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whoadirty wrote:
Awesome reports (as usual) jy2! Glad you were able to take the pictures in a tourney setting. It's also nice to see I am not the only one taking unfinished models to tournies.

There was no painting requirement for this tournament so there were plenty of unfinished armies. Mine is actually quite done compared to some of the others in the tourney. I've also gotten quite proficient with my picture-taking. It doesn't take much time at all, maybe only 2-3 seconds per shot. 100 shots takes up at most 5 minutes of time and not even that, because you can take shots on your opponent's turn while he is making his moves.

The trick is to remember to take photos as many times, people just get too engrossed in the game that they forget about any picture-taking.

 Janthkin wrote:

Eldercaveman wrote:
I want to see the Nids ruin some people day when they under estimate how good they are.

It's a little local tournament; I can assure you that no one who would be there would underestimate tyranids.

I'd vote against your Tyranids, just because of time issues - I'm not sure you're up to pace yet, given how multiple barrage weapons tend to screw with time. If you do bring them, make sure you have multiple large blast markers to speed it up. For that matter, having one of them with thin legs (so that it can stand on the table) would actually be very handy for that scenario.

Chaos seems like the most fun (non-Tyranid) list to play of your available options.

So Janthkin, what are some tips for speed playing nids. My last two tournies I had a hard time getting past turns 3-4. (2 Dakkarants, 2 Tervies, 2 - 18 man gargs, 2 - 2 man zoes, 3 Hive Guard, 2 - 10 man gants, 3-1 man Biovores)

Lessee:

0) "Display" board. Everyone at a tournament should have one of these - you do NOT want to be putting your models away between rounds.

1) Unit deployment trays. Consider the size of your army - you've got 70 models there. If you're grabbing gargoyles off your display board, you have to go back to the display board every 4-8 models or so. If you have a tray containing a whole unit, that unit is deployed much faster.

2) Dice tray. One of those gargoyle units, on the charge, is kicking out 36 attacks. You don't want to have to track down the dice, reroll cocked dice, etc. Rolling into a tray keeps everything nice & tight - you'll save a few seconds on ever die roll. (As a bonus, my dice tray is also my Gargoyles deployment tray in most tournaments.)

3) Known numbers of dice. For devourer tyrants in particular, it's very handy to just have a set of 12 dice set aside for their shooting. No counting required - grab and go! And I'd strongly suggest sticking with small dice; my Dakka dice aren't used for Tyranids.

4) If you really must use biovores, get several blast markers. By preference, stick little stilt-legs on one of them - that's your primary marker, and it will hold itself up in 80% of situations, making it much easier to scatter it, flip secondary blasts off it, and count models hit.

5) Movement template. Get one of these. Use it. Remember that if your unit starts spread out to maximum coherency, it will finish that way - you may not to measure every model's movement, but can measure w/the 2" portion on the template for final position instead. It's faster.

6) Know your rules inside & out. You can't lose time looking up the leadership on a biovore when they have to make an Instinctive Behavior check.

Most of this is just usual tournament optimization, of the sort an MEQ player doesn't need to use as much. Plan your turn out during your opponent's turn, already having a few alternative plans in mind if something changes as his turn progresses. Remember that you can premeasure whatever and whenever you want, so do some of that during your opponent's turn, too (but not all of it - don't tip your hand tactically).

 Janthkin wrote:
Lessee:

0) "Display" board. Everyone at a tournament should have one of these - you do NOT want to be putting your models away between rounds.

1) Unit deployment trays. Consider the size of your army - you've got 70 models there. If you're grabbing gargoyles off your display board, you have to go back to the display board every 4-8 models or so. If you have a tray containing a whole unit, that unit is deployed much faster.

2) Dice tray. One of those gargoyle units, on the charge, is kicking out 36 attacks. You don't want to have to track down the dice, reroll cocked dice, etc. Rolling into a tray keeps everything nice & tight - you'll save a few seconds on ever die roll. (As a bonus, my dice tray is also my Gargoyles deployment tray in most tournaments.)

3) Known numbers of dice. For devourer tyrants in particular, it's very handy to just have a set of 12 dice set aside for their shooting. No counting required - grab and go! And I'd strongly suggest sticking with small dice; my Dakka dice aren't used for Tyranids.

4) If you really must use biovores, get several blast markers. By preference, stick little stilt-legs on one of them - that's your primary marker, and it will hold itself up in 80% of situations, making it much easier to scatter it, flip secondary blasts off it, and count models hit.

5) Movement template. Get one of these. Use it. Remember that if your unit starts spread out to maximum coherency, it will finish that way - you may not to measure every model's movement, but can measure w/the 2" portion on the template for final position instead. It's faster.

6) Know your rules inside & out. You can't lose time looking up the leadership on a biovore when they have to make an Instinctive Behavior check.

Most of this is just usual tournament optimization, of the sort an MEQ player doesn't need to use as much. Plan your turn out during your opponent's turn, already having a few alternative plans in mind if something changes as his turn progresses. Remember that you can premeasure whatever and whenever you want, so do some of that during your opponent's turn, too (but not all of it - don't tip your hand tactically).

Great tips, Kevin!

Let me add to that.

7) When moving, you don't need to measure the movement of every single gribbly. I usually just measure the distance moved by the "leader of the pack" (the one or ones that are furthest ahead in the unit) and move those. Then eyeball the ones behind and move them behind accordingly. That's how you play with horde armies.

8) Sometimes when rolling with large number of dice, do it in batches and resolve it right away. For example, you have 30 gargoyles charging. I opt to roll in 2 batches of 30 dice. Instead of rolling to hit with the first batch and then rolling to hit again withe 2nd batch. I roll to hit and to wound for the first batch. I then repeat for the 2nd batch, rolling both the hits and the wounds. This saves a little time because you don't have to take the time to add both batches to see the total number of hits and then pull out dice out again to roll to wound. And if you want to go a step further, you can even ask your opponent to make saves after each batch if he wants.

9) Deployment. If I am going second, I actually start deploying while my opponent is deploying his army. I tell him that I am just putting models down and this is not my final deployment. And then after he finishes deploying, I can choose to move units or I can just leave my army as is and call it deployed. This saves a ton of time depending on how many models you have.

10) Sometimes, I just ignore the units that I think won't really make a difference in the game. For example, I have a unit of termagants in cover on an objective. I just leave them there and forget about them unless my opponent is making a play for that objective (or I think he is about to).

11) Pay attention to the time and play/plan accordingly. If you are only on Turn 2 and half of the time is already up, then you need to let your opponent know and push the action. Pace yourselves and remind your opponent of time if you don't think you are going at the right pace.

12) Offer to help out your opponent, especially if he has a large or horde army or if he is a little slower. Against such an opponent, I usually say this, "we don't have much time, can I help you to move some of your hordes? Where do you want to move that unit and how far? etc." Then I actually help him to move it. You have to watch out though. Don't move any units when the game is at stake (i.e. moving towards an objective or critical assault). I also offer to help him with dice. If he is rolling a lot of dice, sometimes I help him to pick out the misses (or hits depending on how he takes out his dice). Remember to always ask for permission before touching any of his models or dice.



Follow these tips and you can get through at least 4 turns with most armies.

Some great tips there guys!

I'll look into the dice tray, movement trays and special dice for the devourers. I only run solo biovores, but the large blast marker on stilts is a good idea regardless as then I don't have to sit and hold tha darn thing while rolling. I think I have the rest the items.

I like the idea of "pre-deploying" and asking other people to help move models.

13) Create a tracking sheet for all the crap you have to keep track of. I made a sheet that lists all my psychers individually, has the charts for the three psychic powers we can take, and all 3 warlord charts, as well as a little box for notes. I put this into a clear cover sheet, with my list on the other side. Have a dry erase pen.

That way I can easily generate and keep track of my psychic powers. Do my warlord trait. Mark off which tervigons pooped out. Tally KPs. If I have em I can write down ymgarl placement. Keep track of the iron arm or warp speed bonus. Saves so much time.

You guys should make this info into an article/thread.... An Idiots Guide to Tournament play

 winterman wrote:
13) Create a tracking sheet for all the crap you have to keep track of. I made a sheet that lists all my psychers individually, has the charts for the three psychic powers we can take, and all 3 warlord charts, as well as a little box for notes. I put this into a clear cover sheet, with my list on the other side. Have a dry erase pen.

That way I can easily generate and keep track of my psychic powers. Do my warlord trait. Mark off which tervigons pooped out. Tally KPs. If I have em I can write down ymgarl placement. Keep track of the iron arm or warp speed bonus. Saves so much time.

Yeah, I usually note down psychic powers on the army list that I give to my opponent in the beginning (or an extra list that I have). I then use color-coded dice to indicate in-game effects. For example, red dice to indicate wound counters, grey dice to indicate Iron Arm buffs, a red bead to indicate positive buffs like Endurance or Catalyst, a blue bead to indicate negative buffs like Enfeeble, Doom, Misfortune, maledictions cast on my bugs, etc.

Eldercaveman wrote:
You guys should make this info into an article/thread.... An Idiots Guide to Tournament play

Lol. I'm sure there's some of those in the Tacticas forum.