Alamo GT results are up and be check out here if you so desire. With this post, I want to breakdown my score for this year, as well as compare it to my performance last year.
This year, I placed 18th, a surge of about 30 spots from last year's more middling finish.
I ended up with a total score of 203, broken down as follows: 64 battle points (out of 100), 61 points in sportsmanship (out of a possible 80, but highest sportsmanship this year was 72), 68 in paint (out of a possible 80, but highest paint score this year was 76), 10 "seguin" points for turning in my army list on time and making it to all of my games on time, and no fluffy votes. I want to take a closer look at each category and see how I ended up with each score.
Battle
I got 64 battle points this year going 3 and 2 over the course of five games. However, in all my wins, I only succeeded in getting the bonus objective points in my last game. In fact, in all of the games I played, I didn't achieve any of the bonus objectives. In Round 1, my opponent blew up my "ojo" target with a misfire the turn before I could charge it. In Round 2, my opponent hit the pinata with a unit of Skullcrushers that got to Frenzy-overrun into the Pinata each round. In Round 3, I was inebriated and fled a charge with the Keg unit causing me to lose my keg. And in Round 4, I blew up my own cannon on Turn 2 with a badly timed misfire. Looking back at the games now, I should have gotten 8 of these bonus points had luck turned out differently, which would have thrown me into Ninth Place - but those "misfire" dice were way to hot during the course of the weekend.
Sportsmanship
I ended up with 61 points in Sportsmanship which correlates to 1 "best opponent vote" and 1 "bad game vote". Did I deserve the bad game vote? Yes, actually. I truly did. Why, you ask? Because sometimes even careful and normally cheery players get too wrapped up in themselves to recognize what they are doing is just playing a game (usually alcohol is involved, which it was in extremely large amounts) and begin to complain, loudly, about the game and your opponent.
In my third round I threw what was close to a child's tantrum. I was upset at my opponent's behavior throughout the game, and in particular, his refusal to play another turn in the game with 15 minutes left (because it would have likely given me the win by a significant margin). So we calculated points without me having a Turn 5 or 6, he - of course - won by a small margin, and we filled in the score card. Then arguments about how many points I was supposed to get began which led to a judge filling out our card (I was saying I was being shorted 2 points, which I was) and that's when I acted like a petulant child. I walked off, complained to anyone who would listen or didn't want to, didn't shake my opponent's hand, and didn't even clean up my models. I acted like a brat, and deserved the negative sportsmanship points because, clearly, I was a bad sportsman.
This is definitely something to work on for next year as last year I ended up with 65 points and even this small 4 point bump would have edged my up a few places. It also highlights the effects of getting too wrapped up in the game which happens quite often between competitive players.
Paint
This year I got a 68 in paint with the Dark Elves which are painted much better than the Wood Elves I brought last year. With a little bit more focus and highlighting I think I can make it to 70 points.
2012 to 2013 Comparison
Last year, I ended up with a total score of 189, broken down as follows: 47 battle points, 65 sportsmanship points, 66 paint points, 10 "seguin" points, and a single fluffy vote.
Comparing the two years, there is very marked improvement in the overall score, especially in the battle points category. Winning three games instead of two makes a significant difference. My paint on the Dark Elves is a little bit better than the Wood Elves, but definitely not as "fluffy" as the Wood Elf list I brought last year. Maybe next year I can still stay 3 and 2, but actually get the objectives that I set out to get.
Congrats on an excellent finish and a decent send off of the old Dark Elves
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your Game 3. I guess it's bound to happen every once and awhile. I know what you mean about getting wrapped up in stuff. Although I loved painting my Goblins, they are incredibly frustrating to play and even though they're much softer than my Ogres, I find that I bitch much more about the copious amounts of unfortunate 50/50 rolls I have to make, thus lowering my sportsmanship scores. As for being slow played, my game 2 opponent did the same thing except it was him refusing to play the bottom half, ie his half, of the turn with 15 minutes remaining. It took what would have been a win for me and turned it into a draw. If I felt like I was going to compete for some sort of General/Overall prize, it would probably have annoyed me more, but we'd had so much fun up to that point it, I just let it slide. Why waste a good game by squabbling over the results? :)
Good words, but sometimes emotions overcome the common sense that this is a game. Tournament play seems to bring out a different side of the player than a home game.
DeleteI think most people have had a "Game 3" type situation when they play throughout their 'professional' Warhammer career. I know that I have - and quite frankly it's something that happens to me pretty often. I get so damn competitive that I can't see forest for the trees; or in this case the fact that it's just a game. It's something I've been working on getting better about.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're definitely going to run into some players that exasperate the problem. We've got a couple up here in AK that always give me headaches with sloppy/slow (talking about Ogre horde with no tray, and complete lack of understanding about the 1" rule, with sloppy wheels, no frenzy tests, etc), and it's against this kind of stuff that really gives me fits. And it's no surprise they're the most competitive ones at the events (with the most broken lists).
Been a gracious winner/loser has always been a struggle for me (had trouble playing Kevin because we'd get so antagonistic towards each other; also I think sportsmanship was an issue for the old group from Reno), but I feel like I'm getting better. I'm honestly surprised it was an issue for you; all the games of yours I've watched you've been a perfect gentleman.
-Danny
Thanks. I will say that large quantities of alcohol were involved. Plus, I hate not making it through six turns of the game. I try and think through my turns in advance to reduce the amount of time I am wasting, but I din't see the same courtesy in my opponents a lot of time and it is frustrating. Especially, as I usually play armies that need a full six turn game to perform properly.
DeleteOh yeah, and nice work on 18th! That's a good placing.
ReplyDeleteBetter than last year. I'm moving on up in the world. Now I just have to get all my armies painted to a better quality standard.
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