Wednesday, September 15, 2010

DaBoyz GT Primer: Game 3

I'm up against Joe J, the guy who won Best Painted for his amazingly totally super awesome...

Footdar.

HQ
Eldrad
Avatard

Elites
Fire Dragons - 7, Exarch w/ Firepike, Crack Shot, Wave Serpent w/ TL EML, Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones
Harlequin Troupe - 8, Kisses, 1 Fusion Pistol, Shadowseer, Troupe Master

Troops
Pathfinders - 8
Pathfinders - 8
Dire Avengers - 10, Exarch w/ dual cats, Bladestorm, Wave Serpent w/ TL EML, Spirit Stones
Dire Avengers - 10, Exarch w/ dual cats, Bladestorm

Heavy Support
Wraithlord - Bright Lance, EML

My old nemesis, the almighty Footdar.  Pathfinders could cause me problems, but everything I can outshoot, outpsychic and outfight. 

My list is here.

Mission 3 was Spearhead.

This one is a bit wonky, simply because it goes short to short board edge.  I have to get all up in his grill to win and he only has infiltrators and 2 skimmers that can get into mine, the rest has to get through my army.

Terraing was a tad sparse here, dominated by big towers that blocks LoS and some area terrain.  Stuff was big enough to hide a Serpent or Wraithlord or even the Forge World Avatard, so there's some potential problems for me.

I lost the roll off so he deployed first.  Avatard went dead center, Serps each went to a flank, Wraithlord up top and Eldrad hiding behind a giant tube.
 Since he has no real blasts to worry about and I really need to cross the board quickly, I put all my shit up as far as possible, Logan joining a unit of Fangs to give me more mobile firepower.  Self-generating cover saves FTW.
 Now that I have covered my D-zone, he can't infiltrate Rangers anywhere handy and my Chooser cut out another big chunk of board.  They end up bunkered up just outside his deployment zone, so that's 2 fewer problems.

Turn 1
Avatard gets Fortuned, Rangers get Guided.  Herpaderp Lava Man runs up to say hi, everything else cowers.  Shooting is meh.

All but the 2 Logan-less Fang squads advance.  Shooting nails the Dragons' Serpent, wounds the Wraithlord, Avatard and bounces off the Avengers' Serpent.  Now just 1 threat remains.

Turn 2
Avatard walks up more, everything else shuffles and shoots.  More ineffectual.  Harlies advance.

TWC jumps in with the Avatard, everybody else shuffles up.  Wraithlord and Serpent get hurt more.  Combat is a draw.

Turn 3
More Fortunes and Guides, not many casualties.  Avatard and TWC slap each other around to no avail.  Harlies jump on my big WG squad and maul the fuck out of them.

Lone Wolf and other TWC jumps in to finish the job on good old Aang.  Shooty does more shooty, Serpent and Wraithlord go down.  Logan, 5 man WG and a unit of Fangs jump into the Harlies, Logan pops his +1 Attack bubble.  Raep ensues.  Space Clowns go away.  Avatard gets pimp-slapped by a Lone Wolf, but not before killing one TWolf.

Turn 4
Not a lot to shoot, so not a lot happens.  Eldrad gets dicked by the Runic Weapon, hilarity ensues.

More stuff advances, Lone Wolf jumps in with Pathfinders, TWC with Fire Dragons.  Smashy smahy, Elfdar go running.

Turn 5
Eldrad gets dicked further by the Runic Weapon in some kind of cosmic justice.  Rangers manage to plink away the Rune Priest and his squad after only shooting them for 5 turns.  Dragons break and flee, Avengers charge a Lone Wolf, hilarity ensues.

My army all make it past the midline, TWC goes after some Rangers, Eldrad takes a krak missile to the face, game is called.

I got all but one point here, just because I couldn't make any of his units flee off the table (I had problems with me killing them before I had the chance to run them off :P).

This report is short and sweet because, to be honest, this game was not challenging.  No disrespect to Joe, he was fine to play and got understandably frustrated considering it was his first game against Space Wolves since the new Codex.  We talked it out afterward and I'd like to think we reached a good understanding.

One thing did stick out to me though.  Joe told me he had played in lots of tournaments in other areas and he didn't enjoy himself in our game because he was unfamiliar with my army, Codex and Logan in particular and I was playing too quickly for him.  I apologized and asked him why he didn't speak up about it sooner and he told me he wouldn't normally do that because he would get chipmunked on Sportsmanship for it.  How awful is that?  I play fast and loose because I know my army and the others so well and I like getting done with time to spare so I can schmooze.  And this poor guy had to basically get taken for a ride with a bunch of rules and models he didn't know and had to suffer for it because speaking up would invite retribution.  I'll touch on this more when I write about Sportsmanship.

Suffice to say, we managed to turn a potentially socially damaging experience into a mutual understanding with some open conversation.  Adults being adults, who knew that worked?

21 comments:

Brent said...

...

I think I love you a bit more right now.

Hold me?

(Seriously, everything about the game that's wrong is summed up in these last two posts.)

Chumbalaya said...

Save me, Brent.

hyv3mynd said...

Wait, he was afraid to say something during the game, but dinged your sports afterward?

He won best painted but then made the comment about putting hello kitty stickers on your guys?

Seriously how do these 35+, married with children dudes always turn out to be such poor sports.

Hudson said...

As one of those 35+, married with children types, I'd like to think that we're not all poor sports.

But seriously, being afraid that you'll get chipmunked points out the problem with the way sportsmanship is scored. The NOVA system was better although I would have liked a way to say "I'd play this guy again" even if I had to give that guy the '1' or '2' -- he wasn't a douchebag, he just wasn't my favorite.

Xaereth said...

Lol, jeeze. That's why I hate almost all player-determined sportsmanship. Chimpmunking happens far too much for my taste.

Gratz on the wins though? I have difficulty finding where you had any difficulty, but that just means you were better prepared than anyone! Hopefully you'll have more of a challenge at the actual GT.

Chumbalaya said...

The thing is with the older gamers, from their perspectives they are in the right. It's just how the old GTs were run, the old culture of the hobby was adamantly against competition and whining/chipmunking was the norm. People set in their ways are resistant to change and will keep at it to the bitter end.

I mean, you and I know Chris and Joe aren't bad guys, but they still game in the old mentality and it doesn't mesh with how we do things now. It's not wrong, just outdated. Best way to address it, I think, is to actively discuss it and try to improve the experience for everyone, rather than breed the same old divisions.

Totally with Hudson on this, I suspect the majority of folks in that age bracket and just like any other hobbyists, it's always the vocal minority. NOVA's sports system was solid, I really wish I didn't have to rate people 1s and 2s since all my games were good.

Xaereth, I doubt I'll be bringing this to the GT. I could do well and walk out with loot, but having to put up with the bruised egos and chipmunking is so not worth it.

hyv3mynd said...

Come on, you know you're going all in with Logan Wing at the GT. No need to be coy about it.

"I mean, you and I know Chris and Joe aren't bad guys, but they still game in the old mentality and it doesn't mesh with how we do things now. It's not wrong, just outdated. Best way to address it, I think, is to actively discuss it and try to improve the experience for everyone, rather than breed the same old divisions."

Joe's a peach and Chris is cool to chat with. He came to my table to take photos after your game and I asked him how it went. He told me he lost but didn't take any cheap shots on you behind your back.

The problem about "the same old divisions" is our calls for dropping comp are falling largely on deaf ears. Shaun (ETC), Norton, and Jay can bust out competative lists when they feel like it. A lot of the young bloods at MG on tues/sat don't get the "comp" thing either. We just don't have the support or voice yet.

I bet if we ran some NOVA format tourneys, we could build support and clout. Just a matter of convincing Travis to give us an odd Saturday and filling 8/16 spots.

Once people realize how stress free things become when you don't have to worry about chipmunking or subjective comp, I think we'd bring in more players than the normal tourneys.

Chumbalaya said...

Aww, that's an arrow through my heart. If I can get Orks or Tyranids done by November I may just bring them.

Totally agree with the rest though. Showing rather than telling is the way to go. I'd be all for setting up a NOVA format event, we'd just need to get the nod from Travis and get people into it. There's also Pair-a-Dice, but I've never been.

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of man love going down on BnH at the moment.

Some great posts Chumb and I look forward to you thoughts on wack Sports scoring and grumpy gamers.

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Anonymous said...

Wow...slow internet fail.

Chumbalaya said...

I'm keeping that up Brolo, just to show the world how much you failed :P

Thomas aka Goatboy said...

Interesting indeed - The last large event I played in - I got best sportsman via 4 massacres and a loss :) - I find that if the opponent starts to feel tricked by rules etc - I just try my best to explain more. But really - people need to ask questions as soon as they feel there is an issue. Be adults, ask a question. It isn't hard.

Blackmoor said...

#1. I am familiar with your codex and Logan.
#2. I play fast and loose.
#3. I promise that my foot eldar will be much more challenging.

And I have written a bunch on why comp and sportsmanship are bad.

Chumbalaya said...

1) Awesome
2) Awesome
3) FOOTDAR! Bring it! :P

You're coming to the GT, right Blackmoor?

Blackmoor said...

Yup. Jay said that I am ticket #79! I just got in before they sold out.

Now as far at the upcoming GT I need to ask myself if I am going to Eldrad, or not to Eldrad.


Oh and I had a similar experience with Chris. I played him a couple of times at Adepticon and we had 2 really good games (we went 1-1).

Then we met at the first Baltimore GT after they dumped comp and my army was just a bit harder than his on all counts (I had Eldrad and he had a Farseer, he had banshees and I had harlequins, etc) and he did not take it well. Other wise he is a great guy, but he seems to get grouchy when he is up against a harder list.

Chumbalaya said...

Then I look forward to seeing you there. Bring on the Footdar!

Brent said...

It'll be good to see you again, Blackmoor - I really enjoyed hanging out at WarGames Con...

...not to mention, seeing the Footdar in action will be tres cool!