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

Misty Mountain North Tournament

Hey folks,

Misty Mountain North, one of the bigger game stores in the Twin Cities area, is hosting a 40k Tournament on August 8th. I'll be there along with at least one of my friends, who will probably be playing his 'nids.

Anyways, we're supposed to bring a 2000 point list to this shindig - something that I'm not accustomed to at all. Using every single Eldar model at my disposal and tooling up all of them, I managed to barely come up to that total.

• Farseer w/ Doom, Fortune, Spirit Stones, Jetbike, Singing Spear and Runes of Warding (173)
• Warlock x3 w/ Jetbikes, Destructor x2, Embolden & Singing Spear (163)
• Autarch w/ Mandiblasters, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun & Warp Jump Generator (125)
• Dire Avenger x10 w/ Exarch, Dual Shuripult, Bladestorm (152)
• Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones, Star Engines, Vectored Engines (190)
• Guardians x10 w/ Scatter Laser, Spiritseer Warlock w/ Embolden (131)
• Pathfinder x5 (120)
• Fire Dragon x6 w/ Exarch, Dragon's Breath Flamer, Crack Shot (113)
• Warp Spider x9 w/ Exarch, Dual Death Spinner, Power Blades, Withdraw (240)
• Falcon w/ Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holofields, Spirit Stones, Star Engines, Vectored Engines (220)
• Wraithlord w/ Bright Lance, Eldar Missile Launcher, Flamer x2 (155)
• Dark Reaper x5 w/ Exarch, Tempest Launcher & Crack Shot (217)

Total: 1999

This is by no means an optimum list - it's what I have and I'm gonna have to make the best of it (being a poor college student and all). I can see some ups and downs - I have enough contingency in both anti-horde, volume of fire and anti-tank to be able to bear the loss of one (maybe two) units and make it out okay. As I look at what I've put together, shooting is going to be my strong suit - but against IG or Tau I will have to get in their face with my more mobile elements.

If I had some handy, I'd totally throw another troops choice in - I guess I'm just gonna have to be really efficient with how I take/contest objectives.

The Autarch will be attached to the Warp Spiders and they (along with my Seer Council) will be problem solvers - they'll fly back and forth and cover my lines from assaulters by putting enough shots into a Doomed unit to kill them twice over or they (along with the grav tanks) will fly forward and hammer away at units.

I'm actually rather happy with the presence of the Dark Reapers. In 5th edition they haven't been very powerful due to the onset of mechanized armies and cover saves abound. However, I feel that there's enough high-strength long range shooting pop a few transports turn 1 or 2 and then pound away at power armored dudes.

Things that I will have to watch out for:

• Drop Pod lists - Following Fritz's example, I will keep everything in reserve in order to hopefully nullify any advantages that the first strike will give them.
• Nidzilla - I can barely kill 4 TMC's as it is, 7 or 8 will probably make me cry like a little girl.
• Dual Lash + Oblit Spam - The only thing I've got going for me is Runes of Warding and hopefully enough shots to kill Daemon Princes/Sorcerors in one turn.
• Nob Bikers - If the metagame has truly taken them out of the picture, I won't have to worry. But once again, hopefully I have enough high strength shots and volume of fire to take them out before they take me out.
• Horde Lists - I've sacrificed a bit of volume of fire in exchange for some Bright Lances, so I'll have to be very careful about where my flamer templates are on the board.
• AV14 spam (Tri Monolith, Land Raider Spam, Leman Russ Spam etc) - Hopefully, get up close with the Seer Council and all my fusion guns while blasting away with Bright Lances.

As always, C&C welcome.