*unpacks hate, malice and all those other nasty feelings*
Day One
Oh my dear jebus, the match ups! So as if I am not in a bad enough mood after a head cold for two days and then about 2 hours sleep (in fecking Ballymun of all places!?) then I have to witness a couple of druggies on the 13a going on about some score and finally travel to the back end of nowhere to play some toy solider game, then!!!!! So the 1st game match ups are done, but then there's a change and then there's another change.
"Ah what?" I hear you say well yes, grudge matches are the bane of the tournament world in my humble (and right) opinion. Right lads it's all well and good to have the whole "alright I'll pick you to play this game rather than some random system eh?" but damn lads there is a time and place for this and it's not at tournaments.
So round two comes around and low and behold a second round of pre-decided match ups for all! What the christ lads? I came to play a two day event with 5 games and not a 2 day masking as a 1 day with 3 games.
Now speaking of 'oh christ' moments (feck you emperors champion!) forge world at a ranking event, no no no no no no no seriously it's broken it's meant for Apocalypse games and fun games not tournaments not without a huge restriction list and since half of the armies don't have anything they can take from forgeworld that isn't super heavy etc and also most of the stuff is imperial so its a nice big FU to all the chaos/xenos players, unless your tau.... Well I was expecting to be raped left right and centre by guard and marine players with all their shiny over compensating big toys sadly I was disappointed but did get to witness a few people raped (by Woody) so ended up with a sense of violation anyway.
The pub quiz...... ah was Fantasy questions getting double points or something here and I demand to see each question sheet beside the correct answers again otherwise it was a fix as Lenny does not know that many 40k answers, also about an hour late starting..... And the bloody pints were under a fiver! I had a budget I set now the ball o' chain will cut it down because I couldn't spend it all at least meet the Dublin prices otherwise I may have to drink less each tournament?!
Day Two
Okay so I may have been a little rude so far.... actually no wait a minute a 9.15am start on the Sunday? Have you lot actually been to a 40k tournament where people were not hungover/dying on the Sunday and can probably not scratch there own arse before 10am let alone think straight and play.
The terrain the damn terrain! More please, no fortifications with no doors please otherwise you may as well hand an objective to someone because dealing with actual buildings instead of ruins/hills is just too annoying and pointless.
And the final game looms and due to the two first rounds not being pre-determined we have ructions in the camp over playing people twice etc, At this point it's better to just grin and bare but damn lads I think people at this point where about to start trading their own opponents for others.
*Packs away all the hate for Galecon*
Well Well Well, lads this is how you run a tournament, the match ups all aside, this was a mostly fluid run event. Fantastic Venue, huge space no way you were getting in someone's way or the wall being up against you so fair play on the choice. Terrain while sparse was okay but you can't have everything.
Value for money was decent but only if you were a 40k player as Darragh handed out custom vehicle difficult terrain markers for free worth about €10-€15 so the overall price came to about €20 instead of €30 so three cheers for that nice surprise!
So lets get to the ratings shall we before I go on with the good side of my R(0o)ant.
Venue 5/5
Opponents 5/5
Rules Pack 4/5 (Loss due to the ForgeWorld)
Organization: 3/5 (Purely down to the confusion at times of whether you were playing the opponent you were told you were playing in 3 rounds)
Tables/Terrain: 4/5 (Some of the terrain essentially created impassible areas which were not fantastic for the games)
Food: 2/5 (I don't see any event getting higher than this is there isn't some sort of snack or something provided, a small touch that goes a long way to this and many other gamer's hearts and stomachs. Food in the venue was lovely so I'm giving a 2 for it)
Prizes 5/5
Value for Money 4/5
Overall 16/20 making for 48/60
Right so the opponents made this event for me, everyone was friendly laid back very little issue I saw with anyone around and everyone was having a great time regardless of results (again I'd like to say feck you to my Emperor's Champion). To the guys I played as I said I was giving away warhead dice for this first Tournament for me this year to games I really enjoyed, I came with 10 dice (5 of each colour) and left with none so that is testament alone to all you 40kers at this event. To mention a the names I can remember, Jan (I am not spelling his actual name), Scott, Alan, John and Gary you were all fantastic opponents and a pleasure to play and either win, lose or draw with (Stop stealing my job Jan!).
Organization was the most that suffered here, I won't say that I would be able to run a tournament as well as this was but that's not the point of this blog, but the point behind this blog is to point out any flaw even in a good event as we can all do with some constructive criticism as it makes us better at the things we do and of course nobodies perfect.
Ah the rules pack, scores for this are decided before the event so don't take the 4/5 to heart, I talked to the majority of players and it was a slim margin that said they don't like forgeworld at a ranked event but of those that disagreed with it most said if it was only one or two events then what the hell eh? Okay there was only two forgeworld models at this event (poor poor Caestus ='( ) so it didn't make a huge difference but it could have hence the score. Personally while I do not fell forgeworld would be a good idea for a ranked event it wouldn't stop me attending one.
Ah the prizes, fantastic lads plenty of them, done quickly and a lovely personalized score sheet at the end for every player 40k and Fantasy alike.
As for the food and the value for money I do believe I have been spoiled by the Northern Wasters and Dominion Day as for the price they certainly put on a good show so other events can definitely learn from their small but largely effective tokens added to their event.
NWG, while the food in the hotel was great, I am still waiting to see some kind of even coffee/tea and a bun for the start of the day as it's a fantastic touch.
Well this was the first R0ot of all Evil and hopefully my rant doesn't get me banned from other events as I truly did have a great time at NWG and I point out faults purely as suggestions and would hope an organiser or two may think "Yes we can do better and I'll prove that bastid R0ot wrong in everything he said!".
As a side note this blog should be like a fine wine...... gets finer with age. I've set myself the challenge of being a dick on every small issue while also providing a positive note afterwards (if deserved, if you don't see the hate being put away I'd worry).
Thank you to Darragh and Nigel and all the other people that were assisting behind the scenes and of course to the people that without them this wouldn't be a successful event, THE PLAYERS!
*Any issues/complaints/comments/hate mail/death threats/etc. post them below and I will answer when I see them*