Leadership 2

I had 5 of the best games ever at one of the most cool venues, and its local, but might not go back next year.

The Good

The ship was awesome. The planes and copters and such rocked. We should have all took a tour or something.

I really enjoyed all my games and will write up a bat rep.

The trophys looked decent, not just sheets of paper.

The Bad

$65 is a lot of cash for a small tourney and may have made for a smaller tournout.

The USS Hornet is really hard to find, I could have used some signs or warning that it was industrial alleys to get there.

The organizers seemed to have time management issues, pairings were slow and first round was random.

I couldn't hear or understand any of the organizers on the mic. They seemed dry, bored, and in Troy's case angry.

Awards were announced from smallest up, thats good for anticipation, but prize support was essentially best for lowest awards as they got first pick. Im not sure anyone really cared, just an observation.

Paint scoring was very inconsistant. I assume they had one person judge half, another person the other half. A checklist should make this less 'subjective' but didn't. Obviously I'm bitter because this F'd me.

No best general award? WTF? If you dont want to encourage brutal games cut out the massacre/solid/minor. F'd again!

Prize support.. not impressed for a $65 tourney with additional donated prizes and maybe GW support.

The Swiss

I suggest anyone like Troy, confused about the swiss tournament system, read the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_system_tournament

"The principle of a Swiss tournament is that each player will be pitted against another player who has done as well (or poorly) as him or herself.

The first round is either drawn at random or seeded according to rating. Players who win receive a point, those who draw receive half a point and losers receive no points. Win, lose, or draw, all players proceed to the next round where winners are pitted against winners, losers are pitted against losers, and so on. In subsequent rounds, players face opponents with the same (or almost the same) score. No player is paired up against the same opponent twice however."

Thanks everyone for comming.  Let me fill in some blanks about this weekend. 

Attendance:  Well, being a new GT its tough to get the word out.  I went to everystore I could (Endgame, Games of Berkeley, Gamescape) and talked to every club I know of (LD2, 40k fight club, SAWS).  I find its hard to get someone too excited about something that hasen't happened.  I'm hoping that word of mouth will get more bodies next year.  Gw will now promote us and we're trying to get on the Indy GT circut, but we haven't heard back from them.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

The one armed man hanging wall paper:  I had some words with my fellows.  With more to come.  If anyone else was erked, I was pissed!  I really enjoy running and hosting events but without enough staff, everything suffers.  It lead to the paint mix ups (more on that later).  I'm sorry if anyone was put off by me on Sunday.  I was trying my best and I promise it won't happen again.  I don't want to bash my fellows too much.  They're good guys, I don't see the commitment up into it as they should have though, so I"ll see what I can do about it.

Terrain:  We wanted (Dave Sackle and I) to have painted and sanded/gravel/flocked boards.  He who said they could get it done, didn't.  It was getting down to the wire and we were afraid we might not had any tables at all.  We had rented enough of the Hornet's folding tables to put a wood board on each but not enough for mats.  So last minute, Dave rented enough tables to do what we did.  He did that out of his pocket.  I want to go on record, that I don't like the mats.  I think thier ok for a one day RTT but not a GT.  Dave Sackle agrees.  I'm working on some ideas for next year, but money and storage will be a factor.  If anyone would like to pitch some ideas, I'm all ears.  As to the terrain itself.  Most of it was out of my collection.  I didn't want to over saturate the tables since we know too much is bad for Warhammer.  Some one suggested we build some.  Please expand on that.  We have a bunch of new hills, and the GW Warhammer buildings to paint up.  Did anyone notice the lack of Kublacon's bird houses?  I kept them in thier boxes.  If I can get some boards build, I want to do themed tabels; lands of the dead desert, swamps, mountain passes, empire towns.  Once again, suggestions are welcome.

Paint Scores:  Ok, the ones that were fucked up (Mike and Jeff) and a off a bit (Ivan) were do to a few things.  For the people that thought they should of scored more, that goes to judge's opinon.  We use a check list that I belive to be fair, but it does require judgement calls.  Differen't people have diffren't tastes.  Mike and Jeff, we that was pure human error.  I know everyone told me that they put thier paint score sheet out but when it came time to judge, a bunch couldn't be found.  I don't know what happened.  I looked under tables and books before moving on to the next army.  Everyone was jugded since I won't leave anyone out and no one is penalized.  Mike and Jeff's were two that were done on Sunday.  Since it was pointed out that I had to play ringer, I didn't judge them or enter the data.  The sheets weren't totaled right so the wrong score was entered.  I spoke to Mike about it and appolagized to him and he handled it like a gentlemen.  I want to get him some prize support to say sorry and thanks.  I agree about Jeff's High Elves, he knows how much I love his work.  Theres not much I can do about the mistake and am glad he won player's chioice, better prizes.  The way Best Army aka Best Paint was determined was a total suprise to me.  I didn't find out about it till I was about to give the award out.  Its an interesting idea, but comp and paint are so differen't.  I'm going to talk to the guys about it.

Best General:  I've never been on the QCR or Hillbilly so don't know if every GT has this award.  I understand the reasoning for not having it.  Not everyone wants to award someone for bringing the nastiest army and playing like a shit to win at all cost so they'll win one prize no mater what.  The original GTs had it but removed it for the same reason.  I don't have it at Dundracon.  I don't like it nor do I like what it can bring out in people.  If enough people want it I'll see what I can do.  If we give one, sportmanship and comp will play a role in its scoring.  Its omittion wasn't ment as a slight to anyone.

The Troy factor:  Ok, I know alot of people don't like him.  I know alot of people hate him.  I've know Troy for 10 years or more and he's got on my nerve more than once.  The thing is, he fronted alot of the money.  With out him this event wouldn't happened.  Even though it was my idea and I did alot of the leg work, I'm broke.  Most of the rest of the crew was there becouse of him.  I'm going to try to have a long talk with Dave Sackle and see what we can do to lessen his impact.  But there is only so much to do.  I can't fire him.  If anyone had a specific problem with him, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Stacy vs Deamons:  No one wants to play thier club mates first round.  The matching were as random as possable with as little LD2 vs LD2 as I could make it.  I switched people where I could.  I know about the comp pairing system they used at the Socal Slaughter and I sounded like it didn't work either.  I don't think its possable to go to each player and ask who he wants to fight and who he doesn't or what armies he's good against and the ones he's not.  If this ment Stacy had a bad time, I'm sorry.  I think the world of Stacy and have all ways enjoied gaming with him and the wacky armies he plays.

Time issues:  I know some people had issues with time.  The Hornet is a musem, so we have to opperate around thier schedule.  We are not going to do a Friday night next year so we can have more time Saturday and Sunday.  Some of the problems were from some players comming back early and wanting to know were thier opponents were and others comming back on time and wanting all of thier break time.  Table assingments were on time I belive but not early.  I was trying to avoid repeat match ups even if some got through and had to be fixed and that takes time.  I'm going to get a BIG clock we can put up so everyone can be on the same time.  One issue was some games going to the last fight so the game goes over 5, 10 or 15 minutes; it throws everthing off.  Sorry about the mix up about opening times on Sunday.  Chris LS kept telling people 8:30 which was the staff's start time but the ship didn't open till 9:00 for the players.  I'm going to punch him in the head, hard.  He kept making anouncements that were wrong and that he shouldn't have made.       Damn LOTR guy.

My brain is melting so I'll wrap this up. 

Thank you all for comming.   We are looking to have overnight stays on board next year.  A bunch of people asked us about it.  As I said, better terrain and tables.  Longer times Saturday and Sunday, hopefully.  Better staff help.  Differn't missions without Massacare results.  After party at my house ( I have a Tiki bar in my backyard).

Send any ideas, comments, complaints to:  jcmartens@comcast.net.

-Chad