Vancouver GT Highlights
Man are these things a lot of work. That said I was already planning my Nurgle 3.0 army list. The army I took to Vancouver looked good and was chosen mainly for that, that said I think I can do better.
How did I do you ask? Well enough to make it onto the final piece of paper that the MC reads the winner off of, that said I lost a lot of games so despite improving my score in all the other categories my overall score wasn't that high. Here are the final results.
I did some statistical analysis, got to get some use out of that class.
| Category | Raw Score | Percentage of Total Points | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver 2003 | 132.6/172 | 77.1% | + 5.9% |
| Game Play | 36/60 | 60% | - 19% |
| Sportsmanship | 33.6/42 | 80% | + 14.3% |
| Painting & Conversion | 36/40 | 90% | + 30% |
| Army Selection | 27/24 (30?) | 90% | + 10% |
| Category | Raw Score | Percentage of Total Points |
|---|---|---|
| Calgary 2002 | 128.6/179 | 71.2% |
| Game Play | 57/72 | 79.16% |
| Sportsmanship | 27.6/42 | 65.7% |
| Painting & Conversion | 24/40 | 60% |
| Army Selection | 20/24 (25?) | 80% |
So although I didn't win anything or improve my score that much, I feel vindicated as I got a higher and deservedly so score in painting and conversion which was my goal. That said I was still surprised when I saw the final results. I'm not grumbling about my score but I still don't understand how the judges think. Oh well I think I can do even better, but next GT (which isn't going to be for awhile I'm burnt out) I'll be practicing and I hope to have a better army list.
The fantasy painting judging I understood, when I walked around the hall, I immediately liked one high elf army, as it had a nice wood paneling effect. He had two different wood graining effects one for each of his bolt throwers. This was very nice and I told him so, I even got a picture though it doesn't due them justice.
The army with the highest score on the 40K side won overall, and can you believe I never got a picture of it, he didn't display it, I saw it over Chris's shoulder once. He has since taken basically the same army to other tournaments. I never got a picture of Bryce's stuff either. I was in a daze... But I know painting, I got a good score myself, I called the fantasy trophy, but the 40k winner. I saw that army. I played that army. No offence to Patrick as he was a nice guy, but his army was boring and blue. Others such as Owen when I told him of the winner couldn't even remember this army. At least he displayed it and it does look good in Dirty Steve's photos. I just thought Bryce, who had a rough couple weeks leading up to the GT, had a more impressive army. I told everyone as much too, including the judges while they were judging my army. Neither Bryce nor I were upset when the winner was announced, but no one knew which army won except me as I played it in my last game. Check it out for yourself in a picture I took:
What was good about GT Vancouver
- The Venue; it was a nice hotel, good food, accessible by public transportation.
- The Tables; they seemed nicer, with even denser terrain, and more space between rows.
- Better coverage on the website; the last Canadian GT was not covered very well online, and I put up information quicker with more photos than GW did.
- Dirty Steve; he takes some nice photos, it's the iBook baby!, there was some hurtin' armies IMO on the 40K side yet the Gallery from Dirty looks great. I don't recall him shooting my army, but he took a snap of Leperous apparently, likely in game, cause I don't recall him taking my army away to his booth... He could have I was in a daze due to sleep deprivation some of the time. Oh yeah he has good taste in music, viva le Supersuckers, Keep Music Evil!
- Fantasy Crew; the fantasy guys turned out in droves, and they displayed their armies, early and often and there were some nice ones. They were louder then the 40k guys, played later, was the cooler side of the hall to be on.
- 24 Hour Gaming; supposedly you could start playing Friday night and you could play as late as you wanted on Saturday. I was suppose to play Owen but I got a bonus game in with Chris's Khorne Army.
- GW Staff; as I mentioned sometime Saturday morning every GW Store manager within a 13 hour drive was there. Also present were Outriders from Alberta, this ensured things ran smoothly.
What was disappointing about GT Vancouver
- Unpainted armies; there were unpainted miniatures on the 40K side, I'm talking primer, bare metal and plastic...
- No Special Guest; supposedly Van GT was organized on too short of notice, but still the website said special guest right up until the event was over.
- Spelling; they spelled several names wrong, and Bryce's name is misspelled under his miniature photos and there are likely others, I mean they spelled my name right, Lord knows it's messed up, I spell check my ramblings.
- Army List Miscalculations; apparently I cheated, but since I picked my army list months ago and sent it to GW twice, I assumed it was OK, I get there Saturday morning to find out it's illegal, after slaving like a dog to paint it, come on a simple email reply a month earlier would have saved me a lot of grief. I had to leave out one model as a result, no big deal but...
- Ties; surely a victory of only a few points could have been scored a tie? The scoring system wasn't made clear in advance or at the GT itself. I would have been happy with two ties instead of a loss and a win, some missions it was near impossible to tie.
How to do well in a GT
- Paint, paint, and paint some more, overall winner of 40K had the highest appearance score, if you don't have a nice army you're starting in a hole, it doesn't have to be the best painted army, but please paint the models, no more primer and metal. Displays help, they help generate buzz, they help you transport your models, they just look good.
- Practice, GW is giving out the missions ahead of time, so practice them as many times as you can. Practice isn't as important as painting but it just makes sense.
- Don't be a prick, this means in army selection, in game when placing mission objectives, when pointing out oversights by opponents. According to Steve Mansfield's interpretation of the final scores fully half of my opponents I played at both Calgary and Vancouver voted me their best opponent. That isn't too shabby.
- Revise your army list, although GW says you have to have it submitted by a certain date, this just isn't a hard and fast rule. After practicing feel free to tweak your army list, just resubmit it to GW again. Tell them your dog ate a miniature or just tell 'em you changed it I don't think they care too much, I mean they let unfinished models go... I would have benefitted greatly in Vancouver from some practice and changing my army list. It's not like I don't have any other models I could have used, back to my advice to paint early and often.
- Good Music; I never would have gotten everything done if it wasn't for quality tunes and a willingness to deprive myself of sleep, caffiene helps too, though too much messes with your stomach lining.
- If your going to overcompensate for one army, overcompensate for Marines, half your opponents will likely have 3+ armor save.
Although GW's coverage is infinitely better then it was in Calgary at their website if you want more. There is always Google, some of my pages are in the new index, and I always turn up cool stuff using it. Plus since Tobin seemed to think the one little pick I posted didn't due them justice, I added a gallery for just my 2003 Vancouver GT army. I reduced the number and size of these images on June 29th 2004.
Oh and I tried to recollect how my games went in part nine of my 2003 Vancouver GT diary.