People who have been reading this blog have known that I am slowly but surely diving deeper and deeper into both the world of miniature painting and tabletop wargaming albeit slowly.
The first weekend of February was one of those pivotal moments for me where I took a leap deeper in my tabletop gaming journey. My goals for the endeavor was to determine, what kind of gamer am I? Am I casual player? Do I like the competitive scene? How competitive am I? Do I lean more narratively ? Also and most importantly do I find myself welcomed in the community as a female gamer? But i’m getting ahead of myself….
Tough Crowd, Nashville Teams 2024
I had the opportunity to be an assistant Tournament Organizer to my good friend Jacob Berry from the Rage of Sigmar Podcast and member of the Sigmar Competitive Team Tough Crowd. We have gotten to know each other while I played at the same local store in Nashville Tennessee when I lived there. Not being prepared to play in the teams event myself I offered my assistance. As an expert data spreadsheet nerd my skills were gladly welcomed. Assisting the organization of the event via predominately maintaining the score documents, etc. was the perfect opportunity to watch and interact with the community.
I also felt strongly that I did not have enough game mastery to truly compete at that level nor do I have a fully painted army yet for events like this. My largest weakness is that sneaky devil, time. Mastery comes with practice and limited time makes that slower.
This event consisted of 20 teams of 4 for a total of 80 players. With the help of the Georgia Warband, Dillion from Nashcon and Adepticon there were 40 total tables of terrain and game mats to go around. If anything going to this event was worth it for the sake of seeing and being inspired by all the terrain. For context Dillion Griffin the organizer of Nashcon and Anthony Pulcastro who 3D printed the vast majority of the terrain have been commonly noted to rewrite the script of the standard for Sigmar’s wargaming tables.
There was also another goal with going to this event, evaluate how comfortable I can be as most likely the only female gamer in the room. If I decide to be more committed to this aspect of Sigmar I significantly have to decide that I will have to join some of the incredible women at being a trail blazer to break stereotypes. As a female in games both tabletop and video games, I acknowledge that I am a minority and those communities are not necessarily the most friendly, supportive, and welcoming. In video games it is often that women play but do not use online voice chat or use user names that would identify them as she/her. In tabletop games however it is significantly more difficult as there is no hiding. It is just you and your opponent talking for several hours.
While I did eventually become welcomed in the community it did result in making an announcement that I was indeed NOT the wife of the tournament organizer and anyone who assumed so had to buy me a beer. To be honest the fact that it did require us to start this “game” was disappointing and I received about 10 beers over the course of the weekend. The original beers were for the assumption but as the weekend progressed it was more of a free drink as accepting me into the community. This opened doors for me to get to know new people and have conversations. While not ideal I do think there were productive conversations that have come out of this, exercise.
The Results
For the full overview of the tournament results you can see the list and pictures of the winners here: https://x.com/bigjables/status/1757176415118631196?s=20
Summary:
- Best Sports: Wes Witherow
- Tough Act to Follow (Best Sports Team): Muletown BuffBoys
- Golden Drop Pod (wooden spoon): Coy Barron
- You Deserved This (lowest battle with Belakor, Morathi, Gotrek): Cody Bates
- Best Teammate (no wins on the highest scoring Team): Patrick Shepard
- Reckless in the Face of Danger (lost the most friendly wizards due to miscasts/spell effects): Josh Hankin & Nick Raverty
- Players Choice: David Griffin
- Crowd Pleasers (best Team Spirit): Fungal Fanclub
- Tough Mode (highest combined score with only 1 faction): Getting Khorney
- MVP (best single overall): Scooter Walters
- Coalition of Toughies (best Team balttle): Run it down for Harambe
- Toughest Crowd (best overall team): OG Southern Slayers
How Did I Do?
Well last but not least, I also functioned as a ringer for the tournament. Meaning that if anyone was sick and needed a sub in I was there at the ready. Well as it turned out I was needed, ironically enough with my friends from my old store in Nashville Tennessee and the team I probably would have been on if I played. While I did not win a single game the entire weekend I played I did have a lot of fun.
Well last but not least, I also functioned as a ringer for the tournament. Meaning that if anyone was sick and needed a sub in I was there at the ready. Well as it turned out I was needed, ironically enough with my friends from my old store in Nashville Tennessee and the team I probably would have been on if I played. While I did not win a single game the entire weekend I played I did have a lot of fun. My team was incredibly supportive and glad that they had someone make sure that all players had a match up. I did end up getting paired into some skewed matches but that is ok I did learn a lot such as a 3d6 Charge from Slaves to Darkness prayer which killed me almost entirely top of turn 1.
Here are some pictures from my games.
I have so many take away’s from the event both on a personal and gaming level. While this is still sinking in overall my original investitive questions of if I wanted to dive deeper were answered.
Yes, I definitely want to play more competitive games and push my skills as a gamer to their absolute limits. While I do not aspire to go for a national title or be regionally ranked. I want to be confident and have a large chance of success going to local tournaments. One day i’ll win some trophies not just for best general but perhaps also best painted? I am walking away wanting to roll more dice not less and I call that a win.
I also walked away with an awesome gauntlet as a gift for being a “Right Hand” to the event organizer Jacob.
I am starting to find a theme that 2024 is going to be a massive year on my evolution as a gamer as I continuously push myself. There are already some fun things cooking and I can’t wait to share them.
Crazmadsci