Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 There's a store in my area that runs 1000 point tourneys and I was thinking about the different armies that could be in it and how effective they could be at that level.  I run Necrons and Dark Eldar a lot and for that cost I can make  pretty good armies.  I was just wondering what you guys think of the different armies and how many points minimum they'd need to have in order to be competitive.

I'd say that most armies are balanced to play each other at 1500pts, but that doesnt allow for too much fun stuff...

As for myself, I like to play 2000-2500pt games

From a WHFB perspective, I was always told that the game was 'balanced' for 2000 points, but we started playing 2150 and liked it better, now 2250 and we love it. At 2000 points it was not unusual to get solid victories and massacres. At 2250 we seem to be getting mostly draws or minor victories, and more interesting games as well.

the more limited an army is by the FOC, as opposed to points, the better it does in small games. Godzilla Nids, terminator heavy marines, Landspeeder heavy marines, Immortal heavy necrons w/ veil of darkness, etc. all do well at 1000pts and below. As a general rule, the more an army relies on troops (orks, IG, horde nids) the better they do above 2000pts.

With Mechanized Guard, my primary army, you almost have to take 1500 points for the army to work. Taking the minimum required selections at 1000 points (2 Troops and an HQ) with a standard allotment of heavy and special weapons leaves you with about 150 points to spend on upgrades and additional units, which is not a lot.

The flip side of this is that some armies really struggle to counter 5 Chimeras and a Leman Russ at 1000 points, so its not all bad.