Carnage!

As previously stated, I went along to a local tournament this weekend. Cardiff Carnage. Overall I must say it was a very well run event and pretty much everybody there was having a pretty good time. I took very very few photos of the event, so won't be doing any batreps, but wanted to write down some of my overall thoughts.

It started on Friday, when I gave some of the guys a hand moving some tables and terrain from our FLGS (Firestorm Games) down to the venue. We did the majority of the setting up the night before and I tried to 'influence' the terrain as best I could. I hadn't organised anything up to this point, and didn't want to be too pushy. I then went home and tried my best to get everything finished to a reasonably decent 3-colour standard... unfortunately one rhino was only base coated so I lost a lot of soft scores. Again, more of that when I discuss the rules pack etc.

Rules pack and format.

This is where my largest criticism of the event would lie. I know the guys put heaps of effort into the event and overall it was a really good laugh, but for me, this is where the event needs work. I've only read the 40K rules pack, so can't comment on the Fantasy, WM/H, Clash of Empires formats. Anyway...

COMP

Lists were supposed to be submitted a couple of weeks prior to the event. I think that was partly for checking points, but mostly for composition. That's right. 'COMP'. There was no fancy comp-scoring system that could be worked around, I think it was just the judges opinion. There wasn't a huge variety of scores (1-5), just 3 brackets... Beardy, Normal, Fluffy. Twelve lists would fall into the Beardy and Fluffy brackets with the other 50% being 'normal'. This is from the rules pack.

NOTE: I've just found out there WAS some fancy comp-scoring system. It wasn't linked in the booklet... but there we go. There seemed to be a problem with duplicating non-troop units... no matter how bad that unit is... awesome.

...The filthiest, beardiest lists will play each other in the first two rounds. The Dirty Dozen is subjective but we’re sure that most players have an idea of what constitutes a horrible list. If you find you have trouble sleeping or an overriding yet unidentified sense of shame and guilt, then you are probably a contender for this mark of shame. Players that fail to submit their list on time will automatically enter the Dirty Dozen......The fluffiest, woolliest lists will play each other in the first two rounds. Again, this is subjective so if you want to be honoured in this category then you need loads of troop choices with the nastiest wargear items left at home...

So. what are deemed to be the most WAAC lists were deducted 10 battlepoints and forced to play each other in the first two rounds. The 'fluffiest' lists were awarded an extra 10 points and played each other in the first two rounds. I wasn't placed in either of these brackets, which may or may not be due to the fact I decided to attend about 24 hours before the event. Anyway... did it work? LOL NO! At the end, 3 of the 'beardy' lists finished bottom 3. Really. And 2-3 of the 'fluffy' ones finished in the top 10. Okay, the fluffy, thing is fine... but they couldn't really be that bad if they did well enough in their last 3 games to hit top 10. My biggest concern is the 3 players that finished at the bottom. Not only have they been made to feel bad about the list they've chosen to take, they've been deducted points before the event has started and been forced to play other, so-called 'beardy' lists. If these lists were so great, why did they then go on to lose their final few games to finish dead bottom? I want people to realise that general > list. If any of these guys had a set of balls they'd be writing the organisers a strongly worded letter.

Okay... that's by far and away my biggest complaint about the tournament. I'm saying it despite me not being affected, which has to say something. Maybe I'll try and get some copies of lists for y'all to judge.

Missions

The missions... weren't all that bad. They weren't NOVA style, but they were okay. In each of the missions, you achieved 2 bonus points for...
1) Having a troop unit within 12" of your opponents board edge at the end of the game.
2) Killing your opponents most valuable HQ
3) Having the most VPs.
These aren't the best modifiers IMO, but they're not bad, and made it pretty unlikely a game would be a dead draw.

The games...
1) Dawn of war. One central objective. Most troops within 6" wins.
Equal number of units 30-30
Difference of one 18-12
Difference of two 24-6
Difference of three 30-0

2) Spearhead, Seize ground (5 obj). (Scoring as above).

3) Pitched Battle, Capture and Control.
Both holding Obj 15-15
Hold and uncontested 20-10
Hold and contested 24-6
Hold both 30-30

4) Spearhead, Table quarters.
As per 1 & 2

5) Dawn of War, Kill points.
AS per 1 & 2

So, overall not terrible, but I think could be developed a little further for next year IMO.

Tables.

Overall, there were just not enough pieces of large terrain to go around. There were too many tables with insufficient BLoS terrain. There were plenty of small bits and pieces around, which was great, but there were a lot of tables that ended up looking like a shooting range. Like I said i did try to influence things on Friday night, but didn't want to seem too pushy. I do have examples, both of which were tables I played on...

Decent, if not too much terrain...

I know there is a lot of 'extras' on the board, but there were 3 large central towers, and a few extra buildings that would easily obscure a rhino. A bit much if I'm being honest, but it wasn't a long fang killing field.


Killing Field...

I'd already stolen the necron-type piece which has a large rocky outcrop at the bottom. There is plenty of cover for infantry if all of the craters are used, but for vehicles...??

Again... very little central cover for vehicles and my tanks were all hunkered up behind the central bit of terrain in the upper table half. Not fun vs IG. (note: this wasn't during my game on the table.)


So overall, not a bad event at all. It was very smoothly run, which was a massive feat considering there were probably 150 attendees overall and 5 games over the two days. I had a couple of rules disputes over the weekend and the judges were on hand when required. They were also patrolling the tables all the time which I think reduces the angst of calling one over when needed. So nice one guys. They didn't know always know the answers, but were happy enough to be proven wrong, which is commendable for people in power. Sadly, I got one 'dispute' wrong, which is own fault for believing to go against my own opinion the week before without looking it up. Oh well.

How'd I get on?

Not bad. This was the first event that I've attended to actually compete. My first... I was a new player, with a new list. My second was Blog Wars and this was my third. So, I was pretty please with how things went.

Game 1 - IG - Draw with me gaining 4 extra points and him zero. 19 - 15

Game 2 - SW - Win with 2 objectives to zero, and me gaining all six bonus points. 30 - 6

Game 3 - SW - Win with me holding my objective and contesting his. I also took 4 objectives. 28 - 6
(Shout out to the author of Can't Paint, Won't paint, my opponent who was an excellent opponent and a very pleasurable game)

Game 4 - GK - Loss with him holding one quater to my zero ( :( ) I took 2 bonus points. 14 - 22

Game 5 - GK - Win by one kill point, gaining 4 bonus points. 22 - 12

All included I came 10th of 50 including comp and soft scores, and 7th/8th with just battle points. I think I was one of the highest place player from the guys in the local group (I didn't recognise anybody on the tables above me anyway... maybe they don't play locally??).

So... onto my last point... variety. I don't think how boring it is to face off against the same 3 armies. GK/SW and IG made up about 70% of the forces there. There was a bit of variety, but come on. I didn't see a single Tau, DA or SoB force. I was the only BT player and there was only 1 Necron force. A scattering of Tyranids, Daemons, Orks and CSM. But otherwise, I must say... uberdull. I've no problem with people taking them, but there comes a limit where it's just dull. They're really not that great. My loss to them should've be a draw (opponent saved 10 out of 11 5++s to hugely change the game) and my other game should've been a bigger win than it was if anything. One guy said, he couldn't justify continuing to play CSM when he realised the GK codex was so strong. Lame. Excuse. I wouldn't have minded if he said he liked GK or modeled some count-as GKs... but playing it purely because it's strong... a bit lame if you ask me.

So, all round, well organised and a pretty decent event. The fact that so many guys had travelled down from London and the South-East was a great demonstration of how good this event can be. Hopefully I'll be able to continue playing at the local club and maybe have a role in it's organisation next year.

Oh... and now I've hit 7-8th on battle points in Wales' flagship tournament, should I expect an ETC invite in the post? :P

p.s. there were some of the most beautiful armies I've ever seen. Genuinely awesome. It also demonstrated to me some of the differences between WFB and 40K players. Anyway, I've got some crazy awesome pics of some beautiful armies I'll post in a separate post in the week.