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I attended my first ITC event this past weekend. It was run at the Portal in Manchester, CT. 26 players, so not huge, so I don't know if the impressions I got are representative of the ITC meta as a whole, but I thought I'd share them for people who haven't been to one yet, and also to see if my experiences matched what more frequent ITC players have seen.

Here's the list I used.


1: My list had room for improvement.
This was not an earthshattering revelation. No list is perfect. I did expect more from the jump pack Assault Squad though, and the Sergeant in particular. I'd taken him because I was concerned about needing AP2 in assault. I needn't have been. Also, the Nephilim, while solid, I didn't really need for its intended fighter-interceptor purpose. It spent most of its time strafing ground targets - though it did shoot Fateweaver out of the sky in one of my games. I also worried about not having enough drop melta. That turned out to be somewhat justified.

2: You can't prepare for absolutely everything.
I had a by the second round, so I had the opportunity to go around looking at the other armies. Some were all vehicles - there was one list with 12 Maulerfiends and 2 Heldrakes, and another that was 5 Imperial Knights. There were a couple armies that were almost all MCs. There were a few armies with vast numbers of bodies on the table. There were armies with ridiculous psychic phases. There's basically no way one can make a list that's going to stand up equally well to everything you might encounter in the environment. It's better to play to what your list does well than to try and go head to head vs every other player's list.

3: Flyer spam was not a big issue.
There were not a tremendous amount of flyers to be seen. Most of the armies had none. The most I saw in one army was two.

4: Pay attention to what your opponent is doing.
I faced a Cabal-Star with Chaos Daemons. The Grimoire was making dealing with the star a pain. I was sour-grapes ruminating about the list after the game when I realized when my opponent was utilizing the Grimoire, he was measuring from this little unit of two Heralds of Tzeench and three Screamers, and he was careful to keep that unit away from as much trouble as possible. In retrospect, I should have committed more effort to popping that unit.

5: Taudar is alive and well.
I saw two Taudar armies. Their build seemed to be largely about spamming Riptides and Wraithknights.

6: Psychic-heavy armies seem to be a pain to play.
I mean that for their players, not for playing against them. The guy playing the Cabal-star list had to manage a ton of psychic powers - he had 4 Chaos Sorcerers, Fateweaver, and 2 Heralds of Tzeench. It was time-consuming, and seemed stressful for him to do in a timed game. Even so, we managed a complete 5 turns.

7: Most of the players were quite lovely to play against.
I had a good experience with my opponents with all my games, both the ones I lost and the ones I won. Most of the players I observed in other games were also similarly courteous to each other.

8: It was a lot of fun!
I had my doubts about stepping into the ITC environment. I was concerned about going up against WAAC players with tryhard lists. Instead, I found myself playing against competitive players with hard lists. I tried not to bring a knife to the gunfight, and I feel like I succeeded. Though I thought of improvements to my list afterwards, in general I found it to be capable at that level of play.

I would do another ITC event, and I'd recommend it to anyone with the resources to put together a reasonably competitive list.

Nice! I'm actually putting together a list for itc right now to attempt my first tourney pretty soon so in glad to hear it went alright for you. I would attempt to give advice but i pay daemons and eldar so my sm knowledge is lacking and you seem to know the general idea on your to improve anyway. Goos Lucci in future games

I strongly suggest, for competitive play, two toold if your list allows it at all. The Inquisitor with Servo Skulls is money. It's sooooo worth taking.

The second thing i think helps so many lists is the nerfbat Culexus.

Now i play an army (several actually) that dont have any real anti-Psyker ability and scouting up on me is not good for me. These two little bad boys take care of so much that my list suffers from.

it might help you in yours.

I'll actually be doing my first ITC event next week in Danielson, also sponsored by the Portal. Thanks for your feedback!

Is drop pod culexus legal in ITC? Or do they roll with the faqs?

Martel732 wrote:
Is drop pod culexus legal in ITC? Or do they roll with the faqs?

Nope. They dont use the FAQ's

That's disappointing, actually.

 Jancoran wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
Is drop pod culexus legal in ITC? Or do they roll with the faqs?

Nope. They dont use the FAQ's

Does this mean I could deploy an Inquisitor in an allied transport to scout it up with Liber Heresius?

I am a bit confused on how a person can "spam wraithknights" under the rules for an ITC tournament?

Not using the FAQ from GW is a solid choice imo.

I've run a few ITC events and generally have a great time and large turn outs. i hope you continue to go and support the format!

I went to an ITC event last year, it was a lot of fun. The players were all very nice. They were all very friendly and while people brought tougher lists because they wanted to do well there were very few rules lawyers or disputes. One of the few issues I had was a guard player who had gone up against a very similar list to mine right before me, he got crushed both games and kinda lost it. he had 1 unit left at the end of turn 2 I hadn't lost any yet, so I can sympathize with his frustration.

I was planning to go again but the tournament booked up full way earlier this year so I didnt signed up in time.

As long as you know the rules, know the ITC FAQ, and bring a competitive list you should have a great time. I had more fun than I have had in local tournaments. Also bring comfortable shoes your gonna be standing for a long time.

Yoyoyo wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
Is drop pod culexus legal in ITC? Or do they roll with the faqs?

Nope. They dont use the FAQ's

Does this mean I could deploy an Inquisitor in an allied transport to scout it up with Liber Heresius?

My friend did this a few times although we weren't playing in the ITC at the time. I recall having a discussion about it but I dont recall what we decidd honestly. In theory yes. Having scout grants it to the transport. The question becomes, what kind of unit is he joined to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

die toten hosen wrote:
I am a bit confused on how a person can "spam wraithknights" under the rules for an ITC tournament?

Not using the FAQ from GW is a solid choice imo.

I've run a few ITC events and generally have a great time and large turn outs. i hope you continue to go and support the format!

You cannot spam Wraith Knights in the ITC. People in the ITC are looking for an actual game. While I am an outspoken person when it comes to some of the things the ITC does, the overall effect of playing in the ITC is that it makes tournaments have high turnouts and the brand of 40K is much more enjoyable.

The things that annoy me, like their weird ruling on Canoptk Spyers which was never voted on by the players, are few in number and ultimately don't make enough difference to me. Just the nerf on Invisibility makes the entire game more enjoyable.

Competitive play needs to be about the General, not the budget. I think that got accomplished by and large even despite their missteps and as long as people are turning out in record numbers (and they are) it's all good.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 TheAvengingKnee wrote:
I went to an ITC event last year, it was a lot of fun.

As long as you know the rules, know the ITC FAQ, and bring a competitive list you should have a great time. I had more fun than I have had in local tournaments. Also bring comfortable shoes your gonna be standing for a long time.

Yeah. Every single TO in every single event may rule things differently. All the ITC really does is makes a ready to bake format and FAQ that you dont have to think about. It makes running events much easier.

I run a GT every year plus a lot of tournaments besides that. We filled up the first bracket of our GT in about two hours! So that tells you how popular the tournament is but also tells you that the format is one that people have definitely embraced. Added bonus: You get to see where you are ranked in the International Tournament Circuit every couple weeks when they update it and that is really kind of exciting to watch. When people are busting your chops online you can laugh at them, after you reach a certain standing, because honestly, their opinion doesn't change your standing one bit. Lol. It legitimizes who the best players are and aren't. Those who dont compete in it have nothing to feel ashamed of obviously, but if you're good and you want to prove it, join ITC events and show it. There's no downside to it. It's just another tournament. Only difference is, it will usually be well attended, well run and you'll know how you really stand.

To clarify, I didn't see armies that were all Wraithknights. I certainly did see armies that were almost entirely Wraithknights and Riptides. There may have been some other units in reserves or that I simply didn't notice due to the preponderance of Wraithknights and Riptides on the table, but even with CADs the compulsory HQs and Troops don't have to eat up a lot of points.

I also saw an army that appeared to be entirely comprised of Riptides and Ghostkeels.

 Jancoran wrote:
My friend did this a few times although we weren't playing in the ITC at the time. I recall having a discussion about it but I dont recall what we decidd honestly. In theory yes. Having scout grants it to the transport. The question becomes, what kind of unit is he joined to.

I'm definitely stealing a page from White Scars, and scouting up Grav Cannons in a DT Rhino. As a bonus the book also gets Split Fire.

It might work to scout up Volleyguns too, now that I think about it.