An Expectation of Civility (and Family Photos... Again)

I'm in sort of a weird place right now, as far as my hobby goes.  I'll leave that for later articles, but what I want to say here is I'm looking backwards a bit.  To that end, I broke out some of my old armies. 

Be prepared for Family Photos Again Again, and Again Again Again... and so on.

Today though, I opened up the 13th Company.  This was my favorite tournament army for a long, long time.  Frankly, had they not done away with the Codex I'd probably still be playing them.  What's interesting to me as I walk down memory lane is how much the tournament scene has changed.

Here's what I mean.  Nowadays, anything goes, and you have the endless discussion between 'To Comp' or "Not To Comp' - but for the most part, nobody uses the word 'cheese' anymore to describe an army.  There is a sense that if an army can be created from a Codex, it's okay.  Obviously there are varying degrees of that, but back in the days I played my 13th Company army all I ever heard was 'cheese' and 'bullshit' and 'broken' over and over... and usually from people who thought they'd walk over the army.

God, but I loved my broken-bullshit-cheese-Marines.  It's the army I used to go unbeaten in a few large RT's.  My favorite run was at an event in Amarillo (I think - it's in West Texas, so who cares?) where I was the only army to go unbeaten.  Game 4 was against a mixed-arms Inquisitor lead Grey Knights force, complete with every dirty trick that was popular back then... what made it lovely was the dude's mouth.

He was a nice enough guy, but he spent the break between rounds 3 and 4 telling anyone who'd listen how easy it would be to kick my ass.  I'll give him this, he wasn't a crybaby, and though he lost pretty quickly he was a good sport about it.  The dude I played in Game 2 was a local called 'Grumpy Phil'... he wasn't grumpy, he was an asshole.  He made that game no fun at all, but everyone jumped to his defense; "That's just the way he is."  Okay, the way he is is an asshole. 

I'm much less likely to forgive shitty behavior in my old age.  Ironically, I'm much nicer now than I ever was a decade ago, but I like the idea of a Social Contract that's being kicked around the Blogosphere right now...

I have the right to expect civilized behavior.  I'm going to be on my best behavior, and while I don't expect a stranger at an event to instantly embrace me, I don't think common courtesy is too much to ask.

I'll say one last thing, in the spirit of bringing up the past... I fully expected to win Best General at that event, given I was the only unbeaten player.  But it was an old-school RTT... Grump Phil ("...that's just the way he is, he's okay!") knocked my sportsmanship, though naturally enough I gave him good marks, and my painting got extremely low marks.  Those points were enough to take away my spot, and I'll admit to this day it's a bit upsetting.  The Mighty Mighty Carlos won something - though I forget what it was - with his Imperial Fists.  Anyway, he told me later that he planned that army for RTT's knowing people like bright colors, like yellow.

He was smarter than I.  I got very few points because the painting judges said my models were 'dirty.'  No shit - I PAINTED THEM THAT WAY.

But I'm not bitter. 

(This is about half of my 13th Company - I didn't want to break everything out.  As always, click on the pics for a close-up.)

In all seriousness, I'm not bitter, a lot of that was for effect.  The Tournament Organizer was a good guy who made the mistake of asking folks off the street to judge painting.  He thought they'd have an unbiased eye, but instead they didn't know enough about painting to recognize differing styles.  He called me later to apologize and told me had my painting not been knocked around, I would have taken Best General.  Also, Little Barrera got a low score too.  His Ultramarines had numerous greenstuff conversions and hand-painted symbols, but the judges didn't know that... instead, he earned fewer points than Chemotep Tony's base-coated white and black-lined Marines.  Ouch.

I think Tournaments are about expectations.  If one concentrates too much on placing they'll miss the opportunity to just have fun.  I want to do well at BoLSCon this year, but I'm going to keep it firmly in mind that it's a fun event.

Not like Hard Boyz...