Jawaballs goes to The Conflict GT, Nanuet NY
Hey folks, Jawaballs here!
I just thought I would share some more tournament info with ya. After scoring a big win at The Mechanicon in November, I wanted to keep the momentum going so I decided to enter the next big GT in the NY area, The Conflict. jan 14-16th, 2011. This was no light decision I assure you.
I attended the first two Conflict GTs and performed well. I think I took 6th in the first one, my first major GT, as well as Best Army, and last year I got 2nd overall, winning my first Vegas ticket. What makes The Conflict interesting is that it is a WHFB/40k event. And fantasy is actually a bigger draw than the 40k side! I believe they currently have about 85 registered fantasy players, and about half that many 40k. But most important is The Conflict Cup. You bring your team of four guys. They can be playing either fantasy or 40k. The final score is tallied the same, either game giving a maximum total of 200 points or so by the last game. You add up your total score from all four players, and the winner takes the cup! So three guys can be playing 40k and one can be playing fantasy or any other combo you wish. This adds a nice element of fun to the event. I believe a club called The Warmongers from New York City has won the previous two. Last year though, Fritz and I went without teams since our club did not send four guys. I got 2nd and he got 5th I believe. The kicker was that Alex Fennell got 1st in 40k and his friend Ragnar scored some where in the top three of fantasy. They were teamless as well! Had the four of us teamed up rather than not really even joining the Cup, we would have probably won. 🙂 The only prize is bragging rights, but sometimes that is all that matters.
You would have thought that this year would be an instant attendance decision for me right? Well not so fast. You see, The Conflict was a comp event in it’s first two years. And we all know how that goes. Fritz got nailed on comp last year for playing his Saim-Hann fluff army with Vypers and jetbikes. My buddy Bob scored amongst the lowest of comp scores with his Catachan themed guard army. (I think he had maybe one or two Chimeras and no Valkryes.) Taking Vulkan dropped you to the bottom while Calgar was virtually ignored. Alex Fennell, did very well with comp with perhaps the cheeziest army there! I’m not writing this to bash the organization though. Just pointing out that I was not planning on attending a comp event, much in the same way I chose to not attend Da Boyz. I have no problem with events that are clearly billed as comp events, the TO can institute whatever rules he wants and it is the player who decides to go or not. This is not about the merits of comp either. I personally feel that comp should not be part of tournaments. In Basketball, you would send your best players right? Well in the 80s we were sending college kids to the Olympics, gimping our comp scores, and getting owned. So in 1992 we sent a “leafblower”… The Dream Team. And set records. If you are entering a tournament, you bring your best. Any way…
The point here is that the comp scoring was admittedly flawed by the TO himself. And this year he decided to drop it altogether. We had some discussion on the topic on our club boards and Aaron, the TO, came in and addressed some of the issues himself! Pretty much saying “Give it a shot, it won’t suck!” Good enough for me.
I appreciate Aaron’s taking ownership and addressing a group of people personally. He also is very receptive to critique and invited us to share our concerns with him directly. I shared some of my own opinions with him and he was thankful for the input.
The Conflict as a tournament is well run. Aaron sets a schedule and sticks to it. Previously it was held at Toywiz, a game store in Nanuet, NY. But since Aaron is trying to make it grow, he has gotten a bigger venue at a mall in the area. Great choice! Not only does that give us more room to move about, but it gives us access to more than just a pizza joint next door for lunch. The Toywiz venue was cramped at best. They fit a LOT of guys in there and we were back to back. Trying to get down the long row of tables to your gaming table with your army in hands was nigh impossible, and two guys of considerable girth in the same row posed pretty unique problems. Plus, gamerfunk was a big issue, especially on Sunday morning when Nurgle himself liked to make an appearance and drop his little stinky beer bomb farts. The place had two small toilets, one of which was prone to backing up. None of those are good things with 200 guys packed into a room.
Yes, the new venue helped my decision to go a lot. 🙂
So, as far as I know, The Conflict still has spots open for both game systems. It, along with Battle for Salvation on Columbus Day Weekend, are two events that make the New York City area a fast growing place for major 40k events. It is convenient to hotels, parking is easy, and depending on where you are coming from, not too hard to get to. I think it is a 45 minute drive from Newark airport? If you are looking for something to add to your travel plans in January, I can think of worse things to do with your weekend. Besides, you get a chance to come slap around Fritz, myself, Black Matt and Old Shatter Hands to name a few. Think I’m full of crap? Come show me and let me buy you a beer over lunch! In the end it is about good people enjoying a good game at a good event.
