It seems awhile ago but last year I attended the Colonial GT in Princeton NJ to play in its first 40k GT, as it is the Nova Open equivelent for Fantasy on the East Coast. I remember awhile back writing reviews for this GT with a sour after taste still in my mouth....So lets jump back into the memory pool to go over the highs and lows of last years GT, as I try to be a man of facts and reason.....So in reality the entire weekend was fairly epic. I personally love Princeton as it is a beautiful town with an awesome shopping/restauraunt scene. My friend Marcus and I showed up friday night to some awesome open gaming on the fantasy tables after eating some awesome food specially made for the GT attendees. After a few too many glasses of pinot noir I had an awesome conversation with the Overall Tournament Organizer, online tag being Mastermoulder, about how pumped I was for the GT and that Jawa and I would be writing reviews on his blog with a so far awesome review. The GT went on with some pretty sweet games the next day (I played horrid 40k with just a single win) but it was still fairly fun. All opponents army lists were waiting at the table b efore you even got to the game on army builder and terrain was pretty balanced. I went into princeton that night with marcus for some fine dining and a cigar around the Princeton college campus....so why did the event as a whole get a bad review online? It made no sense with what I said above....realistically every single event that gained it bad reviews for the 40k side came from the final 20 minutes of the GT.....with just 3 miss steps....
See there had been a mix up with the awards which ended up giving the second best prize, best general, to the player who had come in 8th place overall, I believe but may have been lower....Now this was an honest mistake since the Overall TO had nothing to do with the 40k event as it was run by a completely different group....now this group had a fairly contreversial set of painting judges, with some bad backgrounds with a few other attendees leaving an open set of bias....now speculation can arise and I will not name names or point fingers but quite a few people, including myself, were fairly upset over the painting scores as it seems bias did come forward with friends of the 40k paint judges getting higher scores than some other attendees and some particularly excellent displays getting passed over without reward.....
Yet with all of this in mind none of the above fairly effected myself in a way to give thought over. It was after the event was over trying to get pointers on how to get a higher appearance score from the 40k judges that I actually got yelled at and made fun of by the 40k judges running the event after the fact. Now after discussing this with my fellow gamers a majority of the field decided not to attend next year over these last few minutes....which is kind of a shame really...
In reality the event was pretty awesome yet we allowed some guest judges to get in the way of a fairly awesome event....Recently I was running an article on why I was excited to go to the Conflict GT and bypass the Colonial and I got this comment from the TO, Mastermoulder
"Hey guys, This is the Overall TO for the Colonial, and I am sorry for the very late response. A friend of mine pointed out this blog so I can respond. Not sure who the person is that was supposedly "jipped" out of something, but this situation was not brought to my attention during the event. I apologize for any misgivings that this created. I am happy to announce that Mike Diccio, formally the manager at GW in Voorhees will be running the 40k side of the 2012 Colonial GT. He is a well-respected GT gamer and individual in our community, and I am sure that he will bring a high level of competence and gaming awareness that is expected out of any quality GT Judge or TO. I am also working on a new location for the Colonial to be able to bring down the price, as well as ensure that the prizes are the same level as they were last year. Please be patient as the site is being worked on, a couple of bugs came up, but we are working those out. Make sure that you all pay attention to the Qualifiers that I am running for the Colonial, as you will have the chance to earn free tickets to the 2012 Colonial GT! MM "
After this comment I really got to thinking about why I did not want to attend the Colonial the following year....Really I was letting an outside group effect my oppinions of the event as a whole.....minus the final minutes I had a blast (with only a shockingly high hotel bill that followed being the only realistic blemish)....I feel I owe it to MM to give this GT another chance and I can be proud to say the Master is an awesome TO and I can trust he will put on a great event....especially with a new group running the 40k side of things....now as for myself will I be playing 40k? Actually I will have to say no....I have been fantasy curious for awhile now while building a vampire counts army for almost a year....with the new release a couple weeks away I have to say I need to play in the main fantasy event....and I am actually psycked (as I am actually more pumped for this Tournament thant the Conflict for 40k in a couple weeks).....Now with new info stating that the GT will be helf in a American Legion building, instead of that super pricey hotel, is kind of shocking after last years response...yet since I know the price was a little high I commend the TO's for moving the location and even dropping price by 33%! I dont like not having a bed within an elevators ride from the gaming room but I can manage.....still I am excited to play regardless as my first fantasy GT....
For all of last years nay-sayers I say give the GT another chance for 40k....with a new 40k command squad and a good Overall TO I intend to give them another chance.....expect me to also have my Storm Wardens along for a pick up game or two somewhere in the between.....I am excited and optimistic about this years review and I hope to do good in my first fantasy GT overall....(way better than last years first 40k GT lol)....more on this later (are you pumped for VC?)
Overall a great event for a Privateer Press Ganger! DO we have any good stories from last year or some attendees for this year as readers? If so drop a line....I hope to get some pick up games myself...any thoughts on VC? PErsonally I am excited for the ethereal fast cav grim reaper-esque hexwraiths!
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