So today was the US Clash of Kings Ohio Regional Kings of War tournament (if you couldn't figure that out already from the title of this post).
Turnout for this was a bit disappointing. Unfortunately, the weather decided to throw a S3+ 6D slam at us in the form of 6.5 inches of snow today. That kept at least one person from Indianapolis from coming over (and I definitely told everyone to use their best discretion - no game is worth getting in an accident over), though we did have two from Columbus and one from Pittsburgh!
We had six people (and an extra as the ringer, who didn't need to play. I felt a little bad - as I didn't bring an army or he could have played and I would have been the ringer, but he said he didn't mind). Three rounds, 1500 pt armies with up to 375 pts of a single ally. I found it interesting that all the local people used allies, but the none of the people from out of town did.
Everything went very smoothly. Of course I used warscore to run the tournament - and it made doing so very easy and simple. I really can't imagine trying to run any kind of tournament without this great software. (Full disclosure - Bill Robertson, who wrote warscore, is a friend of mine. But I would use this even if he wasn't). You can check out the full results on the warscore.net web site : http://www.warscore.net/event/88/view.html
This time I did remember to take pictures of not just one game, but all of them and the players. I posted them on facebook - you can check them out here : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152768138959163.1073741833.506574162&type=1&l=49c3eab3fe
People have asked me if I wouldn't rather have someone else run some of these so I can play in a few. Honestly, I enjoy running these events as much as playing in them, if not more. One thing I have discovered about myself is that the more competitive I get, the less fun I have. If I play in a tournament and I don't get utterly crushed in the first round so theoretically I have a chance to win, I start wanting to win, and have less fun than just playing. When I bring one of my full competition armies I want to win Best Appearance or Players Choice, and thinking about it makes me enjoy the tournament less. Running it I have no chance of winning anything by definition, even if I have to play a ringer army, so there is no pressure and I can just enjoy it.
Now this doesn't mean that I don't want anyone else to run a tournament - I would really like to get more people running more events, growing the hobby and the player base. I want to encourage more people to play, and that means running more events. I would like to have more pathfinders so that I can dial back the size of my 'region' eventually - preferable keeping it to under 2 hours to get anywhere (Charlotte WV and Nashville TN are probably a bit far. Chicago is out except for Adepticon - and the biggest miniature gaming convention in the US is worth a six hour drive to get there (just like Gencon and Origins, though they are both within my acceptable drive time)). However until we can get more people running events that are local to them, I'll continue to run what I can. I only have 8 Kings of War tournaments this year so far, with 2 more planned but not firmed up (plus three Dreadball tournaments as well). And those are just through August!
I don't do this for the stuff I get (though it is nice), and it doesn't come close to making up for the cost for both travel and providing the terrain (and sometimes models, especially to do demos) that I've made for these. I really want to help people to enjoy this hobby, and find a fun game that is both supported by its manufacturer and is not unreasonably expensive.
One last note - I bought a new 9 cell battery for my laptop - and it lasted for the entire tournament with no issues! This makes me feel a bit better for doing this at the big conventions - where I may not be able to get power. One less thing to worry about.
Because Adepticon is coming really fast - and that is enough to worry about for now.
Turnout for this was a bit disappointing. Unfortunately, the weather decided to throw a S3+ 6D slam at us in the form of 6.5 inches of snow today. That kept at least one person from Indianapolis from coming over (and I definitely told everyone to use their best discretion - no game is worth getting in an accident over), though we did have two from Columbus and one from Pittsburgh!
We had six people (and an extra as the ringer, who didn't need to play. I felt a little bad - as I didn't bring an army or he could have played and I would have been the ringer, but he said he didn't mind). Three rounds, 1500 pt armies with up to 375 pts of a single ally. I found it interesting that all the local people used allies, but the none of the people from out of town did.
Everything went very smoothly. Of course I used warscore to run the tournament - and it made doing so very easy and simple. I really can't imagine trying to run any kind of tournament without this great software. (Full disclosure - Bill Robertson, who wrote warscore, is a friend of mine. But I would use this even if he wasn't). You can check out the full results on the warscore.net web site : http://www.warscore.net/event/88/view.html
This time I did remember to take pictures of not just one game, but all of them and the players. I posted them on facebook - you can check them out here : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152768138959163.1073741833.506574162&type=1&l=49c3eab3fe
People have asked me if I wouldn't rather have someone else run some of these so I can play in a few. Honestly, I enjoy running these events as much as playing in them, if not more. One thing I have discovered about myself is that the more competitive I get, the less fun I have. If I play in a tournament and I don't get utterly crushed in the first round so theoretically I have a chance to win, I start wanting to win, and have less fun than just playing. When I bring one of my full competition armies I want to win Best Appearance or Players Choice, and thinking about it makes me enjoy the tournament less. Running it I have no chance of winning anything by definition, even if I have to play a ringer army, so there is no pressure and I can just enjoy it.
Now this doesn't mean that I don't want anyone else to run a tournament - I would really like to get more people running more events, growing the hobby and the player base. I want to encourage more people to play, and that means running more events. I would like to have more pathfinders so that I can dial back the size of my 'region' eventually - preferable keeping it to under 2 hours to get anywhere (Charlotte WV and Nashville TN are probably a bit far. Chicago is out except for Adepticon - and the biggest miniature gaming convention in the US is worth a six hour drive to get there (just like Gencon and Origins, though they are both within my acceptable drive time)). However until we can get more people running events that are local to them, I'll continue to run what I can. I only have 8 Kings of War tournaments this year so far, with 2 more planned but not firmed up (plus three Dreadball tournaments as well). And those are just through August!
I don't do this for the stuff I get (though it is nice), and it doesn't come close to making up for the cost for both travel and providing the terrain (and sometimes models, especially to do demos) that I've made for these. I really want to help people to enjoy this hobby, and find a fun game that is both supported by its manufacturer and is not unreasonably expensive.
One last note - I bought a new 9 cell battery for my laptop - and it lasted for the entire tournament with no issues! This makes me feel a bit better for doing this at the big conventions - where I may not be able to get power. One less thing to worry about.
Because Adepticon is coming really fast - and that is enough to worry about for now.
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