What About Fun?

So with my Ideal of the "Competitive" gaming environment, is there room left for "FUN" games? I say yes. why? Well, while this may be a rant, if you have the patience, please read on...

Fun games, at least to me, are not dependent on the army lists that are taken at all. Fun games, at least to me, are far more dependent on my opponent and my own outlook. If I go into a game with the thought that I am going to win this game, well, let's just say that I usually don't. I get frustrated, distracted, angry, and it gets ugly and not fun for anybody. I figured this out about 10 years ago. Yeah, 10 years ago puts us in 2nd Edition. Since then I've always tried to go into games (weather they be a tournament or just a pick up game) with the attitude of "This is going to be a great game". Are they all? No. Do Occasionally pull "That Guy"? Yes. Am I occasionally "That Guy"? I try not to be. I've been that guy in the past. not fun for either player. Do I have fun? Almost Always.

So, First off we need to have an attitude, as gamers, that we are going to have a fun game.

Next point, on to the "Killer List". Are these fun? Well, it gets a bit murky here as the "Killer List" has many iterations. Some of which are fun to both play and play against, others are more of a laughing stock to both play and play against.

I see lots of "Net Deck" armies around. These are the armies that are put out by Bell of Lost Souls, Yes the Truth Hurts, Librarium Online, etc. They are meant to be the epitome of greatness that nobody can beat. Examples include "The Leafblower", "Nurgle Lash" and the ever feared "Fate Crusher" lists. One thing that they all have in common is weaknesses.

Every Army has weaknesses. no matter what the build is, the only army that I have ever seen with no true "Weakness" are the completely balanced lists. These usually end up being Space Marine lists as they are the easiest to balance. Decent Shooting, Decent Assault, Some Mech (Tanks), some decent heavy support, and some support HQ Units.

An Example:

Space Marine Captain on Bike w/ Power Weapon
Space Marine Librarian

1 Terminator Squad
Land Raider

2 Tactical Squads in Rhinos
2 Biker Squads with an Attack Bike

1 Land Speeder

3 Predators

given this is a quick example, and not detailed as to wargear, but you get the idea.
this army gives you 4 scoring units, a hammer unit (terminators)
decent mech capability
Support in the form of the Librarian
Speed in the form of Bikes and the Land Speeder.

You look at the list and say...... MEH!

I look at the list and say, Who is the General?

The general can make or break this army. The army has all the core needs of a balanced list, but none of the trademarks of the "Killer List"
The question becomes: Can the balanced list kill the uber list?

The simple answer is yes.
The Long answer is yes, by making sure that the general knows how to play his army.

So, when I bring the above army (or an iteration of) I can reliable know that unless i come up against a "Stacked" army, i should reasonably be able to at the very least, pull a draw. Even against that Nob Biker list.

We've gotten a bit far afield, but now back to the original question: What about fun. I guess in the end it is all what you make of the game. Fun can and will happen. You play this game for a reason. It really is not to make money at it. Play the game for what it is, a hobby. If you're there to beat face in and make people cry, join the military. If you want to spend your evening and weekends playing with little plastic figures that you've lovingly painted and converted, and spending time with people like you, well, you've found a home.

Game Con Spokane

This Gaming convention was an amazing experience. 300+ Gamers all in one spot.
Several People that I know from forums were there and it was great to put names with faces.
All around it was a great experience.

Now I know you are all wondering how the salamanders did…. So I’ll tell you.
First some things of note. I had amazingly fun games in every round. No bad sports and according to the “Sportsmanship” results, none of them had bad games with me either.

Now on to the battle reports:

Game 1: Vs MC Heavy Nids.

Scenario: Pitched Battle, Sieze Ground
Special Rule: Blizzard – Night Fighting throughout the game, All infantry MC and walkers act as if moving through difficult terrain. Skimmers, bikes, jetbikes and jump infantry roll a D6 at the beginning of the movement phase on a 1 they move randomly 2d6”.

This game was a bit to my favor and a bit to my disadvantage. I failed to read my opponent’s list to closely and when I wiped out his 32 gaunt squad on turn 1 he brought it back in. Oops. Once I saw that I tied the other up with a Dreadnought for the rest of the game and tried to do the same with the one I had just killed.

Basically it ended up being me contesting everything until a broodlord rended right through my contesting drop pod and said gaunt squad finished off Vulkan and claimed that objective.

Tie on objectives.

Game 2: “The Tainted” VS a Lysander Space Marine Player

Annhilation
“The Tainted” we each picked an elites squad from our opponent’s list. This squad is worth 3 kill points. He had 1 squad of sternguard and I had 2 identical dreads so…. Yeah.

He put a “Circle the wagons” maneuver around 3 vindicators with 5 rhinos. Sternguard dropped in and waited. I dropped right around his wagons and immobilized two, and destroyed-wrecked a rhino and killed off half his sternguard squad and put 2 wounds on Lysander on the first turn.

Turn 2 sees the sternguard squad die as well as the Master of the forge. More of his tanks die.

It went on like that with both of us playing on his side of the table.

It ended up with me having 13 kill points to his 4.
Game 3: Brain Bug
There was a big bug in the center of the table. Kill it and it becomes an objective.

This was where my dice crapped out. After my first tun of rolling all of 2 dice above 3, one of the guys from the con stopped to watch and keep track of my dice rolling. So yeah 72% of my rolls were 1 or 2.
I only rolled 3 6’s in the game. One was on a penetrating hit on a land raider redeemer, 2 were on a Leadership test for vulkans squad after not saving 4 wounds. Out of four taken. Ouch it hurt.

I got massacred and damn near tabled. It was not a good showing, but my opponent made it amazing fun.

All in all it was a great tournament and seeing as I was there to have fun over winning prizes, I would say that this was a success. I asked my last opponent who was in 3rd place after the first 2 games (I was in 4th) what I could have done better. He said that about the only thing I could do better is rolling dice. Had I been able to do that I would have torn his army apart. And I believe him.

It was great fun though.