This Is One Busy Quarter for Tourneys!

Unless I got it wrong, this is one busy quarter as far as wargames tournaments go in Malaysia.

We got some expectedly fierce FoW action going on today with an 1800pt Mid War Monsters tournament (of mayhem). October 30th is Hobby Forge's 500pt WFB tournament (great excuse to paint your next or first 500pts of Old World harbingers of mayhem). November 13th is the annual Legio 40k tournament, and this year we're building on the epic Ghemehaal mythos (and this time it's 1500pts of mayhem - plus free troops!). And for a change of air (fresher I think), there's Just Wargames' 1750pt 40k tourney in Sabah on December 5th. Did I miss anything?

Looks like the wargames hobby is starting to heat up again in Malaysia - or is it? I noticed over the past 10 years that when it comes to tournaments, there are broadly four kinds of wargamers, from my point of view:

Type 1: Waaaargh!!!! Just the excuse I need to build and paint a new army! I know, I'll theme it after an Imperial Navy boarding party so most of the troops are conscript sailors with a core of veteran armsmen, painted in the colors of Battlefleet Obscurus, circa M38.2237!

Type 2: Waaaargh!!!! This is going to be a blast! New opponents to play against! New interesting diabolical scenarios and themes! Great games on kick ass terrain! New models to paint! Woohoo, is this fun or what?!

Type 3: Waaaargh!!!! Kill 'em all!!! Must get into training now! Where's my great tome of meta-game stats? My models all got 3 colors on them right?

Type 4: Wah, got tournament ah? Shy la. I'm not so good. I lose most of my games. My army still not finished painting yet ... etc.

Okay, maybe there are more than 4 types, but hey, this is not an empirical thesis for a Harvard MBA. There's nothing wrong with the view of each of the above - simply because it's always and ever will be your hobby. You get out of it what you want to get out of it, and it usually has to do with what you put into it.

Having said that, I do have some thoughts for the Type 4 people.

If you are a Type 4, trust me, there's nothing to be shy about. Wargames tournaments are not sporting events, and it's not just about winning or losing (of course, it's nice to win, but it's not the end-all be-all of wargames tourneys). And don't worry if you don't think your painting is not good enough (the Type 3 people never think about that, lol) - the point of painting your army for the tournament is the sense of achievement you get for actually getting your army fully-painted. It's your work, and nobody can take that away from you, and you should rightly be proud of it (also, tourneys are probably the best catalyst for people - me included - to finish painting an army on time). What's important is that you have FUN. And the fun is in preparing your army for the tournament, the anticipation of the coming big day, the playing with people you've never played against before, etc. So go sign up for the next one!

Anyways, that's my thought for the day. Wargames tournaments, just like the wargames community and hobby in general, lives and breathes on your involvement. The more people get involved, the better the hobby gets. And playing in tourneys is one of the easiest and fun ways to get involved. Maybe next time we'll talk about other, more effort-heavy, ways to get involved in the hobby.