"And in Second Place, because I like calling him by what's on the card..."

"... The Medway!"
"What??"



I rewind to day 2.
After a wonderful night of laughs at the Pancake house and a stomach full of pork, cider and dairy, I retired.
The morning arose at 9:30. I figured I was late already, so I dressed and zipped across to the Convention Centre.
I arrived to find that my opponent was absent. He had forgotten his cards and was running back to get them from his room.
As I relaxed and awaited for my opponent to return, a random person in a long jacket began running up to me and poked her head into the corner of my eye.
Sam! A rare sight to see. I promised her a birthday present: A Print of Eiryss. To which I forgot to bring it that day, but I asked Richard to bring it tomorrow since she will there for the Steamroller 500.
Soon my opponent returned and we gamed.
The day was long and punctuated with pervs on an absolutely GORGEOUS brunette girl in a Team Fortress 2 costume (with Papier-mâché Chaingun), and over 5 matches, I stepped out with 1 win against Disco.

The situation had was Bartolo standing rather openly for my Drakhun to charge and annihilate Bartolo. To which I did after casting Battle Lust on the Drakhun.
I rolled a 4 for Flying Steel (2 Attacks) and wiped out his health in one attack. He made his tough roll and came up with a 4.
"KILL!" I roared in excitement.
"Uh, dude? Doc is within range. He has 4+ tough rolls."
"What."
13 minutes, 40-something seconds. I would have walked away with the Mage Hunter medal. Ed and one of the other organisers (I've completely forgotten his name, but I know I annihilated his Behemoth) were surrounding my desk and watching the game.
"SECOND ATTACK!"
I rolled against him. I hit. I dealt the 1 point of damage I needed to kill him.
He made his Tough Roll.
6.
"DAMNIT! FUCKIN PIRATES!"
Slipped through the slits of my fingers, the mage hunter medal was taken from my grasp. We played on and I ended up shooting him in the face next turn and forcing him to fail his tough roll, but it was a good game otherwise.
Fuckin Pirates.

Night came around and I went to the apartment a little early. I needed a snooze. A long day of mental exhaustion really kicks the crap out of you.
Eventually I got back out and went to the Convenience Store and got myself some lemonade. I planned to drink. And I planned to drink well.
I got to the store and my phone rang
"Medway! Where are you?"
"Just left the apartment."
"Okay, sherrie and them are going back to the apartment now."
"Cool. I'll be back in a few minutes."
I arrived back with everyone looking at me in shock, Sherrie with a suspiciously big grin on her face.
"What."
"Oh nothing."
"Good. I'm drinking."
The night was spent joking around, Chris and Andy playing Yugioh and testing their decks and the rest of us watching Kung Fu Hustle.
Afterwards, we watched a tv show of a series of short films. Between each short film was an episode of "Errorism: A comedy of terrors". Simple cartoons of a sillouette man, with only his eyes and mouth visible, wearing a bandolier, and planning to take over the world with bombs or acid. But they always go wrong and he dies.
One of the notable short films was "Even Pigeons go to Heaven". It was amazing, as chris would put it.
And then we went to bed.

Last day.
I awoke early as we had to vacate early and apologised to Ed for arriving as such.
The day started off pretty well. Nothing overly distracting, except for a blonde girl in a Red outfit (think flight attendant in red and really short shorts).
First game was against Circle Orboros, Kruegar, on the Moshpit Scenario. He was annihilating my army and I ended up with my warcaster, Irusk, walking out of combat with a Wolfrider, standing in a Gobber Cloud (-2 to his attack) shooting at Kruegar twice. And he was shot twice in the face. dead. First win of the day.
Second game was against Deneghra, on territories (Vertical Running Territories and claim points for holding a territory with no enemies in it, first person to 5 points. I knew it was over when he cast Crippling Grasp on the Greatbears. They were running through a forest, so with practically no movement they didn't help.
Eventually he got through and killed Irusk with Bane Knights.
Third game was against Haley, a specially built list from a friend of his (Who is quite a good player). I won out of scenario, but it was a little disheartening playing him. He knew he sucked, and he would repeat it over and over again.
"I know I suck."
I ignored it throughout the game, and was a little glad that the game ended.
Fourth game was against Aaron, my old friend. Throughout the day, he repeated a line that I threw out on Friday because he said it was insightful and even inspiring.

"I've lost nothing but a game of Warmachine."

I still don't understand the hype, but it has made him happy.
The game went very well for myself. He made his way to one side to accept a charge, but didn't expect me to absolutely annihilate four of his five Trollblood Champions with Greatbears and a Demo Corps member.
His retaliation came slowly and unsuccessfully. All my Great Bears? Passed their Tough rolls and remained standing on 1 health.
To which they turned around and made Grim Angus Stew.
Aaron ended up having killed 1 Demo Corp model. Everyone else? Survived on Tough Rolls.

With the three games won out of four, I wasn't expecting to be very high on the rankings. But much to my surprise, and to quote...

"And in Second Place, because I like calling him by what's on the card... The Medway!"
"What??"

"Who knew that STD's were collectable?"

Day One.
The morning started with feeling exhausted for no reason. Plenty of tossing and turning kept punctuating of sleep.
Eventually, after laying in bed for about an hour, I gave up and exited my room. A quick shower and a change of clothes and I was prepared for the day ahead.
My phone rings, Scoot is demanding my attention. "Where are you, Medway?"
"I'm across the road."
"Well you better get over here because we're just about ready."
The clocks declare 9am and I'm out faster than you can say "Happy Birthday Sherrie."
After losing track of my position, I quickly get to the centre by quarter past and collect my tags.
What a beginning.
I saw a couple of the guys on the way in and continued my way to the gaming area only to be thanked by Ed for being late.
So it was a simple series of games. Random scenario, and you can choose between two different Army Compositions. I only had one, one list mostly made for the entirety of the weekend.
First through Fourth Rounds. No wins. Two loss by scenarion, Two by Warcaster [Commander, if you will] Kill. A fifth round was played, but my opponent disappeared by that round giving me a "Buy", an automatic win.
It was fair enough, he was in crutches and most of us were getting a little tired and cranky by the end of the day.
Halfway through the day, Kel came up to me with a Proposition.
"What do you think of that, mate?" he asked, handing me a privateer press coin.
"That's pretty cool," i replied. It is a pretty cool coin. Hefty too.
"So what do you think of becoming a Press Ganger?"
It surprised me.
For those at home wondering "What is a Press Ganger? Is it News Reporters who put horses in peoples beds because they stayed up late watching the Godfather?"
Not quite, but that's a silly idea that it might work.
No, it's a representative for Privateer Press who runs Tournaments and Demos for games that PP have made.
I like these games. So I said "Sure".
Kel and Rob are apparently the few Press Gangers in Brisbane. Kel has a NIT [Nerd In Training] and Rob is disappearing for a while for some reason that remains a mystery to me insofar, they thought I'd be all for it.
And I am. I got myself a couple of Battle Boxes and will have to paint them. Cygnar, Menoth and TrollBloods, and I have Skorne figures at home that I can paint. So I'm pretty much all set.
Otherwise, a couple of Starter boxes for Monsterpocalypse and that is that sorted out.
After the 12 hours of gaming, spending and waiting, it was time to celebrate Sherries birthday. Everyone was a little cranky, but the 8 of us from fastbreak walked over to the Pancake House across the river. The wait was a bit arduous but I desperately needed to pee.
I was led to the Bar, something I didn't expect at a pancake manor, and relieved myself before attaining a Strongbow while awaiting a table.
The night carried on with giggles and jokes galore before we taxi'd back to the apartment where I now lay, thinking of getting a cup of water.

Attendance: Success

Saturday the 12 September: "STILL KICKIN!" monpoc tournament event. Due to the absence of our usual organiser, I volounteered to run it in his Stead.
It went off with only a few hitches.
For one, there were only 5 people that attended. Rethy and Severeddog didn't appear which was sad. I like Rethy. We flirt in our games. Meatshield was missing his attendance due to work, which was fair enough.
But that was alright.
The next hitch relates to the prize kit. We didn't know where the heck it was. Couldn't find it at all. Ended up having to call the shop owner to find it. At the same time, I bought 2 unit boosters of monpoc to spread out as prize kits!
We ended up with a Harbinger Comet Shard, a Sun Industries Building, 2 Tanglix (Grunt and Elite), 2 Anti-Air tanks (Grunt and Elite), and some other stuff that I have long since forgotten.
Meatshield should feel so jealous. He loves his anti-air tanks as much as I love Mogroth.

Speaking of Mogroth, I played Mogroth for a game that day. Because I stepped out (I don't know why), I was playing the people with the Buy. First game was against Josem and I was playing Mogroth/Ultra, just for the sake of it, against her Zor-Magna/Mega on Crossroad Crunch.
With a fairly good set of positioning of Towers of Corruption, I kept myself clear of blast and brawl/power attacks until she finally approached and power attacked me from behind.
Lost my form in one go, but made a pretty good comeback and ended up winning...
I'm still trying to peel the dirty away from my skin. It's just not natural that he won!

Anyway, the second game was with Mega Ancient Osheroth against Tyrranix. It was a practice run for Doc and his Tyrranix. It was the first game he had, fresh out of the wrapping too.
Doc has first turn. When it came to his monster turn, he tried to take advantage of some... precarious positioning of my behalf.
What would have been 3/4 damage on the first round ended up being 3 damage to him, thanks to a disappointing miss. You'd think an Egg Beating would make me suffer, especially an Egg that can Penetrate you.
Wait... What?

I ended up with a victory, thanks to a Meatslave and a Cthulubite standing next to Ultra Tyrranix, who swatted them straight at Ancient Osheroth while being shot by Osheroth and his "Feeding Frenzy" ability on his blast. That's Super, thanks for asking. The same thing was said about Tyrannix's swats with the Crunch ability.

All in all, they were both good games. I learnt that Mogroth can win sometimes, and Tyrannix is still just plain cool. Especially when doing an air banjo duet with your opponent.
Dukes of Hazzard driving Trucks, crossed with a giant Triceratops? Heck yeah. And they can all be surrounded by Mystery Machines too!

Here's a question: How does an Egg summon a Mystery Machine? And just as curious: How does a Brontox summon a Mystery Machine?
It's a Riddle, wrapped in an Enigma, floating in a Mystery Machine.

So with that, the day came out pretty well.
But it put me in the mood for more competitions.
The store owner wants more people to play monpoc, and wants more people to buy stuff so that he can lose some of the stock he has piled up.
But what to do? We have tournaments with prize kits occur every couple of months, but nothing more than that.
So what's the answer?
More Unofficial Tournaments, less prize kits and pre-registration. There will still be a $5 fee to put towards a small prize pool. So all I really have to do is organise with old mate a regular schedule to play. Every second sunday? Sure. Should be easy enough to organise.

I'm not sure what to call it.
But maybe add in a few faction specific bonuses for the next event, or maybe even just general bonuses.
Like: If you destroy/crush one or more units in a turn, you gain a power-die at the end of your turn.
Or: If you destroy an opponent's form from full health in one attack, they lose power die equal to the amount of buildings/hazards they collided with.

I like it.

Gaming for Charity

About 18 months ago, an event called Gencon Oz appeared on my social radar, an event where neck-bearded gamers and hot little cosplayers attended to enjoy the fun and excitement of social gaming and nerdly eccentricities.

I attended in excitement, planning to wage Warmachine (haha, you see what I did there?) across the two days of B.O. and Geekly Pop Culture jokes.

Quite a few people attended, many of whom I enjoy seeing to this day, and I have made plans to attend again this year.

One particular fellow stood himself out a little bit earlier.  His name is Spenny, and he Games for Charity.  Well, his name isn't actually Spenny, but it's what I work with.
His foundation of choice is Heartkids, a group devoted to research into Congenital Heart Disease, an affliction his daughter was unfortunate enough to recieve.  So last year he made an offer to some friends and a few of the guys attending to make donations depending on his play.
25c per victory point; $5 per state resident/pressganger he defeated; $5 for placing best in faction or in the top 4.
Throughout the weekend he was also recieving random donations of $20 or more, gifted to him for being such a good sport.
Overall he made about $800 (Is that right?) and donated it very proudly to the foundation.
Since then, he has kept it up with the large events that he has made attendance and earnt quite a bit for the charity over the past year and a half.

This year, Gencon Oz is turning up again and with his attendance, he has started up the charity run again.
I've opted in for the 25c per victory again, because frankly I'm a bit of a stinge, but I've also roped in my workmates.  I sent the email around describing his ventures and how the setup works and recieved emails asking how it works because I apparently didn't make sense, or asking if they have to attend or play themselves, (And one asking if this was actually from me and not forwarded on) but eventually when everything was made clear about a half dozen people have said they would donate, half of whom have declared flat donations, and the remainder making pledges based on his play.

So that's what I'm doing for Gencon Oz for Spenny.

As for playing myself, well... I haven't done anything since the night at Kel's.  So I'm bringing my stuff to work on monday and painting during lunch!
It'll be good.  Just have to get my arse into gear.