How to win at a tournament

 

Tournaments are fun, they challenge you in all aspects of the game, and they let you take on different opponents than your usual suspects.  Winning at a tournament generally means that you’ve done well at several, if not all aspects of the hobby, and gives you that bit of recognition that we all crave now and then.  So, how do you go about winning a tournament?  Do you slap some paint on those figures at the last minute?  No.  Do you minimize those Troops selections so you can max out on all the “cool” stuff?  No.  Do you crush your opponents tactically and then taunt them?  No.  A tournament is the time to take your game up a notch, but you have to do it in everything, not just a single portion of the hobby.  If you’ve never been to a tournament before, I encourage you to go out and give it a shot.

 

At a tournament, you receive points for winning battles, having well-painted models, being a good sport, and creating a well-rounded army list.  Though the breakdown of points is different between a local Rogue Trader Tournament and a Grand Tournament, the idea is the same.  If you completely ace one portion of the scoring, but tank on the others, you will not generally have enough points to place well overall.  If you do average or a little better at each one, you’ve got a good shot at placing, and if you do well at each aspect, you should be very close to the top indeed.  So how do you go about making sure you do well at everything?  First, remember that you don’t have to be the best at each one, just a cut above the rest. 

 

Painting

 

The difference between a model that wins a Golden Daemon award and a model that is painted well can be hours of work.  Unless you are trying to compete specifically for Best Painted or Best Appearance, you don’t need to spend those extra hours on a single model, you can use them to improve other models, or improve other areas of your hobby.  So, how do you make sure your models receive attention, without being a master painter?  There are several aspects of Appearance scores.  We’ll start with the basics.  Your army should have some sort of unifying theme to it’s colors.  Even if they are supposed to be a ragtag force of pirates or whatever, each model should have something that identifies them as part of this particular ragtag force.  You might give them all red boots and gloves, or black armor or something that lets the average onlooker know that they are together.  (In the heat of battle, soldiers should be able to tell who is on their side and who they can shoot!)  You want to make sure that you have all your models painted, with at least the minimum three colors.  Having unpainted miniatures ruins your attempts at unification.  To make the models look their best, make sure you’ve touched up any battle damage they’ve received before the tournament.  In addition, there are a few quick things that you can do to help a model look it’s best.  Basing them properly, so they are all standing on similar ground is a great way to quickly improve the appearance of a model and it helps to unify them (gives them common ground, if you will.)  Drybrushing or highlighting your models are another way to quickly bring out some of the interesting details of the models and help them stand out from the crowd.  If you just drybrush or highlight some of your models, it will detract from the uniform look, however, so do all of them if possible. 

 

Sportsmanship

 

Simply put, sportsmanship is making sure your opponent had a good game.  The basics of Sportsmanship are fairly easy, but they take some practice.  Be courteous to your opponent.  Do all the things your parents wanted you to do.  Introduce yourself, say please and thank you, shake their hand at the beginning and again at the end of the game.  When it’s over, tell them it was a good game, and try to find something specific to comment on (“You’ve got a good sense of humor and it made the game more fun,” or “You handled those assaults skillfully,” or “Those are really beautiful models.”)  Courtesy also covers explaining what you are doing, instead of just mumbling and rolling some dice.  Make it clear what is attacking and what the target is before you roll the dice.  While I'm at it, don’t touch your opponent’s models, unless you have asked first, or they have asked you.  Some people are very touchy about their models for one reason or another, and there’s no point in antagonizing them.  When you do roll the dice, make it clear what you are looking for, and remove the failures first.  (I need three’s to hit, this is a miss, and so is this one, etc.)  If you remove the successes first, the opponent may not have seen that that one was a success and it starts to look a little shady.  Courtesy is also reminding your opponent that he didn’t move or shoot something, in case he forgot it.  Don’t be a nag about it, but when he starts to go on to shooting, ask if he meant to move that Landspeeder.  This is not required, by any means, but it is being nice to your opponent, and if your strategy requires the opponent to forget to move or shoot things, you may want to rethink your plan.  Finally, sportsmanship also covers those gray areas of the rules.  If your opponent understands a rule one way, and you understand it another, a tournament is not a time for a debate.  Either accept the different interpretation or offer to dice off for it, then if you want, you can talk it over later, between games, if you are both interested in doing that. 

 

Battle Points

 

This is where you have to go to Carnegie Hall.  Practice, practice, practice.  Finalize your armylist, then play it again and again.  Play all different kinds of scenarios, so you can find any weak spots in your list.  Play against as many different kinds of army as possible, to see if there are any gaps in your plan.  An effective army is not just about what you bring, it’s about how you use what you bring.  Use that armylist repeatedly so that you can get used to what units do what and how they work together.  If you practice consistently with one armylist, you will hone it.  It will be the same armylist you started with, but the units will work together better and you will be better able to adapt it to new situations.  This will let you play more smoothly and make decisions more quickly, because you will know exactly what everything can do and you will already have a plan in place.  This is also the area where you have to keep your eyes on the prize.  If the scenario victory conditions are table quarters, you don’t need to decimate the other army, you just need to control or contest terrain effectively.  If you get bonus points for seizing an objective, make sure you can seize it effectively.  Read through the victory conditions and scenario special rules carefully, to make sure you understand what you are doing and don’t just throw away your army for no good reason. 

 

Composition

 

Composition concerns the makeup of your armylist.  The composition score is supposed to level the playing field a little in terms of how tough an armylist can be.  Although the point breakdowns for Rogue Trader Tournaments and Grand Tournaments differ, they reward similar things.  If you take an armylist that features a lot of Troops choices, without loading up on Wargear or powerful characters, you will do fairly well in this category.  There are some people that sneer at the composition score, but it is the only one of your scores that you have complete control over.  You may not be able to win all your battles, appearance is subjective, so your painting score is not a guarantee, and not everyone grades sportsmanship properly, but you can completely control your composition score.  Look over the guidelines given to you for the tournament, and create your list with an eye on the composition score sheet.  This needn’t be the only reason you create the list, but use it as a guide.  Maybe you have in mind an army that features a lot of Wargear, for reasons of fluff.  Fine, take some extra Troops choices to try to offset it, or try to keep just the most important Wargear, to keep you under the comp score limit. 

 

Flair

 

This is not a scored section of your army, but it does count for something.  If there is something about your army that stands out, it gives you that extra edge over the competition.  This may range from having a heavily converted army, to wearing clothing that fits your army theme, to dressing up like a representative of your army.  It can also be the presentation of your background story.  If it is well put-together and looks appropriate, or has cool artwork, this will give you a little bit of an edge.  You can also make a cool display stand to put your miniatures in that will showcase them and be a visual draw itself.  These things will not, for the most part, earn you extra points, though there is usually some sort of  “coolest army” award, which may be worth extra points.  They will, however, get you noticed and make your army stick in the mind of the judges, which can give you the edge in the subjective parts, such as appearance. 

 

Putting it all together

 

So, you’ve painted your whole army with a unifying theme, you’ve based them and given them highlights.  You’ve put your army together with an eye to the composition charts and you’ve given them a little extra something (like a cool display base) to help them stand out.  You’ve been practicing with this same armylist down at the local store and have gone out of your way to find new players to try your army against.  You’ve been minding your P’s and Q’s and working on being polite and friendly to everyone that comes close enough to shake your hand.  Will you win a tournament?  It’s not a guarantee, but you’ve got a pretty good shot at that point, so good luck and get to it.  Maybe I’ll see you at the next one!