I got a good nights sleep, and woke up with a cautious optimism. Today was fifty point games, and I felt a lot better with the last fifteen points on the table, so I turned up and faced my first opponent.
Another player with less than ten games under his belt, and fielding Circle (Kromac). He had a lot of miniature wargaming experience, but I knew I was in for another of those games, that end without ever getting interesting. I took Mortenebra, and set myself to the task of winning on control points with an assassination list. I then explained every trick I had, and resigned to getting it over with.
After playing myself by proxy for an hour, he did manage to surprise me, and killed Mortenebra a round before I thought it would happen. At that point I wasn't even trying, and I just wanted to go home (again this was in no way my opponents fault, just the fact that I had no lists designed to fight rookies). I looked my tournament organizer in the eyes, and asked him if there was any chance at all, that the program would appoint a certain mercenary player as my last opponent.
I don't know if my opponent felt exactly like I did (though it looked like it), but the last game was like sinking into a warm bath after a long day at work. A couple of players from our club turned up to watch and smalltalk, since they had been prevented from participating, so we banned the clock, and got down to enjoying the game.
A new character was quickly borne, when Gronk the Bloodgorger wiped out most of his mates, in a mad scramble for the title of boss (Influence from Fiona), and then Slaughterborn took care of the rest, a Warwitch Siren, and swung at Brine from behind. Gronk remained the only surviving Bloodgorger on the table, after a deck gun killed two Bloodgorgers with a single shot (POW 7 blasts Vs. armor seventeen, steady, and Tough trolls: no problem), and he made it through the game.
Rorsh was quite safe, and Brine had mauled a Nomad, but then a pile of Gun Mages knocked him back, until he was out of transfer range, and the Mule killed him. I didn't realize where that was going, until a shot put him out of transfer range, and I saw the Mule move.
I managed a couple of control points the round before, and though the mangler wiped a substantial part of my army of the table, I simply had to kill a couple of models to free up the third and final point, which I did, and then forgot all about moving models in to actually get the point. I almost thought I had lost, until I noticed that one of my Croe's Cutthroats was alive and hiding behind the Bane Thralls (it seems their stealth works on me as well), so they were still a scoring unit and able to capture the point. It didn't matter much that I won, but it mattered a lot, that I got one good game out of the weekend.
I've added character restriction to the list of things I'll never try again, and I'm going to have to make a decision on tournaments with rookies. It turns out, that the first player I faced today won quite a lot of his games, and he took second in the tournament. I shouldn't have a problem with that, and I have a great deal of trouble expressing why I do, but it bothers me.
If I had denied him take-backs, punched the clock, and gunned for a hardcore assassination, I would have given him a short, brutal, and poor game. Instead I opted for a game I was pretty sure I would lose, which I did, and the player took second in the tournament. I like the fact that rookies turn up for tournaments, but they present me with options I don't like, since one of us will have a shit game:
Lamoron Vs. The Crushing despair.
Another player with less than ten games under his belt, and fielding Circle (Kromac). He had a lot of miniature wargaming experience, but I knew I was in for another of those games, that end without ever getting interesting. I took Mortenebra, and set myself to the task of winning on control points with an assassination list. I then explained every trick I had, and resigned to getting it over with.
After playing myself by proxy for an hour, he did manage to surprise me, and killed Mortenebra a round before I thought it would happen. At that point I wasn't even trying, and I just wanted to go home (again this was in no way my opponents fault, just the fact that I had no lists designed to fight rookies). I looked my tournament organizer in the eyes, and asked him if there was any chance at all, that the program would appoint a certain mercenary player as my last opponent.
Scaverous Vs. Fiona
I don't know if my opponent felt exactly like I did (though it looked like it), but the last game was like sinking into a warm bath after a long day at work. A couple of players from our club turned up to watch and smalltalk, since they had been prevented from participating, so we banned the clock, and got down to enjoying the game.
A new character was quickly borne, when Gronk the Bloodgorger wiped out most of his mates, in a mad scramble for the title of boss (Influence from Fiona), and then Slaughterborn took care of the rest, a Warwitch Siren, and swung at Brine from behind. Gronk remained the only surviving Bloodgorger on the table, after a deck gun killed two Bloodgorgers with a single shot (POW 7 blasts Vs. armor seventeen, steady, and Tough trolls: no problem), and he made it through the game.
Rorsh was quite safe, and Brine had mauled a Nomad, but then a pile of Gun Mages knocked him back, until he was out of transfer range, and the Mule killed him. I didn't realize where that was going, until a shot put him out of transfer range, and I saw the Mule move.
I managed a couple of control points the round before, and though the mangler wiped a substantial part of my army of the table, I simply had to kill a couple of models to free up the third and final point, which I did, and then forgot all about moving models in to actually get the point. I almost thought I had lost, until I noticed that one of my Croe's Cutthroats was alive and hiding behind the Bane Thralls (it seems their stealth works on me as well), so they were still a scoring unit and able to capture the point. It didn't matter much that I won, but it mattered a lot, that I got one good game out of the weekend.
Summary
I've added character restriction to the list of things I'll never try again, and I'm going to have to make a decision on tournaments with rookies. It turns out, that the first player I faced today won quite a lot of his games, and he took second in the tournament. I shouldn't have a problem with that, and I have a great deal of trouble expressing why I do, but it bothers me.
If I had denied him take-backs, punched the clock, and gunned for a hardcore assassination, I would have given him a short, brutal, and poor game. Instead I opted for a game I was pretty sure I would lose, which I did, and the player took second in the tournament. I like the fact that rookies turn up for tournaments, but they present me with options I don't like, since one of us will have a shit game:
- If I destroy him, he has a poor game, and a poor experience.
- If I don't destroy him, I'll lose and face more rookies.
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