Friday was a LOOOOOONG one. There had been an Arcane Legions event that I'd wanted to go to, but it was supposedly sold out (found out 20 minutes after it started that it had in fact opened up, but too late), so we spent a lot of the afternoon wandering again. I spent a couple hours in the WoW TCG room- they are doing a weekend-long league that lets you play against anyone else in the league and get swag for playing. I played a bit against other starter-only players, had a pretty good time. I also ended up picking up a Dragon Dice starter and fooling around with that for a bit. Martha and I did a demo for WarGods of Aegyptus, which we were both very impressed with. With Greek armies on the horizon, I might be getting on that bus. It helps that they also have a beautiful Yeti army that Martha is eying. We wound up wandering around town for a little while, killing time getting ready for the big event of the day- the all-night Warmachine tournament.
Tournament-level Warmachine is an interesting animal. It's fast, insanely brutal, and played by a very particular class of gamer. The more I see of it, the less I want to play it. The setup for the tourney was pretty disorganized- we got there 15 minutes early and tried to get registered, and they told us to wait, which led to waiting in line and rushing through paperwork, annoyances that could've been saved if they'd just given us the signup form. There are apparently several different versions of the Killbox scenario floating around- I lost my first game because at this event, premeasuring the size of the Killbox wasn't allowed, and they started tracking it at turn 2 instead of turn 3. What really burns me is that the guy that got the free win off of me ended up winning best overall. There was a huge majority of Hordes players, and I think it really made a difference. Mk. II definitely improved on some of the inequities between Hordes and Warmachine, but I'm sure I was not the only player whose feat was utterly useless for several rounds (my matchups were Trollbloods, Rhulic Mercs, Trollbloods, and Trollbloods). Players bailing out because of the lateness of the hour led to me drawing a bye in the third round, but with the exception of the exceedingly pleasant gent that was playing Dwarves, the tournament was definitely not worth getting back to my hotel room at 7AM.
That guy was awesome. I would play against him again in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteI thought the tournament was worth playing in, mostly for what I learned from it - learning that the WarMachine you and I play against people like Joe and Bill is a totally different game from what people play in tournaments was pretty valuable. I'd play in another one, but with a very different list.
Like I said to you and Martha in person, last year's Gencon warmachine events ran very late. This year they were pretty tight, including the hardcore. I don't know what caused the delay for your particular event.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious what you mean by your warmachine. How are the list building, tactics, etc different?
Felix, the biggest thing I mean by "my" WarMachine is that, generally, I pick my list based on what I think will be fun to play. The people I play with do it for fun, and we are all generally relaxed and focused more on enjoying the game and (in my case) learning from my games. This is NOT to say I don't play to win - I do, always.
ReplyDeleteBecause the Death Race event was listed as "Casual Play," I expected to find largely the same experience, and definitely did not. I was not expecting the gameplay to be quite so vicious, and it was a bit of a shock to find that a list I've been playing for a while and had a good experience with simply couldn't cut it. Whether or not this is due to my inexperience or the relaxed nature of my hobby, I don't know. Like I said, I always play to win, whether or not I actually think I will, so it was a bit like being hit in the face with a brick when I found myself losing SO fast and SO brutally, over and over again.
Unlike Billy, I do think I'd like to stretch my legs in more events and tournaments. Just maybe not ones that start at midnight, or that have such a crushingly fast turn time limit. (I knew gameplay would be fast; I didn't realize having an infantry unit would hurt me so badly.)
Yeah, timers crush infantry. I started my ill-fated Hardcore list with 17 infantry models and whittled it down to just 12.
ReplyDeleteIron Arena was a good pick up play system. People were paying for pickup play. And while some of the players were grinding out scars for big prizes, there were other people who just wanted to get a few games in. By Saturday night, there were a bunch of people playing Warmachine in the hall.
I'll have to find out what was "casual" about death race.
Iron Arena looked kinda nifty, I may have to check that out when I have a better storage method for my Warjacks. This con, I was all about bringing the minimum number of figs for events (which backfired a bit for Battletech and Warmachine, since it nixed any shot at pick-up games).
ReplyDeleteThe trouble I'm having right now is that the order of games I'd like to be playing is:
1. 40K
2. Malifaux
2. Battletech
4. WHFB
5. WAB
6. Anything new and shiny
7. Warmachine
Usually Warmachine and WHFB jockey for that last slot, but with the improvements, WM is way in the basement. I'm having trouble figuring out what I need to reinvigorate it, maybe hiding my Severius model, but generally when I try something else to mix it up, I end up frustrated and going back to the Grand Scrutator.
ONe of the focus and fury guys does a really good job with his Severius lists. It has the right combination of hitting, arc node, and board control.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was told that "casual" meant that the event wasn't a qualifier for the Sunday finals, but apparently the people playing weren't all aware of that.
@Felix-
ReplyDeleteAfter playing the Death Race, I see how it was obviously never meant to be casual play. It's not designed that way - the Killbox and timer combined prove that. I object to the fact that it was listed in the GenCon events as "Casual" play, which was what led me to sign up for that as opposed to the Hardcore.
Next year I'll probably just sign up for the Iron Arena and play games on my own time. Then I'll still get my play in, but not at the expense of large chunks of time/my sanity.
I'm probably plotting the same thing, but I still want to play in at least one tournament.
ReplyDeleteIt's also an option for me to work the Iron Arena, which could be a welcome change.