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One thing I've noticed on this forum that differs from my personal experience is the idea that even local tournaments are full of cheese lists that take advantage of 40k's less than stellar balance. I'm not saying this isn't the case, I'm just saying that in my limited time playing the game (a little over a year) I haven't witnessed this phenomenon, so now I'm curious.

In the medium-sized metropolitan area where I live, I've seen quite a few tournaments. In these tournaments I've seen people run Helbrutes, Khorne Berzerkers, DA greenwing, assault Tau, all manner of things that are considered gak by conventional internet wisdom. Last year I saw a guy win a local tournament with Tyranids against the new Tau codex.

My point is that at least in my area, people still seem to run what they like, and not what the latest netlist says they should run. I have never witnessed Wave Serpent spam or a triptide list IRL, though I have seen it in the Vassal games quite a lot.

This thread is not a thread for complaints about whether a unit is OP or how GW sucks, simply I think it's interesting to learn about the meta in different areas. Are there people in your area who bought three ridtides as soon as they were considered the bee's knees, or do people tend to be more chill where you're from? Do you see a lot of casual lists in your local tourneys? What is your attitude when approaching tournaments in your area?

Most local tournaments here still use Comp scoring, so the more crazy lists tend to not show up so much.

There's a still more than a fair share of waveserpents, wraithknights and riptides, though.

Our scene used to be VERY competitive, but lately it's gone more towards fluff. There are some players running stars, but they're not tailoring the rest of the list to be as brutal and take advantage of it as well.

Ours is mostly pretty laid back.

Couple of waacholes/supercompetitive types, but everyone else is pretty mellow.

It depends on the store TBH. One store is SUPER competitive. With no holds bar lists. The other is noobs who I have to bring dumbe down lists so they can feel they have a fighting chance.

So long as there is a winner to the tournament, all tournaments are equally competitive affairs.

As for list strength, where I play is probably one tier down from the big nationals. So, last year's lists.

My store has a mix. We have some very competitive players and some very laid back players. The thing I love most about it is everyone is really cool and friendly so it makes gaming there very fun. I've seen Tau, Tyrannids, BA, Necrons, CSM, Daemons, and an ork kitted out to look like Darth Vader. Lightsaber and all!

It's the Year of the Narrative for me, so I won't be running anything terribly competitive until 2015.

Local environments differ greatly from what you'd see at events with a more national draw. Even then, there's plenty of guys at Nova just playing whatever they like and having fun with it.

People on the interwebs only really talk about what goes on at the top tables, the majority of tourneygoers fall more into the big middle between "hardcore" and "soft."

Around here, there is always one or two people (usually a couple of folks who like to drive over from out of state to sponge up all the prize support from our store's game club without ever contributing to the community) who try to use the new uber-netlist. They tend to get spanked pretty reliably, so I don't have a great deal of awe for super cheese lists.

We only have two tournaments around here of which only 1 is sanctioned by gw. This year sob + old ig won in the 1500pts bracket (our highest bracket).

The other is an escalation rules tournament. I believe it was daemons with knights that won this year

When I lived in Vancouver the local scene was what I'd call gentlemanly competitive - you played to win but if you took a WAAC list don't expect to get a game, now or ever.

Now I'm back in the UK, it seems way more hardcore, Serpent Spam etc.

Extremely. From Houston, we usually have a fairly large group of people go to the FoB Invitational every year. Almost every gaming shop has monthly tournaments as well. Strangely, our meta has been varying a lot lately. In the last two months, I don't think we've had the same army win 2 tournies in a row.

Lucarikx

We’re fairly laid back at my FLGS. Mostly we see well balanced TAC lists rather then deathstars. And very rarely do I see anything I’d constitute as spam.

 Lucarikx wrote:
Extremely. From Houston, we usually have a fairly large group of people go to the FoB Invitational every year. Almost every gaming shop has monthly tournaments as well. Strangely, our meta has been varying a lot lately. In the last two months, I don't think we've had the same army win 2 tournies in a row.

This. Although it's pretty much always Tau or Eldar trading off iirc.

I'm lucky enough to be "part of" the Houston meta and my smaller local meta (just north of Houston). Locally it's not competitive really at all - Tyranid Warriors are a feared unit still.

Interesting mix.
Pick-up games tend to be more the net-list stuff but it really is the interesting preferences of the player.

One only plays forge world stuff, another Tau with the usual Riptide Spam, another plays inquisition / Grey Knights, IG with TONS of demolisher tanks... it varies in extremes, I kinda like it.

We do not appear to have the "that guy" who likes to "stomp face" for giggles. Find more of that with the Magic the Gathering crowd.

I tend to design scenarios and give "guidelines" for army selection a couple weeks in advance and then meet-up. It is funny but if you give a concrete reward for obtaining objectives that has an over-all story and the motivation for doing things, games really take off.

The prize at our FLGS tournaments is just a little medallion, with all the actual prize money going out in a raffle. Consequently, our tournaments tend to be more fun affairs rather than no-holds-barred, WAAC games. There's usually a few competitive lists playing each other at the top table, and everyone else just brings fun, balanced lists.

 ionusx wrote:
We only have two tournaments around here of which only 1 is sanctioned by gw.

Sanctioned by GW? That's a thing?