Foray into 40k - Tournament Time

Blake's down on the end plotting his next move

This weekend Jeremy (Jester), Dan (Dannato), Blake (bdix) and I all attended a small tournament at Meta Games in Springfield. Let me start by letting everyone know that this was a really well ran tournament. The guys there showed us a lot of hospitality and had plenty of space for the 24 person tournament. This was my first tournament to participate in and I really appreciated how well it was ran. They are planning on having a larger tournament in August, and I'm sure this experience will bring several of the Hogs of War back to Springfield for it.

The tournament was 3 games at 1850 points and the scenario's were from 2009 Ard Boyz. The scenario's had at least some focus on Kill Points (KP) in every round. The first round had 5 objectives and KP, the second was modified KP, and the final round was 2 objectives and KP. Secondary objectives were awarded in each round and were typically based around keeping HQ alive while killing the opposing HQ and troop choices. Maximum primary points were awarded for a "massacre" which scored 20 points for the round to the winner and zero to the loser. Major Victory, Minor Victory, and Draw were the other outcomes that could allow for the loser to score.

The Hogs of War came away with a pretty strong showing. Dan took first overall with his Daemon army. He tied Jeremy's Cannibal Legion IG army in primary points, but won based on victory points. Both of them were able to massacre all three games. Blake brought the forgeworld Tau to their first tournament, but was only able to pull out one massacre. I brought the Doublewing Dark Angels had two games go very well getting two massacres, but my second game went very poorly, taking me out of contention for the top spots. Jeremy's IG won best painted, and Blake walked away with a tie for best sportsmanship.



The winning army



Best painted



Here's a look at the spread on the armies we all played:

Jeremy: Orks, Chaos space marines, Eldar
Dan: Space Wolves, Vanilla Marines, IG
Eric: Chaos Space Marines, IG, Blood Angels
Blake: Vanilla Marines, Orks, Space Wolves

Not only did Dan win the tournament, but he also doled out vengeance for Blake and I along the way to the top. He beat the armies that beat Blake and I. I slept better as a result of it, thanks Dan.

Blob IG doomed me

So what did I learn from tournament #1? Several things. First and foremost for me is that the trip needs to be fun. We all had a great time, even though we were all running on low sleep. You can have good days and bad days in tournaments, but you can always make the trip fun. I learned that you really need to have your army tailored to be able to compete with the top competitive armies to position yourself well. My army wasn't tailored to IG very well, and there were numerous people playing it. Though each of them was setup slightly different, they would have all been very difficult for me to beat. This tournament had enough people at it to be diverse, but certain armies will likely rise to the top and you had better have a solid plan on how to handle them.

When it was all said and done, I was pleased with the Hog's showing and my personal performance. I've got to really get going on the Grey Knights so I can have them ready for the next tournament. That and figure out how to beat IG between now and then.