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Well, I took part in an 1100pt tournament this past weekend. It was great fun and I learned a lot. Following are some battle briefs and thoughts on the games I played, along with the lessons I (hope I have) learned. 1st game: Grab the objectives (1 random objective marker worth 100vps, 2 worth 50 vps) I started out with a big advantage, since half my army is Troops, and they all infiltrate. Plus my Lictors always start on the board. Unfortunately, I found that I'd left an entire squad of Genestealers at home! So, I was down points to start with. The game ended before turn 4, with my opponent ahead on Victory points. Even with my point deficit going into the game, I think I could have won this one if we had been able to complete the game. I need to move more quickly (I wasn't that slow, but I could have done my turns more quickly) My opponent commented that it was a great game and that he appreciated that I knew more of his rules than he did, since he was just starting the army. 312 to 77 (200pt margin was a tie) 2nd Game: Cleanse with Quarters worth 250pts each. 3rd Game: Meatgrinder I won Best Sportsman, which made me feel really good. I know I got a few votes for Best Painted, as well, which was nice. I had 3 good games and I like to think I learned a few things. 1)Bring all your stinking models! They were sitting at home on my printer where I was counting them and doing touchup work the night before. 2) Move Faster. Think during your opponent's turn so you can move decisively in yours. An extra turn in the first couple of games would probably have gotten me the win. I think I need to do less second guessing on my movement and just move up, sort of instinctively. I've seen a Fantasy game completed using 10 minute turns or less, I should be able to do the same with 40k. That should let me finish every game, even if the other person is really slow. The moving faster thing might not sound like such a big deal, but consider that most of my army can't get into combat before turn 3, meaning that if a game goes 6 full turns, I'll have 6-8 combat phases to do my damage. If it only goes to 5, that means I have 4-6 phases, a pretty big difference. I'd like to add a note here about Cheesiness. The first army I came across featured 2 Troop Choices and 4 Heavy Support and an HQ. The second army featured a lot of small squads, with characters leading each one as well as two Wraithlords. The final army also had only 2 Troop Choices in addition to an HQ, an Elite and a Heavy Support choice. On the face of it, some would suggest that these are "cheesy" or unfair armies. First I would like to point out that the 3rd army, despite featuring only 2 Troop choices, wasn't as lopsided as it first looks. He took Full Size squads for his two choices, and they are expensive. Those two squads must cost nearly 600 points between them, which is more than half of his total points for the army, a reasonable amount. In addition, since his other choices were spread out without all being in one category, it made it a more interesting and less one-sided army. The other two, however, were just cheesy... I'm kidding, of course. They were, however, a bit more one-sided than the third army. The Iron Warriors player did have large squads, though they weren't as pricey as the Grey Knights squads, but I think he would have fared better without quite so much heavy support. I know, Iron Warriors are all about Heavy Support, but more than half of your army choices (and probably about 2/3 of your points) in Heavy Support is a bit much, and some extra grunts would have gained him much more effective firepower. Now that we are in 4th edition, Rapid Fire weapons are much more effective, and so extra grunts are also much more effective. If his Basilisk had actually come onto the board, or the Predator had been there for more than 1 turn, they would have quickly turned into extra victory points for me. Another squad or so of Troops would have been much harder for me to deal with and would have been able to give me more damage and survive more losses on his part. At the end of turn 3, he only had 4 Chaos Marines on the board, waiting for their leader, and the Dreadnaught and Predator, plus an Obliterator or two. The Eldar player certainly took plenty of Troops, but that's because Beil Tan Eldar get to take what would normally be Elite or Heavy Support models as Troops. He took a good mix of Aspects, but each one was small and each one featured an Exarch, a character upgrade like a Veteran Sergeant for Marines. He also took 2 Wraithlords. Wraithlords are tough to kill and they seem to be extremely effective for their points to me. On the other hand, an attack with a Rending Claw has a 1 in 6 chance of automatically Wounding and giving no Armor Save. A Genestealer has 3 attacks on the charge. That means each charging Genestealer has roughly a 50% chance of causing a Wound on a Wraithlord. 6 Genestealers will, on average, kill off a Wraithlord at Initiative 6 on the turn they charge. Basically, I looked at them across the board and said, "Lunch!" The small squads of Aspect Warriors, each with an Exarch (the model that usually does the most damage) looked vaguely intimidating, until I counted the models again. Even though I forgot a whole Brood of Genestealers and even though each Genestealer costs more than a Space Marine, I still outnumbered him. Each squad being so small meant that they didn't do much damage and that even a small amount of damage would be detrimental to them. Sure, they accounted for my Hive Tyrant (Arrgh, I need to remember what Fire Dragons can do!) and my Lictors. They didn't do much damage to my Genestealers, which are the bulk of my army. Again, another turn would have really told on him, since his small squads were dying so quickly. If I had actually remembered to bring my extra squad of Genestealers, this game might have been really lopsided. There is an 1850pt Rogue Trader Tournament coming up at this store and, if I can go, I'd like to take this army. I've recently gotten my talons on enough Genestealers to do this army right. If I could free up the points, I'd take the other 3 Genestealers to give me the maximum for a standard Tyranid List, but then I'd have to lose some antivehicle power, and this army needs it, I think. This should give me pretty good Anti-Vehicle power and enough models to absorb casualties. The additional fact that I'll have 6 Infiltrating Troops choices means that I'll get big advantages as to what can start on the board and where I can place models. To achieve this, I'll need to paint up a whole gob of Genestealers by the 30th, but I think I can do that, as long as I get moving and keep the momentum going. I'll be trying to devote 5-10 minutes a day to it, to get back in the habit of doing a little bit every day. 1+1=done, right? If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |