Saturday, August 8, 2009

Surviving the Tournament

So I was at my first tournament today at Misty Mountain North in Burnsville, MN. This was my first tournament experience and I rather satisfied on how I did, given my casual army building (1 win - 2 losses). I wish I had kept the missions just for reflectionary purposes.

Should there be interest for some mini-bat-reps, just leave a comment and I'll consider working on them. No pics, unfortunately, as my camera is still on the fritz.

Seeing as I'm dead tired after the assembling marathon last night (4:45 PM to 3 AM and then 7:30 am to 8:45 am) and the shindig today, I'll give an abridged version of my lessons and expand on these in later posts (I always keep saying I'll do that, don't I?)

Lesson 1) Be Prepared Physically, Mentally and Morale-ly (I know, not a word.)
I got very little sleep the previous night. The first match, I was being powered by a muffin, a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of Frappucino. It went well, actually, but as soon as my energy peaked off, things felt like they were going poorly for me. Even after the lunch break, my second and third match felt terribly taxing and I just was not feeling confidant. Keeping all three up is probably the key to enjoying these events.

Lesson 2) Understand the Metagame
So guess how many Space Marine players there were? Guess how many of those ran Vulkan? Basically, understand what you're facing

Lesson 3) Build the list for the Event
This was my biggest fault. I normally play in the 1500-1750 or so point values and this tournament was at 2000 points. Instead of writing a list specifically for 2000 point games, I just added on another 250 points that really didn't fit anything (mainly because I didn't have the money to spend or more models and had to make due with what I had...).

Anywho, the moral of the story is prepare, prepare, prepare and prepare some more.

Squirrel_Fish





2 comments:

  1. You are correct on all points. But, hey, first time in, so it's a learning experience.

    Sleep and a good breakfast are pretty important, just to keep your energy and morale up for the day. Well, the energy comes with the morale.

    On the meta-game...I'm not sure I agree that there's a metagame. more, I think it's a matter of having an understanding of the rules and knowing what works (which is to say vehicles are you buddy, and melta is not their buddy, so...). The tournament is a series of 3+ 1-on-1 matches.

    Building for the event is a well-taken point. Things scale up in poitn values, and the change from 1750 isn't THAT much different than 2000, but still. Then again, if it's what you got, it's what you got.

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  2. @Raptor1313: I have to disagree. I think there is definitely a metagame, but that it is specific to the area and event. It might be better said as "Know what the people in your area are likely to bring."

    @Squirrel_Fish: Vital points all... I've learned them the hard way myself. Your next experience should go better for the knowing.

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