First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for coming along and making this the biggest event yet. Between the two days we had a total of 29 players come through the doors. I'd especially like to thank Eigen and Primarch Vanguard for their assistance in balancing out the teams once one of the teams dropped out mid-tournament.
As always it was a pleasure to see so many fully painted armies battling it out across the tables. There were a lot of beautiful paint schemes on display and some very unique looking armies. The irony of me being partnered with the 100% counts-as army was not lost on me. In future I will keep my mouth shut about such things I think.
Congratulations to all of the winners in the tournament and painting events. Given the overall lack of interest in the speed painting and terrain contests, in future we will just have 1 painty thing. That said, thank you to those who did enter the two events.
So, with all that out of the way, I want to talk about what I thought about the event and how things went.
The Good.
I really like the team format and I hope you all enjoyed it too. One of the main aims of NH is to meet new players and catch up with friends. The 2v2 format helps with that I think.
As ever, there was a really good vibe in the hall and everyone seemed to be having fun. The wide range of armies on the tables meant that folks could play against something different everytime.
The Bad.
Time really played a factor in nearly every game. I don't think many games got past turn 4. (Top tip for playing faster: Don't get called out to pick up a player at the train station mid game). Even with the missions set up and 2&3/4 hours to play in, most games got called early. 6th takes a lot longer than 5th and I intend to address this further down this thread.
PV made a good point in another thread about the freshness of the air in the room. Next year the AC will be top priority!
Day 2 was my biggest cause for concern as it didn't go exactly how I had wanted it to. My original plan was for 40K to remain as the main event of the day with dedicated GM's running demo games which had been organised well in advance. Instead we ended up with 8 different games being played across the day at random times which resulted in people waiting around for opponents or being unable to play what they wanted to. Again, I will address this further down this post.
The Ugly.
Actually, this doesn't deserve the title in the line above, but it has a nice ring to it.
One of the things about running any event that I take seriously is my own influence on the games played. On a personal level, I want to play and have fun doing so, but as this is an event where people are paying money (to me), to play, I want to keep things fair and unbiased. After the games I was talking to DNAnoodle and BloodyByam about their games and the question came up of why they didn't play against team Hello Necron. As the TO, one thing I don't want to do is wind up in the position where I determine who wins the event or worse still, win it myself. I'm not saying my partner and I would have beaten the vast amounts of Dakka being thrown down by DNA and BB, but I considered it better to put them against the next team who were eligible to win.
Another issue that cropped up was a rules debate which directly involved one of my units. Now, as a player I disagreed with my opponent and if I had not been involved I would have ruled against it. As it stands I felt that any attempt to use my position as organiser during my own games would have been a gross abuse of power. As it transpired, the end result was not an influence on the result of the game, so it isn't that big of a deal. However, expect to see a thread going up in the rules section to discuss it.
The Future.
Next year NagoyaHammer will be happening provided a booking can be made etc, so keep your schedules clear around Golden Week. However, I'm considering some major changes to the format.
After three years of tournaments, I want to do something different. I know many people like the idea of a tournament, but I want to make something more relaxed so that we can enjoy other aspects of the hobby, not to mention remove some of the tight time constraints.
Whilst I would love to see a wargaming expo (do a google search for Salute in the UK or Essenspiel in Germany), we just don't have the player base or interest for that. So next year I would like to run a narrative campaign weekend. As with the original NH2010 both days would be set up for 40K and nothing else. I know that this will exclude those players who don't play 40K and that some folks would like some variety in what they play, but I think that this year was far to fragmented on day 2. Plus keeping both days for the full event would allow for a far more relaxed gaming schedule. The format I have in mind would allow for players to join/drop out freely without impacting the rest of the event so much. Variable sizes of games, a mix of missions (and the time to complete them), some interaction between tables and a storyline to follow that impacts the next game you play should make for a fun event all round. Of course, if there is an overwhelming demand for a tournament, nothing is set in stone.
So once again, thanks for a great weekend and I hope to see you all again at the next one.
Have at it guys, what worked, what didn't and what do you want to see in future?
