NWG2011 wrap up

NWG2011 has come and gone, grudges have been settled and new scores have been made. Feedback seem very positive. Below is a brief run down of what I thought worked, did not work and things I would like try next.

Players getting stuck in

What worked;

• The craic was awesome it is hard to quantify what or by how much but everybody seemed in good spirits for the entire weekend. By allowing forge world and challenges, not allowing match-up with club mates or previous opponents players got to met a lot of new faces and both were able to enjoy their game. The build up on W-ired with players issuing challenges and belittling their opponents armies added to the craic. 
• Forge world and other cool stuff. Last year there was one or two forgeworld models about this year there were entire armies of the stuff. Eldar hornets went toe to toe with Varks renegades. Dreadnoughts in Lucius pattern drop pods went hunting Kroot Mercenaries in a forest table. While an imperial guard tank company tried to stem biggest Orc Waaagh seen in Ireland yet. 
• Based aboard, attending foreign events and talking to players who have done similar provide a lot of inspiration for some of the event's eccentrics. This year we had the war gamers special other award as a thank or blatant bribe to the war gamers special other to encourage people to come and participate.
• Spot prizes and freebies. Once again all the 40Kers got freebies just for showing up. Last year it was a big blast marker this time it is a small one (that will be the recession kicking). Plus we had a bunch of other prizes for spot prize to encourage players to go a bit nuts and general try to have fun. The “Unlucky Mofo” award went to player who drop his army on the way in on the second day but still showed just to let the organisers know. In the end we gave him a loan the ringer army and told him get back in the game. We also had the “early Mofo” for a player who submitted their army two months in advance.
• Terrain wise four boxes worth of terrain was made just for this event. A fifth box, containing the good stuff was shipped but just missed the weekend. In addition, some players brought their own terrain the result was nearly half of the tables were covered in new terrain appearing for the first time at NWG.
• The Bar in the hall with bar staff patrolling the tables was a nice touch.

Daemons

What should have worked but did not

• Geopp, the pairing software (or more likely the TOs lack of experience with it), made for an interesting weekend. On Friday night we got familiar with the system but not enough on the day the printer would not work and the pairings kept creating errors. In the end we had to use excel and brain power to get the best fit for pairing. One interesting learning from Geopp was the amount of rules that can be allied to the swiss system. I was aware of the do not play on the same table or against clubmates or against previous opponents but never twice against the same army, which is interesting.  Whatever army of the month is its effect is lessened in you only get to play then once at the event.
• Food in the hall we were considering bring in pizzas and drinks into the hall but in the end just left folks do their own thing. I am not sure if that is good or bad
• Terrain wise I would have liked to have more of it.  J The missing box had a bunch of LOS blocking terrain I would have like to have seen in play.

Slaanesh types

What to do next time

•  A points bonus for players fielding new armies premièring at NWG. This year we had one player build an army just for this event. Next over a dozen players are starting armies to début for NWG2012 that is pretty cool and needs to be encouraged. (their efforts are being published here).
• At the moment the tournament score 75% game points and 25% painting. Next year there will be more points up for grabs for painting and sports. The Dutch GT is 60% game and 40% sports/painting.  I think it will involve something with armies on parade displays.

Nova open army on parade

• More terrain. You just can not have enough. The plan next year is for least half the table to have new terrain. Jungle world, mushroom world and a couple of others are in motion.
• I was also like to try introduce Infinity and malifuax to the event. Perhaps a 1 day competition for each one on Saturday one on Sunday. But the player pool is very small and may not be able to support another round of events in parrallel. The was also talk of doing a FOW big game on the friday before the main event it might be interesting.
• Swap? one of the strange aspect of NWG was when a players asks can he swaps armies with a friend or an opponent. It is not usually the done thing at a tournament.  But if all the parties concerned are willing it might be an option in a future event.  

Brooklyn doing the awards section

Honour Roll

1 st place

Jan “Jan”Karnowski

2 nd place

Paul “Mandragon” Quigley

3^rd place

Peter “Harlequinn” Scott

Best General

Tristam “Welshman” Hills

Best painted (aka any body but frank)

Frank “General Grouchy” O Donnell

Wargamers special other

Katriona Osbourne and Eion O Mahony

The biggest blasts

Chris “itsPug” Poulton

Alternative best army

Phillip “Gypsy” Johnston

Alternative model

Eion O Mahony

Eye candy

Eion's slealth Monlith

Finally