40k ‘Ard Boyz Blues- Making it Better?

I always try to do the right thing when I comes to my store. Neither I nor any of my employees will play in our own store’s events, because it looks bad when you beat people or even win the event. Peoples’ feeling get hurt, and well it’s not good for business. 

So fast forward to ‘Ard Boyz. I travel two hours out of the way to play at a shop that had 10 people signed up.  I didn’t bring an overly powered list, because well I really didn’t feel I needed to wipe the table with people, I just wanted to qualify to the round where I can bring my tier one list and smash faces (and not hate myself in the morning).  

First issue: Terrain. Okay I get it some stores don’t have terrain, or anything that resembles terrain. Terrain is a part of the game that is super important, playing on tables like the one opposite definitely make things unfair for someone.

Had I brought my mech guard and played on that table, I would have felt really bad for my opponents.

Second issue: Byes.  So how much is a bye worth? Some made it worth a minor victory, and I heard others made it a Massacre. Whats fair here? If you get a BYE on turn two and it’s a minor, well that could screw you pretty bad for getting into the top three.

Third issue: Judging.  Where I went to had no judge. It did however have two very nice ladies running the shop, but it seemed I fielded most of the judging questions (which is fine, unless I needed a ruling).

I totally didn’t mind helping out don’t get me wrong, but having a roving impartial judge is just a good idea.

Fourth issue: Collusion.  As I mentioned already there were shenanigans aplenty. Throwing games to your friends is not really allowed in tourneys. Doing it vocally so everyone can hear you is also probably not a good idea either.

I called them out dead to rights across the table about it, and the one kid replied to me “That’s ‘ard boyz bro“. No it’s so NOT ard boyz, bro.

So yeah it got back to the lady running the event (and not just by me as a matter of fact), and the victory was erased, thus causing the restaurant altercation.

While the incident was unfortunately not as funny as the Cheeseburger Josh video, (which is funny cause Josh plays 40k) I still chuckled to myself over the whole thing.

Who follows someone into a restaurant with families and kids and such and starts yelling at them about toy soldiers? Something is wrong with this whole scenario.

The worst part is the very next round the same thing happened (two of the three kids were paired up again) pushing me out of the top three by ONE BATTLE POINT. I mean I get it there is only so many people at the event to begin with but really, why cheat again and give your buddy a “massacre” after all that just happened?

Great so now I’m out by one point? Oh and my buddy is out cause of the bye points? Awesome, take our lunch money please.  Funny thing is one of the kids goes bragging he’s not even sure he can make Round 2 because he’s starting college. OMG I can’t breath, the room is spinning and I haven’t even been drinking…..

Fifth Issue: Points.  2500 means 2500.  There was a store (not mine of course) in Virginia letting kids play 1000 points down, just so they would get a better draw of people. Really, your going to let beginners or maybe even intermediate level players go up against the big dogs 1000 points down?  Wow I’m sure they will feel great about 40k afterwards.  There are rules for a reason, lets use them?

Sixth issue: Time. Two Hours and thirty minutes is pretty decent for this points level. Be fair and don’t start any turns you cant finish. That however, does not mean when time is called it’s dice down.

Someone tried to stop my game during the last assault of the last turn cause it was “time”. Actually it was 11 minutes to time according to Verizon Wireless my opponent and I just talked about it, and I’ll finish this combat now.

Two and a half hours means just that. Be responsible and talk to your opponent about time. Don’t slow play them either- we’re all adults playing with toys after all (well unless you’re going to chase me into a restaurant- then you are just a moron).

Issue Seven: Contact us?  While the whole cheating thing was being discussed, the lady running the event brought up the fact that she couldn’t even contact Games Workshop to “see what to do”. Hrm good point.

Would it be worth having a guy stick around at GW HQ on the event days and have a number for stores to call to get him?  I know ‘Ard Boyz is Trade Sales’ creation, and hey it sells product for them so it’s a win/win all the way around.

Maybe having a contact guy for stores to call on game day would be a good thing for questions or rulings? I’m sure this will make someone mad cause they would have to work a little extra and I’m sorry about that, but it goes a long ways towards greasing the skids and helping the less familiar stores run a great event.

Overall the place I went to was a really nice store, and the people hosting the event were great, and I have absolutely nothing against them at all.  I hope if GW is interested in standardizing the event a bit in the future or maybe helping stores that don’t have as much of an idea about the event plan for it, we can all have a great experience wherever we play round one next year.

What say you? Good, or Bad ‘Ard Boyz experience- we can’t be the only ones right? -MBG