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Greetings all!

I'm going to my first tournament in January, rules and such are here, and I'd really really appreciate if anyone could help prepare me for the experience, tactically speaking.

It's a double tournament, but my friend and I have been out of the game for a long time. We both played years ago and have only picked the hobby back up again in the last couple of months. I recently stumbled upon the LoS/Flamer combo in another Dakka thread and it got me thinking about how utterly unprepared we both are for the challenge!

If anybody has any interesting and/or likely tactics that I read up on and think about how to prepare for, I'd really like to hear them. Forget what my team will be for now (it's not finalised anyway) and think about common offensive 'tricks'.

Thanks Dakkites, keep up the good work!

I don't know either, I've not been 2 a tournament yet, but being a doubles tourney it should be less competitive...

I take it you plan Necrons, people may wanna know so they can help you better?

Good Luck!

Look out for Dual Nob Bikers, 1 unit from each player. Brutal with list restriction.

Watch out for any combo wth Guard involved.
Guard can fill their slots nicely, and even do multiples with little suboptimum stuff.

Chaos+Guard is especially mean, 2xLash+Guard shooting. Guard also nicely fill the slots that Chaos struggles with.

The alliance rules are unfair in favor of "good" armies.

First since you are just going after a long hiatus from the game don't get your heart set to win any awards. Just go to get back into the swing of gaming and go to have a fun time. Doubles tournies are very unique.... First you get to hang out with a good buddy all day and you have the opportunity to meet twice as many people while playing. I find that typically people are more relaxed at a doubles tourney though of course it can be just as competitive.

I find at doubles tournies you should check the rules very carefully for the following:

1) Check the army restrictions for list building. You'll probably have 1000 points each to work with and you'll need to make sure your two armies synergize well. A great combination is always Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons, so I'll use this combination to illustrate examples. Probably you'll be limited as follows per army:

1 HQ (mandatory)
up to 3 troop choices (2 mandatory)
up to 1 elite
up to 1 fast attack
up to 1 heavy support

You will want to select armies that have solid troop choices as this will be the backbone of your army. Many races have HQ to choice from that boost the abilities of your troops, such as eldar farseers and the Blood Angel chapter Master Dante. Your other selections (elite, fast attack, heavy support) should compliment your HQ and troops. For example a landraider of some sort is always a good choice for any SM/CSM army.

I like to pick two races that fit well together in terms of the hobby background, going back to my example of CSM & CD. Sure you could run Tyranids and Imperial Guard but this might hurt your soft scores.

2) Check the rules to see how your two armies can affect each other!
Again going back to CSM & CD if one army's abilities can affect another then icons in a CSM army is very beneficial for daemons when they arrive via deep strike. Another good example is the Tallyman boosting Plague Marines. These types of combinations make sense but they might not be allowed so check the rules. Another example is could an eldar farseer guide a SM squad of Devastators and doom the targetted enemy unit. It all depends on the tourney rules... If they allow this then you should try to make use of it.

G

I nominate this as GBF's most useful post ever!

Well written, sir!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
To the original poster:

If you are that out of practice, it is incredibly difficult for us to give you useful tactical advice in a text format like this.

Much better would be to:

a) Play a bunch of practice games before January, and READ the rulebook during and between them to clarify anything you’re not clear on, and to help you remember.
b) Read the Battle Reports, Tactics, and You Make Da Call forums on here.

And also post some more specific questions. For example, if you read a bunch of reports and are worried about a particular enemy army or build, you can post in the Tactics forum asking how to deal with it. If you specify what army you’re using at the same time, people can respond to that more effectively than the broad question you started with.

Oh, and don’t take YMDC too seriously. In real life almost everyone is much more casual and you can talk out a reasonable solution with your opponent easily. That said, reading YMDC does help make you aware of genuinely unclear areas of the rules, or areas where your opponents might get confused, having not read your codex. If you’re aware of a rules ambiguity and familiar with it ahead of time, it helps you have a good solution in mind, and discuss it confidently and efficiently if it does come up in a game.

Great answers so far everyone - I suppose as suggested I must try to fill in the blanks a little bit.

Personally I play Necrons. I didn't choose them because I liked them, I chose them because I found a great deal for cheap on eBay! Anyway, I won't be playing them at this tournament because the rules prevent them from allying with any other race and I don't have enough models to make 1500pts of them (2 x 750pt teams). It's looking exceptionally likely that at this point we'll be playing Double-Tyranids - my partner for the tournament uses them and was hit by the same sting - they can ally with no other race. (What are the odds that a few months before we entered, we both picked the only races that couldn't ally with anyone!)

So - Double Tyranids - I guess they do have their advantages in a way. At least my synapse creatures will back up his units and vice versa. Pretty much the only thing we're certain on at the moment is to field 3 Zoanthropes (immensely powerful units, IMO)... it's likely we'll also try to field as many Monstrous Creatures as possible too... but beyond that it's not yet planned.

So, as Tyranids, what's the most dangerous foe/circumstance?

Another neat thing about doubles tournies is to always try to abuse the FOC. For example, in a normal tyranid army, you are only allowed 1 flying hive tyrant, but such restrictions don't usually apply in doubles environment, so take two!

Look for things like that.

True that, double tyranids can take 2x carnifexes and 2x hive tyrants, and iirc you can put warriors in fast attack. (I remember reading that somewhere)

The dual nob biker list COULD be a problem, but personally I donno how two ork players could make it FIT into 750 points, It'll be hard for most races to throw AV14 in your face too with these tournament rules and at this points level. Watch out for drop pod lists though, Space Wolves and Space Marines both have drop pod assault, and excel at midfield shooting (Grey hunters with all those meltaguns and rending make MCs cry)

Just came form a tourney did pretty good too. I think the biggest thing i saw was LOTS of spacemarines players.

3 different strategies were used. Wall of marines marched across the field for my list pretty easy to kill except in a capture and hold scenario.

Second is Drop pods are us. Everything from termies, to dreadnoughts, to melta squads, to vanguard squad. Read their list and if they have more than 3 drop pods expect it. If they have just 1 they will probably just use it to take an objective or deepstrke in a dreadnought to kill some armor.

The third thing which is much more complicated to protect against is SM mech list. 1 or 2 landraiders and some predators or vindicators. Maybe even a few rhinos with marines in it.

If you are going a shooty army you need to plan on your guys being ambushed or flanked and plan on ways to protect them.

If you are going assault army Get them mobilized or get flank units on them fast so you can get your men up the field. I would have means of taking care of a mech oriented army either way, because you will see them.

Tyranids could be pretty strong with dual tyrants. Two flyrants would be pretty nasty. Make sure to always take Implant Attack on Tyrants. It’s what really allows them to beat the tar out of regular HTH characters, or viably compete with really nasty ones. It also singlehandedly allows your tyrants to take on Ork Nob squads.

Zoanthropes are pretty decent, though can be a bit of a liability in kill point missions. Be sure to make sure they get cover. If suitable terrain is not easily available, you can use Tyrants for cover until they fly away. If you take any carnifexes, you can also use them to give cover to Zoanthropes while the tyrants fly away.

The cheap “Dakkafex” (Enhanced Senses, two twin-linked Devourers) is a good Elite unit, putting strong shooting out to 18”, and mildly competent in HTH.

As far as Troops go, I think the current most popular option is Genestealers, usually with Extended Carapace for the 4+ save. This makes them twice as durable against bolters and flamers. Tactically, they’re capable of operating independently from Synapse, which is a big help, and they can Outflank, which can be very nice to allow you to reach objectives on your opponent’s half of the table. Stealers do cost quite a few points, however. I also like basic Spinegaunts, which are just dirt cheap. Keep them in cover and don’t expect them to kill much or anything, but they can hold objectives inexpensively. One successful tactic I’ve also seen is to have a squad or two upgraded with Without Number, so if you have second turn it’s almost impossible for your opponent to hold onto an objective near your table edge, as you just have another scoring unit walk/run onto the table when one dies.

You said the tournament is going to be in January right? Isn't that the same month the new Tyranid codex will be released? I don't know the exact release date, but you might be able to play with the new codex during the tournament.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nevermind, just noticed the 'has to be on sale for a full month before the tournament' line in the rules package. Old Codex it is!

What to expect:

People who are well-versed in the rules and expect their opponents to as well so they can have a no-hassle game.

Play a buncha practice games so you can play correctly and fairly quickly so everyone can get their turns in. I've always had the most fun at events when I have played lots of games recently and have the rules (especially for my Codex) fresh in my mind.

In terms of tactics, it really depends on how people play in your area! My area is very competitive and has lots of players whose goal is to 'tune' their lists to be the most efficient and able to grab the most battle points.

I suggest using something that you are very comfortable with and can complete the typical mission objectives with reasonably well.

- Blackbone