Hello everybody!
Well....this past weekend was an emotional event to say the least. For those who are unaware of such things this weekend just gone was the setting of Throne of Skulls:Carnage, an official GW tournament held at Warhammer World.
This blog has been used to track the progress I have been making with my armies for a bit over a year now. The main focus for this has been my Dark Eldar army, more specifically the Haemonculus Covens force that I have been meticulously working on for quite some time. The fruits of my labour were unleashed upon the public at this event, with these pictures showing them all together for the first time ever.
Now I was very excited for this event, I had my army finished and was enthusiastic to see the reaction they would get from all those at Warhammer World that weekend. My goal for the event was twofold:
1. Get creeped out reactions from people seeing the army
2. Get a best army nomination
Now for the good parts for the weekend which, coincidentally all happened on the Saturday. The initial reaction from people was fantastic, everyone was amazed at my army and came to take many pictures and talk about the army and what was wrong with me. This reaction encompassed everyone from the other competitors in the event to the staff both managing the event as well as those in the shops and even in Bugman's. The other parts of the event were really good to see as well. Due to the less competitive nature of the tournament (more on that later) it meant there were far more interesting and "fluffy" armies taking place. Gone are the days of the Necron and Eldar's tyrannical reign over the meta at Throne of Skulls, apparently this has been replaced by Tyranids as people seemingly really like them but felt they weren't that competitive. Because of this I got to play a wide variety of different armies and players with everyone being in high spirits and not power gaming to win at all costs, which was a refreshing change.
My good nature however was somewhat disturbed on the Sunday however...
Sunday was the more important day for me, as it was when the announcements for the "best army" nominations was taking place. Now I didn't expect to win, to do so was just unrealistic, but I was fairly confident that I would at the very least get a nomination particularly with all the positive response I had gotten on the Saturday. The end of the 4th game happens and to my dismay and disappointment, I hadn't been picked. I was completely and utterly gutted by this revelation and was morbidly curious as to which three armies were "better" than mine.
(I shall go through this next point with a warning, I am about to probably sound very arrogant, bitter and dickish to some people so if you don't wish to read that sort of thing stop now)
Of the three armies that were presented to be the "best" of show, I can understand why realistically one of them was picked over mine. It was a very nicely painted Imperial Fist army that is detailed and professionally done with a Warhound Titan to accompany it. This I was ok with. The second army that was in there was an alright Chaos marine army that had a full compliment of 5 Knights to go alongside it. Now the knights had some nice conversion elements but the paint job was alright enough to see it in. The third army was, in my mind, ok at best. It was a Daemonkin army that had a Bloodthirster and Kytan as centerpiece models. I have no issue with the player I had met him previously and he was a very nice and friendly person. His army was not in the top 3 of the event however. His army was one of those that benefits from the "4ft rule" which meant from a distance it looked pretty nice, however up close it was very plain. Now I will sound very arrogant here by saying that I truly believe my army blew that one out of the water. When I asked the organisers at the end of the event they said to me "It wasn't that your army wasn't good enough, it was just that we didn't vote for it as best army". Now I want to call this out as complete and utter BS. I knew my army was good enough for a nomination, mainly due to seeing people still try and vote for my army even though it wasn't one of the three in the cabinet. How can you deny my army wasn't deserving to be nominated when people still vote for it when it even isn't on display??? Those people got turned away from that vote and the staff couldn't bring themselves to admit they should have nominated me. They even then had the gall to come over after the voting took place to take pictures saying how "fantastic this army was" they didn't do this with literally any of the ones that they nominated as "better" than mine. Friends of mine, some of which are former GW staff members, pointed out that the three armies that were nominated were all armies that had power armoured models in it, as well as models that had large scale models that could be "easily bought" at the shops nearby. Whether this was them trying to comfort me about my disappointment or they were making vaild observations I wouldn't want to speculate. I truly feel that they didn't want to put my army up for best army as they felt that it couldn't be displayed to their larger audiences in articles and on their websites.
Secondly, the way these tournaments are scored....it still feels wrong in some ways. Granted I will admit it makes the atmosphere in these events much better, with people taking more interesting armies. I get that. However I do feel that it still turns the whole event into a popularity contest. I didn't take a particularly broken list, wasn't some smash face army it was more an artistic project. However I still managed to win 4 of my 5 games across the weekend. Now anyone in their right mind can see that you are never going to give your favourite gamer vote to someone who beat you...so since that was the case I didn't get any votes whatsoever, so finished 78th out of 100. A very good friend of mine won only 1 game all weekend, scored a good 20-30vp lower than me and finished 4th. My brain still can't comprehend this utter ridiculous nonsense. According to this ideology next event I need to take an army that is deliberately designed to lose, that way I am more likely to win...see what I mean? That logic in it's essence is utter backwards to me. But I have talked about that principle before and you can look back in my blog to see that one.
I would like to thank those around me at the time and consoled me over the events and many of the tournament participants were also very supportive and confused about the decision. People on Facebook and the Dark Eldar forum community for being comforting as well. I have ranted enough I feel. My anger for the event is still bubbling and writing this article has made my blood boil. I will get over it and move on but it has certainly left a bitter taste in my mouth about the "voting" system GW employ with their nominations.
Until next time,
Take care everybody
Well....this past weekend was an emotional event to say the least. For those who are unaware of such things this weekend just gone was the setting of Throne of Skulls:Carnage, an official GW tournament held at Warhammer World.
This blog has been used to track the progress I have been making with my armies for a bit over a year now. The main focus for this has been my Dark Eldar army, more specifically the Haemonculus Covens force that I have been meticulously working on for quite some time. The fruits of my labour were unleashed upon the public at this event, with these pictures showing them all together for the first time ever.
Now I was very excited for this event, I had my army finished and was enthusiastic to see the reaction they would get from all those at Warhammer World that weekend. My goal for the event was twofold:
1. Get creeped out reactions from people seeing the army
2. Get a best army nomination
Now for the good parts for the weekend which, coincidentally all happened on the Saturday. The initial reaction from people was fantastic, everyone was amazed at my army and came to take many pictures and talk about the army and what was wrong with me. This reaction encompassed everyone from the other competitors in the event to the staff both managing the event as well as those in the shops and even in Bugman's. The other parts of the event were really good to see as well. Due to the less competitive nature of the tournament (more on that later) it meant there were far more interesting and "fluffy" armies taking place. Gone are the days of the Necron and Eldar's tyrannical reign over the meta at Throne of Skulls, apparently this has been replaced by Tyranids as people seemingly really like them but felt they weren't that competitive. Because of this I got to play a wide variety of different armies and players with everyone being in high spirits and not power gaming to win at all costs, which was a refreshing change.
My good nature however was somewhat disturbed on the Sunday however...
Sunday was the more important day for me, as it was when the announcements for the "best army" nominations was taking place. Now I didn't expect to win, to do so was just unrealistic, but I was fairly confident that I would at the very least get a nomination particularly with all the positive response I had gotten on the Saturday. The end of the 4th game happens and to my dismay and disappointment, I hadn't been picked. I was completely and utterly gutted by this revelation and was morbidly curious as to which three armies were "better" than mine.
(I shall go through this next point with a warning, I am about to probably sound very arrogant, bitter and dickish to some people so if you don't wish to read that sort of thing stop now)
Of the three armies that were presented to be the "best" of show, I can understand why realistically one of them was picked over mine. It was a very nicely painted Imperial Fist army that is detailed and professionally done with a Warhound Titan to accompany it. This I was ok with. The second army that was in there was an alright Chaos marine army that had a full compliment of 5 Knights to go alongside it. Now the knights had some nice conversion elements but the paint job was alright enough to see it in. The third army was, in my mind, ok at best. It was a Daemonkin army that had a Bloodthirster and Kytan as centerpiece models. I have no issue with the player I had met him previously and he was a very nice and friendly person. His army was not in the top 3 of the event however. His army was one of those that benefits from the "4ft rule" which meant from a distance it looked pretty nice, however up close it was very plain. Now I will sound very arrogant here by saying that I truly believe my army blew that one out of the water. When I asked the organisers at the end of the event they said to me "It wasn't that your army wasn't good enough, it was just that we didn't vote for it as best army". Now I want to call this out as complete and utter BS. I knew my army was good enough for a nomination, mainly due to seeing people still try and vote for my army even though it wasn't one of the three in the cabinet. How can you deny my army wasn't deserving to be nominated when people still vote for it when it even isn't on display??? Those people got turned away from that vote and the staff couldn't bring themselves to admit they should have nominated me. They even then had the gall to come over after the voting took place to take pictures saying how "fantastic this army was" they didn't do this with literally any of the ones that they nominated as "better" than mine. Friends of mine, some of which are former GW staff members, pointed out that the three armies that were nominated were all armies that had power armoured models in it, as well as models that had large scale models that could be "easily bought" at the shops nearby. Whether this was them trying to comfort me about my disappointment or they were making vaild observations I wouldn't want to speculate. I truly feel that they didn't want to put my army up for best army as they felt that it couldn't be displayed to their larger audiences in articles and on their websites.
Secondly, the way these tournaments are scored....it still feels wrong in some ways. Granted I will admit it makes the atmosphere in these events much better, with people taking more interesting armies. I get that. However I do feel that it still turns the whole event into a popularity contest. I didn't take a particularly broken list, wasn't some smash face army it was more an artistic project. However I still managed to win 4 of my 5 games across the weekend. Now anyone in their right mind can see that you are never going to give your favourite gamer vote to someone who beat you...so since that was the case I didn't get any votes whatsoever, so finished 78th out of 100. A very good friend of mine won only 1 game all weekend, scored a good 20-30vp lower than me and finished 4th. My brain still can't comprehend this utter ridiculous nonsense. According to this ideology next event I need to take an army that is deliberately designed to lose, that way I am more likely to win...see what I mean? That logic in it's essence is utter backwards to me. But I have talked about that principle before and you can look back in my blog to see that one.
I would like to thank those around me at the time and consoled me over the events and many of the tournament participants were also very supportive and confused about the decision. People on Facebook and the Dark Eldar forum community for being comforting as well. I have ranted enough I feel. My anger for the event is still bubbling and writing this article has made my blood boil. I will get over it and move on but it has certainly left a bitter taste in my mouth about the "voting" system GW employ with their nominations.
Until next time,
Take care everybody
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