Hello there Reader.
We have quick post today letting my readers know we have published a new episode of the “Papo de Mesa Podcast”, the Brazilian podcast about wargames, board games miniature painting and collecting and other “nerdy” topics.
This is the second part of our episode about Role Playing Games (RPGs) and we continue talking about this favorite hobby of ours.
Hello there Reader.
Another quick post today letting my readers know we have published a new episode of the “Papo de Mesa Podcast”, the Brazilian podcast about wargames, board games miniature painting and collecting and other “nerdy” topics.
This week’s episode is about Role Playing Games (RPGs) a hobby some of us were really keen on in the past and which served as a trampoline into the wargaming hobby (and that I’m looking forward to revisit with some friends soon, but I’ll talk more about that later).
Hello there.
Just letting you guys know we have published last week the second part of our “Papo de Mesa Podcast” about wargaming clubs in Brazil.
It is Portuguese spoken, so it might not be of interest to my English readers. Having said that if you speak Portuguese do check it out, either through the post on our Podcast’s blog or right here on the blog through the Youtube Player available further down on this post.
Hello there Reader.
Another quick post today letting you know we’ve published the first part of our fifth episode of the Papo de Mesa Podcast.
Again this is a Portuguese spoken podcast but if you speak the language I couldn’t recommend it more. This time around the hosts welcome guests from five Brazilian wargaming clubs to discuss the incipient club phenomenon in Brazil.
Hello Reader.
If you live abroad you probably know a couple of clubs devoted to gaming right? From what I understand in some foreign countries the associative spirit is encouraged from an early age, starting in schools which promote many “interest clubs” ranging from book clubs, debate clubs and math teams to varied hobby clubs and gaming clubs.
It’s no secret that clubs have a great social aspect not only promoting the interaction between members, and the opportunity to exercise their common interest, but also being a reassuring factor to members showing that no matter how “weird” your hobby/personal interest may be, there’s others out there who share your passion, even if it’s sock sniffing (ok, there might not be clubs around for THAT!).
Well, for some reason I can’t fathom clubs are not that common in Brazil. We do have tennis clubs pretty much everywhere (go figure right? Every small town I’ve lived in for the last 8 years had one) with their inevitable tennis courts and swimming pools, and we do have some schools which encourage its students to form student councils but the hobby clubs are almost non-existent in schools.
So it should come as no surprise to you that gaming clubs are a recent innovation in the hobby scenario in Brazil but fortunately more and more wargamers around the country are feeling the need to associate and clubs are appearing all over the country. We went from a single club scenario, the now extinct “Martelo de Guerra” (“Warhammer” in English) in Rio de Janeiro, to a multi-club one in the space of a few years.
Hello there.
This is the Portuguese version of my report on CGW’s Summer Tournament held in late January 2012. If you missed the original article in English you can check it here.
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Salve Leitores!
Acabei demorando um pouco mais do que gostaria para escrever este relato sobre o 1º “Torneio de Verão” realizado pelo Clube Gaúcho de Wargames, mas fatores alheios a minha vontade (Forças do warp? O Valter?) conspiraram para que eu sempre postergasse escrever este artigo desde que retornei de viagem. Não mais.
Como já havia mencionado aqui no blog, viajei no último mês de janeiro para participar do 1º Torneio de Verão promovido em Porto Alegre, mais especificamente na cidade de Canoas/RS, pelo Clube Gaúcho de Wargames.
Sob a batuta do “patrão” Monty o pessoal do clube conseguiu uma vez mais promover um encontro extremamente divertido onde o mote era justamente esse: A diversão dos participantes.
Vários amigos tem me perguntado o porquê de eu viajar mais de dois mil quilômetros para jogar um jogo de miniaturas (popularmente conhecidos como “bonequinhos”) com um bando de caras com quem me relaciono através da internet. Bom, eu até posso responder isso com uma resposta lógica que implica basicamente em ter de me deslocar até onde esse tipo de evento acontece já que aqui onde moro existem poucos jogadores e, até agora, nenhum torneio ou encontro de jogadores.
A verdade é que mesmo antes de participar do 1º “Torneio de Inverno” promovido pelo clube eu já conversava bastante com alguns membros do clube. A minha visita por ocasião daquele torneio só fez estreitar os laços de amizade e hoje tenho essa turma como bons amigos com quem gosto de conversar, tomar uns tragos, dar risadas e, claro, “jogar bonequinhos”.
Assim, cheguei em PoA na sexta feira ao meio dia e após esperar um tempinho pelas malas encontrei o Francisco “Phantasma” no saguão de desembarque do aeroporto já acompanhado dos outros dois “gringos” que participariam do torneio, o André “Streem” (do Vlog ReLOAD) e o Enéas, ambos de São Paulo. Pouco depois chegou o brother Ismael pra dar-nos uma carona ao nosso primeiro destino do dia, almoço numa churrascaria (afinal ir ao Rio Grande do Sul e comer outra coisa senão churrasco é um desperdício de viagem). Já de barriga cheia passamos o resto da tarde fazendo o que wargamers fazem quando se reúnem, ou seja, falando bobagem e sobre miniaturas enquanto aguardávamos o restante do pessoal para tomarmos umas cervejas no “by night”.
O Fred “4irw4lk3r”, mestre etílico experiente versado nos meandros da capital gaúcha, levou a trupe para tomar umas num “pub” local e depois de varias “Crujas” a maioria de nós optou por se recolher e preparar para o final de semana de batalhas imaginárias.
No sábado chegamos cedo ao local do evento, uma vez mais o salão de festas cedido pelo Phantasma, onde encontramos as mesas já montadas e prontas para receber os jogadores. O torneio teve ao todo 10 inscritos, porém dois deles acabaram se atrasando. Como havia bastante tempo durante o final de semana para a realização das 5 rodadas optou-se então por realizar duas rodadas no sábado e três no domingo concedendo assim aos participantes algum tempo para conversar e trocar experiências, bem como bastante conversa mole, e até mesmo disputar alguns amistosos.
Além de bisbilhotar os jogos alheios e jogar bastante conversa fora com o pessoal usei esse tempo para dar uma olhada mais de perto nos cenários do evento. Quem acompanha o blog do CGW pôde, como eu, acompanhar o desenvolvimento dos cenários que comporiam as mesas dos torneios (se não acompanhou pode conferir os posts aqui, aqui e aqui) e admito que estava bastante curioso para ver como elas tinham ficado.
Das cinco mesas montadas para o evento, três delas contavam com cenários que me eram familiares, posto que tinham sido empregados no 1º Torneio de Inverno em 2011, mas, duas das mesas apresentadas agora eram inéditas: A mesa Eldar, com suas estruturas de wraithbone e formações de rocha vermelha, e a mesa dos cogumelos, inspirada na mesa “Fungus World” do pessoal do estúdio Blue Table Painting (que pode ser conferida num vídeo aqui).
Ainda que a mesa Eldar, pintada pelo Vitor, do blog “Vamos Ver no Pano Verde”, tenha ficado bastante legal a mesa dos cogumelos foi de longe a minha mesa favorita apresentada nesse evento (mesmo com a pintura incompleta) já que com seus diversos níveis e passagens “subterrâneas” (ok, era só por baixo do cogumelo maior ao centro) a mesa adicionou elementos táticos ao jogo bastante diferentes do habitual. Não bastasse isso, quando efetivamente joguei na mesa fiquei com a impressão de maior imersão no jogo já que frequentemente era necessário abaixar-me para poder vislumbrar os alvos que minhas miniaturas conseguiam efetivamente enxergar (o que declaradamente foi a intenção da GW ao adotar nessa edição a “True Line of Sight”). Tudo isso é de longe mérito uma vez mais do Monty que concebeu e executou a mesa, ficando agora a vontade de revê-la em breve com um paintjob caprichado do Vitor.
Bom, voltando ao torneio, com a chegada do Erico o torneio pode enfim começar. Ainda teríamos um “by” na primeira rodada (o qual o Monty se ofereceu para ser), mas pelo menos o restante dos jogadores poderia começar a jogar. Fui emparceirado contra o Bitten e seus Space Wolves para a primeira rodada o que de cara me deixou preocupado já que o Bitten havia assumido o posto de bicho papão do Phan ao vencer grande parte dos jogos disputados antes do torneio com o pessoal do clube. O consenso entre o pessoal era que a lista dele, com dois Rune Priests e seus poderes psiônicos, era devastadora. A partida contra ele acabou sendo bastante divertida e disputada do começo ao fim sem que um dos lados conseguisse se colocar em flagrante vantagem (mesmo com os constantes raios lançados pelos Rune Priests detonando minhas unidades) ao longo dos seis turnos da partida. Sendo assim a partida terminou num justo empate.
Meu segundo jogo foi disputado contra o Enéas e seus Eldar. O Enéas usa uma lista Eldar conhecida lá fora como “footdar” (algo como “eldar a pé”), defendida por muitos como a única opção de lista competitiva para os Eldar na atual situação das regras do 40K. A lista se baseia em múltiplas unidades de eldar guardians a pé e um avatar tornando-os fearless o que gera para o jogador desse army um enorme volume de tiro a média distância e a capacidade de vencer oponentes por atrito já que vai sobrepujar o oponente em números o que lhe concede uma vantagem.
A partida tinha tudo pra ser bastante divertida, mas uma divergência acerca das regras do jogo, especificamente o momento em que uma unidade que esteja fugindo (“falling back”) seria obrigada a testar para reagrupar, acabou azedando a partida. O jogo terminou com uma vitória para mim obtida nos últimos momentos do último turno quando um único marine sobreviveu a uma saraivada de tiros Eldar garantindo-me um objetivo contra nenhum do oponente.
Com isso concluímos o primeiro dia do torneio e embora eu estivesse com vontade de continuar por ali e jogar uns boardgames com o pessoal do clube, o cansaço do dia (e a falta de uma carona pra voltar depois) acabou fazendo com que eu optasse em ir para o hotel descansar um pouco, afinal de contas seriam três jogos no dia seguinte.
No domingo fui emparceirado para a 3ª rodada contra o Phantasma. Diferente do último torneio, onde ele usou uma lista casca grossa de Orks, dessa vez o cara capitaneava um army de Daemons of Chaos. Admito sem vergonha que jogar contra ele me intimidava, não só por que o cara é um oponente muito competente e competitivo, mas também por que tive um desempenho pífio contra o army de Daemons nas duas oportunidades em que enfrentei oponentes com esse army (no Torneio Polar do Clube Tropas Polares em 2011). Sendo assim optei por um deploy meio covarde deixando boa parte de minhas tropas fora da mesa em reserva.
Acabou que durante o jogo consegui abater boa parte dos Daemons concentrando fogo neles, assim, seria melhor ter minhas tropas na mesa desde o inicio. Esse erro acabou me custando muito caro quando no último turno, a única miniatura sobrevivente do Phan, com um único wound, foi capaz de contestar o objetivo dominado por minhas tropas, conquistando um justo empate para seu “Evil Master”.
Na quarta rodada foi a minha vez de enfrentar o rolo compressor kabalita: Erico e sua “Cabala do Inferno Verde”! Tive o prazer de enfrentar o cara na minha mesa favorita do evento, a mesa dos cogumelos, numa partida muito legal. Os Dark Eldar realmente justificaram sua fama de excelente exército e tive muita dificuldade em eliminar por completo as unidades inimigas, que justificaram cada ponto pago nos flickerfields. No final fui uma vez mais contestado no objetivo que dominava e o Érico arrancou de mim um empate.
Minha partida final foi contra o brother André Streem. O cara é um bom amigo com quem gosto de jogar sempre que temos oportunidade apesar da grande distância que nos separa. Tivemos uma partida bem legal com diversos lances memoráveis, mas que, infelizmente, acabei perdendo (encerrando minha invencibilidade contra o André) por não conseguir eliminar completamente as unidades do cara que engajei ao longo da partida.
No fim das contas acabei conquistando o prêmio de “Melhor Army Pintado” (com o André Streem e seus Salamanders em segundo e o 4irw4lk3r e seus Dark Angels em terceiro) e um terceiro lugar como “Melhor General” atrás do André Streem em segundo e do Érico em primeiro lugar (para os resultados oficiais confira aqui). Além disso, me diverti horrores uma vez mais na companhia dos amigos do CGW falando muita bobagem, dando risadas e jogando bonequinhos.
No geral fiquei bastante satisfeito com meus resultados já que consegui conquistar o prêmio para o qual realmente me dedico (as imagens a seguir mostram o esmero com o qual me dediquei à esse army ao longo de um ano) assim como consegui o que considero um bom resultado no que diz respeito à minha performance como jogador ilustrando o ponto de que não é necessário ter sempre seu exército baseado no mais recente set de regras lançado (Os Black Templars tem hoje um dos codexes mais defasados), e que dá para se divertir e jogar competitivamente fazendo uma lista focada mais no background do army do que nas escolhas mais taticamente competitivas.
Senti falta do Vitor e do Alex, que tiveram compromissos importantes e não puderam participar dessa vez e fico aguardando o próximo encontro com essa galera. Agradeço uma vez mais a excelente recepção e o carinho e a atenção com que sempre sou tratado por essa turma! Agradecimentos especiais ainda ao Monty e ao Bitten, que organizaram o evento e despenderam grana e esforços para o divertimento de todos, ao Phantasma e ao Ismael, que recepcionaram os gringos no aeroporto e aturaram nosso papo furado estoicamente, ao Fred por levar a galera pra tomar “cerveja de verdade”, ao Rici por uma vez mais compartilhar os dotes culinários de sua família com a galera e por fim agradecer ao Ismael, ao Enéas e ao Streem pela ajuda no imbróglio do celular perdido!
Pra finalizar com chave de ouro a cobertura do evento feita pelo André para o ReLOAD e lembrando que quem quiser conferir mais fotos do evento pode fazê-lo aqui:
Que venha o próximo evento!
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Hello there.
I’ve been meaning to write a report on CGW’s “Summer Tournament” for a while now but whenever I sat down to write it something would come up and prevent me from doing it. Well I shall dally no more and now I share with you my impressions on the first tournament I attended this year.
As I had previously announced here on the blog on the 27th of January I travelled to Porto Alegre (the capital of the Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil) in order to attend the latest tournament concocted by the friends from the “Clube Gaucho de Wargames”. I’ve probably mentioned elsewhere this is the second of their tournaments I have attended which has prompted some questions from my friends as to why I’m going through the effort of travelling 2206 kilometers (that’s 1370 miles for those of you who do not use the metric system) in order to play Warhammer 40K.
Well, I could start answering that by once more highlighting that Brazil is a huge country (it is the 5th biggest country in the world) and that the wargaming community is spread thinly all over it. In my hometown, for example, which is a capital and has a population of over 500.000 inhabitants there are 6, yes SIX, Warhammer 40K players and I only get to play regularly against two of them once a month (And that’s when I’m lucky. I’m not getting any games in February for instance). That must sound baffling to most of you out there right? Believe me when I say there are guys here in even worse situation when it comes to finding other players to game against.
If the scarcity of opponents wasn’t excuse enough for me to tour around the country with little plastic soldiers in tow there’s also the fact that, over the course of last year, and specially after I attended their 1st “Winter Tournament”, the guys from CGW have become very good friends with whom I chat often, not only about the fantastic universe of miniature soldiers, but also about the tons of other common interests we share, so I’ve come to cherish every opportunity I have to get together with them and share a few beers and laughs and collect new war stories to reminisce about when I’m back home. I often talk about how nice it feels to be amongst like minded people when one attends a tournament and cite that as one of the reason we should strive to take part in them. Well my friendship with the guys from CGW stems from the camaraderie shared over two days of gaming and I believe it does prove the point.
My reasons aside I believe anyone who had attended CGW’s 1st Summer Tournament would feel as welcomed as I have and have a nice time to boot. I arrived in Porto Alegre around noon on Friday and was picked up at the airport along with two other players from Sao Paulo (Streem from the ReLOAD vlog and Eneas) by two members of the club. We were taken for lunch at a local restaurant where we could taste the local specialty: The world famous “Churrasco”, also known as “Brazilian Barbecue”. Having sated our gluttony, the rest of the day was spent in friendly conversation while we waited for other members of the club to join us for evening drinks before the weekend of gaming ahead of us.
I arrived early on Saturday at the events venue to find the tables already assembled and some of the club members milling around and getting ready to unleash carnage. There were 10 enrolled players but two of them would arrive late which delayed a little bit the start of the first tournament round giving people some time to chat about armies, strategies, miniatures and even get a couple pick-up games against the guys from Sao Paulo who were visiting the club for the first time (“there’s nothing like a pick-up game to know your enemy” I might have heard someone say).
I took advantage of this time to have a closer look at the tables presented and must admit they were on par with the ones the club had shown on their first event or better. Some scenery was already familiar to me but at least two tables were completely new, the eldar one with its wraithbone structures and the “mushroom table”, inspired by Blue Table Painting’s “Fungus World” gaming table (which can be seen on this video).
I particularly liked the “mushroom table”, albeit presented in an unfinished state at the event, because it added a different element to 40K than what I’m used to, with its multiple levels and passages. When I got the chance to game on it the table actually made me feel the need to stoop over and have a “model’s eye view” in order to check for line of sight thus providing me with a bigger immersion in the game so kudos to Monty for accomplishing a great gaming table that offered people something different from the usual most of us are accustomed to.
As soon as one of the latecomers arrived we were ready to start. I was paired against one of the club’s “bogeymen”, namely Bitten and his Space Wolves. I didn’t get a game against him on my previous visit so I didn’t know what to expect. His list sported all sorts of Space Wolves shenanigans but the consensus amongst those who had gamed against him before was to watch for his two Rune Priests and their deadly psychic powers. In the end we had a very nice and open game which could have been won by either of us, but, ended on a fair draw.
For my second game I was paired against Eneas and his Eldar. He plays a list popularly known as “foodar” which sports a lot of eldar walking around the battlefield but almost no tanks. He had at least 4 huge units of guardians and relied upon his avatar to make them fearless trusting in numbers to defeat the enemy. It could have been a nice game but we had an argument on this game, as I believe my opponent had an erroneous interpretation of the rules, which pretty much spoiled the fun. He proposed he wasn’t obliged to start his turn by making compulsory moves, specifically by not taking a test with his falling back guardians at the beginning of his turn. He would start his turn by moving his Avatar to within 12’ of the broken unit automatically regrouping it because it made the falling back unit fearless. Suffice to say the disagreement over the rules made this a very stressful and tense game but thankfully I was able to pull a victory at the very end by holding on to my objective while contesting his.
This concluded the first day of gaming and I headed back to the hotel for much needed rest. Some people stayed behind for the traditional “board game night” they always have, but as I had no ride back to the hotel I declined their invitation to play more games.
The warfare began anew on Sunday morning where I got to face an army I fared horribly against in the “Tropas Polares” club’s tournament last year: Daemons of Chaos. I must admit I was afraid of fighting the daemons in a straight up fight and so I left most of my army off the table for the first couple of turns. Turns out I was able to shoot most of the army into oblivion but my neglect in engaging the enemy earlier on in the game cost me an important victory by a mere wound on the sole remaining daemon prince of the enemy army which contested the objective I held earning its daemonic master, Phantasma, a well deserved draw.
On the fourth game I got to face Erico and his Dark Eldar on the aforementioned “mushroom table”. I had a great game against him but one where my inability to finish off some of his units again cost me dearly when one of his leftovers (three meager trueborn kabalites) contested me out of my objective. I also failed to destroy one of his units I had named earlier in the game as a target thus robbing me of some precious points in the secondary objective of the game.
On my final game I was paired against Streem and his Salamanders. He’s a good friend and one I enjoy gaming against whenever I can. I had faced his army before and knew what to expect from it but by then Lady Luck had forsaken me. I got to face him on a game which was extremely difficult to me, a kill point game which awarded extra kill points not only for Elite, Heavy Support and HQ choices but the same amount of KPs for their dedicated transports (choices which I had a lot off in my army). It was an uphill struggle for me made all the more difficult by my inability to destroy his units. One of my tanks, a Predator Annihilator, shot at his dreadnought for the best part of the game, slowly tearing it apart but unable to destroy it. Streem pulled out a great victory in the end playing like a true gentleman and bagging himself a well earned second place.
I ended up in third place for the “Best General” award and Erico and his Dark Eldar took home the trophy for 1st place “Best General”. I also managed to win the trophy for “Best Painted Army” with the Black Templars I presented there, being followed by Streem and his Salamanders in second and 4irw4lk3r and his Dark Angels in third place. “BLACK TEMPLARS???” I hear some of you asking. Well as I had already won the “Best Painted Army” prize with my Eldar on the “Winter Tournament”, and as I hadn’t added anything to that army in a while, I felt it would be nicer if I presented an altogether different army in order to compete for that prize thus I borrowed my mate’s Black Templars which I had painted for him under commission last year.
I’m pretty happy with my results even though I realize I could have placed a lot better if I hadn’t made so many mistakes over the course of my games, namely engaging the Daemons early on in the game instead of cowering in fear and focusing a little more on my game against Erico and his Dark Eldar. Still I believe third place was an excellent result given that I had never played the Black Templars, more so when you realize their codex is one of the most outdated ones we have right now.
Overall I had, as I expected from the onset, a great weekend devoted to the hobby I’m so passionate about with the added bonus of being amongst friends. I should mention that Vitor’s (from the “Vamos Ver no Pano Verde” Blog) and Alex’s absences were noted but both of them had very good reasons not to attend the tournament this time. We’ll grab some beers next time for sure!
Before we say our goodbyes I should thank every single member of the CGW club present at the event for their awesome reception and the attention they treated me once more. I should also thank Eneas and Streem for delaying their “evening activities” in order to help me search for my missing cell phone and my good mate Ismael for waking up to find it lying in his car.
In closure I’m adding here Streem’s brilliant coverage of the event on the 7th episode of his ReLOAD video log (video is in portuguese but the footage speaks for itself):
Over and out!
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Hello there.
After all my posts here urging you fellow hobbyist and reader to attend tournaments it’s only fair I put my money where my mouth is and follow my own advice thus I’m all packed up and ready to attend the Clube Gaucho de Wargames‘ (CGW’s) 1st Summer Tournament which will be held in Porto Alegre/RS – Brazil over the course of next weekend (on the 28th and 29th of January).
You might remember I have attended CGW’s 1st Winter Tournament, also held in Porto Alegre back in July 2011 where I had a great time and managed to bring home the “Best General” and “Best Painted Army” prizes. There’s no need to say how much I look forward to attending another of their events specially after following closelly all the effort put into this one by Monty and the other guys from the club.
So expect more tournament news soon as I share the experience with you guys here on the blog.
Over and out.
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Salve Leitor.
Depois de tanto propagandear por aqui como participar de torneios engrandece a apreciação do hobby e instar vocês Leitores a empreender esforços no sentido de fazê-lo, nada mais justo que eu dê o exemplo e siga meus próprios conselhos. Para isso estou de malas prontas para participar do primeiro Torneio de Verão do Clube Gaúcho de Wargames a ser realizado em Porto Alegre no próximo final de semana (nos dias 28 e 29 de janeiro).
Alguns de vocês podem se lembrar que tive a oportunidade de prestigiar em julho do ano passado o Torneio de Inverno do CGW onde não só me diverti bastante e disputei partidas bastante divertidas, mas também onde tive a felicidade de ganhar os prêmios de “Melhor General” e “Melhor Army Pintado”. Não preciso nem dizer o quão empolgado estou em participar uma vez mais de um evento do CGW, especialmente após acompanhar ao longo dos últimos meses todo o trabalho do Monty e dos demais membros do clube para entregar um evento redondinho, se não melhor, pelo menos no mesmo nível do “Torneio de Inverno”.
Podem aguardar em breve um relato de mais esse evento.
Um abraço e até breve.
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 