Martial Law invades YottaQuest

Hey guys Drkmorals here stealing some time on the front page when no one else is looking. Thought I would lay down a quick review and rundown of the event this Sunday. Both here and on my personal blog. (shameless plug at the end of the article.)  

Anyway this last Sunday I was invited to show up and hang out with fellow club members Sandman and Warmonger for the YottaQuest Lazy Sunday event. I had a pretty hectic week but I didn’t actually have any plans Sunday so this worked out perfect.  

Yottaquest is in cincinatti and you can check out the main website here. You can actually register for events through the website if you sign up for an account and clean simple process.  The lazy Sunday event is a free 1000 point tourney once a month. Yep free tourney how cool is that? With Store credit as prizes.

First place is 15

Best painted is 10

Best sportsman is 5

Honestly pretty good for a free event.

The store is located in a downtown type area with parking in the rear. This was my first time at Yottaquest but I will say I was impressed overall. The store itself is stocked well with 40k, Fantasy, and several other games. The store is popular and has a great turn out of regular players of various genre’s . The staff was friendly, engaging and knowledgeable.  It seemed important to them that the customer service was good and you enjoyed your visit to the store. (which honestly in any business can go a long way) The game room was in the back in almost a garage like area but it was fine all be it a little tight on space but still comfortable.

The tourney itself had 8 people show up to hang out and throw dice for the day.

There ended up being a nice spread of armies though.

1 IG

2 Necron

1 Orks

1 Space Wolves

1 Grey Knights

1 Blood Angels

1 Space Marines

The day itself was filled with many moments of nonsense and fun. Warmonger and sandman actually ended up being paired off round one and had a good back and forth battle. I know because I had given each of them their new club dice and when one person’s was rolling well for a turn they would loudly tell me they liked the dice… Then usually a short time later the opposite person would tell me the same thing lol.  Sandman ended up coming out on top of the battle but not to be out done Warmonger “accidently” threw away Sandman’s lunch. I am sure it was just a coincidence that it happened after his loss, however watching Sandman complain and panic a bit while searching for his burger, while Monger explained he thought the bag was empty was pretty priceless.

In round two I faced off against Sandman in what turned out to be a very solid game that went to turn 7. We ended up with a draw, a bloody knock down drag out draw but a draw none the less. There had been several times when it could have gone either way but the dice decided not.

Sandman and Myself tied for first place. Sandman ended up taking first place and I took best painted. Not to be left out Monger ended up with best sportsman. It was only after they announced that we had taken the spots that people noticed we had been wearing the same club shirt which was funny as well.  

Overall again I had a great time and would go back to the event in the future. I would recommend it to others as well if you’re in the area. I’ll be posting Bat reps of some type in to follow in the near future, and will bother Sandman to do the same. =P

Real quick want to point out that Warmonger does most his posting here, and in the Martial Law forums. Sandman has a personal blog 73rd Hellion Devildogs  that I encourage you to take a look at and bother him about some battle reports as well =P . You can find my ramblings here from time to time, as well as my personal site (shameless self plug earlier warned about) which I will proudly say went past 50,000 hits last week and we still aren’t a year old. (shameless self pat on back) I also can be found putting together the FTW Blog spotlight over on FTW as I again try to add some positive to the online community we are building. (shameless self plug again!!!) The point is feel free to track any of us down with comments, emails, feedbacks,  or questions about the local area, events  or hobby.

Some Tourney Tips

Greetings and salutations boys and girls of wargaming land.  Drkmorals here, stealing few moments of the front page time to ramble on semi coherent like about a topic (usually related to 40k).





Today I want to talk about tourney prep, the customs and count downs leading up to the big morning before you plan to show up someplace get randomly matched up against opponents who will curse you the rest of the day for the epic defeat you plan on handing them in a nice 2 hr window of time. I know that in general we all know some things to be true like playing makes you better, knowing your army; you should at least be able to pretend you know the rules. But let’s take a few moments to talk about things that you may over look or possibly aren’t doing now to make you a better player the day of the event.

What type of things do you mean you might ask? Silly Drkmorals I am already planning to wear my lucky roll 6’s pair of boxer shorts what else could I possibly need? Well while we are all glad you are not going commando (and we are hoping those lucky shorts are clean) there is a bit more that you can do.

TIP 1

While it’s easy to get caught up in the rush to prepare and you might even be painting up to the wire depending on the event you are going to trying to get your new shiny codex or whatever flavor of counts as SW army you are playing at the moment table top ready.. Believe it or not, getting some sleep and not being tired will make you a better player. You are far less likely to over look something or make a better call if you aren’t trying to remember what turn it is out because of lack of sleep. Not to mention you will prob enjoy yourself far more if you aren’t looking forward going home and catching some zzz’s before the event even starts.

TIP 2

Tip 2 is actually a couple small tips put together. Bring some cash, or a snack and something to drink. It is easy to lose track of the fact you aren’t eating or drinking enough during the day while you are wrapped up in trying to get through your rounds quickly and crush your enemies. Having a granola bar to snack on, while you are sipping some water is a huge deal in making you not lag those last rounds. I say bring money too because some places don’t allow outside food and drink but they offer a selection of snacks to choose from.

TIP 3

Wear comfy broke in shoes. Don’t wear your work boots wear something you don’t mind standing in the entire time. You are going to be on your feet a ton during the day. Also I would suggest when you get a chance to sit to make it a habit to do so. Its easy to not notice how much your standing and if you’re not used to it you will be beat and sore at the end of the day.

TIP 4

Not all tourney’s are created equal, so when deciding what army/list you plan on bringing it might be a good idea to take a look at the missions. The missions might be designed so that your normal list is at a disadvantage or so that if you swap one unit out during this event you will be much better off. Remember the game is about playing the mission!!! Some events favor troop heavy armies while others are really balanced. Some events throw some crazy rules in one of the rounds. (tourney organizers seems to like to randomly add night fight to things?)

TIP 5

Not everyone plays this game exactly the same so before your game starts ask some questions and talk with your new opponent. Make sure you guys are on the same page about things. Discuss how the terrain will be played to make sure you don’t “assume” something is area terrain or a building only to find out your opponent “assumed” that was just some difficult terrain. You both will be able to make better choices and it will be a smoother faster game.

TIP 6

Have fun!!! Did you come with the sole intent of winning and if you don’t your day is a horrible waste of time? Do the rest of us a favor and stay home then. You need to come in with the right frame of mind. By all means come to compete, come to bring the pain, and play a solid game. However if things aren’t going your way, don’t be a jerk face about it. Sometimes the dice aren’t breaking your way, and all you can do is laugh.

That’s all for now boys and girls I have some more in depth tips to consider and several other articles planned for the future. In the meantime have any tourney tips to share? Habits before you play game one? Do you have a lucky charm or secret way you carry your dice? Feel free to share and comment away! Remember it’s a dice game so you can always fall back on good old plan “ROLL 6’s” although it’s not a reliable plan, I suppose it’s a plan. =P

Tourney's what is your POV

Greetings and Salutations Drkmorals here dropping some random thoughts on my new family of Battle Brothers and sharing a bit of the group blog burden so Monger doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting.. (Go ahead and have a cool drink Monger I got this today.) I normally post my written picture filled nonsense over on my site. The Emperor's Codex (blatant self promotion.) but I plan on helping out here as well from now on. Although I haven't really worked out a schedule of how often yet..

Today I wanted to take  minute of your time to talk about Tournaments. I don't want to talk about missions, tactics or the usual cut throat stack cheese and spam up to bring the pain that ML normally dabbles in. No I want to talk about the tourney experience and how your personal view of it may be totally different from mine or anyone else's when you go to an event. What do you mean Drkmorals? Well I am glad you asked random person I made up...

Clearly your FAQ was updated mid tourney.
If you had brought your laptop you would know. 

I really want to highlight that I don't have a requirement as the type of person that should be playing at the event. I hear this often from other players and it doesn't make sense to me and I don't think its healthy for our hobby. I read the uber competitive blogs or talk with people who are upset because you should know your rules inside and out before going. You should know all the codex's and the FAQ's and are angry when people haven't read or studied them prior to a event. While I think a general rules knowledge is important as well as knowing how your codex works. I really don't expect anything beyond that from anyone. In fact I will argue that going to tourneys as a newer player will teach you the rules and other codex's faster than anything else. Trial by fire so to speak. If you don't know the other armies rules that only will hurt your score or ability and I don't understand why that upsets people. If you are a newer player and we match up I will go out of my way to teach you while playing and try to get you to have a good time, to me it only can help the hobby to grow the player base and encourage our newer players.

If Flashgitz makes your day better  go ahead and
run the them I say!!!

Also if you want to bring your uber master class painted fluffy army to have a blast and you don't care if its a good list or not. Then all the power to you, I ain't mad at you. Have a great time and enjoy your day of gaming. This also doesn't upset me at all and I have talked with people that get upset about this as well saying he didn't bring a tourney army or his list is horrible why would he bring that. This just might be his fishing day so to speak. I think the argument is these guys ruin the field jumping players up in rank when they could have fought a tougher first round, but who cares since first round is random. Also normally the good players rise to top of events regardless by round 3. Anyone who goes to several events knows again its the player not the army or match ups that is consistent with doing well. You can get lucky and get three or more match ups in your favor but it doesn't happen very often and the game we play can be paper, rock, scissors anyway nothing you can do about it.

What I am really saying is Don't be a Hater. We all started someplace and what gives any of us the right to tell anyone else how to enjoy their hobby or spend their day of R and R. I am not saying everyone gets a pass the WAAC player who cheats.. yeah your still a Jerk face and no one likes you.. and the guy who loses one round and goes home.. Feel free to request the TO ban him. I am just saying in general stand back and give your fellow gamer's at the event the benefit of the doubt, a little slack, and maybe try to look from another POV before you complain about someone. Our community only gets better if we make it better and any of us can step up to help out another gamer at any time. I show up to compete and for the challenge but if you come for any other reason I dont' mind, in fact I encourage you to come out and make a day of it.