Weekend Tournament and other Tournament Topics

Hmm.. so another post with nothing associated with new Miniature progress or items. I need to fix that. I'll take some shots of my Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and post him up. He still needs some finishing touches, but I love people's opinions, so maybe I can make some other changes too.

I played in a local 40k tournament this past weekend. 1850 points and we had about 18 people show up. Was a nice turnout I think and I got to see some folks I haven't seen in a while :) I ended up losing my first game to a Tau Piranha flying circus, but won my second two versus Tyranids and then Tau. And I took home the Best Painted Category :) Overall I was pleased with how the list played and am getting a better handle on some ways to move my toys on the tabletop. Gee, practice helps, go figure.

I had a rather interesting comment on my last post about soft-scores in tournaments, and thought I'd address that here in context of the local stage, the national one, and then a tournament like Ard Boyz (which I think is it's own beast). I'll address a "Comp" score after everything else.

Local Example:
While there was a Best Painted and a Sportsmanship award both at the local tournament I played in, which I'm MOST happy about in both regards, they didn't play into the overall scoring for First, Second and Third Place. They did and do encourage people to actually paint their stuff, as well as be a decent person to play so I can't and won't really knock 'em, though I do wish that they would have had a part in the overall scoring. Maybe it'll help you be a good opponent rather than ONLY worry about scoring the most kill points you can or that you're measuring down to the 16th of an inch to the objective to contest it.

I'm not saying don't play to win if that's what you want to do, but be good about it. Maybe missing out on first place because you weren't a nice guy will make you think and act a little different next time. a couple points maybe... or even if you just want to use the sportsmanship score as a tie-breaker. Something to make players more conscience of the person across the table is all. It doesn't have to be huge... it's a local tourney after all.

National Tournament: (Using Adepticon as my example)
Adepticon, in my opinion, NEEDS soft-scoring, AND HAS IT. I'm extremely happy to say that the sportsmanship and painting scores factor overall into your score. They have a great system of measuring sportsmanship, and I highly suggest that anyone who hasn't seen it, email the Adepticon Staff and ask for it. Their Judges go around to every army and have a specific way of scoring painting and appearance, as well as the Sportsmanship scoring is on a 1-12 point check-off system per round that asks things from "Did your opponent show up on time to the game?" to "Would you play this person again voluntarily?". Kudos guys, awesome way to measure these things.

Ard Boyz:
This answer's short and sweet. Ard Boyz was made by GW for those folks who just want to play and win. A Painted Army is not required to play in this, so painting scores are a moot point. And as I've never played in an Ard Boyz tournament, I don't know if Sportsmanship is scored or not, so I won't speculate. And while I'm of the opinion that it SHOULD BE (sportsmanship) a scoring factor, I wouldn't go into it expecting one. Heck, look at the name of the tournament folks :P :)

Now this is said about Ard Boyz, with me having played last years Champion at Adepticon and loving every minute of the game cause Darkwynn was just a great guy to play. (HINT... play nice.)

Whew. That was a bit of a play-by-play wasn't it? On to Composition scores:

Unfortunately.... while I wish there was some perfect formula to measure an army's composition, I haven't seen one yet. Not for 40K or Fantasy. The best 40K comp scoring question I've seen is "Does their number of troop slots filled number more than their Elite choices? Their Heavy Choices?" But even that's a bit arbitrary. Playing Steel Legion Guard? It's Fluffy for their entire army to be encased in armor and have a lot of tanks. How are you going to score that? I wish I knew :(

I'll close this by tentatively rescinding my wish for a comp score in tournament scoring, but reinforcing my wish for the painting and appearance, as well as the Sportsmanship award have a place in some way shape or form in all tournaments.