Dig In?

As luck would have it, there are a slew of Warhammer 40k events in my area over the next few months, not including the Planetary Empires campaign I am starting.

A lot of my friends and fellow local area enthusiasts are gearing up to hit all of them, and I have to say that their preparation is intoxicating. I feel like I should get caught in the tide. My meager 1250 of Tau is but one hundred plus dollars, a scowling wife, and a couple of days building time away from being able to fully participate in all the events. It wouldn't be painted mind you, but none of them require it. So why not get to it?

Before we go any further down that dark path I will take a quick second to list the events in which I am referring. If you are in the area I encourage you to check them out. All this information is pulled straight off the Fighting Havenican forum that consolidated the information, as well as the stuff posted on Da Mommasboyz. Thanks guys for doing so.

• 1,500 pts Sept. 19th. Hobbytown in Spokane, WA. Call store for more details.
• 1,000 pts Sept 20th. Merlyn's in Spokane. Info here.
• Doubles Tournament in Richland, WA. Sept 26th. Info here. Last I read event was full.
• 1,850 pts Oct. 10th. Lightning Comics in Coeur d' Alene ID. Call store for info.
• Oct. 25th. Merlyn's in Spokane. Details not yet available.

Quite a bit going on, especially considering that even 3 moths ago I couldn't find a friggin' tournament outside of the ones Merlyn's was running, and they always seemed to be on days I had plans.

I have mentioned that I play in an escalation league with my Tau. Our rounds are two weeks apart, and so every other weekend I travel about 100 miles to hang with my friends from college, drink, play 40k, and run a D&D campaign. Pretty ideal, but also time consuming. If I go down there it is normally for a night at least. Sadly, I do not get to exist solely within a nerd vacuum over the weekends. My wife has things she would like to do, as do our families. These things are almost always on Saturday or Sunday. It is a good kind of trouble to have, but it still makes it difficult to fully immerse myself in the forthcoming events.

I think the easiest way to go here may be to emulate my buddy Magnus' model of planning, which can be summarized thusly, "First come, first serve." There have been occasions where I have seen Magnus bag on something I know he would enjoy to keep a prior and perceptibly less fun commitment. Whether or not it actually proves to be less fun is something else, yet, because he had other plans, he adheres to them bravely.

The other big decider in the events I play in over the next month and a half will be where my army is in the escalation league, points wise. I don't think I will force my army to be ready for a tournament. It is too early for that kind of thinking. Instead, if I got the points, and I have the time, game on!

The foxhole of tournament prep, where in things are built, slapped with paint, and numbers are crunched in hopes of gaining ground, will have to be manned by another this winter. I am not due to head to the front until next Spring. In the meantime, I will make sure that what I do commit to gets written down... some where, that way when I inevitably double-book myself, I can know who I get to blow off with my new "First come, first serve" policy.

Thanks for reading,
T