UNDER PRESSURE: WORKING ON DEADLINES

Well, I've done it again. I have procrastinated when I knew I had a tournament coming up and here I sit at midnight on Tuesday and I have alot of painting/modeling to do. I have a tournament Saturday morning, it is over an hour drive to get there. So, burning the midnight oil is going to be tough. The next three days are going to be tough. I have to assemble and paint a Chimera, a Sentinel, two sniper models, touch ups on the whole army and build a display base(the tournament I am attending gives +2 bonus points for display boards.)

All of this to do and here I am typing this blog..........yep, I'm procrastinating again. Am I the only one that does this?

Tournament Battle Report 12/05/09

In Austin there are two stores to get your tournament fix. Both stores do one 40K event per month. When things work out well, they are not held on the same day. This past weekend there were two events on Saturday. Battle Forge Games was having their year end championship(Unfortunately, I didn't have enough points for the year for that one.) and Dragon's Lair had their monthly tournament. Dragon's Lair does different points levels and also does the occasional team tournament. This month it was 2000pts.

My first opponent Matt is a new player that has been pretty active since arriving on the scene, playing two or three days a week. He is taking part in our campaign and is always ready to throw some dice. Last month was his first tournament experience at BFG. Matt has a nicely painted Ultramarine army. Off of the top of my head his list is:

Sicarius w/ combat squad in a Rhino
combat squad w/ LC
Chaplain w/10 assault troops
5 scouts in a Storm
2x Sternguard in DPs
Tac squad in a DP
dreadnought
dreadnought in a DP
devastator squad HBs/PCs

Matt and I had a great game. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and he got the victory 2-1! So, a minor loss for me. I have to admit, I was a little put off. I had everything set up to clear some objectives on turn 5. So close....Ah well, my dreams of victory were fading. At lunch, I learned that all but one of the games were very close. So, maybe I was still in the running.

My next game was against another guy that I play against atleast one or two games a week. Josh is also fairly new to the game. However, he plays five to eight games a week. He keeps improving every week. This was not Josh's day, though. He was hungover and had lost his first game after a heated rules argument with another guy from our group. I stole the initiative and my dice went into alpha strike mode. At the end of turn two, He had two combat squads in rhinos left and one of them was imoblized. He called the game so, that he could take a nap.

Below is Josh taking his nap. Haaaaahahahahaha!
Josh's SM list

Lysander w/ 5 termies w/assault cannon DP

7 termies with TH/SS in a LRR

Vindicator

2x Thunderfire Cannons

10 Assault troopers

2 tac squads w/rhino

10 sniper scouts w/ Telion

I was feeling a little better about my chances going into round three. I drew Josh's brother Brian as my opponent. He has a pretty tough build.
5x Nob Bikers

10 Nobs Battle Wagon

5 MegNobs in a Battle Wagon

12 Boys in a truck

Warboss on a bike

Ard boyz in a truck

12 Boyz in a truck

We had a close battle. I was ripping him up and then the Nob Bikers hit. Luckily, I took out the pain boy and then hit them hard. I followed that up with weaken resolve and ran them off the board. Then his other Nobs and Mega Nobs hit. I managed to put some wouds on the Meganobs abd then slap them with the PBS. We ended turn four with him having two objectives and me having one and that was the game. I was a little frustrated at this point and I just knew that I was not even close to placing.

However, Dragon's Lair uses a comp score system. I had perfect comp and that nudged me up to 3rd place! I was shocked! I ended up taking home a Canis Wolfborn mini. It is assembled and 90% painted already.

Josh, Matt, and I stayed and played an 8000pt megabattle after the tournament. So, we played 13 hours of 40K on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, frustrating at times but fun. I need to work on my speed play(or stop bulshitting, so much) and I think I'm going to get a digital stop timer to keep a closer track of time.

I am a fan of the 2 hour round. However, this weekend really made me aware that I have to keep track of time( and stop blllshitting so much!). How much time do you prefer for tournament rounds?

Go Roll some Dice!!!

CRP

The Art of Smack Talking: How Much Is Too Much?

Do you talk smack with your buddies or opponents when you are playing 40K? I play with a pretty competitive group and there is always some smack talk going. Lately, that smack talk has escalated to plain old fashioned shit talking. I mean, it is getting ove the top, mothers, fathers, girlfriends, cars, type of armies, anything is fair game,................. and it has been a blast!

Saturday night, we played an 8000pt 4 player game. It was a great, close game and the shit talking got a little LOUD. I didn't realize it at the time because I was caught up in the game and trying to out smack talk my opponents. After the game, we all went out for a burger.

When we were outside my game partner said " Man you were pretty pissed at Chris, huh?"
My reply was "Not at all, I was having fun."

Over dinner/breakfast(what do you call a burger at 1am?) we all talked about the game, the campaign we are all participating in, and finally denigrating into "One Time...." stories.

Later, I got to thinking when does smack talk go to far? We often have other gamers and bystanders think that we are serious. We always laugh it off.

On the flip side of this, I have had some opponents at tournaments that get a little too serious. I don't even think they are having a good time half the time. These are guys that will give you dirty look if you make a light hearted comment. When I get that look, I know I am in for a crappy game. However, this makes me try harder to beat them. I really like to table guys with no sense of humor.

How much smack taking goes on in your group? Do you enjoy smack talking or do you find it annoying? Does it detract or add to your gaming experience?

Later, I have mucho painting to do!

Go Roll Some Dice!

CRP