Brother C here,
finally getting around to posting my Cabin Fever 2012 review.
Battle Reports, etc. to follow but for now, its just the review and pictures of some of the armies.
yours truly taking 1st place.
word of warning: since this is a review, I will be splitting hairs. This was a fantastic laid-back event where everyone had a great time. So saldy, i will be focusing on some of the negative things that I noticed, but please please, know that this was a great event and everyone had a blast (which honestly is the most important thing anyways)
enjoy.
REVIEW:
Swag: I thought the swag was ok. We got some what looked to be Mechanicon left overs. A tape measure, ruler, I got a special measuring template from the Guild because I wasn’t using one in my games. Steel Mike gave me a dice for losing to him. Haha. Actually its awesome because I love the Berks dice. And.. we all got Jawaballs cast bases, which actually were pretty sweet. Not too bad, but I just can’t get excited about Mechanicon swag when those guys (save Doug) didn’t even show up at the event. I wanted Cabin Fever stuff, or Adventurer’s Guild stuff, or at least just GW stuff. Maybe I’ll just have to print out a kizmat and stick it over the ‘M’ on the tape measure, heh.
Competition: The level of competition for this event I would have to say was so-so. The top player after day 1 could not even make day 2 which meant the whole bracketing system had to be reworked. Not to mention, it was hard taking first place, knowing that I had not beaten the best player who came to the event. We also did not see the normal competitive armies/lists that you would normally see at a GT event. No one took Grey Knights, only one space wolves player, no Blood Angels. No Dark Eldar. The 3 IG players were more infantry based than the normal chimera/vet spam. Having said that, the guys that did come, brought a lot of experience with their armies/lists/ and play style. Sure we had a lot of foot slogging orks, but the foot lists were decent, and the players knew how to maximize their effectiveness. Fate Crusher is also always a threat that can’t be ignored. All-in-all, I would say the competitive level was decent, but not top tier. I had to earn my stripes for sure, but there weren’t any whine and cheese parties going on either.
Venue: I told Rich and Todd during the event that I was so glad the venue had changed. Sure it would have been real nice to be near a bar to buy poor Adam a round after our game, but there it just something special about having a 40k tournament in a gaming store. Being surrounded by merch and tight quarters I think was definitely the right place for this event. I also thought it was a great idea that the organizers had when they alternated GT players with Noobhammer players throughout the tables. Integration, not segregation. It worked. I really felt we had a strong group, everyone involved, together. It made for a nice atmosphere to play in. I know I really enjoyed playing near some club mates who were taking part of the noobhammer event.
Game Length: WAY TO SHORT. End of story. 2 hrs is NOT long enough for day 1. sorry, we’ll have to start earlier next year or something because.. when 3 out of 4 games only get to turn 3, its just silly. I hate that my opponent puts units in reserve and they actually don’t even get to come on because the game ended so soon. I also believe I had a HUGE advantage in that I won most of my dice rolls at the beginning of the games, and chose to go second. Meaning.. at the start of turn 3, I knew it was going to be our last turn and was able to do things that would leave me completely exposed and vulnerable.. but.. knowing that it didn’t matter because the game was going to be over. For instance, only shooting a trygon to half wounds, and leaving it alone, just to get half victory point out of it. And playing against someone like steel mike, who just had waves upon waves of orks, I had fought threw like 4 waves of them till turn 3, and I was just starting to mobilize up and get out of my corner, but time was called and I wasn’t able to get going fast enough. Props to him for the strategy, keeping me bogged down for so long, but I just had the feeling I wasn’t playing games against their players.. just skirmishes. In fact, the only full game I got was against Daemons.. because.. well.. its daemons.
Rules: so.. this was the organizers’ first attempt at the NOVA format.. and, the major reason why people like the NOVA format is that it is SIMPLE. Now.. for some reason, they decided to complicate these rules into crazy, hard to understand rules. I give Rich and Todd credit, until October of last year, these concept was foreign to them. And they really didn’t do a bad job.. I just don’t think people were sold on the NOVA format because it was not fully explained to them in a simple, easy-to-understand way. There was a lot of confusion on Victory points vs. Kill points for example, and we ended up doing several matches where we used victory points and several where we used kill points. Score sheets and sportsmanship sheets were very disorganized. Thankfully it was a very laid back crowd who didn’t seem to mind much.
Brackets: I thought the bracket system actually worked out pretty nice because of so few players. It meant.. if you lost on Sunday, you still had a chance to place. It kept everyone heated for battle and playing competitively. I still agree with how the NOVA format does the bracketing.. but, I still feel like they can emerge somehow so that there is still something to play for, even if you lose on Sunday. Having to wait around for 3 entire rounds like we did at BFS just to see if maybe one of us could have pulled out a ren. Man or something is just silly.
Prize Support: I thought was meh. I thought that first prize, was decent. I won a Ravenwing box set. Which is decent, considering I paid what? $40 for entry. That’s a decent turn around. 2nd place only got an equivalent of a 10man tactical squad. I think is pretty weak. You’re not even making back the money you paid to get in at that point and you won second place. 3rd place got a blister, which I also felt was a bit weak. Now, I do understand that it was only say 12-14 people playing. But if you are going to advertise that it’s a GT, there should be GT level prize support. Sorry. I am happy with my winnings, but felt badly for the runners up. Of course this also was under the umbrella that prize support would be INCREASED due to the changing of the venue.