Tournament Tuesdays: UG&G Aftermath Part Two

Now that I have had some time to reflect upon the event, my general impression of it is positive. The scenarios were clearly cut & paste jobs of my old scenario sheets that I used for K’Wars and the KGC. This made me giggle and was a good reminder of how past efforts still impact the community today. Moving past the bit of nostalgia, I found the scenarios to be ok, with some strange deployments and special rules. In particular, the second scenario made Ernie’s army way to strong, as he had FNP ‘Ard Boyz and Boyz w/ 4+ cover saves and the ability to charge in the 2 turn with foot slogging orks. The third scenarios special rules also had a huge impact on the game and should have been done differently or limited to only the first turn. My advice here is to avoid using a lot of special rules or trying to be overly creative with deployment zones.

The gaming area of UG&G has a lot of character about it. The numerous posters, flyers and shelves with board games truly give the store an atmosphere of being a ‘home’ for gamers. The problem is that the gaming area is very small and can barely hold 4 4’x4’ tables. 4’x4’ tables are great for combat patrols and other small scale games, but 1500 points per side doesn’t work as well. The small gaming space also means that accidents are more likely, as in the case of two of my bloodletters getting swept to the floor and broken. This can happen anywhere though, so I am not complaining, just pointing out that one needs to be prepared to game in such tight quarters.

When it came to the TO, he was a very nice guy and a pleasure to meet. He was very laid back and casual, the kind of guy who makes an event feel more welcoming to new players. The only suggestion I would make to him is to stick to the posted schedule and not let things run over as much as they did during the event. There were only six teams (11 players plus the judge), so clock management and such should not be a big deal. Again though, the TO was such a nice guy and he seemed a little new to the role, so it wasn’t a big deal.

My last thought is that the scoring system could use a little work. The tournament was clearly geared towards winning games, but an award for painting would be nice. It would also be nice to see the final scores and know where our team placed. Since this is a casual event, I am not ultimately worried how I did, but it is nice to know.

At the end of the day, I had a good time at UG&G and will try to make another tournament in the future. Due to the size of the store, I would suggest it sticks with combat patrols and other small scale tournaments and not try to run full size games in the available space. I would love to go back there for a combat patrol tournament* or kill team tournament, so I hope they heed this advise. In the end, it was a good time and I thank the TO and store owner for running the event and giving me a day out to play.