MVBrandt

 

So this is a point of view issue, and I just want to make sure both sides are acknowledged.

I play because the constant challenge of puzzle solving that is the game is the largest enjoyment I can get out of a play session. Whether that puzzle is how to 10-5 someone instead of 10-9 them or how to drop their margin of victory from 5 to 1 against me doesn't matter. I would be frustrated and enjoy the game less if an opponent held back on me, if they can crush me I want them to prove it so I have a chance to prove them wrong. Even should Fate (that fun, fickle and frisky lady) decide to give me a bad game there is still an opportunity for me to show how well I can do without her, but only if my opponent stays in the game.

The obvious thing you have to be sure of is your opponent's intent when playing. If the player is new or just looking to chat and drink while playing a game on the side this would lead to a bad experience for them. And I'd rather have an OK game for me and a good game for them then 'try hard' and have a good game for me and a terrible one for them. But I attend tourneys for the often assumed competitive environment so more of the people should be expecting my preferred play style rather than the casual play style we do in one off games.

The problem is not whether some people will try to solve a problem as perfectly as possible. The problem is when a format mandates you solve it at maximum cost to your opponent. It is antithetical to the fundamental method by which you foster sportsmanship. By limiting the margin of victory to binary and ensuring sufficient rounds, balanced terrain, etc, you maximize the sportsmanship potential in any one game, even though you can't literally force people to be sporting. 

A TO should generally seek the optimal environment for his broadest target audience to enjoy their experience, while remembering that optimal doesn't mean perfect. 

It's pretty appropriate to have enough rounds in a wld game system to determine a clear winner. At least one person conflated winner with best player. Tournaments establish the best for the weekend, not the best period. Sufficient rounds for attendance improves the fairness grade of the event. 

That said, not all local events can do this time wise, and bigger con style events should offer simultaneous alternate formats for people who don't care as much for tourneys. Which generally is how things are handled. 

As an aside, vp differential and margin of victory are hobby destroying metrics. They add a requirement to not just win, but also seek to both win big and actively try to crush any opportunity your opponent has to do anything. If I'm sure I'm going to get ten, and i know my opponent can only get 9 at most, we can enjoy the rest of the game. If it's in a tournament where margin matters, I'm going to keep getting ten but also try to crush the life and every single point out of him. This is bad. Don't do this. 

There are openings, you should come out. I run run the con, and we'd love to have you. 

Lilith has terrible match-ups within that framework (i.e. Som'er basically auto-wins vs. her in very similar fashion to how Rat Engine did). Kirai, Lilith, and Shenlong are the 3 "solos" you'd try for each of those factions, but none would make it through as readily as the Guild (Sonnia), Arc (Marcus), Gremlin (Som'er), or Outcast (several choices due to the fact the best Outcast build isn't really because of the Master) would.

Each of the first 4 can play a single master in a tournament and win the thing, in any field, if played well. This isn't true for 10T, NVB, or Rez, presently. And, generally speaking, as an example point, when we recently played in the largely-attended Bragging Rights team event up in CT, it was very easy to deal with teams who chose not to bring Guild/Grem/Arc/Out, b/c the match involving Rez or 10T or Nvb was one where they were on the back foot from the first flip. It was a visible handicap. $.02

Honestly Guild is one of the strongest factions. This is primarily b/c they have one of the most efficient sets of beater list build options out there, where you can have enough models to not be terribly out-activated, while each model can generally be quick and highly lethal, and pretty durable comparatively. These things all make for a giant PITA to deal with when someone plays them quickly or efficiently to their strengths (kill lots of things reliably).

Guild, Arc, Som'er, and Outcasts are still the strongest 4 factions by a wide margin (IMO). 

The fences are gonna look awesome!

Team scratch-built them, and now we've got molds for durability and volume. Anyone in the DC area looking to learn about terrain building and what-not should also ping us and come join NOVA terrain days. Free food, beer, and fun.

Update for all - Down to under 20 spots left for the Malifaux National Championships

Additionally, only 14 spots remain for the Narrative

6 spots remain for the Enforcer Brawl

6 spots remain for Hardcore

8 spots remain for Treacherous Ties

12 spots remain for the Trios Team event (12 team spots)

Also, while you can cancel your hotel room as long as it's 48 hours before the time of, we already sold the hotel block out and had to ask the Hyatt for an increase. They gave us all the rooms left in the hotel, but THAT larger block is now 75% gone.

Daww you guys

Hey all,

Just a regular info post that we are always welcoming new players to join us for Monday Night Malifaux in Springfield, VA. We host out of a home with ample space to game (up to about 20 players' at a time) and a regular e-mail distro group of 48 players. Activities occasionally also include non-Monday events, such as an in-the-works plan for a Saturday tournament, Shifting Loyalties campaigns, and the like.

Terrain and tables are very high quality, as is the company (if we don't say so ourselves!).

PM me if you'd like to be added to the e-mail google group (which we use for weekly sign-ups/etc.).

They did not pre-register then, I am gathering, which makes it doubly disappointing.

4 of us from DC were registered with our wives/SOs making the trip and planning to hit up NYC while we played. Unfortunately, as of Tuesday night, we were the only paid/known registrants, so they scrubbed the event (as we weren't going to drive up to play ourselves for 2 days).

Is a bummer, as BFS on the whole is one of the best / most fun events in the country.

Update I believe they may have reduced the cost of this ... hoping the event organizer will post somethin' of an update.

It is $50 ... no con pass or anything, though, so just straight $50. Plus, you will be joining a group of pretty radical dudes and dudettes who will be hanging out and socializing before/during/after games all weekend.

Why aren't you making it? Do you need a hotel room to share? We have several. BRING THE PEOPLES. Defend NE from DC. Or don't.

Who is going to this? A bunch of us from DC are going up, b/c the people at BFS (even for us former 40K players) are some of the best at any organized event in the nation. Plus the venue is collocated with a Yardhouse, so ... yeah. Brewmaster will be in play even when rounds are not active.

Anyone able to challenge us?

/swoon

Thanks for coming!

TINKERERS? ON THE NOVA STAFF?

perish the thought  ...

...

Good call and handle Matt!

Yup

We were able to open up 2 extra slots. We alerted those on the wait list, and now those spots are fair game. 

We were able to open up 2 extra spots in the championships, and alerted the couple of wait listers who'd already started piling up. These are now fair game, in general, though online registration closes tomorrow evening (you can still sign up for anything you want on site that has room left).

By which I do mean you still have to pay. Just that no shows typically do happen, but you'll want to join the already growing wait list.

You should bring them. Sign them up for the other events. Sneakin to replace no shows.

Me and my family. And, I am, and have been. That said, got married this year, bought a house this year, can't keep eating it forever; that said, this year we have our biggest yet (over 1,000 attendees), and we should be good with enough to spare to cover storage/etc. until we open reg again for '16 in Feb '16. We do things very professionally ... whether it's a proper communications rig for all staff members, or fancy gloss guidebooks for attendees, or a million other little things. It's also expensive to build and store the infrastructure. I think we now own over 20,000 pieces of terrain, and that cost dozens of terrain days, food for volunteers on terrain days, beer for volunteers on terrain days, etc. But, crazy as it sounds, my 'payment' has been a lot of people have an absolutely fabulous time year in and year out. Call me crazy!

There's also a staff of over 100 volunteers, each giving anywhere from a few dozen to over 2,000 hours a year each (we have a couple of full time family member volunteers who we couldn't exist without). 

How is it more than just a single tournament, out of curiosity? Unless I'm missing something, you're basically paying $10 to play a single game. I apologize if it sounds like I'm trolling, I'm really not. I'm just trying to understand, that's all.

A few things. It's for charity - the NOVA Open partners with sister organization The NOVA Open Charitable Foundation to leverage the global force of gamers to support great causes, primarily Doctors Without Borders, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Fisher House Foundation. It's Wyrd's first national championships; the head judge is the guy who wrote the game; Aaron and Mason will also be on hand. There's a major vendor area with sweet discounts and hard to find things. There's over 70 fellow Malifaux attendees and over 1,000 fellow gamers. It's on the metro and a short (sub 15 minute) ride to the National Mall. It's a super social event that benefits charity, including a charity lounge (affordable craft cocktails, coffee, snacks, soda, and beer, with all proceeds going to charity) with free chats given by both Wyrd personnel and a wide variety of industry folks (i.e. FFG, PP, etc.) all weekend long. There's everything else to do, from board games to magic tournaments to demos to speed painting competitions at fully-equipped airbrush/paint/etc. stations, and much, much more. Some of the best seminar teachers in the world, including Justin McCoy, Roman Lappatt, and Raffaele Picca, will be giving over 50 seminars. The terrain is also top notch, and was designed with the input of Gibbs (Again, guy who wrote M2E) to be as close to right as we could get it.

Going to a local game store and playing a few rounds is probably similar ONLY in that you're playing Malifaux. Similarities quickly end there.

Also, for whatever it's worth, the price is also literally just set to - we hope - break even. So, on top of all that, we're not profiting off you. Technically, over the past 6 years, we've actually basically paid to give ya'll the time - NOVA's net profit to date is negative $29,000. Which is cool ... we don't complain about it. We just really aren't doing this to overcharge. We go to a lot of lengths to give all of the above.

OH, and we also do some pretty rad stuff ... i.e. the Capital Carnage event will be played in and around nearly to-scale replicas of DC's national monuments. I.E., one of the tables will have a 6.5 foot tall Washington Monument.

Finally - if the only value you get out of going to a convention style event like this, with all kinds of open and organized play activities, meetings with the game makers, etc., is playing the actual games of malifaux ... few conventions will probably feel worth it. Which is totally OK, btw They aren't for everyone. But their prices are largely driven by the cost of operations, which - depending on the geographical location - vary. Though I'd hope the price isn't really all that much higher than the equivalent in going out for dinner and a movie, or a sporting event, etc., and might be much cheaper!

Great game.

Only problem was my copy came shipped with two South Winds, and no East Wind. It's cool, I like the South. Just ... you know.