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One of the problems in tournaments is that you can take a great list, and play well, but just get matched up against something that has the exact counter to your list. Granted that's part of the game, however it has caused some armies to always be on the top, like GK in 5th and Taudar in 6th.

I propose that tournaments have a 'side' army allowance, where you take your main list (Say 1750), and a side list of a little under half (Say 650 or about 40%) of units. Before each game, you find out your opponents army/ally (not the complete list though), and you have 5 min or so to change out units. You still have to have a 1750 list at the end, following force org. This way you can take a TAC list, and then tweak it a little to help against different armies.

So your solution to people having armies that counter you...are more ways for a person to counter you?

I'm sorry, I don't see the reason for this.

Lol, to a point yes.

Say you have a full Storm Raven in your list for 255 points, and then you're going against Tau. Chances are, it'll die before it does anything. So instead you swap it out for a LandRaider for the same cost.

Then when playing Eldar, you swap out Paladins for more bodies (because of their rending).

Granted, they too will be able to figure if you're playing GK's, they'll want heavy hitting stuff rather than number of shots.

Then it becomes a game of "who can bring the most toys" and the strategy of list building goes straight out the window.

Infinity lets you bring two lists, and MTG gives you a sideboard to add to your deck. I think its a solid idea, hardly something that 'removes' the 'strategy' of list building.

I'd like the idea even more if it *did* remove those elements.

It's a weakness of spam lists. When they work well, they work VERY well. It doesn't matter what your opponent brought if you are in charge of the tempo of the game. Until you run up against a hard counter, then you just die. Very rock/paper/scissors.

TAC lists are not as powerful, but don't have as big weaknesses. By not using an all-in, eggs in a basket approach, they (generally) can take on anything thrown at them with a chance of victory. You won't win big, but shouldn't loose hard either. Low risk/low reward.

From a mechanical standpoint, swapping units in and out of a list would be very time consuming, and might require re-checking the lists for legality from the TO. If you want to have alternate lists, just have them checked in at the start.

I've heard of tournaments that do this, actually.