Of Tartan and Brawls

The Tartan Brawl is now over, and it feels like a great weight has been lifted.  Matt Reid's terrain was fantastic, the attendance was good even with all the feeble people who cancelled at the last minute, and the tournament software I'm using is incredible.  Overall, I'd say it went very smoothly, possibly 8/10.  Better arrangements need to be made with the QMU to let us in earlier instead so we don't freeze our balls off in the freakishly cold weather - an earlier start also means an earlier finish, or a more relaxed finish anyway.  I'd also like to have a laptop so I don't have to lug my entire PC back and forth from my flat to my car to the QMU and back.

Anyway, here's the final rankings for the main 50 point event - best of factions in bold:

1.) Jim Lawrence - Circle Orboros
2.) Ross Silvers - Khador
3.) Richard McHale - Trollbloods
4.) Adam Davies - Minions
5.) Iain Adair - Trollbloods
6.) Jeff Barrass - Trollbloods
7.) Mark McKinlay - Cryx
8.) Martin Casey - Mercenaries
9.) Alastair Johnstone - Cryx
10.) Matt Reid - Cygnar
11.) Tom McCandlish - Retribution of Scyrah
12.) Colin McNeil - Cygnar
13.) Scott Burry - Circle Orboros
14.) Sean Murchie - Skorne
15.) Barry Kelly - Protectorate of Menoth
16.) Tom Rolland - Retribution of Scyrah / Mark Bonatti - Cryx
17.) John Sinclair - Cryx
18.) Michael Murray - Cryx

Since we ended somewhat early, I ran a quick 35 point Hardcore style event (dropping the painting requirement) which went down pretty well with the players.  The rankings for that are - minus anyone who dropped out:
1.) Ross Silvers - Khador
2.) Martin Casey - Mercenaries
3.) Michael Murray - Cryx
4.) Jim Lawrence - Protectorate of Menoth
5.) Alastair Johnstone - Cryx
6.) Barry Kelly - Protectorate of Menoth
7.) Matt Reid - Cygnar
8.) Richard McHale - Trollbloods
9.) John Sinclair - Cryx
10.) Jeff Barrass - Trollbloods
11.) Mark Bonatti - Cryx
12.) Colin McNeil - Cygnar
13.) Tom McCandlish - Retribution of Scyrah
14.) Mark McKinlay - Cryx

The dog tags went down well, so they're something I'm going to keep in for next year.  I actually had the perfect number of them for the number of attendees, though I have no tag for myself, but alas, such is the life of the Press Ganger.  It is an existence of great sacrifice.  I'm quite proud of finding the Mallet of Shame, which Murray won, much to everyone else's mirth.

I have noticed a distinct difference in the downtime after tournaments as a Press Ganger lately though, as I don't play in the events there's this weird outsider feeling as people talk about their victories and defeats of the day.  People can tell all the stories and I find I have none myself.  So it's definitely time to badger the people in Perth and Dundee into getting a PG of their own so I can go forth to crush some hopes and dreams.

There Will Be Brawl

Having lost a good percentage of imported players to the Irish Masters the Tartan Brawl numbers are much lower than I'd like.  With the numbers much reduced (unless I get a whole load of surprise attendees) I may have to change the format to two separate events run on different days.  Emergency measures will have to be put into place.

Sadly, Timpson's wasn't happy to etch my dog tags, the man behind the counter looked at me like I was some species of axe murderer when I asked to do 30 tags with a custom graphic.  So I'm getting the standard embossing done, no fancy Iron Kingdoms fonts I'm afraid unless someone wants to fork out enough cash for me to order a minimum of 250 bespoke metal key rings from a promotions company.

Next year I think I'll put in a pre-pay option for the Tartan Brawl since those soft southerners seem to prefer that.  It also commits people to coming along, as it's a big hassle to get their cash back and hopefully reduce the number of last minute disappearing acts.  Finally, it gives me more predictable numbers.

I've also just heard that GUGS plans to run Conflagration in November this year.  Which I believe to be a blatant lie as that would involve having a different committee at the time.  Students being students, this means it's going to get fobbed off on a bunch of people who think the previous committee should have organised it, and in the end, very little (if anything) will have been done.  Seeing as students are my lowliest minions however, I'm sure I can whip them into action at least long enough to run some sort of event.

Merchandising

So I beat Jim's Mohsar to death with eDoomshaper's walking stick in a classic "Get Off My Lawn" throw down on Tuesday.  Good times were had by me.

I've been working on gift ideas for the Tartan Brawl lately, and I wanted to have oval-shaped metal discs on a keyring engraved with "Tartan Brawl", but quickly discovered that it's next to impossible to order anything less than 250 of the things and that quickly overspends any semblance of a budget I had.  Then inspiration arrived in the form of dog tags.  Stick an engraved dog tag on a split ring (the ring thing you attach all your keys to) and you have an almost identical product.  I've ordered a handful of test dog tags to see how they respond to engraving.  I knocked up that concept picture up on the left using Photoshop, but I'll be sure to stick up a picture of the test tags once they're done.

On the same note I've come to realise that my poor Press Ganger t-shirt just isn't cutting it.  It's too cold, and if I wear a jumper, that obscures the t-shirt, so if anyone needs a PG, they need to know me personally rather than just looking for anyone with the correct t-shirt.  If I were a bulkier person maybe, but I definitely need something with sleeves - my twig-like arms aren't going to impress anyone I'm afraid.  To this end I'm checking out various t-shirt companies in the local area who can whip me up a Press Ganger jumper/hoodie.  Preferably in white, black is a slimming colour and if I get any slimmer I'll be able to slip under doors.

I was drafting a long list of cool things to give away at the Tartan Brawl but I think I'm at the limit of my budget.  The list of costs has grown quite large, and while I'd love to give away more stuff, it's all my own money I'm spending.  On the plus side however, the list of goodies has grown fairly large and reached a stage where I'm content and can hope that everyone walks away with something they like.  Now all I need to do is convince the other Scottish players to travel...