After a belated viewing of the Facebook Live, I sent [ObSec] a PM on Facebook asking if [they] was keen on me sharing my views on the ITC events from the viewpoint of a non-regular player, and was told [it] would be interested.
Warhammer 40,000 and Blood Bowl
So in the interests of trying to help to better the community, I’m about to enter rant mode. Please bear in mind that 40K is no longer my main game, and these days I don’t play it (or many other games apart from Blood Bowl) as much as I would like. Also, before I start, I would like to take the opportunity to say that I love what Objective Secured has done for the 40K community, and you have inspired me to lift my game with my own attitude towards the Blood Bowl Community – although the two communities have similar basic principles, the league stylings do offer unique challenges, unless that’s the April announcement of campaigns? *Editors note, no it wasn’t the April announcement is that ObSec is teaming up with Varsity Morley to run a table top game night on the 15th April. Check out more info on the Facebook Event.
Ok, enough talk, let’s get to it.
Warhammer 40,000 casual player
As far as 40K goes, I would at best call myself a social player. Heck, even calling myself a player is overstating my ability. Even a stretch to call myself a part-timer, as I have played precisely five games of 40K this year – and that was First Blood (part one). Prior to that, it had been at least 12 months since my last game. 40K just doesn’t have the same pull for me as it once did, which is fine. However, I know from experience that Objective Secured run damn fine events, and so, on the odd occasion I get bitten by the 40K bug, I take notice of what’s on offer.
First Blood part one was the event that has re-ignited my interest of 40K, with every intent to play in the doubles later this year. The one thing that First Blood taught me is how little I know of how the game works nowadays. There has been a large shift in meta, coupled with new armies (Custodes I’m looking at you) or army revamps that might as well be called new armies (Yep, GSC, that’s you). There’s already a ton of armies around that I simply don’t know, as the past few years I’ve focused on 30K, so I understand Space Marines, not a lot else. Throwing myself into a tournament atmosphere is ‘scary’ enough, especially with limited game knowledge, then limited army knowledge…
By rights, First Blood part two should have been a no-brainer in regards to reinforcing the stuff that I learned only a month prior. The army wasn’t an issue, as I have enough points painted, but the whole experience of part one was quite daunting. Paperless Scoring at first was a massive difference, one that in hindsight was brilliant, but at first was a difficult challenge. Remembering log in details for a sight that I’ve only used to submit a team roster for SHO Bowl the year before, and to submit the army list for First Blood… Facing armies that quite frankly seemed a little rude (Game 1 vs Raven Guard -> -1 to shoot, Game 2 vs Eldar -> -1 to shoot, Game 3 vs 9 Custodes models -> everything on a 2+, re-roll 1s) – again, quite challenging… And then during the week after, I’ve managed to get my head around what happened, and realise how out of practise I am. And then think about part 2, which is designed to use the ‘hard core’ ITC rules.
I just $hat myself playing ‘normal’ rules. ITC is never going to happen. With my commitment to Blood Bowl, playing normal 40K events in addition seems unlikely unless I get more practice. Playing hard core events just not going to happen. I understand the attraction to these events for some, and acknowledge the place for them within the 40K community – however, I think that what’s needed at the moment is both more ITC events for data collection and more entry level events, like the original First Blood.
I know that there will always be ‘those armies’ like the Custodes army I faced, which is 110% Glass Cannon. For social players like myself who view an event as a place to go and get a month or two months or six months of gaming in a day, it’s all about entry level and not facing these types of armies, as it just shattered any confidence I had gained during the first two games. It was only playing Evan in the last game that convinced me to try another event at all.
Tactical Objective Cards
The Tactical Objective Cards add so much fun to the game, that I really do prefer to play with those cards than without, and the prospect of playing – as Mike said in the Facebook Live – the same game against different opponents just does not appeal. If that’s what’s going to happen, I’ll just play against “Bill” or “Harry” at the local club. I’m also far from the best general, so the prospect of going to a generalship only event is another massive turn off. With the exception of Blood Bowl, any time I finish higher than the bottom 25% is usually based wholly and solely on my sports score.
I already know I’m $h!t. I don’t need to spend $40+ dollars on an event to have a miserable day because I’m performing like $h!t , and to find out I’m $h!t . *ahhh this makes me sad! I definitely don’t think that of you and I have a whole soapbox I could go on about how your results should not be a measure of yourself worth. I am aware though that this is your article and not mine so I will stay off that soapbox here!
ITC Power Gamers
Not to mention the horrible people I’ve encountered because of Power Gaming – yet these are the same people that are wonderful and inspiring and supportive people 364 other days of the year. But when you’re having a cr@p day, the way you view things is different. Like I probably did not make Game 3 fun for Dom Malavisi because I was struggling so much with both basic rules, and army rules. And getting my a$$ handed to me. Viewed that game very differently than I should have in hindsight. Patience of a Saint that man.
But that game just goes to prove the point – the whole concept of the ITC changes that way people approach the event. *editors note again, heck in for a penny, in for a pound, I’ve interrupted enough, what’s one more? Do you think that it does change the way that players approach an event or do you think that we think that it will change the way that they approach the event? I’d be interested to find that out. This peaked my curiosity so I created a poll in the First Blood II event. Ok, back to Nath now!
More competitive players view it as a chance to take something a little harder, and do the utmost they can to place a hand on the trophy. More social players balk at the idea, as they struggle with stuff in the normal setting. And we haven’t even looked at the scenarios yet. But the mindset is already there, in damaged mode, too crippled to come back to reason. ITC are the classic case of some things suit some people, not others. But they are a valuable tool in the TO arsenal.
Final thoughts
End of the day, I’m going to do what I will always do with 40K. Continue the love hate relationship I have with it. At the moment it’s back in the good books, and I am planning on working on a new army for the doubles event, although I’ll need to re-work the list (I had it in my head it was 1000 points each), and also knowing the status of the Index range would be awesome (Rough Riders FTW). I won’t go to some events, I may go to others – at the end of the day, I will always support Objective Secured, as what they have done for the community is great. Sometimes I will support more than others, but good Word of Mouth is always positive, and you will always have it from me, and by extension, the Western Australian Fantasy Football League also supports ObSec.
*Editors note AGAIN!
I found reading this article very enlightening! It never occurred to me that electronic scoring would be daunting for players. I had a general ‘idea’ that attending an event may be daunting for new players but Nath has been around forever. He attended our first ObSec event. I wouldn’t have picked that he would be scared of attending. I don’t necessarily agree with some of the thoughts that Nath has shared here around the changes that ITC makes to a person and their approach to the game (he could be 100% correct and on the money and I could be guilty of thinking the best of players), however, I do really appreciate that Nath shared those concerns with us. Whether that is how players behave at an ITC event or not, it is what put Nath off attending and that fear (for want of a better word) is very real. As a TO I really appreciate this sort of feedback because by knowing about it I can address it and do something about it.
About the Author
Nath is a long term gamer and a key member of the Blood Bowl community here in Western Australia. He is actively involved in the WA Fantasy Football League and is the owner of The Loaf Report and the Loaf Report Podcast Nath will be TO for the two Blood Bowl events at the 2019 Southern Hemisphere Open
I know that Mike & Emma are weighing up the pros and cons of more ITC events, so I just wanted to address one thing about the article… I think it should be taken as more of a comment on having ‘casual’ vs ‘competitive’ events as opposed to a comment on ITC vs ObSec’s more usual (but still competitive) ETC. I don’t think any of Nath’s comments are unique any particular format – . The electronic scoring, complex missions, competitive opponents and tough armies will be there regardless.
I think Nath’s experience does highlight one thing that many of us who are deep in to the competitive tournament scene occasionally forget – that we are only a fraction of the overall player base and most people play a vastly different game of 40k. For each player who attends ObSec ETC/ITC/Casual events regularly there are ten people playing narrative games on their kitchen table or in their garage. Honestly it wasn’t that long ago that I used to be one – even though now I’m considered a competitive gamer I started my foray in to tournaments exactly the same way, just as a way to get a four games in one day instead of one game in a month!
Instead of framing it as ITC vs casual, it might be worth considering if running narrative (or otherwise explicitly non-competitive) events might be something in the cards for ObSec’s future? Recruit these legions of 40k fans who are slightly daunted by ‘tournaments’ in to the ObSec family by way of large, organised, but low-stakes events?
Thanks again to ObSec – FB1 and 2 were great events and I thoroughly enjoyed the ITC missions compared to ETC. And for those people reading this who are wanting a less-hardcore day of gaming, Toy Soldier Cartel will be running a Doubles event at SHO 2019 (https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/c061c9_415fc05cf1e949b888a3684f164ddd11.pdf)
Hi Travis,
I did a big mind map on all of this a couple of days ago and one of the thoughts was to try narrative as a way to offer ‘non-competitive’ events. My experience of narrative events has still been that they end up with a focus on competitive. Definitely something I’ll look into more when SHO is over 🙂 Thanks for your comments.
As a small counter-point to Travis;
I knew this was an ITC event and spent more time before the event thinking about how to be competitive within it. That could be because ITC has a reputation (at least in my head) as more competitive, or it could be because each tournament I attend, I try to do better than I did at the last one. All I know for sure is that ITC had me engage at a different level with how to be competitive [read that as pick the right Secondaries and even try to deny some with my army selection].
I’d be super happy to see a deliberately ‘non competitive’ event. How you enforce non-competitive lists is a very tricky question though. In my opinion, the 40k ruleset needs some serious work. Trying to make it less competitive by adding tournament rules is tricky because most of the things I’d suggest would be better off as full rule changes.
Hey ObSec!
Hope you all are doing fantastic today.
This topic actually hits me pretty hard. I’ve been heavy into the game for the last decade and have really not enjoyed the progression of 8th edition.
As someone who tries to plays multiple armies across multiple game systems (40k/30k/AOS), it’s become a nightmare to try to stay relevant.
Much like the author, I went to a casual event at a local brewery that I and our community events coordinator put on. I primarily play 30k but have a decent grasp of the 8th ed rules. The paperless scoring was a bit new, but was cool overall. I’m hoping that some of the tech evens out soon (still some issues with IOS vs Android usage on the app we use) but otherwise, it’s a great system that will help stream line things.
I joined the casual event as a pure casual gamer. Maybe my idea of casual has changed since my romps through 5th/6th/7th but It took everything I had to not get swept in two of three games. And the third was still a loss, albeit a close one. After talking with multiple players to gauge my experience, it seems that “casual” means “Tourny-prep”. Of those three games, only one opponent took things a bit too hardcore for my liking. A tau player who utterly decimated my army in a single shooting phase (two riptides surrounded by shield drones, multiple broadside units, hammerhead, etc. Typical heavy gunline). He could see how unfun that game was, though I tried to bear and grin through it as disheartened as I was. I went to concede the game, but was met with “actually we need to keep playing to see how many points I can get since we’re taking score” because of new rules that say you can continue a round even if the other team is dead. Apparently I needed to stay to watch this though.
Let me also say that I do understand how experience plays into this. I’m not exceptionally well practiced so I shouldn’t really EXPECT wins against practiced players and armies. But I’m not new, and I do expect a certain level of performance. I’m familiar enough with the system and the rules to know the difference. I also know that If I look around a room and see certain units and armies, then it really isn’t casual play, it’s just a tournament with less pomp.
I give credit to GW for how they are staying active and making tweaks to the formula. I will never begrudge them for that aspect of things. Slowly, though, it feels like we’re sliding back into how it was in 7th with formations. Certain combinations are just brutally effective, while most are hardly mediocre and not worth their worth of ink on the codex page.
While a bit dismayed, I’m going to keep plugging away at it and practicing to get better. But at some point during that preparation, I can’t really be considered casual anymore.