[Epic] Re: Mostly off topic (turns into a rant)

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 22:24:24 -0700

Disclaimer: this really isn't directed at mathew sprange, who seems at all levels a
mellow guy. (Thane)


> The main problem was this. Under the tournament rules, you are rated for
> winning battles, Army Selection and Sportsmanship. Now, under
> sportsmanship, each player you face gives you a mark out of 5, depending how
> friendly you were, how well you knew the rules, etc. . .
>
> Now, if you play someone and absolutely stomped him, is he likely to give
> you a great mark? I'm not bitter about this (really!), but I got chatting
> to this American bloke who ended up winning the Sportsmanship prize. When I
> looked up my scores, I couldn't believe it. Only two people scored worse
> than me! I AM NOT THAT BAD! Mark, tell them!





> First battle - oh dread, against the Eldar again. I lost this by 180 (very
> small again - I won the two other battles by over a 1000 point difference)
> points. I am trying hard to remember the details of this game, but I
> believe I was still drunk from the night before! I must say, I cannot even
> remember what Craftworld they were from. Oh yes, I remember! It was the
> night battle, where range is restricted to 16". I was doing well until I
> let my Dreadnoughts stray just a little too close to his Wraithguard. One
> was destroyed, one damaged.

I don't know how I feel about the sportsmanship issue. The Fantasy Battles grand
champion from last year lives around here; here was one of two or three Albuquerqueans
to go. One of the other players brought in his scorecard from the match to show us how
soundly his ass was wooped, and we took a look atthe local heroes scores; he stomped his
opponents in 3 of the games by absurd totals, and was the lowest scorer in sportsmanship
by far, and was fairly low in army selection.

The reason for this is that he is completely enraptured by the cheese potential of WHFB.
This may or may not be bad; surely the designers made it a game of cheese over tactics.
He argues nearly every rule that isn't in his favor at the time, and will gladly change
his position from game to game. He'll argue over 1/4" distances. He ask for "common
sense" rules exceptions for himself, but grant none in return. I've played him a couple
of times, and just don't want to do it anymore. It's no fun spending a whole game locked
in legal arguments. Their are at least 5 players I know of who feel the same way. The
last battle I saw him play, his Ork opponent picked up his stuff after 3 turns in
frustration.

The sad thing is, he's a bright, friendly guy off the table.

So I imagine he probably pulled the same stuff at the tournament, kicked everyones ass
because of it, and the penalty wasn't big enough to hurt him. He could have got straight
0's out of 10's and won, I think.

So I'm not saying you necessarily deserved low marks, but if you like to argue rules and
nitpick movement, you might want to watch yourself next time. That really goes for all
of us.



 
> The last game was the weirdest I have ever played. Another Eldar. I was
> worried, given my previous performance against these guys. He got first
> turn and his 12 Jet Bikes (four with Shuriken Cannon), 2 Vypers, 5
> Wraithguard and 2 Exarchs on Jet Bikes raced to my line and opened up. This
> immense salvo completely failed to hurt any Terminators (bare in mind how
> many Sustained Fire dice we are talking here, killed one Servitor and
> destroyed my Attack Bike. And that was it. Nothing else was touched. Now,
> my Attack Bike, when destroyed, went out of control and exploded. This
> destroyed a Jet Bike and a Vyper. The Vyper also went out of control and
> crashed into the Wraithguard squad. A Wraithguard was destroyed in the
> explosion and sucked another Wraithguard into the warp! The guy could not
> believe what was happening. He then learnt why a three man Swooping Hawk
> squad should not land within short range of a Marine Tactical Squad on
> Overwatch. The Dark Angels had chicken that night. He then tried dropping
> a Hawk Exarch into close combat with a Dreadnought and the Tactical Squad
> opened up again. The guy had given this Exarch a Displacer Field which when
> hit, displaced the Exarch away from the Dreadnought. I had learnt to wipe
> out Wraithguard quickly by this time - when rolling to damage them, I
> literally could not roll anything other than a 5 or 6. He managed to
> destroy one Dreadnought in close combat with an Exarch, but when that
> exploded, it killed his Exarch, 2 Jet Bikes, one of my Tactical Marines and
> wounded another Exarch! In won that game by over 300 points.

It sound's like this opponent was used to fighting with hammers, which is weird for an
eldar player. Usually I've seen them play with a wide variety of troops with specialized
functions and tasks, or a swarm of gaurdians (I saw a 2000 point per side game of the
gaurdian swarm vs the gretchin swarm). Using a ton of vipers and jet bikes sounds like
he didn't want too think to hard, especially if he just rushed them up in front of you.
I glad you pounded him.

I just don't get that type of player. If you like games where you depend on invincible
army composition, why waste that fancy on a game that takes hours to set up and play for
a hollow victory. Play Magic; you've got more options for cheese and can play 20 or 30
games in the time of one WH battle. Why waste another persons time when they're looking
for a tactical fight.

And what's with all these young people today, with their atari's and punk rock and dyed
hair...

sorry for rant

Thane
Received on Tue Mar 03 1998 - 05:24:24 UTC