Blackmoor goes to the Las Vegas GT (40K)

I intend this to be an article/blog about my preparations to attend the Las Vegas GT. It will chronicle the building of my GT army from start to finish. It will document my steps as I design my army using the latest and most advanced methods of theoryhammer. Then it will move on to modeling and painting as I build it, and it will finish with my battle reports at the Las Vegas GT, and my final thoughts on the experience.

by blackmoor

The creation of a GT army from start to finish

Introduction

I am a hard core tournament player and generally only play in RTTs. I travel around and go from RTT to RTT...kind of like Caine from Kung Fu, but I wander around looking for 40k. Last Year I played all over the West Coast from Salem, Oregon to San Diego. Since moving to Jacksonville I have been driving 100+ miles to play in Orlando, and 200+ miles to play at RTTs in Tampa. Last year I also played 40k in Chicago and Baltimore, so I have played all over the country.

One thing about me though, is that my writing ‘skill set’ is not optimal, so this might not be the most well written article.

My GT experience.

This last year I attended both the Las Vegas GT and the Baltimore GT with my Eldar. I went 4-0-1 at the Las Vegas GT finishing with 80 Battle points, and finishing in 7th place. In Baltimore I went 5-0 and I finished with 97 battlle points landing me in 11th place. What stopped me from doing better in Las Vegas is my painting score, so I will need to work on my theme, my painting, and the overall presentation. At Baltimore my sportsmanship (and painting) stopped me from doing better. So I need to work on not being such a jerk when I go back east.

The Timeline

1. May10th Demon Codex release
2. June 1st Modeling begins
3. July 12th Release of 5th edition
4. August 23 Los Angeles Games Day
5. Sept. 6th and 7th Las Vegas GT

May10th Demon Codex release

Since one of the armies at the top of my list that I am thinking about building is a demon army, I will need to wait until the Demon codex is released so I can see if it is a viable army, and compare it to the others. I have looked though the codex briefly, but I need to build some test lists to see if I am happy with the results. After that, I can choose an army.

June 1st Modeling begins

I am moving across the country at the end of May, so I will not be able to begin the actual construction of the army until June. The LVGT is Sept 6th so I will have 3 months to finish the army.

July 10th Release of 5th edition

After building my army, and creating my list, I might have to change it slightly to conform to 5th edition. I do not think that 5th edition will be a radical change so it is my belief that a good army in 4th edition will be a good army in 5th edition.

August 23 Los Angeles Games Day

I hope that I can finish my army in time to take it to LA Gamesday. Since I am going to be building an army that I have never played before, I will need some practice games to see what I can, and can’t do. I do not know what the gaming scene is like where I am headed, so Gamesday LA might be the first time that I get to play this army. It is a good thing that this year they have raised the points to 1750 to match the GT circuit. An example of finding out what an army can and can’t do happened to me at the Adepticon Team Tournament. Most of us had never played Tau before and I knew that they are bad in assault, but until you play the army, you can’t appreciate how truly awful they are at it.

Sept. 6th and 7th Las Vegas GT

This is the final date. I need to finish my army completely by then. It is possible that I found some problems and issues that I did not like about my army at Gamesday LA, and I will have 2 weeks to try to tweek the build, and finish the army.

GT scoring

Battle points

You can get a maximum of 20 points per game for a total of 100 points. In the past they have awarded 20 for a massacre, 17 for a major win, 13 for a minor win, 10 for a tie, 7 for a minor loss, 3 for a major loss, and 0 if you get massacred. They changed their scoring around at the Baltimore GT though, and went to the Adepticon scoring system where you were awarded points for completing a primary objective, secondary objective, and a tertiary objective. So far we do not know how they are going to break down the battle points for the LVGT, but my guess is that we will have to wait until 5th edition comes out to get a little more clarity on the battle points and missions.

Maximizing your battle points As a general rule you need to destroy your opponent without being destroyed. You can’t squeak by getting minor wins, you need to get massacres. So how do you do this? Mission, missions, missions. The only way you can get big wins is through bonus points from fulfilling the missions' objectives. Always remember the missions!!! Keep your opponent from achieving them, and always go for them. Without them, it is nearly impossible to get a big win.

For an example: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/170117.page This was my 5th game at the LVGT. We were all the way up on table #2. The mission was Recon (you get bonus points equal to each scoring unit in the enemy deployment zone).

The game was going poorly for me because my opponent blew me off of the table. He only made one mistake: he forgot about the mission objectives. He had plenty of scoring units (and fast moving ones at that), and I didn’t. Only because of the bonus points from being in my deployment zone, and him with none in mine, I ended up with a minor win.

Appearance

There are four parts to the appearance score. Painting, Conversions, Basing and Display base.

Painting

The first part of the appearance score is painting. This one is hard to improve, or get to the level you need to be at because this is both a skill and a talent. It is a skill because you can work at improving your painting score by reading articles on how to paint, and take your time and do a good, clean paint job. Then on the other hand it is a talent and there is a certain amount of ability you either may, or may not have. As far as the GT scores go, make sure you have a neat paint job, all of the colors of the armies go together, the whole army matches, squad and units all have markings, and you add little details like transfers etc.

1. Army is fully painted, but only to the three-color standard of basecoating. 10 Points
2. Army is beyond fully painted, additional steps beyond the three-color standard. 15 Points
3. Painting is Uniform: Not a mix of schemes, styles, and looks. 1 Point
4. Clean Basecoat Colors: Base colors are painted neatly. 1 Point
5. Details: Details are painted such as eyes, buckles, and jewelry. 1 Point
6. Clean Details: Details are painted well (clean, have highlights). 2 Points
7. Hand-Painted Details: Details (that are well executed) have been added such as unit markings, banner artwork, blood marks, dirt on cloaks, etc. 2 Points
8. Artistic: Banners, markings, and details are hand painted to an incredible degree! 2 Points
9. Discernable Highlights/Shading: Drybrushing, lining, shading, inking, etc. (not required to be clean) 1 point
10. Clean Highlights: Lines are neat, drybrushing is appropriate, inking is controlled and not sloppy. 2 Points
11. Layers of Highlights: More than one layer of highlight, which may include shading, highlights over inking, blending, etc. 2 Points
12. Beyond Basics: Highlights have been blended, shaded, or layered well – beyond the basic highlighting techniques of drybrusing and inking. 2 Points
13. Masterful Blending: Highlights have been masterfully blended, shaded, or layered. 2 Points
14. Overall Appearance: Overall appearance is amazing! Everything works great together to create an awesome scene. 2 Points

Conversions.

You need more than a stock army to get a good score, so you need to swap out a lot of parts, and make unique figures. This part of the hobby is getting both easier and harder to pull off. It is getting easier because GW is producing a lot of plastic models which make it easier for conversions, unlike metal models that are hard to change. Also, the plastic models and kits are coming with a lot of options that you can use to create unique models. The reason why it is getting harder is that GW ended their bitz service. The end of the bitz service means that it is very costly or nearly impossible to do some armies that you would like to.

Conversion Points

1. Minimal: The army has some elementary conversions (head and weapon swaps, arm rotations) or a couple interesting swaps. 1 Point
2. Minor: Units have multi-kit conversions including head and weapon swaps. This is for more than a few models such as a unit. 2 Points
3. Major: The army has some difficult conversions that use things such as putty, plastic card, drilling, sawing, minor sculpts, etc. This could also apply to the entire army having very well done multi-kit conversions (see above) 3 Points
4. Extreme: The army has some extreme conversions, which could be: a scratch built conversion or sculpt of an entire model, a large amount of models with difficult conversions (see above), or the entire army is extremely converted 4 Points

Basing

Basing points is easy for small armies and a little bit harder when you have 150 models. There are many ways to base your army, and normally you can get good basing ideas from the theme of your army. For an example you can do snow bases for Space Wolves, Lava bases look good for Chaos, urban rubble for Imperials, etc.

1. Based/Detailed: Bases have basing materials (flock/sand/tiles) or details painted on them. 1 Point
2. Extra Basing: The bases have multiple basing materials (rocks/grass), extra details painted on them (cracks in tiles), or if extra basing is inappropriate, basing is done very well (eg. rolling desert dunes). 1 Point
3. Highlights: Bases have highlighting (shading/drybrushing). 1 Point
4. Special details: There are extra details on the larger bases (helmets, skulls, animals, building rubble, etc.)

Display Base

In the past it was never spelled out if a display base helped your appearance score or not, but now you do get points for it. This year you can get up to 2 points for your display base. Your base can be anything from a simple board that matched your basing to a large diorama. It is up to you to how much time and effort you put into it.

1. Display Base: Basic based & highlighted or detailed display base. 1 Point
2. Something Special: There is something above and beyond about a model’s painting, the display base, a conversion, or the basing (eg. movement trays are based/highlighted). 1 Point

Player’s choice

They have awarded up to 5 bonus points if you get votes for player's choice. You get these votes from your peers. Everyone walks around between rounds 2-3 and votes for an army that they think is the best. Since it is unclear if you get bonus points for it this year, but in the past if you have a good paint job, with interesting conversions and an exceptional display base you should get some votes…or just talk some of your friends into voting for you.

Sportsmanship

These Sportsmanship scores are basic behaviors. This year they have totally gotten rid of comp (you can argue that it was gone last year), so all you have to do is act like a normal human being and you will do well. I predict that there will be a lot of people tied for max sports. Since you should get max sports points, you can focus on Battle and Appearance.

Compulsory Trappings

1. Did your opponent show up on time (or early)? 1 Point
2. Did your opponent have all the materials they needed to play (dice, templates, army list, rules for their army, rules for the game)? 1 Point
3. Did your opponent play their turns in a reasonable amount of time (taking in account time to plan strategy, and includes playing throughout all the phases)? 1 Point

You should always show up on time, and there are many reasons for it. The first is that if one of you has a horde army, then you want to start as soon as possible. The second is that you want to be the first one to the table so terrain does not get moved so it is “unfavorable” if the tournament’s terrain is fixed. You should always bring all the tools for the game as well as a pen. Also bring a lot of copies of your army list to the tournament. You need the # of games +2. That way you can give one to the tournament judges, one to each of your opponents to keep, and one for your copy. You should always finish a 6 turn game. If I get less than 6 in because you brought a horde, I am taking off a point.

Game Play

1. Did your opponent measure accurately for both model moves and shooting distances? 1 Point
2. Did your opponent solve rules disputes by showing you the relevant passages in their rulebook (or, if that could not be found or remained confusing, was amicable about bringing over a Rules Judge)? 1 Point
3. Was your opponent’s army easy to understand with clear conversions or completely WYSWIG? 1 Point
4. Do you think your opponent built an army based on the theme of the relevant gaming universe and supplied background for that army (as opposed to a force built purely for winning with little or no regard to that army’s established background)? 1 Point

These are pretty basic. For movement I have a 6” ruler I use so that my opponent can see that I am moving the right amount. This is also one of my pet peeves when a walking army moves 8” a turn. The last “theme one seems like the only subjective one, and the only vestige of comp.

Behaviors

1. Was your opponent of good humor and amicable when not concentrating on strategy or planning out moves (this does not mean they put on a one man circus for you, but rather was not angry/grumbling/complaining/obtuse during your game)? 1 Point
2. Was your opponent helpful in explaining correct rules, explaining how their army works? 1 Point
3. Win or lose, was this person the type of opponent you look forward to playing again? 1 Point

Don’t be a jerk, and treat your opponent the way you want to be treated.

Favorite opponent

At the end of the GT you will vote for your favorite opponent, and it is possible to get 5 bonus points. Not too much control over this, so be nice.

Selecting an army

40k Game Theory

I am about to make generalizations, so keep that in mind.

Let’s talk about how armies win. You have 3 types of armies.

1. Assault
2. Shooting
3. Hybrid (a combination of shooting and assault)

Assault armies win by imposing their will on their opponent. That means they have one goal, and if they can achieve this goal they will win. The make up of assault armies are around 90% Assault to 10% Shooting. To give you an example of assault based armies they are Wytch Cult, Stealer Shock and Horde Orks. These armies try get into assault as fast as possible, and beat the other army down. There are also Space Wolves and World Eaters, but they are unable to get into assault, so they are unsuccessful.

Shooting armies are made up of 90% shooting to 10% assault. The Shooting armies are IG, Tau, and SAFH Space Marines. They win by out shooting other shooting armies, and destroying assault armies before they can get close.

The weaknesses of these armies are that they can dominate a lot of armies, but they have bad match ups that they struggle to overcome. Centurian99 won the Chicago GT and the Adepticon Gladiator with his stealer shock list. His army has a lot of trouble beating Mech Tau and Eldar, so he was fortunate that he never encountered either of those armies.

The same goes for shooting armies. If our opponent can out shoot you, how do you win? You are not going to race across the board and assault, or if an assault army gets into assault with you, you are in a lot of trouble.

As a general rule though, shooting armies are superior to assault armies. The reason why that even the most successful assault armies will take casualties crossing the board, and even when they do get into assault, they will get engaged by counter-assault elements, and they will get damaged by defenders. What happens is that assault armies lose a lot of points even in games that they win. The other side is that a shooting army can win, and take few casualties. This makes it easier to achieve a massacre result.

Hybrid armies have more of an even balance of assault and shooting. They try to assault the shooting armies, and they to shoot up the assault armies before they engage with their assault elements.

Everyone has different playing styles, and each player needs to find the style they like, and that they can win with. For me it is the Hybrid armies. I like to be fluid in my approach. I like to think on my feet, and try to figure out a way to win as the game goes on. I like how that in each game I have to find a different way to win.

Army Tiers

Army Tiers or the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

All armies are not created equal. There are good armies, ok armies and bad armies. Since the GTs have abandoned comp scoring, there is no longer affirmative action for bad armies. If you are looking to win, you would be better served to take one of the hardest/cheesiest armies available to you.

When we say tiers, what we are going to do is separate and categorize the armies. The top tier are the hardest armies that anyone can win with. The middle tiers a skilled general can win with, and the bottom tiers no one can win with. There is much arguing, and no real consensus on what armies belong where, but this is my take on it for 1750 point, take-all-comers lists.

Tier 1

Orks/Eldar/Tyranids

1. Orks are just awesome. They don’t die when their Trukks explode. They have great shooting from Lootas, they have a unit that can come on from anywhere, and there are very few armies that can kill 120 orks. The only weakness they have is AV 14.
2. Eldar are great at points denial. They have Jetbikes that can hide in the assault phase, rangers that get a large cover save, unkillable skimming tanks, and the best assault unit in the game. They might suffer in 5th edition, but for right now they are a very strong list. From last years GTs they consistently put in some of the highest battle scores.
3. Tyranids are one of the top tiers armies because of the Godzilla list. It is very hard to kill 7-8 TMCs backed up by genestealers. They get better in 5th if they remove escalation, and add run. They might be able to have 8 TMCs running at you with dual scything talons. Tyranids also work as a stealer shock list as Centurian99 proved as long as you do not face a skimmer army.

Tier 2

Necrons/Tau/Dark Elder/Blood Angels

1. Necrons can be made into a couple of successful builds. All destroyers are resilient and have good long range firepower. 2 monolith armies sacrifice ranged shooting for increased durability. The possibly of getting into a bad position and phasing out is their one weakness.
2. Tau have J-S-J crisis suits, Fish of Fury, and Railguns. They are an excellent shooting army, but have 0 counter assault (kroot don’t count).
3. Dark Eldar are an army that is very fragile, but in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, they are one of the best armies in the game. They can pack a lot of BS4 Dark Lances, Wytches, and they are very fast.
4. Blood Angels have some good special characters, lots of assault cannons and assault marines as troops. They are a good all around army.

Tier 3

Space Marines/Black Templar/Chaos Space Marines/Dark Angels/Witch Hunters

1. These are the MEQ armies. MEQs do not do well at tournaments for a couple of reasons. Everyone tools up to beat them, so they are prepared to kill them. Most people play them all of the time so they know how to beat them. They are also a lot of people’s first army, so the players at tournaments might not be as skillful as the other armies.
2. Chaos took a big hit with the new codex but they still have a couple of power builds with 9 oblits and 2 lashes.
3. Witch Hunters have done very poorly at US GTs, but they are a good army. It might be because they have all of their ranged heavy weapons in the form of exorcist tanks. They also are poor in assault, but they have good short ranged shooting.

Tier 4

Imperial Guard/Space Wolves/Daemonhunters

1. Imperial Guard are a bit all over the map as far as GT battle points from last year. One guy scored 80 battle points at Las Vegas, and I think Don Mondo scored a 74 at Baltimore, but for the most part they litter the bottom of the standings.
2. Space Wolves are an assault army that has no way to get into assault. They did ok as a drop pod army until everyone figured out how to beat drop pods.
3. Demonhunters are good against horde armies, but they can’t kill vehicles or anything with a 2+ save.

How I select what army I will play

Since this is a no comp tournament, what army should I take to the LVGT?

I know that I should take the hardest, cheesiest army I can make, but I have never been that type. I do not want to play Orks, I have a Tyranid list, but I am not interested in playing them. Necrons and Tau are out as I never liked those. I played Eldar last year, so I do not really want to play them again either.

So how do I pick an army?

I choose a theme I am interested in, and build my army around it.

So here are the armies I am interested in from the ones that I want to do the least, to the ones that I want to do the most. :

7 Eldar
Theme: Harlequins.
I like the idea of doing a harlequin army from the Citadel Journal. I will take the units from the journal, and try to convert them into the new Eldar codex.
The look: It will be a colorful army. Everything will be a mix of the new Harlequins and the older models. The Venoms will be modeled out of a combination of a vyper added to a DE raider body. The jetbikes will be modeled with the harlequin jetbike canopys. The Dark Reapers will be Death Jesters converted hold reaper launchers.
Models needed: None
Pros: Tough army. If painted right, looks great.
Cons: I did Eldar last year, and I want to try something else. About a year ago this was going to be my Baltimore GT army. Very few models to paint, but they need to be painted to such detail it takes a long time.

6 Space Marines/DH/WH
Theme: High Lords of Terra
The look: Each unit represents a High Lord of Terra.
Models needed: ?
Basing: Urban Rubble
Pros:I have no idea how the parts will work as a whole.
Cons: I do not have a lot of the units that I will need. It will take a lot of modeling.
5 Space Wolves
Theme: Space Wolves are their own theme.
The look: Snow, land speeders as snow mobiles, bikes as snow mobiles. Models needed: LR Crusader upgrade kit.
Basing: Snow
Pro: Space Wolves look great.
Cons:Slightly effective build is with Drop Pods which I do not want to buy. New codex coming out soon. Very few troops, and do to the nature of the army will see a lot of action.

4 Space Marines/Chaos Space Marines
Theme:Pre Heresy Thousand Sons.
The look: The red TS colors. Egyptian symbols etc. Trying to match the look of the Colors of War books with the Sabertooth artwork.
Models needed: Metal Land Speeders/None Need decals printed Basing: Urban Rubble
Pros:Regular MEQ durability. Can be built either as a SM or CSM army. SM can be built with 4 librarians shooting 4 fury of the ancients. CSM can take Ahriman and TS Marines with additional sorcerers.
Cons: CSM suffer with the theme because they need Oblits to be effective. SM Leadership 8. CSM can take Ahriman

3 Demons
Theme: Pure Tzeentch Demons
The look: All metal models are hard to convert, so it will be basic, but the Horrors will be very colorful. Extra attention and conversions on the HQ models and Soulgrinders. Models needed: 10-20 horrors
Basing: Lava
Pros: First turn shooting. Durability
Cons: Deep strike and splitting the army in 2. Unknown how the army will perform.

2 Witch Hunters
Theme: SoB + DH -=I=-
The look: All metal models are hard to convert, so it will be basic. Celestine will be given Pegasus wings and a Nightbringer base. The rhinos will be given the Immolator upgrade kits. The vehicles will be lit up with LEDs. The display board will be a cathedral. Models needed: 2-3 Exorcists
Basing: Urban Rubble
Pros: Good with Hordes and MEQs
Cons: Poor assault. Very dependant on exorcists.

1 Imperial Guard+DH
Theme: Chaos Renegades.
The look: This will be an IG army using forge world renegades. The vehicles and everything else will be chaosified. The Basilisk will have a hellcannon’s barrel. The Inquisitor will be a Dark Magus, and his retinue will be chaotic. The assassin will be a combination of demonette + death cult assassin. The grey knights will have a lot of chaos bits added. Models needed: 20 forge world renegades. LR Demolisher bits
Basing: Urban Rubble
Pros: Hard to say.
Cons: Godzilla Nids troublesome.

Modeling and Painting (coming 6/1/2008)

Gamesday LA (Coming 8/25/2008)

The Las Vegas GT (Coming 9/8/2008)

Epilogue

Categories: Warhammer 40,000