Well, GW has done it again.
Maybe you've heard by now that the crappy 'Ard Boyz missions were actually written the night before they were released (un-tested) by a Virginia GW store employee (not a designer, a red shirt). Maybe you also heard that he competed in the tourney using an army that was, um, optimized for the rules he had written. Rules that would, especially in the 3rd mission, screw over mechanized opponents for his Ork Hoard.
Fail.
Well to put a cherry on top of this fail-sundae, we have this interesting bit from Protem. It seems GW has let the domain registration for the site used to register the 'Ard Boyz results lapse, allowing it to be snapped up by cyber-squatters. He says:
do you know if anyone has noticed that the site that GW put on the 'ard boyz rules sheets for submitting scores, etc doesn't belong to GW anymore?
gwuscommunity.com has been squatted - it looks like GW let the domain expire back in february. i'm wondering if this will have an adverse effect on setting up the next round.
Well of course it will. I wonder what the GW district managers think of all the extra work they'll have to do now.
the thick just plottened. saltire called me a few minutes ago to tell me that their GW rep has informed them that prize support will NOT be going through the online store as planned, but through the FLGS instead.
ReplyDeletePrize support was given out in Carbondale, Il at the store. I had completely forgotten that it was supposed to happen via the online store. I liked grabbing my stuff right there though so this bit of thickened plot wasn't too awful.
ReplyDeleteWow... first I've heard of where the missions came from. I thought the "Kill da Fast 'uns" seemed a bit... shall we say, harsh.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine what I would have had to do with DE in that case.
Probably just not set up.
Can you say: "under new management"? GW better shape up if they don't want their already soso rep fall further.
ReplyDeleteWeak.
Ugh.
ReplyDeleteWe did prize support at the FLGS as well, in fact there was some confusion as what was supposed to happen, but the packet that they received had the store comping the prizes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we did prize support in-house at the North Store. Now I understand why Gibbs wasn't sure who was supposed to provide it.
ReplyDeleteI was under the assumption that prize support was to be done on the qualifier round by the stores, prizes for the other rounds was to be done online. I guess I could of been wrong. I just hope things aren't completely messed up for 'Ard Boyz this year. I really wanna go.
ReplyDeleteGW has gone from having really solid GW offcial company supported big events to stuff that individual game clubs ... whose members not only game in said events but win them ... run/heavily influence the big national events. To me its like GW is saying "we don't give a feth about competitive play in the US." They certainly are telling me they don't care about supporting their own product in the Western US anymore by pulling out all their big events they used to have. Gamesday, GTs, etc. Now reading that ... it just confirms what I've been hearing for the past few years. You have these clubs basically running GWs support in the US. Its lame and it isn't the type of setup I bought into with GW. I loved the GW company at least seeming/appearing unbiased events, etc. Because of all of this stuff for me at least there is little point to participate in official events anymore as its all either "insider" club stuff or store (read a greedy so called "friendly" local game shop running stuff that caters to the store trolls who spend money in their store) ... independent gamers and small garage gaming groups have no reason to partake in GW stuff on a competitive level anymore at all. People can scoff at what I'm saying but long term its not good for the GW hobby scene in the US. A big segment of the market is being neglected and don't just take my word for it look around the net ... look in the Blog-o-sphere ... listen to your local gaming community. More and more people are getting disenchanted with GW for various reasons ... but support is an area that is key.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask what special rules were in the third scenario? :/
ReplyDeleteCheers ^^
I thought prize support was via the local store (which was then to be comped by GW)? It isn't until the semis that things were supposed to be done via the online store.
ReplyDeletesorry to just drop out of nowhere, but i am a UK reader and i just want to point out that this seems to be part of a worrying trend from GW.
ReplyDeleteover here they have cancelled all our competitive GT's (grand Tournaments). all that is left now is 'fun events'. additionally, all stores used to have a veterans night where the store was open till 10 PM. now they have changed it so that its only 8 PM, making it pointless for those of us who work till 6 or later, and arguably not worth it for those who work after 5.
draw your own conclusions
lol - nob heads!
ReplyDeleteGuess GWs is dealing with the economic slow down by shooting themselves in the foot.
ReplyDeleteMessanger
The third scenario rule in question was anything that could voluntarily move over 6 inches in a phase was worth 3 victory points instead of 1.
ReplyDeleteWell, I will have to say that that gives an Ork horde a bit of an edge, yes :P
ReplyDeleteBut, also, any kind of infantry army. So I guess it was some nice rules in themselves ^^
Problem was him being a bit rigged for it :P
Cheers ^^
2KP per fast target would have been reasonable (Stupid, but reasonable). 3KP was simply "Screw-you mech!".
ReplyDeletePoint being, 'Ard Boyz shouldn't be the tourney where the "fun" or "different" missions get used. It should be the tourney where the missions are ruthlessly balanced (boring even) and the table layouts are standardized.
We've all had fun playing football on a hill or basketball with someone's car blocking half the court. But that's not acceptable for a competition who's stated goal is to find the best 40K player.
Don't get me wrong, I thought the last scenario was rather lame and made it very difficult for any player that brought any kind of vehicles in their list, it was made for the ground pounders. All be it, the ork horde was the most likely list to benefit but I do not think it was the only one. I am not trying to defend "guilty" parties but I myself as an ork player can say the first two missions were anyones game especially if they know how to handle the lists the third scenario was "designed" for.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that being able to win even with such weights and measures against you is a true measure of what it takes to be the best. From what I've seen many of the qualifier first place armies have had alot of vehicles in their lists. Meaning they didn't have to deal alot with the armies that did "abuse" the mission in question. As for the 'Ard boyz itself, I was under the impression it was being ran by the "Sales" Department of GW to try and get players to buy stuff to field these tournament winning armies, so of course they will have whoever make the scenarios if its not gonna cost them anything. Can't fault them there.
I kinda expect 'ard boyz to be screwy, not so much fair.
ReplyDeleteGW doesn't let me down much if I expect their events to be strange and 'not so fair'
Oh, I got what I expected. Problem is, I wanted better.
ReplyDeleteBasically GW took all the excitement about 'Ard Boyz that I'd been fermenting all year and flushed it down the toilet with that one mission. Suddenly, instead of looking forward to the Prelims, I just wanted to get through them instead. Which I did, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
The army that benefited the most was Daemons. Taking killpoints in the teens was easy for them with lots of uber powerful units. They don't have to worry about getting super close to you. Either way, I hope they make it a more balanced mission set.
ReplyDelete