Core Competency- Trial and Error

(My Empire 2008)

Not that I am expert by any stretch but having played the army exclusively now for three years I’d hope I’d have a particular insight . I read a lot of stuff on various WFB forums on how to correctly play Empire “The Empire” or the puny humans of the WFB universe.

The Empire has the most well rounded force in the game, they are average at everything but excel at nothing, Potent combination's of units do exist, and they do have access to some of the most powerful shooting in the game, as well as the exclusive and under used Detachment system. I am not a power gamer so I don’t endorse or playing Gunlines, running multiple Steam Tanks, basing every game around using the War Altar. I constantly struggle between the Theme of my army and its competitiveness, trying to be competitive with basically Strength 3, Toughness 3 army in the current power environment is my goal and its no doubt a challenge.

For this discussion I’d like to talk about the Empire in the context of one of my favorite local tournaments, Core Competency Which has one themed caveat that is the basis for the event, your army have 40% of your 2250 points( or 900 points ) must be Core Troops. This isn’t standard by any stretch in today's tournament environments. Most players in GT style event don’t run anywhere near 900 points of Core troops, In fact I played an fellow at last years Adepticon WFB championships who had the audacity to drop less than 300 points of Empire Core troops on the table for our match. Fortunately the Empire has some great, cheap core troops and I am sure going to use them. Here is my planned list for the event

Heros

Luthor Huss- Prophet of Sigmar , Army General

Warrior Priest, Icon of Magnus, Armor of Meteoric Iron

Captain of Empire, Battle Standard Bear with The Imperial Banner

Captain of Empire, on Pegasus, Sword of Striking, Pistol

The fist comment most people mention at this list, is what? No Lord..Normally I always take a Lord

however given the theme of tournament and that Special Characters are allowed Renegade Priest Luthor Huss fits in perfectly as my Army General for 180 points, you get a Fear Causer, with a 4+ ward save something any other character needs to take 70 points in items to gain. An Arch Lector will give you leadership 9 and and extra dispel die, which is very nice however he's 225 points after items, Empire Characters are for the support of your units not take on every bad ass enemy hero in the game. The goal of this army is support the blocks of troops against the number one nemesis of an Empire Army, "Psychology".

Fear, Terror and Panic wreak havoc on Humans and this Army has redundant psychology protection, Both Priests not only grant their units hated, but are immune to fear, Luthor Huss even Causes fear. The Imperial Banner allows anyone within 12" to re-roll any failed Psychology result and as well as any failed rally tests, yes, I am only leadership "8" but I'll take my chance with always having two rolls to roll 8 or less. The Captain on the Pegasus is my assassin, his role varies from game to game, from march blocking, to war machine or wizard hunting...he is always a target...but if they zeroing in on him they arent targeting your more important units.

Core Troops

900 points of Core are

24 Swordsmen/ Full Command

9 Free Company Detachment

9 Free Company Detachment

24 Swordsmen/ Full Command

9 Free Company Detachment

10 Handgunners, Marksman with Hochland Long Rifle

10 Huntsmen, Scouts Skirmishers

6 Knights Champion, Full Command

20 Flagellants, (core due to Warrior Priests)

The Swordsmen / Free Company Detachment combination is for me the back bone of the Empire, others will make arguments for Halberdiers, Spears, Archers as core blocks or detachments but in the end WS 4, with a 4+ Save to the front is great adjustment for the S3, T3 of the troops at 6 points each, its been a long hard stuggle to justify using my Greatswords over the second block of Swordsmen, where you pay 4 points a model more for Str 5 and the Stubborn rule..thru years of playing them, I've finally left my Greatswords for games above 2250 and am sticking with the grunts. 3x 3 units of Free Company is the way to go for me...at 3x3 you get 6 attacks vs 5 against standard infantry and odd are with less room to strike back 5 men will remain to cancel your rank bonus. Protecting the flanks of the blocks is key, IF elite infantry or character flank my core blocks and characters

it is quickly game over for the Empire, all the rest of my core troops are there to help support those two blocks of infantry survive.

Special Troops

Great Cannon

5 Pistoliers, Champion w/ Repeater Pistol, Musician

Every Empire list should include 1 Cannon, even thou my luck has been shit with it of late, killing

that Dragon, Giant or Bloodthirster on a good day make this 100 points indispensable. IF your Pistoliers

stay on the table to make to turn 3 these guys are very useful, unfortunately they are always target number 1, so running off the table getting shot up or what not...most of the time they're cannon fodder, but if they are still on table turn 6, odds are the Empire has won the day...I go back and forth with these guys..dropping my Greatswords for Swordsmen allowed me to put them back in the list. we'll see how my last practice games go.

Rare Choices

Steam Tank, Engineer w/ Repeater Pistol

I played for the last two years without the Stank, In favor of messing around with other semi-useful Artillery. The Steam Tank is great but not for shooting the cannon...the way I roll misfires..I loving using something that doesn't force me to roll the Artillery die...as a Terror Causing, Flank Protector that can dish out the pain in close combat I love it..not to mention I've been getting great use of the the S2 Steam Gun...If can just remember to make my engineer fire that repeater pistol when need be I'll be all set!.

(Spring 09)

Playtesting

So far I have this list or slight variations of against High Elves, Beasts of Chaos, Warriors of Chaos, Lizardmen, Daemons of Chaos, Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings.. 10 games in total. Results are mixed, generally against the same of lesser tier army's the list does very well, if not winning, Drawing or losing as result of an incident that's got nothing do with list performance, Against top tier armies like DoC It really boils down to luck, (an all Khorne list scoring an 18 WPS recently tabled me in 5 turns.) Although I had very good game against a Core Comp VC list the other night that could have went either way turn 4, and didnt go my way.. The real counter to things like VC and DoC is the War Altar solely to be able to cast a bound 5 "cleansing flare", I do run alot of Warrior Priests so it fits my Theme, however I dont see myself getting one anytime soon and the fact that making the army competitive could rely on one gimmick from one unit irks me to point of not using it.

If all else fails I may bump Luthor Huss up to an Arch Lector on a horse and trim some points elsewhere..the jury is still out on that decision I'd still like to get in a few more practice games in. I'll be following up on this and WFB in general over the next Month as the tourney approaches.

Ebay, Screwing you, your hobby and more!

Ok Rant time, as gamer, modeler, collector or hobbyist we all use Ebay, I've been using Ebay since February 2000 I use it constantly in my professional life as well. I've been smelling something bad coming for awhile now when they raised their fees and started screwing with payment options. They have slowly but surely being trying to shoehorn everyone into one payment system they have 100% control of, so if you want to sell something, they are now your partner and you will be forced to pay out the ass for the privilege of listing your products with them.

I've also always viewed Paypal as a necessary evil- again you have the fees but it sure is convenient. Welp back in July when Ebay bought Paypal it went under alot of peoples radar, again another thing that should have been subject to Anti-Trust law becomes a mechanism to royally screw us the consumer. Not only are any payment options OTHER than Paypal or credit cards (who you know they got some kind of deal with) being banned as of the end of this month..Here is crazy part..You can't even ask a buyer to voluntarily pay the 3% Paypal fees for their purchases!!. if you do your auction get rejected and you're threatened with being banned. For years I have been selling expensive equipment on Ebay, I pay the ridiculous 8.75% fee to Ebay and I ask the buyer to pay the 3% Paypal fee if they CHOOSE to use Paypal for conveinence and getting quicker shipping otherwise..send me a check and wait for it to clear. Nope not anymore..as a seller you're either set up to take credit cards and pay their fees or pay Ebay as much as 15%.!! off the top depending on the auction , No checks, money orders or wire transfers, they want your money and damn sure figuring out how to get it. Now granted 15% isnt a big deal if your selling a few things a year that are relatively cheap...but if you sell toy soldiers for a living or expensive technical equipment like I do, 15% adds up real quick...Its the entire wholesaler discount -In fact with out the option to pass some these costs off to the buyer..this is going to put a whole lot of people out of business. Now that ebay has total control of the Payment systems..they will just start raising fees whats next 20% then 25%...this is no joke.

Earlier this year I sold a $4000 piece of business equipment on ebay and under these new policies it would have cost me $600!!! to sell it on Ebay..are you flipping kidding me! for $600 I expect a hell of alot more then what Ebay does which is essentially nothing. Sure they provide the mechanism but If you think the deserve more than 3% over $1000 for an auction that you have to list, maintain, manage, and answer questions yourself...you're crazy. I rather pay a yearly fee as a member and reasonable percentages based on sale totals, your seriously better over going to a broker for big ticket items..at least they do all the legwork for their 15%. I for one am sick of being raped by these and other Corporate assholes, I know there alot of Ebay boycotts out there and I am joining in but what other options do we have? Anyone have any bright ideas? I've been using Craigs Lists but since you're not committed to buy its alot harder to actually sell things plus you have to meet in person, etc.. This is freaking depressing.

The Blessing of Sigmar

The Blessing of Sigmar, while I have had this model for sometime, I never quite figured out what to do with it. Here it is as my 40mm objective marker for my Sigmarite themed Empire army I've been playing of late. It just the stock 2 models on a standard 40mm square with a piece of plastic card over it and a left over section from the Pegasus Hobbies gothic ruins kit in the back . Shield is from the General kit. I'm quite happy with the way this came out, I may touch it up a bit if I get the nerve to enter it in the Adepticon Rogue Daemon or something but otherwise its good to go.

A Sunday Tourney

@ Games Workshop, Oak Park



I had the rare oppurtunity to get out on a Sunday afternoon and actually do some gaming so I headed over to my Local GW to participate in one their 1000 point WFB tourneys they run once a month. I figure at 1000 pts, no restrictions..people be running some pretty tough lists. I saw a rare opportunity to run my Daemons of Chaos, as there are just way too many choices with Empire at 1000 points to think about. Using Daemons of Chaos at 1000 points I have pretty "dum dum" bullet proof list.

Skulltaker
15 Bloodletters Full Command
15 Bloodletters Full Command
6 Flesh Hounds of Khorne
2 Bloodcrushers, Champion, Musician
1000 pts.

No heralds, No BSB, no Magic.....just one hero, lots of combat muscle and magic resistance. I figured yeah DoC are broken but this list would be a good match up for VC, DE, various gunlines, or monster lists I expected at 1000 points. So I show up at shop and couple guys I know are playing both running Skaven (getting amped for the new book) another pair of guys playing High Elves and then Wood Elf players. Small event, three games. It will only take an afternoon. Surpised at the army selection and I'm the guy brings Daemons??, ok here goes.

Game 1 Vs Skaven
3 Engineers (one is the General)
20+ Clan Rats
Warp Lightning Cannon
2 Poison Globe Throwers
10 Jezzails

Shooting is the bane of the DoC especially if you get into an avg/poor dice funk. My Magic Res is saving me big time here. Joe is throwing Warp Lightning at me 5 times a turn early on. My Fleshhounds dodge a bullet and are into the Jezzails in round 2, but not before both my Bloodcrushers are fried off the board. I eat up the Jezzails and Skulltaker and 1 unit of Letters go after the clan rats, while other goes after the WLC. I run the cannon off the board, get tied up with the rats and get clobbered by more Warp lightings and the Engineers pistols..not having to make panic checks is sure nice. I eat up the Rats but his engineers are hitting me hard, finally I get my dogs on them but the globe throwers are also a pain and Skulltaker goes down to shooting in the end I have 3 Dogs and 1 lone Bloodletter hold the unit standard and a captured standard. Skaven had only the Globe throwers left. I win with minor victory...close game
1-0

Game 2 Vs High Elves
Noble on Eagle (General)
28 Spearmen FC (ranked 7 x 4)
12 Swordmasters
10 Archers
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers.

Whenever I see Swordmasters at less than 3000 points, I have to wonder what these HE guys are thinking- Phoenix Guard are better for the price and for 180+ points a pair of normal chariots or a Lion Chariot and bunch more archers would have been way more useful. No matter- the massive block of Spears threatening 3 deep was some what intimidating. The Fleshhounds quickly chew up one Bolt Thrower, get around back and chase the other crew off the board, finally coming an rear charging the Spears. The HE general takes on the blood crushers single handedly and dies quickly (he does kill one). The Swordmasters charge one unit of letters..I figured I lose the charge hold them a turn and get the freed up Bloodcrusher in the flank. Nope Kevin my opponet has some wretched dice...loses combat, breaks and is run down. On turn 4 I have both blocks engaged with Skulltaker in the front, one unit of the flank and 4 dogs to the rear. Despite the 21 attacks to the front...I stay above half and they get slaughtered. The 10 archers try to kill the lone bloodcrusher..I make a bunch of lucky saves the lone unit breaks them. Tabled on turn 6 no last licks for the Elves. Massacre 2-0


Game 3 Vs Wood Elves
Spellsinger (General)
10 Dryads
10 Dryads
12 Glade Guard
5 Wild Riders FC
Treeman

Will's a good player and also 2-0 at this point having played him before I know it will be a good game. I have my hounds and Bloodcrushers on each flank, Both units of letters up the middle. He has Dryads in the middle, he treeman on the one flank and the GG on the hill. he also get's his extra 6' forest template and on 3 x 4 table with a large forest in the middle its going to be tough. Wills got two treesinging's happening and with only two core dispel dice...I can't stop both ofter..will is moving the extra forest around blocking my advance...My Hounds make down the flank and get flank charged by some dryads..They hold the depsited being flanked and my Bloodletters come in on their flank and they get run over...my dogs make it all the way back to Archers on the hill. there are only two left, but I and making alot great rolls for Demonic instabilty or just making my 5+ save. Will gets the Treeman in the forest and moving the forest around makes me take skulltaker out of the unit and moves over to the bloodcrushers ( I am trying to get Skulltaker against the Treeman because of the Flaming attacks) will knows this and it trying to keep Skulltaker the hell away from his tree. Finally the Treeman charges Bloodletters who are in the forest with him, I block two treesinging's and win combat by 1,
The treeman is breaktesting on a stubborn 9 and rolls an eleven and gets cuttdown by 12 Letters...OUCH. That was pretty much game right there. The other unit of dryads Flanked my other unit of Bloodletter..they got weeded down to the lone standard bearer but couldnt close the deal when everything else came charging in turn 6...even had the one lone fleshhound sticking it out against the archers solo..finally he died...but once the other unit of Dryads went down..I still had both Bloodcrushers, Skulltaker and about adozen Bloodletters against 5 Glade Guard and the Spellsinger. Game over, Wil concedes. (either a Solid or a Massacre we didn't compute it) closer game then it ended up -the treeman running was a fluke but its happened before. Ending at 3-0 , I win the tourney and get a $30 box as a prize. All in all a great afternoon...still doing with it Daemons, is somewhat bittersweet. Fleshhounds are so ridiculously overpowered for their cost it isn't funny, its like having a unit of mini heroes from another army (WS5, S4, T4, two wounds) running around at move 8 with MR 3, the Magic Resistance 3 is just pouring salt in the wound they were definitely the MVP of the day..and did all the heavy lifting....Stupid Daemons....

A versus B, Old hats, New shoes

No surprise we have a 3 to 1 majority in the “player” poll, Obviously Plastic Legions is “B player” style blog, as with exception of Battle Reports I don’t offer a ton “A player” content here so the people that do stop by here have interest in B content. I put the smart ass 3^rd option for those the really feel they dont fall into either as I know there are out there. Yes, I am using the Spy vs Spy theme here because it seems just so appropriate.

When examining solutions and compromise let assume that breaking us all down into two basic player types covers the majority of people with the caveat there are always those in between or on the far edges but at heart they’ll still fall into an “A” or “B” slot when it comes to whether they’ll want to pay to play in a tournament. Let’s look at a new model that can simply be used as food for thought or in my own case what I’m going to use for an event I like to do next year. My goal is to appease both types of players you need to make both side feel equally as important. I'm not going to get ultra specific here but talk about new way to look at standard concepts and leave the future details up to the specific event.

SPORTSMANSHIP

Sportsmanship is most misunderstood concept in the tournament scene today. The way we are currently using it, It presumes everyone is raving a-hole and we are designing checklists that itemize how well someone behaved themselves on a given day. The current standard is to give everyone "X" amount of points that can only be taken away or give people of check list of things that should be requirement. Someone said to me recently “There is a lot to be said about a tournament player with a fully painted army who acts like a normal human being” Sad, but true. I say no more! We should not need to be worrying about hiring security guards to oversee games with toy soldiers. The ultra competitiveness of GW tournaments is one thing, but its gotten out of hand. Sportsmanship must be removed as “+” on your net scoring, being a good sport should earn you nothing as a base score- its expected. Being a Jerk will only earn you negative points, a forfeit or show you the door. lets take Sportsmanship as a category "off the table" in terms of a Soft Score and replace it with two different ways to punish people who cannot behave themselves and reward those who go above and beyond to give their opponents great games.

The card system-

I fully endorse the yellow/red card system used in the UK. Using a Yellow/ Red card system punitively against your overall points is a far more scary deterrent to the tournament player that a few missing checks on a checklist. Yellow Cards for subtractions to your overall score and Red cards for Forfeits and Ejections The criteria for this is up to the Tournament Organizer, but needless to say Yellow Cards can go for everything from excessive bad language, and rules gaming, While Reds are for outright cheating and or overly aggressive behavior or fighting.

Favorite Opponent- This is a great way to award the player bonus points for those who conducts themselves above and beyond the norm . Favorite Opponents points should be earned, not given and be additional points on a soft score. Details again I'd leave up to specific tournaments, Net scoring for giving your opponent a great game is a much better way to look at a Sportsmanship "soft score" than giving everyone "x" points for things that should be mandatory. Overall I see Sportsmanship as the smallest part of a soft score. The points should be well earned by the best players who see gamesmanship and fair play as important as anything else.

COMPOSITION

Beyond the stark contrasts of need for Composition in both 40K and WFB, lets keep two very clear points in mind. One- GW admittedly does not write rules for balanced tournament play, they write rules to help sell models. and -Two-we are trying to create a tournament atmosphere that encourages fair play, fun and diversity. Without accepting those two premises, I admit there is no need for Composition ever and may you find peace in "Gladiator" and "Ard Boyz" events. The rest of us need to find something that works.

Lets look at comp in a new way, not as punitive measure against those who want to bring hard lists but as a HANDICAP to encourage people to bring diverse lists. a Prejudged Composition score should be used as a handicap score, once your handicap determined, it should be used to seat your opponents always matching you up with closest handicap. A handicap as a positive on overall score will encourage non-cookie cutter lists and diversity for a better event. There are already plenty of events for meta-gaming the army books and in the spirit of a grand tournament, variety is key. Lets see it all and what better way than to give players a handicap that is a basis for a soft score. Again I'd leave up to the Tournament Organizer to base their player handicaps on the ability of the players to follow the composition guidelines of the event. Whether your using a WPS baseline in WFB or running a narrative based 40K event. Handicaps will encourage list other that most current 3 Codex/Army book power builds.

PAINTING

I’ve spoken tons on painting in the past, if you're running any kind of grand tournament the 3 color standard/ based is mandatory as an entry requirement. Again the problem begins with giving away Painting points for just showing up with the minimum. There should be judged paint with the the three color minimum being the lowest rating. No more full points for 3 color painted and based..its total cop out a slap in the face to the B player. Combine your judged base score with opponent rated paint scale on how well above the standard your army is and you have a real paint score. These points should be open to professionally painted armies as well. Great looking armies (no matter who paints them) bring a lot to the character of the event. As always Best Painted Award should not be open to pro painted armies and should be a separate contest for the hobbyist.. Since all your earned paint points go toward you Soft Score and overall, this should help bring non-painters with pro painted armies "out of the closet "so to speak.

I do reject the notion that people who bring sub, or non -3 color armies to events be allowed to play. If you want to participate in a grand tournament you need to step up. In short come up with an overall basis for a paint score based on player and judge feedback. Great painted armies add to the caliber of any events, Painting is a cornerstone of this hobby and should be appreciated as such.

A NEW MODEL

Most people accept the premise that in any Tournament that Soft Scores should never be worth more than Battle Points. The problem again comes with how do you create meaningful soft scores that attract "B players" that are not just giveaways in terms of extra or "empty" points, Lets look at a model that lets "A players" relish in what they do and gives "B players" a little extra for bringing what they bring to an event.

The 5 Point System-

Battle Points, Objective Points, Paint Score, Favorite Opponent Points, Handicap

Using these 5 categories, Battle and Objective being "A player" scores and Paint, Favorite Opponent Points and your Handicap being your "B player" score is a great baseline to determine an overall winner, if you use these 5 categories correctly it's clear the person with highest point total is actually the overall winner., The B player points are not giveaways but well earned as votes from your opponents while the Handicap is determined by what kind of list you brought based on the rules of the tournament.. In this model I envision Objective points being very hard to get, and a feather in the hats of the best "A players". The Best General award being the highest BP + OP score. I'd recommend 70/30 ratio between A/B scores..Allowing "A players" to overcome low "B" scores while enticing "B players" with a chance to be competitive. Will this work? and is it any better that what we are already seeing?, I think so- as recently its clear soft scores have become purely punitive for A players or total joke when it comes to the B player. Down the road a bit I am going to go into details on Tournament I like to run in 2010 based on this model, so more on that soon.

Space Hulk - Exterminate

Space Hulk mission recap


Blood Angels

Sgt Gideon- Thunderhammer/ Storm Shield
Brother Leon w/ Assault Cannon
Brother Valencio w/Chain Fist
Brother Scipio
Brother Omnio

Genestealers- 35


Mission 2- Exterminate. Once again we rolled off and I got the Marines. The mission features a very large map and all the marines begin dispersed, The Genestealer player alternates with the Marine player in placing the Space Marines down in one of the 6 rooms on the map.
I ended up with the Sgt Gideon, Leon and Valencio at the Southern end of the map with Scipio and Omnio on the northern half. Deployment in this mission is crucial as you can block the Stealers from entering the board by getting within 6 of any deployment area, Do this on both ends of the map and the Marines win.

Since the Blood Angels were dispersed and Gideon was closer to the men on the southern end of the map, I started moving the Sgt that way. I set the Assault Cannon up covering the long Southern hall, and had the Chain Fist marine move position against another approach and hope to get moving south toward the entry area.


Initial Deployment
'
Southern Side of Map, a few turns in

Bill learing his lesson from Mission 1 and knowing he had finite resources start stacking up blips on the north end of the map with only a few to the south, knowing I had less men there. My men to the North start backpedding toward the center. My strategy was to try to block the Southern entry, then link everyone else up and then move north until we could block or kill all the Genestealers.


Omino and Scipio move toward the center


Wasting too much time here


Bill- building up the Blip Horde to the the North.

I had numerous opportunities on the Southern End to move toward the block point however I choose to wait for his initial Stealer to attack and the he just held them back. I should just went for the Southern Block point right off and used the Assault cannon to cover his rear and move forward shooting until either the Chainfist Marine died or I reached the Objective. Instead I wasted time, moving around try to cover various approaches..I was stupidly moving backwards in the hallway at one point on overwatch try to protect the chainfist marine who had Stealers coming at him both ways. The Assault Cannon blazed away and killed many stealers. The Chainfist Marine was insanely lucky fending of three close combat attacks at "6" in a row by rolling 3- "6"'s in a row. at This point I had seen that thing weren't going to happen to the south if they did it be pure dice luck..so I was moving my Sgt toward the Other two marines. The two Standard marines where held up in the very center room positioned on overwatch so both could shoot into the hallway where the 20+ model conga line of Stealers was building. I actually ran out of time in turn couldn't everyone on overwatch and the Marine with the Chainfist..finally fell...the Assualt Cannon blazed away but eventually I had two rounds of not getting a "5" and the Stealers where on him and he died...I used about 6 of my 10 shots with AC.


Leon with the AC is just out of this picture to the left, I actually survived this onslaught
with some Assault Cannon clearing and Valencio rolling three back 2 back "6"s" in assault to survive the turn.


Not so lucky here, Leon is dead, Valencio will soon follow.


Three men left bunkered down at the center of the map, out numbered 20+ "we'll have to kill em all, the Sgt says"

With my Marines bunkered down in the center room and are already shooting at the genestealers and killing ALOT.. Sgt Gideon enters the room and stands next to the door way so he can swing at anyone coming in and I have Scipio and Omnio on overwatch shooting at either hallway as Bugs approach. Bill is moving two Conga lines of Stealers at the Blood Angels, one from the North one from the South..with twice as many models coming North. At this point I am killing a ton of Genestealers and Bill is worried as all the Stealers are on the board..he has around 10 left to my three marines. He rushes both rooms..I kill a few more and Scipio covering the southern approach is killed. Backs to the wall Gideon to taking on every Stealer coming at him, while Omino shoots at everything he can finally the Sgt Gideon Falls. Omino now is alone on he goes off overwatch using his last 2 AP to shoot twice and kills two of the remaining 3 stealers. It is now ONE VS ONE for the game..Bill attacks and rolls a 1,2,3 its 50/50 I can win the game all I need is a 4+, I roll a "1" Omino falls the Genestealers win!

Blood Angels Kills 34, Genestealers 5


The First "Conga Line" moving from the north, despite the Jam you see there
we cleared this one out pretty good.



With Leon and Valencio Dead, Genestealers are now on us from two directions.



Here they come from the North.



Backs to the wall!!



One VS One for all the marbles!!

Bill played this exactly right this time, my errors were clear and some hot dice steaks made it the coin flip it turned out to be. The Assault cannon definitely needs to go on the North Side of the Map in this mission. Bill and Billy played mission 2, twice more after I had played. In Game 2 the Bill played the Marines won in a closer game, and by Game 3 Billy who now had the Marines had broke the curve on how to win this and Blocked both exits early and had an easy win shutting down the Stealer extermination style.

In review, very fun mission although at first glance this seems very difficult for the Marines, once you figure it out the Marines have the advantage.

next up, Mission 3- Rescue

A versus B, The Soft Score Dilemma

Recently I have been reading alot opinions and editorials about Tournament Sportsmanship and Soft Scores on various blogs and the more notable websites out there. I've been talking to a bunch of different people privately via email the last few weeks about the subject .I know I've touched on the soft scores before right after Adepticon and its own controversy, yet the topic lingers on as more and more events happens and we continue to hear about conflicts over the same issues. I wanted to take another moment six months later to revist this issues with a bit more clarity.

Lets start with the big pink elephant in the room, that I don't see getting addressed much. Which is when it comes to miniature wargaming, there have always been two types of players and its been this way since I started fooling around with miniatures over 30 years ago. For easy sake of references lets call them "A" players and "B players, of course they'll will always be people who are some of both, but the people who cause the conflict are always rooted in one camp or the other.

"A players" see wargaming first and foremost as "a game" and a game they want to win above all else, sure they like the miniatures, they may or may not like the rules but like something enough, whether it be the models, the fluff, or just the other people playing, to want to be involved. "A players" see winning as the most important thing, the challenge for them is how to outsmart their opponent, work the rules and win the game, everything else is secondary.

"B players" see miniature wargaming as a "Craft" (notice I didn't say "Hobby") They like the models, the back story, etc...They don't care too much about the rules as long as when they play the game they have fun. First and foremost, B players just want to build stuff, they want recreate what's in their mind and in the books on table top, they love to slave away painting hundreds of troops and fiddle with their models into the long hours of the night. B players don't see this a chore, but believe it or not, see this as great fun.

Allot of this is all common psychology Left Brain/Right Brain stuff, but within the context of the miniature Wargaming hobby, A players and B players really can't survive without each other, in fact they compliment each other, its often the A players planning and running events while the B players are building the Tables and Terrain, of course it's more complicated than that and while I am a self described B player, I have no problem filling the role of an A player if need be. The problem arises when you get everyone together and try to score a tournament. Everyone immediately turtles up into either the A camp or the B camp.

Lets now throw Games Workshop, the biggest name in the Miniature Wargaming Biz into the mix. They have awesome stuff that everyone wants, and enough games and rules to suit just about everybody. GW HQ is well aware of "A" versus "B" but want to sell as much product as possible to everyone they can so they write rules that try to appeal to everyone and will help sell lots of models. Even though they know their rules are always in a state of flux and are admittedly open to a little bit to much interpretation, they promote "A" and' "B"'s as a group hobby putting everyone together and hosting Grand Tournaments that are designed to appeal to any and everyone.

Here we are in almost 2010, Games Workshop is massive and wargaming as a hobby is a multi- billion dollar business worldwide. However Games Workshop has dropped their Grand Tournaments due to hard economic times and the success of independent tournaments and full blown hobby conventions that celebrate their product and they don't have to pay for it. The problem is without the GW figure head to look to for guidance-The good people who run independent tournaments and conventions start getting pressured by the A players and B players to cater to each own individual needs- it's constant struggle of pushing and pulling.

Nowhere is this more glaringly apparent than when it comes to competitive tournaments. The "A players" covet their wins and battle points, while the "B players" relish in racking up those controversial soft scores. The route of the "soft score" problem is this- "A players" feel slighted because they feel the "Best Overall" award should go to an "A player"- the problem is that Soft Scores, (Painting, Sportsmanship and Composition) are the bane of an"A players" existence but weigh majorly in choosing the "Best Overall" player. So "A players" spend their time between tournaments on message boards at your Favorite FLGS trying to marginalize soft scores so they can also win the big enchilada..because you know Best Overall, sounds alot better than "Best General"

"B players" of course feel "Best Overall" should go to a B player and "Best General" is the "A player" award, "B players" don't care about the best General Award, they care about being appreciated for the hard work they put into their army, that they can be good sports and that they'd never put an army on the table they'd wouldn't want to play against themselves. It's not that "A players" don't also have some of these qualities, they are just secondary to winning.

Of course this is all semantic bullshit, why not just change the names of the stupid awards and add a few more to appease both sides?...sounds easy right?, but it's more complicated than that. Because "A players" kind of want to be like "B players" and vise versa. "A players" say "damn I sure wish I could paint like that B player, and "B players" say "Damn I sure wish I could win a few more games like that A Player". "A players" want both pieces of the Pie..and they want to be able to win it their way- by crushing the opposition. "B players" want to be like A players too, they want to win some games. They just want that other stuff (the soft scores) to help them score better than the "A players" who they feel don't try as hard as they do. So both players want to be like each other to an extent but also want to keep eachs own self centered motivations at heart.

So how the hell do you make "A Players" and "B players" work together in a competitive tournament?, that's the tough question everyone seems to be addressing. The problem is if you cant get past the basic premise I've laid out here- you are just beating your head against the wall. In part 2, I'm going to revisit Painting, Sportsmanship and Composition and look at it as a new model to hope to try to bridge the gap for 2010.

Until then fess up are you an "A player" or a "B player" say so in the poll on the top left.

And don't worry I have more of my "B player" pretty pictures of various things coming soon.