R.I.P Flynn

Well it is over. The book has closed on the Age of Flynn within our gaming group.

In the end, he ruined the joy we used to have within our group. Our group's Facebook page became an endless frustration as post after post was ruined by his incessant and irrelevant commenting. To some of you out there, it say seem like a petty thing, but you cannot imagine the pain he brought us. We tried out best to overlook his short comings, but he made it impossible for us to do so. Games he participated in quickly turned into a massive headache as he questioned everything that happened, bent the rules to suit and outrightly powergamed his way to 0 wins within the group.

Behold! The ruiner of all things good in this world

 

But the time for us to dwell on this unfortunate event is over. It is time for us to focus on a new age, an age where all men have the freedom to post and comment without fear. It is time for the  Golden Age of the Gaming Group!

As such, here is an insight into the happenings of our group over the last few weeks.

The models have been put to the side for a while whilst we explore the world of Dark Heresy. After two games of it so far, I think we are on a winner. We - thankfully - have an experienced GM helping us out. It has made everything run so much easier, but I fear he is getting worried for our souls due to the decisions we are making (highlights have included: Daniel summoning some rats, putting them into a bucket, placing said bucket on a victims stomach and heating it until the rats ate their way through the victim. I managed to use all my strength to twist a crack fiends head clean of her body.)
But we will still make it to heaven right??

Fun for all - unless you are having your stomach gnawed at by rats in a bucket...
 

In other news, I am going to try my hand at GMing a 40k game between Matt and his Tau, and Stuart and his Tyranids. I am currently writing up a narrative and set of twists and turns which I will throw at the boys through out the course of the game. It should be an interesting experience and I am hoping to be able to turn it into a campaign at a later date.

The Intricacies of a Gaming Group

After looking back at my last post that referenced two of my local gaming buddies, it got me thinking about the intricacies of gaming groups. Our group is made up of 11 or more gamers, depending on the day, weather, month, girfriend behaviour...

The group can be easily split into three catagories; we have the full time gamers, the part timers, and the casual guys.
In my eyes, full time gamers meet a certain criteria:

• Constantly working on models
• Attend every meeting, whether they are battling or not
• Contribute to the growth and development of the group

The part timers are those who either are; stop start modellers ( a couple months of progess and then periods of nothingness), attended around half or more of the meetings, and contribute every now and then to the growth of the group.

As you can probably guess, the casual gamers are like the casual staff at any job - they work every so often and then you don't see them for ages after that. These are the guys that take years to finish an army, who attend spasmodically to meetings and really have little to do with the development of the group.

As such, here is how our gaming group breaks down:
Full Timers


• Nick - Our noble Cheesehound! This guy is always working on something new. His Tyrant's

  

  The Cheesehound in all his glory

  Legion army was a thing of sheer awesomeness. He has since moved onto a 2nd edition Tyranid army, as well as an Adeptus Mechanicus army using Tau. To be honest it is actually hard to keep track of what he is upto, as it changes so often. He is at every meeting (mostly due to them occuring at the place he shares with Mitch), and is always all too happy to help the newbies to the group when it comes to rules, army ideas and gameplay





Mitch aka Mr-I'll-Never-Win-
A-Tournament-With-A-New-Army

• Mitch - Even though he has somewhat fallen off the wagon the last few weeks due to his band kicking ass and taking names, I still classify Mitch as a full timer because he is working on his second army (Dark Elder, following on from his Necron army), he attends nearly every meeting we have and he helped TO our in-house tournament.

• Stuart - I feel for this guy within our group. He works his ass off on a Tyranid army (and might I say, that given it is his first army, the models are actually coming along really well!), attends every single chance he gets, but sadly, the gameplay eludes him at the moment. Everything he seems to try ends up going wrong for him. He is steadily getting more competitive which is a good sign.
• Matt - Ah, young Matthew. This guy had been hanging out for the new Tau codex for so very long. Finally it gets released with the new models, he purchases all he could ever want and a week later he drops the idea for a Space Wolf army.
• Rylie - Rylie is working on a White Scars army that is actually coming along really nicely. He has spent countless hours modifying the models and each one of them has its own unique flavour. Attends every gaming night and is always a blast to play against due to him not having one single fibre of doucheyness in him.

Part Timers

• Flynn - We all have 'that guy' within our gaming groups, and for us, Flynn is definitely that guy. We came across Flynn in our local gaming store and he got involved in a game with Rylie. We invited to be part of our group thinking the more the merrier. Sadly, unbeknown to us, Flynn had a split personality, and once he joined the group and set about pissing off everyone with his blatant bending of the rules and general demenour at the table. He has been put on a very short leash lately, so here is hoping his head will be firmly pulled in.
• Aidan - Aidan is the newest member to the group, and due to him living a distanct away from the rest of the group, he is a part timer due to the amount of times he attends. He is slaving his arse away on his new army, a Blood Angels army. He is new to the rules system, but has thus far been able to pull of a few wins, even finishing mid table in our in house tournament.

Casual

• Justin - Justin is the brother of Matt, and even though he probably models more than anyone else - with the exception of Nick -, the fact that we only see him once every couple of months makes him a very casual member of the group. His Sisters of Battle army looks amazing and would shudder to think about the hours and dollars he has dropped into it.
• Kell - Kell is an exceptional painter. His Eldar army looks a million bucks (his wave serpent was glorious until Daniel came along). Unfortunately, a mixture of work and his new found pursuit of boxing has left him with little time to game and model. He still attends as many nights as he can, but it is now in a viewing capacity. Sadly, a hand shake has left him unable to paint at the moment, but here is hoping he is back at the table soon!
• Daniel - Oh Daniel. Daniel would normally be a part timer, but due to a recent downturn in his attendance, as well as in ability to maintain any interest in a game past the 2nd turn, he is a very casual game. Where it may take the rest of us half a year or so to paint an army, it will take Daniel that long to desprue a unit, glue it together and undercoat. And don't get me started on the hover dinosaurs...

Myself, I would hover somewhere between a full timer and a part timer. Work constraints don't allow me to get as much modelling done as I would like, but I attend our weekly gatherings and get as much gaming in as possible :)

Time to get my rant on!

In what is the first of what I am sure will be many rants, today I will be directing my hatred towards those gamers within the hobby that seem to have forgotten the fun. We all know who I am talking - the dreaded WAAC players. I was trolling my way through www.wargamerau.com last night and kept coming across many tales of people struggling to battle this blight within our hobby.

To come up against one of these spawns of Satan is to recognise that the next 2 hours of your life will not be enjoyable...unless ofcourse you table them :)

Now, let me be clear about this, there is a massive difference between someone who is a WAAC player and someone who enjoys a high level of competition. Take my friend, Nick for example. Within our gaming group he is affectionately know as the Cheese Hound, for his inate ability to pick up a Codex, find the cheesiest list combinations possible and banner it under the title of 'fluffy'. Whilst this many seem like douchery, Nick atleast provides us with a fair playing field in terms of his view of the rules and enjoyment levels of the game (Until he tables us in a rain of fire and brimstone.)

Now, let us compare this to another player within our group, Flynn. Flynn is the ultimate WAAC player in my view. Allow me to set the scene for you. We had just welcomed a new player to our group. Aidan, who is playing Blood Angels, accept to play his FIRST EVER GAME of 40k against Flynn. Young Flynn, sensing blood in the water, elected to play with his Ork army and threw 100 boyz at Aidan. In the view of myself and the group, this was an ultimate form of WAAC playing. Flynn tried his absolute hardest to use Aidan's lack of knowledge against him, by bending the rules to suit. Nick took it upon himself to help 'coach' Aidan, and in a win for the good guys, Aidan came out on top. The greatest sense of joy for our group is the fact that despite Flynn's constant WAAC approach, he is actually yet to win a game within our group. Good guys 2 Flynn 0 :)

Common tricks of the WAAC trade include:

• The use of loaded dice (I mean, really! Is that what your life has come to? Loading dice for a 40K game?)
• Making 'miscalculations' with points (We all screw up by 10 pts or so every now and then, but magically attaining an extra 100pts??)
• Wacky interpretations of rules that seems simply logical to all others
• Intimidating their opponent
• Claiming they have never lost a game/flaunting their douchery
• Somehow not understanding that 6inch movement means 6 inches, not 7 or 8...

Whilst I get that tournaments and such are highly competitive, players need to recognise that our great game is a lot more enjoyable when both members make it so. WAAC players suck the life out of games for those who are unfortunate enough to come across them. People will always tool lists to make them as powerful as possible (Hey, I'm running an Az blob...), but it is how people play the list and, more importantly, the rules that will have them on one way ticket to WAAC doucheville.

Welcome to Tales From An Average Gamer!

My name is Corey and welcome to my first attempt at a blog.

Whilst the majority of this blog will focus of my Warhammer 40k hobby, I will from time to time vent my thoughts on other subjects, so bare with me :)

Now, I know what most of you are thinking - 'Why would I want to hear from an average gamer? Aren't these kinds of blogs supposes to be written by experts and guys with exceptional skills?'. And to an extent you are probably correct, but I would like to hope that due to myself professed status as an average gamer, I will be able to provide you with a different view of our wonderful hobby.

So, to bring you upto speed with my latest adventures, here is what I am currently on:
I have decided to put my beloved Orks away for the time being and focus on a new army: Dark Angels with Imperial Guard allies.
Now I know what most will be thinking - oh no! Another list with Guard allies!
And to be honest, I would have joined you in your outrage a few weeks ago. That was before I decided I wanted to do something I haven't done before. I wanted to build a list around fluff, in this case, my idea of a bond forged during the Siege of Vraks. I am currently working on writing the fluff and will up load it as soon as I have finished it.

In other news, a mate and myself are currently discussing the possibility of running our first large scale tournament in the coming months. There is still a lot to discuss in relation to this, but hopefully we can get it up and running and I can get the score on the board for the average guys! :)

Until next time,

Corey.