Throughout my years being involved in this hobby, I always would try to make each game a riot of fun whenever possible, even in tournaments where the tension is supposed to be much higher than that of a normal game. Some would think of my attitude to try and make things fun as a very enjoyable experience, while others would actually think that I am making mockery of the game.
Personally, I take my fun very seriously and I will try to make the best out of the time allocated to me whenever I am having fun. In more ways than one, I tend to party very hard and also very smart, as it is only economical to yield the optimum amount of fun in the shortest time possible. But that does not mean that I would forsake someone else's fun just because I want it to be fun for me. So i tend to be rather sporting when it comes to some rules, and just make the game a little more enjoyable.
But it is not to say that I would make cockle-doodle-shits and play to lose. As with every game, it is only respectful to try and win. But how I see it is that if I manage to get the win, but no one else is feeling the fun but myself then I have literally wasted my time. So I will sometimes be more lax in my games, and sometimes even do some things that people would call odd, but when executed properly it is rather ingenious.
For example, whenever possible I would personally send a HQ to fight another HQ mano a mano. Now all HQ units are powerful, and by destroying the HQ unit, you can potentially cripple the element of the army. Usually we can kill a HQ by overwhelming it, but is it worth it to overwhelm that unit so much that you sacrifice the game as a whole? For me, that is just plain wasteful. On the other hand, if I were to send in a HQ that could take on this other HQ, then I would call this economy of force, as now the other units in my army can go about being where they are needed best. And you have to admit that fluffwise, a HQ vs another HQ is just epic and fun.
This town ain't big enough for the two of us.....punk.Now, it is not wrong to say that HQs are just too precious to go about this mano a mano business, and that the smaller guys should go about doing the job like how an horde of Ork Boyz should go and bash Sanguinor's brains out instead of sending the Warboss, while your warboss should hunt down that Land Raider or something. But think of it this way; this pattern can be rather predictable, and thus your opponents can counter what you are planning. So sometimes the hilarious moves can be the most ingenious moves you can pull out.
Of course there are other ways of making your game fun for yourself and your opponent. One of the favoured methods of one of my friends is to make the most nonsensical list on paper, but when it played on the table it somehow gained a sense of purpose that one does not expect. Of course I would not encourage playing nonsensical lists unless you got some crazy flair for hilarity, but trying different kinds of list can also be very interesting for you and your opponent. Playing the same list over and over again can be rather boring, and soon enough people would also know what to do and they would get bored. An example of this can usually be attributed to powergaming lists such as the Double Lash/Plague Marines/ Oblits list or Nob Bikers list. Sure they are powerful, but it gets very dull fast and soon enough people would know what to do to wipe you out.
But by trying new combinations and playstyles, you would be able to learn more about your chosen army and how it works, while your opponents will learn quite a few unknown things that your army can pull off. In a sense, it is like learning how to play your army all over again. For my orks for example, I tend to ask my opponents 'What would you like to face today? I got List A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H.....choose your poison", and their first reply tends to be this; "You got a list up to H?"
I get this reaction a lot, both in terms of what I did to my army and my tactics....And you know what is the interesting thing? This variety is just only for Mech Orks! Amazing isn't it? Despite the fact that it is only just one playstyle, but I already got so much combinations to play with. Of course, each army got this amount of options as well but most people tend to not think of alternatives to their list and play with a pre-set list. I believe that this can be fine for tournaments, but even then if everyone know what your tricks are, then you have just showed your hand. I personally believe that in order for you to learn about your army, you need to try every trick in the book, and sometimes these involves units and/or wargears that are subpar on their own, but when combined with other units, they become kickass. Of course sometimes these combinations can be rather hilarious, but sometimes they can be both hilarious and utterly effective. I personally love an army with an unidentifiable threat, and with a lot of weird tricks up my sleeve. Not only will it be fun, but it is also deadly. And what I love about this? No one can copy my damn army and use it the way I do. Everyone can make a Lash list, but can anyone play a list with 30 raptors?
Another thing I tend to do to make a game fun is to crack a whole lot of jokes, which tend to loosen the tension and make everyone more relaxed and do less mistakes. Of course there are those who no matter what I do, they would not even crack and laugh, but these kinds of people I only see in tournaments. I prefer a game where I know that both sides are having fun, and perhaps this is why I did not manage to catchon to trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering as I tend to always see that the players are bloody silent and just don't even move a single muscle on their face. I tend to feel that it actually breaks my style to be silent whenever I play games, unless the game really requires you to be silent. So games with laughter and talking? Yes. Games without laughter and talking? Preferably not.
In conclusion, a game in my opinion is not for you to be all too serious about it as if you are gambling for your life, but instead it is supposed to be played for fun. If you want to gamble for your life, just go to Vegas and put your entire life savings on the line. But for me, I just want to have my good o' plain fun.
Until another time....
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