“Tournament” is a word that brings fear & anxiety to some hobbyists. It did for me before I went to my first one. It’s understandable for someone to feel that way, especially if they follow any kind of social media. You read about the META (Most Effective Tactics Available) list that stomps any other list, the player that plays too fast/slow and makes you feel rushed/bored. There is also what we like to call the “Rules Lawyer”, or a person that must call out every move and make sure you are doing it correctly. What I have come to find out however, is that these types of people are few and far between in the tournament setting. The bottom line is that every tournament organizer wants you to have the best time possible.
Having the “best time possible” sounds great, right? You might be asking how this miraculous feat can be achieved. Well, let me tell you a few things that I’ve come to find out through my own tournament experiences to make that a reality.
- Bring the army you love the look of.
- An army you love can be anything from a fully kit-bashed army to an army you painted to your highest standard. For me personally, the thing I love the most about this hobby is the building/converting. It’s actually quite hard for me to build a kit strait out of the box. However, every time I make an army list for a tournament, I picture my list as if it were in a movie. I think about how cool it would be to see these units just smash those other units, or if these guys were bodyguards to my warlord, or these unit has seen a lot of war, so they have no fear running into death. In most tournaments, you are going to be playing a minimum of three games in one day, to a max of five over two days. So, you want the army you bring to be one you love the look of. Who cares if your army list isn’t the most effective? The point is to have fun, which leads me into my next point.
- An army you love can be anything from a fully kit-bashed army to an army you painted to your highest standard. For me personally, the thing I love the most about this hobby is the building/converting. It’s actually quite hard for me to build a kit strait out of the box. However, every time I make an army list for a tournament, I picture my list as if it were in a movie. I think about how cool it would be to see these units just smash those other units, or if these guys were bodyguards to my warlord, or these unit has seen a lot of war, so they have no fear running into death. In most tournaments, you are going to be playing a minimum of three games in one day, to a max of five over two days. So, you want the army you bring to be one you love the look of. Who cares if your army list isn’t the most effective? The point is to have fun, which leads me into my next point.
- It’s about having fun, not winning.
- The faster you get over the fear of losing, the quicker you will get to the fun. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to win, and the point of the game is to win, but my main goal is to have fun playing the game. One of the more interesting things about tournaments that I’ve come to find out, is that for your last few games you will be playing against people who have the same mindset as you about the game. For example, I personally don’t win a lot of games at tournaments, so I usually play at the bottom tables. Most of the people that play those tables don’t care about winning and care more about the story of their army just like me. I have been able to make friends from the people I’ve played just because the experience was fun and enjoyable.
- The faster you get over the fear of losing, the quicker you will get to the fun. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to win, and the point of the game is to win, but my main goal is to have fun playing the game. One of the more interesting things about tournaments that I’ve come to find out, is that for your last few games you will be playing against people who have the same mindset as you about the game. For example, I personally don’t win a lot of games at tournaments, so I usually play at the bottom tables. Most of the people that play those tables don’t care about winning and care more about the story of their army just like me. I have been able to make friends from the people I’ve played just because the experience was fun and enjoyable.
- Go with a group.
- These events are a lot more fun if you go with a group of friends. Now, if you like to fly solo and are more of an extrovert than the average person, then you have my vote on going alone! However, when I entered my first tournament, I made sure that my friends would be there. It just makes it easy to be social during the down times of the event. The thing I love about going to tournaments is that the more you go, the more new friends you make because you both go to the same events often. Like I said previously, I have made new friends from playing enjoyable games and now I have friends that live all over the country. Every time I see them at a tournament, it’s like a family reunion! Some of these people I might see once a year, so I try to make the most of it when I do see them.
Hopefully these tips will give you some courage, and help you take that first step into entering a tournament. Tournament organizers want you to have fun first and foremost, and these are just a few things that I’ve come to understand and enjoy about attending myself. There are plenty more experiences and stories to tell, but I will save that for another adventure.
Keep your blades sharp, your ammunition full, and the dice gods happy! Cheers!
Dadhammer 
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