"The most important rule: have fun!"
I read a article called 'How to make changes to your army list' on FTW and from there on I find another very nice article called 'All comers, fluff or win at all costs?'. And these two article really expressed my personal understanding of the game itself. I am doing this hobby for a long(!) time (compared to my age) and it all started because of one model! The most time I was just collecting and converting and painting but since a few years I really enjoyed gaming and the gaming became a more important role. Even though I'am not playing that much.
And nearly all of my friends that do the hobby are the same way. And for all of us the hobby comes first and than the gaming and the gaming is because of fun!
Well, to be honest this is not as obvious as one might think. Because we also have some player in our rows, which don't seem to care as much about the fun as we do, but about the result of the game.
For example, even though not everybody of us has all of his armies completely painted, we like painting and we do it and thats ok! But to build up numerous of armies and not even think of painting them (if they are primered you can feel lucky) sucks, of course I would not say a word if someone comes and says "dude, lets make a game sorry for this but I just want to test some things", I even proxied a hole army to try some new army I wanted to start, but just collecting armies to play the game and not for the models itself without painting them, is somehow really weak. Even those guys that buy painted armies to go an play tournaments deserve more respect than this.
This is just one point of how people can reduce this beautiful hobby to a pure win-or-lose thing. An other point is of course the armies or army lists:
Everyone who plays WHFB knows these god damn Skaven armies that shoot your whole army to death, before you even moved 12inches on the field. This may be because they are not up to date, overpowered or what else you want to call it. And you really don't even want to start a game against those armies, if you prepared your army list the whole night, thought of some cool ideas and then see them being shot to death by some filthy rats... ok i am drifting.. what i am trying to say is, that those players tend to use heavy army list, which are far beyond fluff in fun games with their friends, that sucks if it is all the time. An example a Dark Elves army with two war hydrae, a lord on dragon, a pegasus, 3 mobs of dark riders,... and absolutely no infantry! Well, that has nothing to do with Dark Elves, sorry but 10 guys are not able to handle 4 great monsters on a ship :) Or a Rhinox Rider in every Army, well ok he is a dog of war but seriously what is he doing in a skaven army list...
So you see this army and you think, ok, let him have his fun, and you do your job and suddenly : you beat the shit out of his Dark Elve Monster Army ass! Ok the game was fun not because to see him lose but because your army worked the way you wanted it, and then comes his comment after the game. Nothing about you, all about his mistakes, his bad luck and so on, and directly your nice game gets a bitter taste. Why not "nice game, dude those flaming skulls rocked, damn I lost that dragon so early, next time I am gonna beat your bony ass, cheers!".. What I am trying to say is that a game can fill a evening and it should be fun and that even talking about some situations during the game and laughing about some strange dice results gives this part of the hobby - the gaming - its charm!
But it is not only the aftermath, but those players also are a pain in the ass during the game. All the time, endless rule discussions, no improvisation if something is not 100% clear, everything so damn tensed up and not laid-back, not even taking note of your cool conversions or painted models there on the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame anyone but if you do not believe your opponent a single word and if you do always interpret the rules for your fortune, this really kills the evening. Have fun, if something is not clear read it up if it is still not clear discuss it and find a 'realistic' and 'fair' solution, this is a game and not a formal prove of some mathematic theorem. And we don't need a scanning tunneling microscope to measure the distance, if it is clear it is clear if it is not so not, thats the way games are... As it is said somewhere in the rulebook, the most important rule is to have fun!
I could list you many more examples of how some people - even good friends - ruin gaming evenings. Go to a tournament and you will see what you get,... oh i forgot you need a painted army...
And nearly all of my friends that do the hobby are the same way. And for all of us the hobby comes first and than the gaming and the gaming is because of fun!
Well, to be honest this is not as obvious as one might think. Because we also have some player in our rows, which don't seem to care as much about the fun as we do, but about the result of the game.
For example, even though not everybody of us has all of his armies completely painted, we like painting and we do it and thats ok! But to build up numerous of armies and not even think of painting them (if they are primered you can feel lucky) sucks, of course I would not say a word if someone comes and says "dude, lets make a game sorry for this but I just want to test some things", I even proxied a hole army to try some new army I wanted to start, but just collecting armies to play the game and not for the models itself without painting them, is somehow really weak. Even those guys that buy painted armies to go an play tournaments deserve more respect than this.
This is just one point of how people can reduce this beautiful hobby to a pure win-or-lose thing. An other point is of course the armies or army lists:
Everyone who plays WHFB knows these god damn Skaven armies that shoot your whole army to death, before you even moved 12inches on the field. This may be because they are not up to date, overpowered or what else you want to call it. And you really don't even want to start a game against those armies, if you prepared your army list the whole night, thought of some cool ideas and then see them being shot to death by some filthy rats... ok i am drifting.. what i am trying to say is, that those players tend to use heavy army list, which are far beyond fluff in fun games with their friends, that sucks if it is all the time. An example a Dark Elves army with two war hydrae, a lord on dragon, a pegasus, 3 mobs of dark riders,... and absolutely no infantry! Well, that has nothing to do with Dark Elves, sorry but 10 guys are not able to handle 4 great monsters on a ship :) Or a Rhinox Rider in every Army, well ok he is a dog of war but seriously what is he doing in a skaven army list...
So you see this army and you think, ok, let him have his fun, and you do your job and suddenly : you beat the shit out of his Dark Elve Monster Army ass! Ok the game was fun not because to see him lose but because your army worked the way you wanted it, and then comes his comment after the game. Nothing about you, all about his mistakes, his bad luck and so on, and directly your nice game gets a bitter taste. Why not "nice game, dude those flaming skulls rocked, damn I lost that dragon so early, next time I am gonna beat your bony ass, cheers!".. What I am trying to say is that a game can fill a evening and it should be fun and that even talking about some situations during the game and laughing about some strange dice results gives this part of the hobby - the gaming - its charm!
But it is not only the aftermath, but those players also are a pain in the ass during the game. All the time, endless rule discussions, no improvisation if something is not 100% clear, everything so damn tensed up and not laid-back, not even taking note of your cool conversions or painted models there on the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame anyone but if you do not believe your opponent a single word and if you do always interpret the rules for your fortune, this really kills the evening. Have fun, if something is not clear read it up if it is still not clear discuss it and find a 'realistic' and 'fair' solution, this is a game and not a formal prove of some mathematic theorem. And we don't need a scanning tunneling microscope to measure the distance, if it is clear it is clear if it is not so not, thats the way games are... As it is said somewhere in the rulebook, the most important rule is to have fun!
I could list you many more examples of how some people - even good friends - ruin gaming evenings. Go to a tournament and you will see what you get,... oh i forgot you need a painted army...
posted by Gewaltatron at
1:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home