Brent Dishes on Wargames Con, Only to Ask…
Weekend before last was WarGames Con… last weekend was recovery from Wargames Con! But while I will mention the games I played, this article is about one, simple point…
…more isn’t always better.
Hello again on this fine Terrible Tuesday. My name is Brent, the poor man’s Goatboy, and I’m your host.
Before we get started though, I’d like to share with you the best two dollars I’ve every spent; the Spam Box!
I picked it up when the OffTopical Crew and I went to this year’s ComicCon in Dallas, Texas. Nobody could figure out why I wanted it so bad. Ah, pride in ownership!
The purpose of this article isn’t really to cover the event itself, but since I’ll end up seemingly criticizing parts of the format, it bears saying up front that I love this event. I haven’t missed one!
This was the what, 5th one? They’ve got the venue and the tournaments down; there’s very little lag between rounds and everything seems to run smoothly.
But I’ll admit, I’m biased! I love these guys, I love the city, and I love the event.
There’s a ‘but’ coming. Skip to the end if you can’t wait.
I love this little army. It’s fun to play and it appeals to my sense of the absurd. I like using the older models – but naturally I assume they’re a bit worse for the wear. Thus the rust.
This isn’t a competitive army. I’m under no illusions there. Still, it’s an army that has some tricks to it and it’s one I can play competitively. This is very similar to the army I took to last year’s Feast of Blades, and I fought against Kenny B’s Daemons for the top spot in our bracket.
Still, it’s aged. There have been a lot of good Codexes / Codices since then, not least the new Daemons and Chaos Space Marines books. It’s not what I intended taking this year.
This is the army I hoped to take. Two Slaaneshi Deamon Princes, two stout units of Flesh Hounds, three Burning Chariots, and three hefty Troops units, two of Khorne at 16 each and one of Daemonettes at 20-strong. An Exalted choice provides additional Troops for objectives, though I might have dropped one of the stout Bloodletters for two 10-strong units of ‘Bearers.
Regardless, I feel comfortable saying this army would have been far superior to the RustyCrons insofar as playing to win and maximizing points, when available.
But there was one major, unavoidable problem…
…the Daemons weren’t painted and the RustyCrons are.
The RustyCrons are what I call a ‘working army,’ much like my Bolt ‘n’ Beast Daemons of two years ago. They’re completely painted but can always use improvement. I enjoy adding details to the army before any event I take them to.
That’s beside the point, really. Between work, work, and, well, work, I never made much progress on finishing the Deamons army. I will never, ever take an unpainted army to a tournament.
Why would you? To my mind, nothing is more inspiring than all those completed armies and the opportunity to play against them! It’s why I pay a tournament fee…
…it’s certainly not because I think I’ll earn it back in prize support.
Ah, the Fabricator General! If you haven’t seen the video I shot last year, it’s worth the look. Anyway, he brought a beautiful army with converted Cultists led by a Daemon Prince sporting the (what else?) Black Mace. There are three Predators and three Helldrakes using the Landing Pad as an anchor.
This beautiful Ork army was painted by Jeff M., a talented commission painter and hobbyist. It sported two DakkaJets and two big units of Nob Bikerz.
Game three was against Mario L., who brought the most unique army I’ve faced in quite some time. With Forge World being allowed – hell, encouraged! – Mario took the opportunity to use some interesting units. His army was Eldrad, a Wraithseer, two Wraithlords, two Nightwing Interceptors, a Jetbike squad, a full-sized unit of Wraithguard, and allied Dark Eldar with an Aegis Line.
This was a unique, elite army. The Nightwings basically had a 2+ Jink, and the Baron and Eldrad joined the Wraithguard to create a super unit.
Last, but not least, I played Bradly G. and his mixed army of Tau and Space Marines. His idea was simple yet strong; the Tau hold the line and the Space Marines snag the initiative, taking the fight to the enemy’s side of the board.
I played four really tight, really great games. At the end of the day, that’s the best reason to attend a big Indie. For all practical purposes, each of these games was a draw. The way the format was set up, you really needed to break away and dominate your opponent, gathering as many points away from them as you could. That’s tough to do in a close game.
And impossible in a game that doesn’t finish.
Prior to the Saturday I described above, I’ve played in a number of tournaments, both large and small, including the Hardboyz Finals in Chicago, the Adepticon Championships (once making it to the Top 16), Feast of Blades twice, and four previous Wargames Con events.
I said all that to say this: I’ve almost never failed to finish a game in any of those events; I can count the games that didn’t make it through Turn 5 on one hand. I have an aggressive style, so it’s almost always important for me to get to Turn 5 and 6, in order to consolidate gains. I finish games.
Except we didn’t finish any of the four games I described above, and that’s a problem.
I suppose you could write it off as a fluke, but it wasn’t. I didn’t play any different, nor were my opponents slow players. Everyone knew their rules and played with purpose. It just doesn’t seem like it should have been a problem! I’m sure you’ve guessed that I’ve got an opinion or two.
1) The initial setup time for 6th takes longer than it used to. Terrain placement becomes an important part of strategy, but it extends set up.
2) WarGames Con had a format book to follow, but in some cases it appeared to contradict the rules from the book, leading to confusion.
3) Bookkeeping has become more time consuming, what with Warlord and Psychic Powers. For some, this is minor, whereas other armies seem like they’re rolling on every chart in the back of the book!
But that’s minor stuff, taken by itself. The game itself has changed. Games Workshop has added a number of great books, but it seems armies always get larger, not smaller.
Finally! The point! Frankly, I think 1850 points, combined with all of the above, creates games that are very difficult to finish in two hours and fifteen minutes.
So, 1500 anyone? Can an argument be made? Would you be more likely to enjoy smaller, faster games that aren’t a sprint to finish in time? Wouldn’t it be nice to have some time between rounds to buy a beer, or borrow the bathroom?
1500 points for the win! (Anyone?)
But all this is just talk. Have you fine folks noticed your games becoming larger and larger as the Codex Creep becomes more of a Codex Crawl? And just how many of you noticed that all the Top armies Larry mentioned in a previous post played quickly by design?
There’s some food for Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?
