To me, at least, the essence of
the Renaissance Man (enlightenment notwithstanding, one does not read much
about the Renaissance Woman, but am pretty sure the concept remains broadly the
same) is the epitome of the pinnacle of human achievement. To be able to
discourse knowledgably, productively, and at length on any given topic with
equal eloquence and confidence is a far cry, in my view at least, above the
vast majority of humanity in this day and age – a time, where quite simply, we
have the capability to know more than any ancestor could ever dream of knowing,
commanding, as we do, the sum total of human knowledge literally at our
fingertips.
Despite these previously
unimaginable technological advancements that are nothing more than normal to us
fortunate present-day dwellers, I sometimes feel we have, as a race, failed. At
least, the average commuter on the Northern Line (for those readers who have
the privilege, nay, the God-given fortune to not know what the Northern Line
is, or to have experienced its unique ‘character’ at 6.30am on a workday… well,
let’s just say that if the passengers on those trains were anything other than
human it would be an illegal form of transportation), the average shopper on
Oxford Street (seriously, what’s the attraction?) or even one’s distinctly
average work colleagues fail to live up to the ideal. It seems at times people
are full of nothing but malformed opinion and ignorance.
To be fair to the, I guess it’s
technically information, and not knowledge, that is so readily assessable to us
all – and as I think Einstein once said [pause to Google whether it was indeed
the wiry haired letch who said it], Information is not Knowledge.
Hmmm.
Bit of a snobbery-infused
tangential meandering there. It’s been one of those days. I should point out I
associate myself with the lamentable lack of knowledge. It is the norm, most of
us suffer from it. Every now and then, however, this hobby throws up an
incandescent comet of awe-inspiring awesomeness that makes the self-conscious
and overly pensive amongst us even more self-conscious, more pensive, at times
aggressive and generally envious.
This colossus will take the scene
by storm, casually destroying aspirations and hobbies in its wake. Petty things
like practice games, the rules and perceived norms are abandoned in the face of
this implacable force. Picking seemingly random armies at each event, mastering
them instantly, whilst dropping out of events randomly and with the smallest of
provocation… there is no explanation, this is Rock & Roll reborn.
Frequently spoken about in international multimedia platforms – never by name,
simply by hashtag. Such a brilliant star can only surely only burn for a
limited time…
#BenDiesel terrifies all before
him, at the head of his very own propaganda machine. Experienced players quake
at the very tho…
Oh… wait.
Wrong hashtag.
Damn it.
I was meant to be writing about
#FatCraig… pretty sure all the same applies though…
Why on earth would I do such a
thing?
Well, we are coming up to the
traditional climax of the UK tournament season (UK rankings can now be found
here: http://www.rankings.baddice.co.uk/
) and I thought I would have a quick look around to see what it shows us, and
what the race for those Masters spots are shaping up.
Most importantly, it shows I have
not been to enough events this year! Thankfully the last few months of the year
look to be jam packed with tournament goodness.
In less me-centric news, Hashtag
sits proudly at the top of the rankings, as he has done for pretty much the
entire year. Rankings systems have all sorts of detractors, understandably so -
but I won’t get into that right now. Now, being ranked number 1 is not overly
newsworthy (hell, even I have done that before!) - there is such a degree of
luck and other factors involved (relative strength of fields/schedules,
being ‘carried’ in a team event, gaming the comp system, one of your scoring
events being Downfall :) ) that all it can really be taken for is a mark of
consistent good performance by a player during one calendar year.
No. What I find interesting is
that Craig’s top four scores have come from four different armies. This is
something I have always wanted to do. Unfortunately my allergic reaction to all
things hobby related means that the likelihood of me being able to take 4
different armies to events in a year I, well, rather unlikely.
The ability to pick up an army and
do (relatively) well with it given limited practice is an interesting topic in
itself. A lot of people understandably don’t understand it. The skillsets
involved are often rather different than people expect, in my experience at
least. Army flexibility is far less about knowing the rules inside out and back
to front. Rather it requires more of what I would call an artistic brain – you
have to have a feel for the table, the relative power of the opposing forces
(built up less from in-depth study of the books, but through have played
against things over the years, allowing you to have an understanding of
capabilities, what has killing blow, that sort of thing), a rough understanding
(rather than mathematical certainty) of what will happen if two units engage,
and what impact potential available buffs/hexes could have. I notice as I type
that I have digressed into babbling about how I view the table. I have never
been a ‘fractions-of-an-inch’ player (which largely goes to explain my utter
hatred of 7th edition WFB), and rarely look to be overly tricksy on
the table (during the vast majority of tournament games I will not conga-line
or slingshot stuff around, for example. Even railroading is something I rarely
set out to do), rather preferring to take a birds-eye view of table – treating
it a as a battlefield in pseudo-realism I guess. Having over the years played
quite a few games, I know, subconsciously, what impact a given unit should have
in a situation (helped of course, that this information can be transposed from
similar units in different armies). Of course, this will, on occasion bite me
on my posterior when I get it wrong, or someone tries something I have never
seen before, but that’s ok with me.
How does Hashtag do it?
He’s a gamey b*****d, obviously.
More seriously, Mr Hashtag does
his prep for events. He makes sure he will get the painting points available,
and will make sure to get the benefits on offer from a given comp pack.
Is that enough about Craig? I
thought so too.
A look at the runners and
riders
Bridesmaid Terry has continued
with the consistency from last year into this by the ingenious use of daemons.
A lot of daemons. A lot of the time. He is walking proof that taking the same
overpowered daemon lists to an event every other week will get you a good
rankings spot – and if one of those is AGOM you may even make the number 2 spot
your own.
I jest, of course (or do I? I am
still bitter about him turning my Slann AND Tetto into gold…).
Terry has done well, and sails
into the Masters on the back of a good SCGT performance, and doing well in
three other events I have barely heard of.
No. Not bitter.
Luke has been smashing stuff up
North for a wee while now with one of those interesting things that always
puzzle me. An obviously powerful list (commonly rocking out with a Herald-heavy
Plague Bearer block) that people keep underestimating and getting smashed by –
I honestly think people don’t know how to play daemons sometimes – reminds me
of a couple of years ago when Nick Pym was running people over with 90
Bloodletter lists… No, this is not to take anything away from Luke (The fact he
has done all this with Daemons does that already…), he has proven highly
consistent and is now all set for (what I think is) his first Master’s bow.
What can be said about Mr Goodwin
that is polite enough to publish? The big bad England ETC team made him take
Chaos Dwarfs (quite a unique form of punishment really), and he sits there
proudly the bearer of the Best Chaos Dwarf Icon (turns out anyone with rambling
fanboy scribbled book can have an icon these days). Interestingly enough his
ticket for the Masters was not earned with a single Chaos Dwarf point, rather
Will has gone back to his old reliable – Empire, Daemons, and a Net List, to
get the job done.
Andi “The Anointed of (the Foot
of) Gork” has been rocking it this year, both with his trusty foot template
and, more interestingly, with the Beastmen. Sure, I think he made some of those
events up, but all points count! Recently relocated from the *literal*
middle of nowhere (well, with the caveat that this is the UK, so to our
colonial cousins he was just down the road) to a far more reachable location, I
look forward to seeing more of him next year. Every Masters event should have a
friendly giant.
Amit “the Terror from London” has
been having a very impressive year. Do I attribute that simply to the Dark
Elves’ new book? No, of course not! Only about 75% of it is down to the book I
reckon :) Amit, being the superstar he is, has also broken up the mundanity of
it all by taking the odd full on fun list to events like Clash. In short, Amit
is a superstar, but it should never be forgotten he has made our club legend
Sami rage quit Warhammer in one player turn down the store, so he is, above
all, a Bad Man. Don’t forget that.
Stuart plays Empire and High
Elves. Which is just too exciting a combo to get excited about. Even the
consistency of his performances are so Empire/High Elf in nature. On the plus
side, the Black Sun like to get his name wrong deliberately, so that has to
count for something, right?
Friend of the blog and ever
present twitter argument provider (for when you need distraction whilst at
work), Captain Bulgaria has only ruined the enjoyment of everyone in the
vicinity in three of his seven events this year. Which is fantastic news! Well,
ok, two of the four remaining were using Daemons, but I understand weaning
oneself off Dwarfs must be difficult. How comes all the worse habits (and there
are fewer than rocking dwarfs) are the hardest to quit?
At number 9 is some blog writing
chump. Thankfully after my first three events I had done well enough to make
Masters qualification likely (barring any madness this will be my 4th
in 4 years of tournament play, which I can’t really argue with), and this has
allowed me to take silliness. Maybe this year I will event take the Masters
seriously… probably not though…
That being said, as has been
discussed on twitter, this is in and around the mark that could well be the cut
off point for Masters qualification this year. With over 4 100pt events still
to come this year, there is no knowing what will happen. Generally speaking, in
years like this, with a lot of events everywhere (and therefore a lot of
different winners out there) there is far more fluctuation and chaos than in
more ‘traditional’ times when Jack, Russ and Ben would share two thirds of the
big events between them. As a result all those players below here (and
potentially Hristo and myself) are in danger of not making the cut – obviously,
the further down the list, the more danger…)
Mikey had a great start to the
year, and this will probably be enough to see him through to the Masters. The
madness that has been his return to the scene after a few months off (you wouldn’t
believe the dice luck if I told you) is quickly becoming a legend in itself. I
just feel sorry for those people at whatever event his luck finally changes at.
Looking to make it his third Masters in a row.
The Face is back with a vengeance
(though he also seems to have gone to this “Stormlords” event that I am
starting to suspect a bunch of players have made up to give themselves nice
points… I note he has been painting up his VC, be interesting is he makes a
move to wrest back the crown of undisputed VC hotshot in the UK. If people
start allowing Undead Legion rules I will be fascinated to see what Russ rocks
out to. Russ always qualifies for Masters – whether he goes or not is a
different question.
Steve has continued his fine form
from last year – though he seems to be abandoning his mantle of greatest
Bretonnian player on these fair isles to go to that skill improving powerhouse,
the daemon book. Maybe he knew Bretonnia was about to get gutted in the End of
Times book, and that, despite initial rumours, there appears to be no
likelihood of a new Army Book anytime soon. If so he is almost excused, but not
forgiven. Steve is going for his second Masters in a row.
Nav bows to no man when it comes
to tournament attendance, matching event for event the efforts of Mr Pike (who
I sometimes suspect has that fabled dream job of being payed to attend events).
Nav gets all sorts of extra cool points for taking four different armies to the
347 events he has gone to this year. Would be his very first Masters – good
luck!
Mark, at some point over the past
few years, became the high performing member of the Bad Dice Podcast – who saw
that coming? He also has been rocking the army changes this year – in this case
down largely to ETC commitments. It was a touching revelation when he
remembered that Skaven are utterly broken :) This could either be Mark’s 4th
Masters in a row (he may have missed one? Not sure). Watch out of self
railroading and/or dice complaints.
Adam occupies the final masters
spot right now, and as such easily the most vulnerable. He has had a good year,
rocking a nice mix of armies. He also gets bonus points for largely having
attended events I have heard of (which in itself should be worth more points).
I think this would be his first Masters.
And now a random look at some
of the people who will be trying to break into this “elite” (in literally the
loosest sense of that word) group.
Marcus (17th) has some
great runs of form this year – including a top level performance for England at
the 6 Nations event. I’d expect him to make the cut in the coming months (never
mind that due to drop outs he is likely in anyway). Would be his first Masters.
Mr Sewell (19th) is
keeping himself being busy, in between being grumpy (current hot topic – the
boringness of Wood Elves), with taking a lot of different armies to events.
This would be cool, but alas he is also a Teclis user, and the least said about
that the better. Would be his second Masters.
Matt Yeo (22nd) I
include not only for him being an old man (and they deserve our respect) but
also because he has kept plugging away at that VC army. I would have gone mad
by now. Think this would be his first Masters?
Captain Leggy (24th)
has never missed a Masters I believe. Will this be the year? He has been doing
well with his march of the warriors on the road to the ETC – only not being
ranked far higher because of the size of events he went to. Be interesting to
see what he takes towards the end of the year – he is in a tough position as he
needs to improve his score by roughly 20 points – which given that his low
scores are in the 80s means he has to win an event, or maybe podium/top 5 at
two. And time is running out. I for one would not bet against him though. This
would be his millionth Masters.
Former Captain Ben (25th)
is in at first glance in a similar
position to Leggy, but in actuality he is in a better place as it is easier for
him to improve on his qualifying scores. A good shot of getting in really.
Jack (122nd) has only
played two events this year. And done, shall we say, rather well at them. No
idea if he is going to any in the coming months, but if he is going to at least
two, I would expect him to qualify with ease (whether he attends or not is, of
course a whole other thing).
 |
| Stockport wont know what hit it... |
So, there you have it. Two and a
bit months left of the tournament season, a lot to play for.
If you are in to that sort of
thing.
At the very least, there appears
to be a literal cluster fudge of events coming up, so fun will be had.
Until next time,
Raf
