Caleb

Of the many services offered at WMG, one of the things we offer is consignment.  For a percentage of the sales price, WMG will sell your old, unwanted models on ebay for you.  The only thing you have to do is inventory and mail us your models.

Consignment has taught me a lot about trends . .. what’s hot, what’s not.  Which armies are winning, which are losing, and how long it’s been since a gamer has actively been invested in their hobby.  When I get a box of models from the 1980’s still in shrink wrap, I have a pretty good guess that the consigner had a healthy appetite for buying models, but no time to assemble/paint them. 

One thing I’ve learned over time is that a bad match up can lead to players making rash decisions about their collections and to false conclusions about themselves as players.

Case in point:  I have a few buddies who I play with on a semi-regular basis, at least a dozen times a year.  And about a dozen times I year . . I lose.  Part of it is they use more competitive lists, most of it is they are better players.  They stratagize on a level I can’t even comprehend.  They are Bobby Fisher.  I’m the bum in the park sleeping under the checker board.  I’m okay with it.  I’m  not insecure about it.  On the contrary, they make me better players.

When I finally do get out to my FLGS I often times surprise myself by outmanuevering my opponent and forcing them to play according to my terms.  They end up reacting to my moves vs. the other way around.  But I only learned to play like that by getting thrashed by my friends year after year (after year .  . sigh)

We are limited by our finances in this hobby, so even though we want to have a collection that allows for multiple variations, often times we are set in what we can take in our list based on what we buy on a budget.  And from there, if we play folks with armies that are great vs. what we have, we tend to lose.  Not as much to do will skill as resources.

I suppose you can argue that part of the skill is knowing what to ‘buy’, but then again, part of the fun of the game is variation.  So it goes round and round.  I suppose a good long term strategy might be to play a well rounded list, but then again, plenty of meta players will argue about lists that ‘do this well’ vs. doing everything well. 

Anyway. . . I got in a game last night.  I may have mentioned that there is a local league that started last night, a 400 point league.  The league has a SHIT ton of rules, no 2+ saves, only up to 1 of each army slot (except for troops, then 1-3), no named characters, nothing with over a total armor value 33 (only counting sides once), no fliers, no aegis lines, nothing over 2 wounds, etc.  Pretty crazy.  But I thought it would be a good chance to meet the locals and stir up some new business.  I was definately right.

So I met this guy, nice guy, about my age, early 30’s, with a new wife and son.  So we had a lot in common and got along well.  The mission was strange, it was called ‘Duel to the Death’ and you won simply by killing the other enemies ‘warlord’ with your warlord.  No one else could kill your warlord.  They could reduce him to 1 wound, but that’s it.

I had taken an odd list.  I wanted to max out my units, so I took 3 units of 10 gaunts, 5 Ymgarls stealers, a prime, and a biovore.  I figured 40 wounds was more than anyone else would have.  Still, the list sucked.  My prime and stealers were good, but the gaunts were all but useless and the biovore just shot at nothing the entire night.

My opponent took 3 chimeras, and a squad with assorted weapons in each (a few autocannons, a few melta, a few plasma, etc), plus a sentinel with a multilaser. 

Knowing I’d walk into a massacre if I tried to cross the 4×4′ table, I held half my army in reserve (including the stealers) and sat tight, hoping my opponent would come to me.  In fact he did.  I took no casualities the first round as I stayed out of sight.  My opponent drew near.  On turn 2 my stealers arrived and jumped out of a nearby piece of area terrain and ripped the command chimera to pieces.  My opponents warlord was exposed! I decided this was the time to launch my assault, while the stealers had his lines in disarray. 

I moved my Prime up, joined with a unit of gaunts for ‘protection’  Although the unit was shot, my opponent was busy dealing with the stealers.  The chimera took up a defensive formation, effectively barring easy passage to the warlord.  To get to him, I’d either have to destroy one of the chimeras or walk around.

A volley of fleshborers managed to reduce a chimera (amazingly) by a hull point, while the Prime  reduce the other chimera by 2 hull points.  Still not enough to get through his line.  After his squad reduce the primes termagant bodyguard to piles of gore, my opponent’s warlord took the chance to shoot my prime (since he was the only one in the army that could ‘kill’ my warlord).  Amazingly, the prime made his 3+ save! 

Meanwhile, without his leadership, the tyranids were falling apart.  My genestealers were slaughtered to the last by the chimera’s heavy flamer, my biovore was lurking behind a building, one squad of gaunts had fallen back when tank shocked by a chimera!  It was do or die time! 

The prime, seeing a desperate chance, moved around the chimera he’d been assaulting and charged the commander!  However, a sergeant challenged my prime to single combat!  The prime accepted and easily dispatched the lowly sergeant.  The warlord had bought himself a turn, but sadly his side had lost the combat!  Failing their morale check, the warlord fell back. The prime pursued and wiped him out with a sweeping advance.  4 Turns in the game was over! 

My opponent noted that if he had designated his ‘plasma gunner’ the warlord, the prime would have had no chance to save vs. the plasma and died in shooting.  As it was the plasma guns could only reduce the prime to 1 wound!  He was absolutely right.  Fortunately for me, had had not.  Victory! 

It was a great lesson to be learned about turning around a bad matchup.

I think, on paper, my opponent had me beat.  He had the superior army, for sure.  And you could argue I lucked out on the mission too.  But thems the breaks.  I played the mission the best way I knew to win and win I did.  

What’s even better is after the game we got to talking and I may have turned my opponent into a new client!  He was very interested in my business and we discussed quoting a few projects down the road.

So I got in a good game from a bad match up, meet a cool guy and had a great time.  WINNING!

And all that from a bad match up.  So take it from me, just because you’re stuck in a losing streak  . . . don’t send me your army to sell!  Mix it up, add a few new units (if you can afford it), or borrow a buddies to test out some new combos (or just PROXY play), and play someone new.  You might be surprised.

You’re probably not a bad player. .  . you probably just had a bad match up.

But after all that, your army does still suck . . .send it our way.  I’ll piecemeal it for you!

Until next time, remember PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!

Caleb, WMG
[email protected]

17 years.

That’s how long I’ve been playing 40k.  17 years.  In the past 17 years I’ve lost my virginity, been to college, waited on probably 1000 tables in my service to the restaurant industry, worked for about a dozen different companies,owned 6 cars (mostly junkers), lived in about 6-7 apartments, dated maybe 10 different girls, married one of them, and bought 2 homes. 

But through it all, I’ve played 40k.   I got into it in high school and was hooked from the get go.  I’m not sure what makes me a ‘wargamer’.  I have the same passion for this I see others display towards football or baseball, or that my wife displays for reality TV.  It’s just something in my blood.  I can’t help it, I can’t fight it, and I don’t really want to.

But I’m reminded just how long I have been playing when I show up a my FLGS and 90% of the players that show up for league night are still in college, or even high school.  Most of them, like you might figure, are attracted to the hobby for the same reason young athletic types are attracted to playing sports . . . they are naturally good at it and can test their mettle vs. an opponent on ‘even’ ground.  Geeks, just as much as athletes, thrive on competition.  They are hungry for the W. 

But I realized last night I was one of the oldest players in the room . . and I am 32.  That is a weird feeling. 

Like most of us that do anything for 17 years, we go through phases.  Our interest in the hobby ebbs and flows.  For my four years of college, I only played during breaks and over the summer.  My college was just too intense for much wargaming, and there were no game stores (at the time) in my college town of Winston-Salem.

 In the mid 90’s 40k was in it’s 2nd edition.  I played all though 2nd and 3rd (which was a huge change).  By the end of college, I had mostly become a casual gamer, getting in a pick up game once in a while, but that was about it.  Then I took a break for a while.  By the time I was ready to get back into it hardcore, I realized I didn’t know anybody that played anymore, other than my friends back home, that were hours away.  So I went to my FLGS and tried to scrounge up a game.

After a few weeks of no luck, I decided to post a flyer.  “Local player looking to get back into 40k seeks same for a refresher game in 3rd edition”.  Or something like that.   I did the little tab thing with my phone number/email on it, like I was a babysitter looking for work.  The next week I went back to the store to see if any tabs had been removed.

I was surprised to see a Warhammer Fantasy game in progress.  Not the same as 40k, but close enough!  I had hit paydirt!  So I hung around for a few minutes and watched two players go at it.  Both were older players, late 30’s to early/mid 40’s.  Clearly the 40 year old was a veteran and the 30ish year old was fairly new to the hobby.  The 40 year old was blasting through rules almost as quickly as he was blasting through his opponents infantry.  At the time I didn’t understand what being a ‘bad teach’ was.  It was brutal to behold.  Like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away.

During a short pause, while the thirty-something player took a break to get a soda or something, the veteran milled around the table, waiting to continue his thrashing.  This was my moment!  The time to introduce myself!

Before I could say a word, however, he had wandered over to the board.  He saw my note, the note about needing a mentor for the new edition!  He looked at it, shook his head and laughed.  “What an idiot!  Doesn’t he know it’s 4th edition now!”

I was dumbstruck.  I mean, this short, balding, fat jackass was right, on the one hand.  It was indeed 4th edition.  I needed to learn 4th, not be refreshed on 3rd.  But on the other hand, I felt like he had missed the forest for the trees.  Here was a chance to increase the gaming community by +1, to gain a new player, to make a new friend, etc.  Here was a chance to blast through stereotypes of gamers being anti-social or jerks who just like to win.

Devastated (as much as you can be when ridiculed by a short, fat, 40’s balding wargamer) as I was, I decided to simply leave, and didn’t even bother to introduce myself.

Now the story has a happy ending.  I did get back into gaming and now consider myself pretty well versed in the newest edition.  But at the time, when I needed help most, I was let down . . by a veteran.

Last night, at my FLGS store I got in a small 400 point game as part of a new ‘combat patrol’ league.  I was approached by, wouldn’t you know it . . a player that had been a serious player in 5th edition but hadn’t played much in 6th, and needed a ‘tune up’ game.  “Wanna play?”  He asked me.

Now, kiddies, what do you think I did:

A.  Laughed in the players face.
B.  “What, are you stupid!  It’s 7th edition!”
C.  Offered to teach him the ropes of 6th. 
D.  None of the above

 If you answered C, give yourself a gold star!  This was a chance to teach someone about the game!

What’s even better is after the game my opponent and I talked shop and I think I may have met a new future client!  He certainly had interest in what I was doing.  I was sure to speak loud, so others at nearby tables could hear me too.  Hopefully a few others are interested in doing business with us in the future as well.

As veterans, we have the privilege of being able to inundate new players to our favorite hobby.  We are in a unique position to show how fulfilling a long term hobby can be, and how some love affairs, like the one I have with wargaming, last a lifetime. 

So be careful when you make a casual joke at someones expense in the company of strangers.  The person you piss off may have been a great player to get to join up. . .  or they might shoot you when you leave the game store.

After all, some veterans really are veterans.

Glory.  The sweet taste of it is enough to drive men to the bitter brink of sanity.  To stand over your enemies victorious . . . . heroes are born in such ways.

But how much does it really cost to compete?  If you going to run with the bulls, you gotta be able to keep up.  Get out your wallets, kiddies, cause this ain’t gonna be cheap. 

Lets’s take 2 fairly big tournaments, Adepticon, and Feast of Blades. 

For the purposes of this discussion, we are going to make a few assumptions.

1. You have a painted army.  This may sound like common sense, but lots of players have their ‘fun army’ or ‘fluffy’ army as its come to be know, and their no holds barred WAAC army, and rarely the twain shall meet.  An army can costs hundreds of dollars, much much more if you pay someone to assemble it and paint it for you.  And lots not even get into if the army doubles as your team play army or painting competition army.  So for sake of argument, let’s just say you have an army.

2.  Let’s also assume you are going for the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD trip, ie, enough to have a good time, not scrimp, but not spend lavishly either.  So, that being said, what do you need?

You need a way to get there (bus fare, a plane ticket, gas $$$, etc)
You need somewhere to stay, probably a hotel
You need money to participate (fees ,events, games, etc)
You need to eat

Of course there are exceptions to the rule.  You mommy might pack you PB and J for 3 days and you might crash on a friends couch, or live in town, etc.  However, let’s assume for sake of this article you don’t.   You live out of town, you came to play, and you plan to spend a little dough. 

Now, let’s get down to brass tax . . . how much for the ape, err . . . trip.

Because I live in Raleigh NC, which is about as East Coast as you get, let’s use that as a launching off point.  Plug in your own data accordingly.

Item 1.  Travel

Since this is the modern age, I’m going to take a plane to get there.  Yes, I could cram myself into a car with a few other guys and save on gas $$$ while sniffing their farts for two days, but I’m going to save a little pride and sniff a strangers farts at 20,000 feet up instead.  So, how much?

They say airfare is more affordable than ever these days . . . so is it?

Okay, using American Airlines, looks like I can go round trip, to and from the airport for about $265 bucks.  That price includes tax.  Of course, I’m going to have to check a bag, which is another $25.  After all I have my army bag and then I have a small carry on with (let’s hope) a change of clothes and some soap at least.  I suppose you could get creative, dress in 6 layers and just use those clothes for the whole weekend, but since that’s gross, let’s save your pride and say you have 1 carry on and your ‘army transport’ to check.

Total so far:  $290

You’ve also got to get to an from the airport.  Yes, you could certainly have a friend drop you off and pick you up.  Let’s assume you do that for your IN TOWN airport ride.  It’ll save you money on parking for sure.  However, once you get there, you are going to have to either rent a car (let’s NOT do that, after all, hotels are islands unto themselves) or take a cab from the airport to the hotel.  Let’s assume the cab ride costs you $30 bucks, which is reasonable.

Total so far:  $320

Okay, plane, check, cab, check, but what about the hotel?  A man’s gotta have somewhere to rest his head after a long day of battle.  So far the prices have been consummate, but now they start to diverge.  .  

For Adepticon, the primary hotel is ALREADY FULL!  They do have a secondary hotel.  Four days w/tax for a room comes to $446 bucks.  The other kick in the pants is now you have to get to and from the convention center from YOUR hotel.  It’s only .7 miles away, but you do have an army to transport.  Do you want to lug all that almost a mile through the windy city in April, when it will STILL be cold?  Probably not.  Let’s assume you are going to take a cab TO and FROM the hotel each day, for $10 bucks a pop.  Over 4 days that’s $80 bucks.  Yikes.

For FoB, it’s a little better.  The hotel for the event still has availability, it’s only a three day event, and it’s cheaper on the room.  Three days there are only $306.

On a side note you COULD only go one or two days to either event, and save some $$$ on the room, but I’m assuming you came to play, so you’re staying for the duration.

Total so far:  $846 (Adepticon), $626 (FoB)

Okay, our wallet is starting to feel that squeeze, but the big stuff is out of the way, fortunately.  Let’s talk about the commodities.

Firstly, if you go to play then you have to pay to stay.  Try saying that three times fast.  Each event has different pricing.  For Adepticon, it’s free to attend, but $45 to participate in, well, anything.  To compete in a tournament it ranges depending on the event, but the 40k GT Open is $35.  Now, it’s a four day event, and the GT open is only 2 days of the event, and only one if I don’t make it to the second day.  Let’s assume you’ve got a little down time at the event.  Maybe on your off days (Saturday/Sunday) or even Friday if you don’t win on Thursday.  Adepticon has TONS of stuff to do . . but the kick is a lot of it costs.  Pay to play games range from $5 bucks up to $15.  Let’s give you a mix and say you play one $15 dollar event and 2 $5ers.  That’s $25 total.  That brings your total event fees at Adepticon to about $105.  Think of it like seeing 8 movies back to back at the local cineplex.

For FoB on the other hand, it’s simple.  $75 bucks gives you a weekend pass, which covers all costs, including your GT fee. 

Total so far:  $951 (Adepticon), $701 (FoB)

Okay, we’re done now, right?  Wrong!!!  A man’s gotta eat!  You gotta keep up yer’ strength to help vanquish your opponent.  Let’s assume both hotels have continental breakfast (or you bring a box of poptarts and ration them out over 4 days . .  Poptarts now come 8 to a box!  That’s 25% more pop!   Did you know?)  You still need to do lunch and dinner.  Let’s assume you do lunch and dinner every day of the tournie, except the last day, where you just do lunch on your way to the airport.  You can probably get by on $10 – $15 bucks a meal.  I’m going to assume $15, because you are going to be limited to shops within walking range of the hotel or even worse, inside the hotel, and you might want a mid day snack, bottle of water, can of soda, or the like.  So basically $30 bucks a day, and $15 on the final day. 

Total so far:  $1056 (Adepticon), $776 (FoB)

Okay, NOW are we done . . . almost.  Both these events have vendors.  Do you mean to tell me you are going to spend 3 days geeking out and not buy anything?  What’s your Will save, +14?  I dunno think so.  You are GOING to buy something.  The only question is how much.

Also, half the fun of GT’s is camaraderie, which is Latin for beer.  You mean to say you aren’t going to go get a beer with Goatboy or Spikeybits if asked?  OF COURSE YOU ARE, YOU GUTLESS LITTLE LACKEY!  It’s called peer pressure, and guess what, you’re going to give in.  Why?  Because these people accept you.  GT’s are the closest things gamers get to a pilgrimage.  

Let’s lump both of these together into a joint account and call it ‘petty cash’.  $ to throw around on drinks, dice, books, t-shirts, insert your crack of choice here.

Total so far (and final!!):  $1106 (Adepticon), $826 (FoB).

So . . . there is is, black and blue and red all over.  The cost to compete.  Was it as expensive as you thought, or worse?

Bear in mind this article is NOT intended to be a jibe at GT’s.  Quite the opposite in fact.  If you are going to start budgeting, just save about $40 bucks a week and you too can be a tournie player.  The guys who go to these are card carrying members of an elite club, and we all know that we really DO want to be at the cool kids table.  However, for most of us GT’s just aren’t a reality we can face, what with the average one costing about $1000 bucks!

Of course there are ways to save at the pump.  Sharing a room, packing snacks vs. buying meals, being thrify with vendors, walking to the hotel from the OTHER hotel . . . all of this will save you $$$, hundreds maybe, but you have to budget your time vs. your money, in other words, value.  Is it worth it, to you, to walk vs ride, or sleep in privacy vs. listen to another man snore all night, etc.

The choice is yours. 

Caleb, WMG

Summary Table

Greetings fellow wargamers!

Ran into an interesting situation in a game with a friend the other day and thought I might run it by the community to see if other folks had every run into something similiar.

So as nasty as I think Genestealers are in close combat, they have met their match many times before:  berserkers on the charge, grey knights basically all day long, plague marines, and now, Castellan Crowe!

Rather than getting into the nitty gritty details, I’ll just sum it up for you.  Crowe is s GK special character that can never be part of another unit.  He fights alone.  He isn’t an IC, he’s just a solo HQ choice.  It’s a odd place to be as a named character.  I can attest to this using figures like the Doom of Malan’tai on a semi regular basis, which will never know the benefit of being a member of a brood!

So, Crowe always fights along.

In the course of our game, my genestealers charged Crowe.  I moved my stealers up and surrounded him to the best of my ability.

Here is where it gets tricky.  Crowe has a special power (or three), but one in particular that is pretty nasty in close combat.  Without having the codex in front of me, it’s something along the lines of each model in base to base with him take an additional hit at Initiative 8 or something.  Being armed with a force weapon, this can be devastating to any squad/brood.

The question came up whether or not my genestealers were modeled for advantage.

In close combat, as the rule goes, you must attempt to get as many models in base to base contact as possible with your target.  My stealers were facing Crowe and due to how the models are made (all gangly arms and slashing claws and such) are hard to get into base to base with pretty much anybody.  That being said, I positioned about 3 figures around him and figured that was about the best it was going to get.

My opponent on the other hand pointed out that if I turned the models around, I would be able to fit more models in base to base with Crowe.

My only real response to this was it seemed kinda silly to me, for my stealers to be facing away.

Of course the base is really just a representation of the space occupied by the model.  Models are dynamically posed because it looks cool, its visually aesthetic . ..  it’s badass!  A bloodthirster wouldn’t be nearly as intimidating if his axe was clipped to his back, his wings folded up against his body and his arms crossed.  But you’d be able to get him into base to base with more models.

Furthermore during the other phases of the game, namely shooting, models like bloodthirsters and genestealers and such are a clear disadvantage, because their extra big, flailing limbs and wings and such can be shot at.  They are considered part of the model, and moreover a targetable part of the model.

So this raises lot of ?’s in my mind.

Is a figure modeled for advantage when they’re are assembled the way the rules/box/blister shows you to without conversion/modification in any way?

Are figures with bigger/gangly/flailing limbs at a distinct disadvantage (meta wise) because they are easier to hit in the shooting phase but then they do the about face during the assault phase?

In your games, tournament and friendly, did you run into a similiar situation where an opponent insisted you position your figures for their advantage in close combat?

To be fair, the rules DO state that you must move your figures so that as many of them are in base to base as possible, but does this imply you should play the hokey pokey to get every last base touching so that Crowe can have his force weaponed way with them?

Where does the meta meet the spirit of the game?

Is it just me?  Am I naive because I don’t play in tournament?  Where does the meta meet the road?

Chime in!

PUT YOUR MINIS WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!

Caleb, WMG