State of Fantasy at Sunshine

Well put.

McSheehy wrote:Personally I'm glad 7th ed Fantasy is gone.
To me it was the worst edition of the game that was ever made both in main rules and army books.
And judging from conversations I've had with other players all over (not just in the US) the feeling was generally the same all around except for the pure tournament crowd.
Only they seem to miss 7th edition... but then that fits as 7th was the most boringly forumlaic version.
And I'm glad that GW's developers finally managed to pull their heads out of their asses and stop catering to the tournament scene and making the game try to fit it.

Now it's back to the spirit of the earlier editions (1st-5th) where the main fun just came from playing the game large scale or small.
It didn't matter who won or lost, no prize, no ego stroking, just gaming for the hell of it.
Big monsters, insane characters, crazy magic phases, massive units clashing with one another... man I really have missed those days.

You never play Keith, so it's understandable that your whole opinion of both versions is way off. Generalizing that anyone who liked 7Ed was a tourney driven powergamer is beyond narrow-minded. The fact is - we had a decent sized, active group in 7Ed and now we have a few players who grab an occational game. Most have explained why here.

Fantasy tourneys at Sunshine (and the Dragon back when) are (and were) about coming together for a day of gaming with friends. Again, you never joined - so you really can't comment. We all know each other. We all play hard but fair. Nobody cares that much about winning. The best thing about our tournements is I get 3 games back to back vs. 3 different opponents in one day. That's what I miss. I could care less about free models or prize support.

If your opinion was even close to a popular view, then the game activity level wouldn't have dropped completely dead 6 months into 8Ed.

Guess again Bill.
Just because you rarely saw me play doesn't mean I never played.

I had played around twenty games in 7th ed before I gave up (and I watched far more get played).
I pretty much never had fun with the game... even against people I liked playing like Nate, Dale, Mario, Israel, etc.
It was just that damn boring, formulaic, and friggin repetative... and some times the players were as well.
And I don't need to play (not saying I don't want, because damn it I do) to see how much more I know I'll be able to enjoy 8th edition, because I've read the rules many times and I'm well aware of what the changes imply... and I like it!

As to tournaments I have been in well over a dozen since I started the game over 20 years ago... and I can count the number of times I had fun in a tournament on one hand and have all my fingers left over. I have watched and/ or run over a dozen more tournaments (most at Lizards on Ice)... which were never any fun and I'll be damned if I ever saw people (outside the odd few) look like they were having fun either. I'm not sure about the coming together you're talking about because I never saw it... and I remember when we ever tried a different means (campaign, mega-event, or whatever) for Fantasy everyone always shot it down and wanted another tourny instead. Granted maybe that just because you see tournaments as the easier means to get everyone together... but for me they never been anything but a headache. I don't need to get in 3-4 games against multiple people to have a good time... actually trying to do that has always leeched any and all fun out of that day.

I've been trying to get together with Nate to play, but many times our scheduals just haven't meshed. Besides there really isn't anywhere to play because I'll be damned if I give Joel his blood money to play at his store... because just like tournaments his little league sucks any fun out of gaming as well.

Oh and Bill... I just said 'tournament crowd', as in the crowd in a total, not just the power-gamer element.
There have been plenty of pure tournament players I've talked to over the years who haven't been ego driven power gamers at the same time. They just been people who prefered the formulaic nature of 7th ed and how well it worked with tournament system. They never cared for crazy big games or campaigns and whatnot... didn't automatically make them power gamers. You also missed that I wasn't only talking to people in Miami... or up in Broward, but people all over the US, England, other European countries (if they could use English on the forums), and Austraila (basically a far greater sampling the entire warhammer player base). All I found was that on average only the people who primarily prefered tournaments as their method of gaming seemed to miss 7th ed at all. The rest don't either really seem to care one way or the other or they are really enjoying 8th ed.

toche

so 20 games of 7Ed and zero games of 8Ed has you as an expert?

I've played over 150 games of 7Ed and I have about 30 games of 8Ed experience. 20 games is noobie status.

......and not having fun? Keith, you'r one of the most pesamistic people I've ever met, so you not liking something is par for the course.

FACTS -
8Edition killed the game. There are 3 people registered for Ard Boyz at Tate's. Luis and I are 2 of them. Marc Parker is the other. Zero are registered at FSC. Zero at Paladin. I can't speak for attendance in Australia and Japan, but Fantasy is pretty dead across the state of Florida.

The purpose of this post was to alert my friends that I now game anywhere but Joels. I think this has gone far enough off base that we will just end it here.