One thing that I’ve learned over time is that we are creatures of habit. It becomes harder and harder to get out of your shell and try new things. As someone who has grown increasingly more anxious even trying new things, meeting new people and stepping out of my comfort shell I have finally done it!
As of last weekend I have officially played a competitive series of matches of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Lets just say that playing Age of Sigmar has completely revolutionized both my painting journey in the hobby as well as playing.
The BackStory
I started playing Age of Sigmar after I purchased a super cheap box of the Start Collecting Greywater Fastness in the beginning of 2022. But it wasn’t until Summer of 2022 that I found a community supportive enough to help me learn the game.
There were a few key things that changed my entire perspective of the Warhammer gaming sphere.
- I met a few key individuals who welcome, embraced and encouraged me each week to play and were not afraid to tease if I ever didn’t show up for a game day.
- No one treated me different for being a female in the hobby
- There was a dedicated game night for everyone in the area to play Sigmar so it was easy to meet the community at large and feel apart of it.
However, the one thing I learned very very quickly is that the Cities of Sigmar army was massively huge and had a high level of entry. So I instead pivoted to begin with one of the most cost effective armies I could find Kruelboyz. This is where I’ve largely lived for the past 10 months. With the help of an escalation league in the end of 2022 I finally accumulated enough points for a full 2,000 point game.
Over the course of the last 10 or so months I have been adapting and changing my list. Adding and removing models to attempt to truly capture and support my innate playstyle that I have slowly grown my army well beyond 2,000 points. The painting process is not nearly as complete but more of that to come. However unfortunately I have since moved from the area and away from the close friends I’ve made playing these games.
Fast Forward to Jeepers Keepers
Last weekend I decided to go back to Tennessee and try another new thing with the group that was so supportive in the past, my first Rogue Trade Tournament or RTT. An RTT is the old GW supported format for small tournaments at Local Game Stores which consist of 3 total games.
Before the weekend I worked furiously to attempt to complete my Kruelboyz army but alas I am still too slow. Although I didn’t get everything in the army completed I have made some significant headway. Look at a few progress shots with the time being a little over a month and a half. The largest improvement is the completion of 20 Gutrippaz, basing and painting a good chunk of my snatchboss and Vulture and almost completing 9 Bolt Boyz.
Progress July 29, 2023
Progress Shots the week before Game Day
I have had to come to terms that I paint my army and take as long as I hope and desperately just want to get it right. But I am still determined to finish an entire army as it is a gamers bucketlist item.
Gallery of Games
Over the course of the day I played three games the first one against a friend named Bri who walked away with the best painted army. Her Gloomspite gitz were incredibly done and I absolutely loved her vibrant red squigs. It was the best looking matchup of the entire day. I won with a score of 17 to 7.
My second game I matched with a new friend Van and his Thunder Lizard Seraphon army. Van did an incredible job and absolutely knew his stuff. It was obvious that he did his homework on my list beforehand and played with intelligence. He said it was one of his best games of all time and he rolled crazy well. His first turn priority choice of me going first was genius and messed with my deployment with my rabble rowza regiment and he funneled me with the terrain. Playing an army with no magic I had difficulty getting to him and was picked me off with his stegadons. Super well played by him. It was by far my most interesting game of the day but he played incredibly well and walked away with the win 21 to 17. We are seen with the desert backdrop in the photographs.
Lastly I played Rayne and her Khrone army and lost again with a score of 24 to 16. Lets just say here I learned a very valuable lesson in how Khrone hates magic armies.
The Results
This left my day with a 1-2 win rate placing 9 out of the 14 there. Rayne and I were tied going into game #3 and were playing for 3rd place of which they earned.
As my very first competitive wargaming event ever I felt proud of my accomplishments but am most honored to have taken home the title of favorite opponent as every single one of my opponents voted for me as there favorite games of the day. This was either for pushing them to do their very best or just making those three hours of gaming fun. This is a title I will always feel the most proud of.
Takeaways
Overall the weekend was a lot of fun. Brandon our organizer put on a great show and answered many of our questions. It had good turnout and a decent amount of traveling players from all around Tennessee Memphis, Crossville, Cookeville and me. The skill level of the players overall was not incredibly high but lead to great games none the less.
I went home admittedly a bit frustrated with the fact that I really want to be competitive in skill but my time and opportunity cost is holding me back. I am learning the hard way that I cannot be 100% invested in every one of my interests. I only get to play a game a week and have so far been only playing one army so my knowledge of the game as a whole is still incredibly limited. I want to change that but one of the largest hurdles I have to overcome is my adversion to playing a tabletop wargaming game on my computer through the use of tabletop simulator. I am worried it wont feel the same. Anyone try it and like it?
Everyone as a whole was incredibly kind and always made me feel welcome including some of my long time friend to those I met for the first time. One of my new opponents even gave out little trophies to the winner of various games which make each game feel fun. I ended up coming home with two whole trophies! One from tournament and one from the night before.
I was beyond nervous stepping into the competitive scene for tabletop because I have not always heard great things and ended up really enjoying all my games and found them intellectually stimulating more so than regular weeks. I definitely hope to keep up the trend and go to more tournaments in the future but feel limited to the number I can go in the upcoming few years with three small kids. This was definitely something I checked off the gamer bucketlist and see that I have a large room for improvement but satisfied with where I am today.
What about you. Have you ever played in any tournaments?
Keep painting and gaming all!
-Crazmadsci