran out of time on final game, 4 chimera, a truck and a battle wagon, the guard didnt get of of their tanks all day (bet theres loads of drive through in the 41me

swarm armies were bummed hard by them messing the times up and cutting them so short

Dezartfox wrote:Amazing XD
I'm the one on the left with the Best Painted Trophy.

The other one bears a resemblance to an old university colleague called "Psycho" who I lost touch with years ago.

I recommend Vapnartak in York for those looking for an alternative tournament (York, Februray). It was run very well. http://www.yorkwargames.org/Vapnartak.htm

Desart fox was there as well with his stunning deathwing terminators!

Does anyone know where I can get conflict 2010 results? Yet another GW deficiency is that they never publish tourney results.