This is the first of a few tournament reports from a player's perspective, I've been to a couple of nice tournaments lately and thought I'd give them a review.
The first of the three tournaments I went to was a UKISS qualifier, for those that don't know, the UKISS is a national event being held towards the end of the year, which aims to bring together players from the UK and Ireland and find the best players, with a secondary goal of bringing together the UK and Ireland's Warmachine and Hordes communities. If you're interested there's more information about the UKISS here : http://wmhukiss.co.uk/
This event was a qualifier for the regional finals in the North West, held in the small village of Brimstage in the centre of The Wirral at Wargame Store. The store itself has a great selection of stock which is very nice as I often find I'm more inclined to purchase models at an event. The upstairs of the venue is a little cosy but houses at least 10 tables big enough for Warmachine, making it a great place to run an event.
This event was a sixteen player event with the top four qualifying for the UKISS Regional final, held two weeks later in the same place.
The tables used at the event are fairly accessible, though due to the eaves of the building sometimes swapping sides at round start can be quite awkward. The tables themselves are good, set up before the players turned up and each table had a plastic wallet of terrain and zones, enough to make a suitable table set up from each. This makes it easy to find all the zones you need for the scenario and not have to harrass the TO.
Round timings are very relaxed, with one hour deathclock meaning that there's a more relaxed atmosphere and there's plenty of time between rounds to relax and browse the store downstairs. This does mean that the event ends around 6:30pm, however as the event is on a Saturday this doesn't seem so bad.
The venue puts on lunch for the tournament, usually a chili or other similar all-in-one meal which can be heated all together. Along side this there is also a free bottled drink of your choice and a piece of fruit. The food is always very tasty too!
The last thing to mention is that the prize support is brilliant. There are raffle tickets awarded to each player for attending, fully painted armies, and both lists played (in a D&C 0 tournament) along with others I'm sure I'm forgetting. These raffle tickets then enter you in to a draw for store credit to spend in the shop downstairs. The best thing about this is that the wonderfully patient shopkeep will regularly stay open afterwards to allow you to spend your vouchers there and then!
Overall I would heartily recommend any tournament at the Wargame Store as they're always good, relaxed, fun, and very well organised. Big thanks to Chris Young as the organiser and Mark Ellis as the judge!
Also thanks to Rob "He would've proofread this but he's in Canada on holiday and Barry didn't want to bother him" McCormick for his support as always.
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