Hello there.
I could swear I had already written about it here. If you follow the blog you might have read a report on a tournament I participated in, back in May held in Curitiba/Brazil (if you haven’t read about it yet do check this). After that I did participate in another one, but hadn’t talked about it thus far and that was unfair of me given how much fun I had.
One of the nice things going on in Brazil right now is that the local player communities have finally started organizing themselves into gaming clubs. It’s not a recent phenomenon, the first one we had was based in Rio de Janeiro and was named “Martelo de Guerra” (Warhammer in english) but unfortunately it no longer exists. Then we had B.O.S (an acronym for Bomb Of Slaanesh – no idea on the origin of the name) located in São Paulo and those two were the options to look for if you wanted to get into organized play and competitive gaming for a good while. Over the last couple of years more people have seen that getting together is indeed the best way to arrange other players to play against and also meet other like minded people and thus more and more gaming clubs are appearing all over Brazil.
The tournament I attended in May was held by one of these new clubs, “Tropas Polares” (“Polar Troops” in a loose translation), and so was the one I attended in July, held in Canoas/RS and organized by one of the newest clubs we have around, the “Clube Gaúcho de Wargames” (or CGW for short).
The CGW is indeed the newest club to appear in the Brazilian gaming scene, but I’ve know a few of its members over the internet for a while now, so I figured attending one of their meetings would be a nice way of getting to know them in person and also getting me a couple of games in the process.
Well, it turns out they decided to have a tournament on the Saturday I’d be there (I was going to be there for the weekend but Sunday would be devoted to another of the club’s interests: board games). I attended bringing my faithful Eldar in tow and, to my honest surprise, ended up winning the “Best General” (1st place) and “Best Painted Army” trophies.
I have to say it was an uphill struggle. My first match was against Rici and his Tyranids and I think I’ve never played such a tense game. Every turn he had new bugs arriving on the table. Coming from my flanks, dropping from out of the sky or emerging from the ground there were bugs everywhere and the gaming was hanging by a thread until the very end when I managed to score a victory dominating two out of the three available objectives.
On my second match I was paired against the clubs local boogeyman. Phan (short for Phantasm) is a nice guy who has mastered his Orks quite quickly and has yet to meet this match on the gaming table. From the very beginning things were looking grim for my frail Eldar. “Butchered” is an apt word to describe the situation as Phan hammered me every turn. I had a couple lucky moments, like when my Fire Dragons dealt with two of his Killer Kan units, and ended up winning, in another lucky moment at the very final turn when my Dire Avengers mowed down one of his Loota units, by a meager killpoint.
Lucking out on my second game landed me against another tough opponent, Ismael and his brand new Dark Eldar. The dark kin some call them but, unfortunately, my Eldar can call no kinship to those guys as they hit like a brick, with a hammer attached to it. Every time Ismael got to shoot one of his venoms he was rolling something like fourteen envenomed shots downing with ease two of my hardest hitting units. I had thus to be even more devious than the dreaded Dark Eldar so I turned to Eldrad’s magic tricks, feigning a deploy and then repositioning my units. Ismael fell for it so I got to divide his forces. I also got a lot of help from lady luck. Suffice to say I had never rolled so many “6’s”. Ever. Couple that with the Dark Eldar’s jaw glass and I did manage to score myself another win.
Being the sole player with 3 wins I scored first place. Not surprisingly second and third places would be decided between Ismael and Phan who managed a tie when their points were compared, even after tie breaker scores were consulted. Phan graciously conceded the second place to Ismael settling the dispute.
Then it was time to vote for the “Best Painted Army” award. There were only two eligible armies, given that most participants used unpainted armies, and I was up against a fellow Eldar player. I won’t remember the exact score but I managed another marginal victory when all votes were counted.
Sunday was a very atypical day for me as I got to play a few board games. I played those growing up but hadn’t played one for years. Suffice to say I had a very fun day playing “Battle Star Galactica” and another game I won’t recall the name right now. It was such a nice experience I’m decided to purchase a few to play with friends and family.
In the end I had a very good time with the friends from CGW. Good conversation, good food and good games made the weekend a memorable one that I’m keen to repeat in the very near future (January is just around the corner again and I hear the guys are having a Summer Tournament this time).
To wrap it up I leave you with some pictures from the weekend:
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Olá.
Percebi hoje que havia me esquecido completamente de mencionar aqui no blog acerca do último torneio do qual participei.
Já havia relatado aqui ter participado do Torneio Polar, organizado pelo clube Curitibano Tropas Polares, em maio do corrente ano. Naquela oportunidade fui tão bem recebido pelos amigos de Curitiba que fiquei motivado a visitar outros clubes brasileiros.
Eu já conhecia alguns dos membros do Clube Gaúcho de Wargames (ou CGW) através da internet e quando surgiu a oportunidade de participar de um dos encontros mensais promovidos pelo clube pensei que seria uma ótima oportunidade de conhecê-los pessoalmente e, por tabela, disputar algumas partidas contra adversários diferentes dos meus habituais parceiros de jogo. Assim não me fiz de rogado e embarquei com destino ao Rio Grande do Sul para participar do encontro do Clube Gaúcho de Wargames.
O CGW é o mais novo clube a surgir no território nacional, trilhando o caminho de outros tantos jogadores que entenderam que agremiar-se é uma das formas mais construtivas de curtir nosso hobby já que os clubes permitem encontrar oponentes com facilidade bem como conhecer outras pessoas com interesses semelhantes aos nossos.
Ao saber que eu iria o Monty, presidente do clube, acabou organizando um pequeno torneio no qual acabei me sagrando campeão após três partidas complicadíssimas.
Na primeira partida enfrentei o Rici e seus Tyranids num jogo que, pra falar pouco, foi tensa do começo ao fim. O exército capitaneado por ele era reforçado a cada novo turno com criaturas que adentravam o campo de batalha pelos meus flancos, caindo dos céus, ou emergindo do solo. Não saber o que esperar a cada novo turno me manteve atento e me obrigou a priorizar alvos e remover ameaças. Acabei tendo sorte por que os reforços do Rici foram chegando aos poucos o que me permitiu concentrar fogo e abatê-los, não sem que sofresse algumas baixas. No final conquistei a primeira suada vitória ao dominar dois objetivos contra nenhum dos Tyranids.
A segunda partida foi contra o “Bicho Papão” do CGW, O Phan. O Phan começou a jogar há pouco tempo, mas dominou com rapidez os Orks no 40K. O army é bom, mas nas mãos de alguém que compreende bem suas forças e fraquezas os Orks são devastadores. Desde o começo ficou bastante claro que o Phan viria para o meu pescoço, avançando em pinça sobre as posições ocupadas pelos meus Eldar. O jogo parecia ganho por ele desde o começo, já que turno após turno os Orks infligiam pesadas baixas no meu exército. Devo admitir que devo minha vitória contra o Phan à dois lances de sorte que me concederam um mísero Kill Point de vantagem e assim a vitória.
A partida final contra o Ismael tinha tudo pra ser um massacre. O cara joga também a pouco tempo com os famigerados “primos” dos Eldar, os Dark Eldar. Um exército bastante rápido e agressivo, que nas mãos do Ismael despejava a cada turno um volume de fogo assombroso contra mim. Uma vez mais devo grande parte da vitória a sorte já que rolei muito bem durante todo o jogo garantindo assim a vitória final e o primeiro lugar no Torneio.
Uma coisa que me agradou bastante no torneio foi a adoção de objetivos secundários para cada missão o que acabou tornando as partidas mais dinâmicas. Embora eu tenha adorado passar um dia descompromissado no domingo jogando jogos de tabuleiro penso que se tivéssemos tido um segundo dia de jogos, com duas partidas a mais, por exemplo, os resultados do torneio de modo geral seriam bem distintos.
Um bônus bem vindo foi ter vencido também o prêmio de melhor army pintado. Coroou minha experiência com os Eldar, que espero revisitar, mas que devem entrar em semi-aposentadoria a partir de agora.
Que venha o Torneio de Verão!
The Painting Frog 