Tournament scoring, Generalship vs Paint/Sports?

We are having a good discussion about tournament scoring currently up here in the Auckland wargaming community.There is definitely one camp more in favour of the Painting side of the hobby and the Sports component in tournaments. It's been argued that there should be a definitive winner of the Painting and Sports at the event and these points should count significantly 50/50 in comparison to the generalship in tournaments.
It would be great to get everyone's constructive critic on the subject and at the same time give me a chance to be educated with another point of view. My ideas and opinion is below. Comp is also mentioned if you care to resuscitate its carcase, your ideas would also be appreciated.

*Comp has had its day and has proven itself unreliable and inconsistent regardless of peer or panel systems. Even if comp is 10% it's going to have a significant bearing on the results which imo is just plain unacceptable. In this day and age of tournaments comp is just an antique cassette tape in an age of igadgets.

Currently I think people go to tournaments to test their metal against every other general and also to see how the game is understood and how armies are manoeuvred by your peers and if you've got a better understanding of the nuances and tactics. I totally agree with the generalship deciding tournaments and soft scores having less focus as it's a tournament where you are exploring the tactical play of the game. If it was a painting workshop and I was gathering to learn techniques and sit down and paint with like minded individuals then it should definitely be decided if my painting was the most advanced at the end. In saying this I also agree with painting being a major focus in the tournaments as well and a separate painting prize should be on offer. An appropriate much smaller overall percentage that should be easily reachable by all should be applied to encourage a good standard of painting too as it's a hobby after all.  If you look at most of the tournaments recently you will see that the players packs reflect this quite clearly.

One of the main things that I think is forgotten about this hobby is that tournaments should be a gathering to encourage new and vets alike to come and play and encourage a community to build. Without new players systems slowly stagnate. The 3 minimum colours at present are to discourage unpainted forces but also give everyone a chance to try their hand at tournaments. Sports is a definite requirement to encourage good behaviour and perfect behaviour scores for all which is expected should be the norm. Having a mister popular contest would only encourage buddy boosting, which has been discussed at length in many other threads and forums and shouldn't have a place in tournaments.

New Warriors of Chaos

Some bad boys are out on advance order. Some of them are way nicer than I had originally thought. The xmas shopping list is going to be quite big this year.

Will definitely take some of these and see how they stack up with the demo-chooks.

 This shiny new ride is going to be finecast. I do suspect my Lord will be right-handed this edition.

I am going to like the Warshrine after all. Those extra bits on it look mint.

     

Star Wars & X-wing

Flicking through youtube and found this little gem.

Which segways nicely to the new X-wing game with a tut if anyone's interested in learning how to play. This just looks too good not to buy.

WHFB500 this weekend

We've got a quick fire 500pt one dayer tournament at the club this weekend. Really looking forward to it as there's 20+ confirmed. Great chance for a few of the guys picking up the game again after a break. It's also the perfect opportunity to bring out my wood elves. There's still places if anyone has Sunday free and is up in the big smoke.

Got to do some more painting on the army and going forward I'd be keen to do a 1000pt tournament just to get the painting mojo back. It's about time I finished an entire army of these guys and escalation seems to really get your painting done. This 500pts was a great change up from the daunting task of an entire 2400pt force.

 Angry trees and my first try at highlighting to white. Also trying out simple skirmish trays.

I always like to make something new & unique for every event that I attend. So slapped up some unit fillers at 500pts. The slight restrictions really makes you take a few odd choices in your list, so it was a good distraction making up some unit fillers.

Good chance to add some bright colours to the palate.

 A bit of kitbash is the best.

So I've forgone magic and taken a Noble to lead the force since Bsb's are not allowed. The list I'm taking is below. Nice and simple and really squishy. It should be a good list to play and a good chance to meet new opponents and have some good yarns through the day.

Noble - Starfire Arrows
11 Gladeguard
5 Waywatchers
11 Dryads

Solid block of Twangers, the backbone of the army...maybe.

Always the favourite, the Bear in the woods.

Board Game: King of Tokyo.

I haven't done too many board games recently so here's a little goodie. Easiest way to describe this is that it's yahtzee with Monsters. If you like the old skool Godzrrrillla films this will be your piece of cake. Comes with some cool graphics, nice and quick if you want to bash out a few games with mates (30min). The dynamic is good and the monsters are all pretty equal for destruction, you should give it a go for sure.

3 1/2 out of 5 Stars. Monssster sssmmaaassshh!

12th Month of Blogging

It just dawned on me that it's been almost a year of stepping into the ether and blogging on my hobby experience. A good time to reflect as there has been many good times and many hindrance times along the way. The most startling of epiphanies recently was when I went to transfer some threads from our old forum to the new forum our club has started for the community here. Some of those threads had my old batreps and my clumsy first few awkward steps into wargaming and rereading them it showed how much passion and verve I had when I first took up wargaming in comparison to the little tattered and worn state I'm in now.  Looking at the nostalgia of those past posts has done a marvellous invigoration and so lets write something for prosperity. I started late to the hobby as it was only a major sporting injury that side lined me and got me hooked in. I picked it up on the end of 4th ed Marines and the end of 6th ed High Elves and haven't looked back since.

Sitting in a little bit of a lull in enthusiasm for the hobby but steadily building up more up and go, I've learnt two important things so far that maybe a good reminder and invigoration in my hobby future.

1. Don't let someone else tell you who you are.

I remember my first serious tournament and what would have been my early second year into the hobby when I was approached by a Self Confessed Icon (SC Icon) of warhammer and was told 'how I was taking extreme tournament filth (HE Spears) and by the look of me a seasoned warhammer player with that army, that with a casual push forward it would easily get a podium (I came 7th)'. The comments of pure assumption should have been warning enough but as I was a newb I was easy prey and it's taken me till almost this day to shake away the feeling of sheer self judgement every time I field a block unit of High Elf spearmen.

Lesson learnt: You are the person who defines you best and no internet numpty with casual assumptions should ever be given a chance to influence your resolve and hobby.

Beware SC Icons, even if his name is Jimmy.

2. Keep it in perspective

Recently I've been inundated with situations and questions from the ill or uninformed, all of which have been some how, however remote, related to the hobby. This has sapped most of my hobby enthusiasm for a bit of time now.  Myself and a few others took it on ourselves to save our local club from the middle of last year from previous crippling mismanagement. We invested alot of our free time and energy over the past year or so  to save our club because we like our Toy soldier Sundays and we want the hobby and tournaments it supports to be enjoyed and around for a fair while yet. It's still really surprising how much unsavoury people try to dilute the enjoyment of something that you love and make it a gruelling experience.

Lesson learnt: It's my hobby and I'll like it if I want to. For those who don't know my hobby it is Toy Soldiers.

Johnny wears a hard hat whilst toy soldiering in case of hazards.

With a side note, my enthusiasm is back so the Equinox players pack is all ready. If anyone wants it get a hold of me on email.

Board game of the week: Isla Dorada (Fantasy Flight)

Nice lite n quick (1hr) game best with 4-5 players. Set collecting boardgame with a few interesting twists. Fantastic resin sculpts and an example of the quality of miniatures that these guys can produce, with the resin miniatures looking very much like ivory.

 Ideally 4-5 and it's fast paced and a good laugh with awesome place names.

Good graphics as well

Rating: Good family game and would be excellent for the younger members of the group. 3 out of 5 Stars 

New Community Forum

Minty fresh Forum for all you hobbyists to share your adventures and exploits all things wargaming and more. All event information and your local Hobby news in Auckland and around NZ as well as abroad.

http://www.aucklandcityguard.com/index.php

Easy to register and we'll get you up and running quick smart. Look forward to seeing you there.