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.

How do!

So spinning off from my thread in 40k General about tournament etiquette, I've decided to kick this thread off as a sort of progress blog. Apologies to Mods if there's a better place for this, but I couldn't see one.

And in this ongoing blog, you'll hopefully be able to follow my Hobby transformation from non-active, to taking part in and hopefully placing reasonably, in Tournaments. In short. I'm aiming to go, gaming wise from this...



To this.



And this is the full shebang. New army. Actually painting it. And to the best of my ability. Hopefully weekly games to get myself up to speed on the rules/ All culminating in attending at least one organised Tournament (possibly Blood & Glory, not sure yet).

Why? Well, for six or more years, I've been under gaming. Stupid commute takes too much time during the week, and weekends I'm usually pooped. And that's pretty rubbish, especially as my spending has continued unabated.

And I figure having an event to work toward is just the motivation I'll need to get my buns into gear, and return to the fray.

What to expect? Well, I'm aiming to paint a unit a week, and get at least one game in each week. And I'll be reporting back, including on what I've learned, and what I feel I need to focus on going forward.

Hopefully it'll prove an entertaining read over the coming months!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh yeah. I've plumped for Genestealer Cult as my army. I've got a reasonable collection just from various boxed games, and they were my first love.

I'll be starting the gaming lessons with my Necrons though, simply because they're already a coherent army I can bung on the board right away to start learning the ropes.

Good on you. I look forward to keeping up to date with your adventures.

I expect GSC will be a tough tournament army - they are definitely a finesse kind of force where bad decisions or small mistakes will get you wiped out. Hopefully their new Codex this month will give them some new tools

That’s allot of painting (looks at all the unpint models on my desk ) hope you don’t drown under all the painting

Looking at attending first Tourny in no less than 6m.

I reckon a unit a week is achieveable, particularly as I'll be following the Warhammer TV guide (takes the palette planning out of it!). I'm also intent on adding three Manticore missile tanks to my force, so that's a nice, easy airbrush job for a chunk of my points! Even easier if I plump for Chimeras over Goliaths! (undecided on that, awaiting Codex)

I'll also be focussing on my attempts to not only re-learn the game to a competent degree, but get your standard (well, our standard!) 1,750 done and dusted to the turn limit, within the time limit.

It's going to be an interesting journey!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Of course, I'll be having to collect over and above the 1,750 to allow for list tweaking! Possibly as much as 2,500 points. I dunno yet. These are uncharted waters!

Subscribing so I can both teach and ridicule you simultaneously. Because I love you, of course.

How optimized/competitive are you going to aim to be?

Honestly? I really don't know at this point.

For now, I'm just gonna get back on the game, get gud, and see where it takes me.

I tend to have a knack for making really quite nasty lists, without ever really meaning to. And as I never intentionally net-listed, nor sought hints and tips, a lot of my prowess comes from the leftfield, unexpected.

Take the current plan of three Manticore Missile Tanks. Me, I love the models. And game wise, they ought to provide some surprising alpha strike capability to my GSC - especially as I can fire blind!

It may be that I get properly bitten by the tournament bug, and get ever more competitive. But for now, it's just see where it goes!

Well, here we go. My first attempt at an army list in months?

This is basically cobbling together my Necrons into an 8th Ed Force, simply by bunging in what I’ve got in the collection. There is no suggestion of this being tournament worthy!

Pieced together using BattleScribe. Which was a damned sight more convenient than mucking about with the Codex!


++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Necrons) [105 PL, 1750pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Dynasty Choice: Dynasty: Mephrit

+ HQ +

Catacomb Command Barge [9 PL, 182pts]: Artefact (Mephrit): The Voltaic Staff, Resurrection Orb, Staff of Light, Tesla Cannon
. Warlord: Warlord Trait (Mephrit): Merciless Tyrant

+ Troops +

Immortals [8 PL, 150pts]: 10x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

Immortals [8 PL, 150pts]: Gauss Blaster, 10x Immortal

Immortals [8 PL, 150pts]: 10x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

Necron Warriors [12 PL, 198pts]: 18x Necron Warrior

+ Elites +

Triarch Stalker [8 PL, 125pts]: Heat Ray

Triarch Stalker [8 PL, 115pts]: Particle Shredder

+ Fast Attack +

Destroyers [15 PL, 250pts]
. 5x Destroyer: 5x Gauss Cannon

Tomb Blades [10 PL, 145pts]
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes

+ Flyer +

Doom Scythe [11 PL, 150pts]

Night Scythe [8 PL, 135pts]

++ Total: [105 PL, 1750pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In terms of efficiency, it’s rather more



Than



But for getting a game under my belt, and dusting off the old rules know-word, it’ll do!

And here’s my home board.

Yes, it is Moon Base Klaisus. Yes, it is short of the standard 6x4. But remember, this is the first toe in the water. And for that, it’ll do!

Also conscious that by most thorny standards that’s a lot of terrain. Mate playing me tomorrow is a regular tourney goer, so he’ll be able to guide me there. No point getting good on my preferred level of terrain if a Tourny can’t offer it!

It's become mostly standard that a 6x4 table will contain 5-6 largish terrain pieces, one of which should be a larger LOS blocker in the middle somewhere.

Looking about right then. That’s nice.

Also, revisited my list for today as I wasn’t happy with it.

Came up with this...


++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Necrons) [103 PL, 1748pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

[Reference] Warlord Traits (All)

Dynasty Choice: Dynasty: Mephrit

Use Beta Rules

+ HQ +

Catacomb Command Barge [9 PL, 182pts]: Artefact (Mephrit): The Voltaic Staff, Resurrection Orb, Staff of Light, Tesla Cannon
. Warlord: Warlord Trait (Mephrit): Merciless Tyrant

Cryptek [5 PL, 95pts]: Chronometron, Staff of Light

+ Troops +

Immortals [8 PL, 150pts]: 10x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

Immortals [8 PL, 150pts]: Gauss Blaster, 10x Immortal

Immortals [8 PL, 150pts]: 10x Immortal, Tesla Carbine

+ Elites +

Lychguard [16 PL, 280pts]: 10x Lychguard, Warscythe

Triarch Stalker [8 PL, 125pts]: Heat Ray

+ Fast Attack +

Destroyers [15 PL, 250pts]
. 5x Destroyer: 5x Gauss Cannon

Tomb Blades [10 PL, 140pts]
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Nebuloscope, Particle Beamer, Shieldvanes
. Tomb Blade: Particle Beamer

+ Heavy Support +

Annihilation Barge [8 PL, 113pts]: Tesla Cannon

Annihilation Barge [8 PL, 113pts]: Tesla Cannon

++ Total: [103 PL, 1748pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

Not radically different, but swapped the Warriors out for Lychguard, and the Fliers for Annihilation Barges. Going up against Tau I think, so could be interesting.

Yeah the knight meta really upped the need for larger terrain pieces.


Firstly in 6th and 7th, because knights were too big to receive cover from anything, and then especially in this edition where vehicle facings no longer exist.


As for your list, it looks fine, but at some point I'd get rid of the Stalker for a third AB.

Just a makeshift one for now. I’ll be gathering a GSC over the next few months for Tournies.

Hoping to give a decent account of myself today. Opponent has just nipped out for vittles! But we’re otherwise just about good to go. Dug out my 6th Objective markers, Dice located, tape measure ready, books to hand. As well as the Necron cards, which as mentioned earlier I’ve already picked out those of use for this game.

Dunnonwhich mission we’re playing though!

So from CA 2018, we’ll be playing the ‘Visions of Victory’.

Already picked out five cards, and we’re deploying as ‘Search and Destroy. And I’m deploying in the marked corner.

Opponent is deploying first, so currently kicking my heels!

Deployment for me.

No, I don’t have an idea what I’m doing!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, I lost. And fairly heavily so.

Opponent did really well with his tactical objectives, whereas they’re something I still need to get my head around.

Next time, I’ll drop the Lychguard in favour of Warriors. They didn’t do much except survive!

Main learning points....

1. Terrain. TLoS needs forward planning. When choosing your deployment zone, stoop down to see what your little dudes may or may not be able to see. Quarter I chose looked good, but was actually very limiting.

2. Pay attention to where the objectives are being placed. This makes planning your Tactical Objectives that much easier. Especially when they’re your sole source of VPs (outside of First Strike etc)

3. Remember your Stratagems!

All in all, not that bad a performance. Target priority was ok for the most part, but could of course improve. Definitely looking forward to the next one, where I hope to do better.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In further news, I’ve totted up my existing GSC stuff, and I’ve a little over 1,000 points (pre-Codex, oh future reader.)

This...this is actually quite pleasing, and gives me a decent core of infantry (though I blobbed entering the Neophytes, as each unit is 14 strong, when they should be 10).

Gonna wander off up GW next Saturday or Sunday, pick up a Goliath or two. I’m not ‘mad keen’ on them, but I expect they’ll prove useful regardless of how the list eventually ends up.

Nice! I would recommend the default Tactical Objective cards rather than army-specific, because 11-16 tend to be different unique objectives, rather than taking objectives 1 through 6.

Additionally, the new CA2018 objectives allow you to thin your deck of 6 objectives before each game, so that can help with poor draws.

All that being said, most tournaments run ITC mission packets, so its worth taking a look at and playing with those because the objectives tend to be much more uniform and predictable (which also impacts the way people build armies).

I'm personally not a fan of ITC, but if your goal is to work towards being tournament-ready, that's the usual gold standard to work towards.


When it comes to objectives, assuming they're not already placed via ITC rules, I usually keep a few things in mind:

I play a fairly mobile army with an aggressive playstyle. I don't like keeping in my backfield, so I tend to place objectives further up in the center of the field.

Also because of my mobility, I can move around to grab further objectives and move around easily, so I tend to keep objectives spread as far apart as possible, especially if I know my opponent is slower and I can make it harder for them to grab said objectives. Target priority in going after quick units and transports also helps to control their movement here as well. Of course, the opposite can be true if my opponent has a lot of mobile chaffy units, I might want to cluster some of them to force his units together to make it easier to hunt them down.

The game was actually fairly knife edge up the fourth turn.

He had 5 VP, but no CP. I had 3 of each. Before his fourth turn, I’d bagged Slay the Warlord, and had a plan to score 2-4 more in turn 5.

However, he literally played his cards right, and bagged 7 in turn 4.

That to me speaks volumes of how much experience counts. Especially when like me, you’re used to old VPs and just getting down to some old fashioned vaporisation. I for one feel it’s made the game somewhat more tactical. Especially with ‘acceptable casualties’!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Speaking of fast and aggressive, my deployment was fairly poor. All my nippy stuff went up the right flank.

With hindsight, the sheer firepower of 5 Destroyers, 2 Annihilation Barges, 5 Tomb Blades and a Triarch Stalker should’ve come down the left, get right up in his face.

I also need to take the time to learn my Stratagems. For instance, when my Destroyers had a crack at his Riptide, I should’ve spent a CP to re-roll all hits and wounds. For a mere 1CP, I’m confident I could’ve dropped it. That would preserved the Destroyers, and removed a huge slice of my opponent’s firepower.

You know, I think this might call for a straight ‘same list’ rematch!

Interesting project. Best of luck to you, I'll be following your journey :-)

If I was maining GSC i'd either take kronos nids for my backfield or kraken nids as my alpha/board control for allies depending on what cult models your wanting to use.


Either a battalion of kronos like so:

Nuero/Nuero
6x hive guard
2x 10 termagaunts/w fleshborer
1 ripper squad

Or Battalion of kraken like so:

Swarmlord
Malanthrope
30x hormagaunts
20x stealers
1 ripper

If you want 2 units of stealers take a broodlord.

These are the best allied detachments for GSC atm.


Obviously if your planning on doing GSC melee, take the kronos, and GSC tanks, take the kraken.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The game was actually fairly knife edge up the fourth turn.

He had 5 VP, but no CP. I had 3 of each. Before his fourth turn, I’d bagged Slay the Warlord, and had a plan to score 2-4 more in turn 5.

However, he literally played his cards right, and bagged 7 in turn 4.

That to me speaks volumes of how much experience counts. Especially when like me, you’re used to old VPs and just getting down to some old fashioned vaporisation. I for one feel it’s made the game somewhat more tactical. Especially with ‘acceptable casualties’!

and sometimes LUCK as well ...as someone mentioned earlier ... the CA18 missions allow you to remove 6 cards
with Necrons I'd suggest a good few of the 11-16 range get binned - one is keep a character alive for the whole game for 1 .. yes ONE stinking VP ... bin!
another is make 10 reanimate rolls for 1 VP - Bin!

and depending on house rules for unattainable (Master the Warp ? yeah right) cards ... you can either ditch them or depending on where you put objectives ... get rid of some that you'll never do like "Defend objective X where X is sat under his immobile castle of troops

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Speaking of fast and aggressive, my deployment was fairly poor. All my nippy stuff went up the right flank.

With hindsight, the sheer firepower of 5 Destroyers, 2 Annihilation Barges, 5 Tomb Blades and a Triarch Stalker should’ve come down the left, get right up in his face.

vs Tau, kill the troops (pathfinders and markerlights first) ignore the riptide.. if he nova charges and uses 1CP he can get a 3++ which no matter how well you roll on destroyers is going to survive a LOT ... he can also heal it and a strat lets it act at full profile ... so if you can't kill it ... kill everything else instead!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


You know, I think this might call for a straight ‘same list’ rematch!

use the same list ... drop the voltaic staff and take the Veil of dankness, get those Lychguard upfield and charging asap (they can teleport T1) buff them with the CCB for +1 to charge and hit.

Hammer and anvil him, if he focuses on the LG .. shoot the snot outta him with the immortals , he can't ignore them though as they'll get in and tie up a lot of his shooting ... if you can't kill it .. stop it shooting back

Sadly, Veil is out because he's kicking it on his pimp wagon.

I find the increased range for MWBD is useful, as is him having the extra Assault Weapon for sniping out characters.

Very nearly dropped the Riptide turn 2! Got so desperate I even rammed it with an Annihilation Barge to strip off that last wound (because slim chance of killing it is better than guarantee of it surviving). If I'd just remembered to trigger Extermination Protocols, the game would've gone very differently. But, we live and we learn!

Defo need to sharpen up my tactics. I may look into dropping the Triarch Stalker in favour of a Nightscythe. Adds in a bit more dakka, and of course could help get my Lychguard where they need to go.

And we were using CA18. Really, really nice missions. Especially our one, as we could deny each other easy VPs (I think I had a bit of a bum hand at one point. Luck of the draw though, and a canny opponent). And yes, we stripped out the 6 cards. Nice touch I felt.

For someone who's not regularly played since, erm....6th (possibly even 5th!) this is like a whole new game, spesh as I wasn't getting VPs for kills. Well, unless I had the right card.

Right, off to send him a rematch challenge. Also, turns out the local club is losing it's venue in a few weeks, as it undergoes some form of renovation. This actually works for me, as I'm one of the few peeps with the space and facilities for a home board. So I'm hoping to host a few sessions - including ones where I just observe and stick my beak in.

And finally - yes, I had an absolute blast! Game was highly enjoyable, and I hunger for more.

 DV8 wrote:
Nice! I would recommend the default Tactical Objective cards rather than army-specific, because 11-16 tend to be different unique objectives, rather than taking objectives 1 through 6.

Additionally, the new CA2018 objectives allow you to thin your deck of 6 objectives before each game, so that can help with poor draws.

All that being said, most tournaments run ITC mission packets, so its worth taking a look at and playing with those because the objectives tend to be much more uniform and predictable (which also impacts the way people build armies).

I'm personally not a fan of ITC, but if your goal is to work towards being tournament-ready, that's the usual gold standard to work towards..

ITC is more of US thing though. His flag is UK which means odds are good his standard is NOT ITC.

I honestly don't know

I do know my mates tend to go for stuff like the London GT and Blood & Glory. From what Shaun was saying yesterday, they tend to take CA missions and tweak them a bit. Though of course, with CA18 still being relatively hot off the presses, there may be no tweaking this year.

They're also going to Heats 1 and 4 of the GW 40k Tourny, with an eye to qualifying for the final.

But at the minute, it's still baby steps for me. I've just about got my head round how Strategic Objectives work - but I need to figure out how to plan my army, deployment and indeed game around them.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I honestly don't know

I do know my mates tend to go for stuff like the London GT and Blood & Glory. From what Shaun was saying yesterday, they tend to take CA missions and tweak them a bit. Though of course, with CA18 still being relatively hot off the presses, there may be no tweaking this year.

They're also going to Heats 1 and 4 of the GW 40k Tourny, with an eye to qualifying for the final.

But at the minute, it's still baby steps for me. I've just about got my head round how Strategic Objectives work - but I need to figure out how to plan my army, deployment and indeed game around them.

Ok, so the LGT and B&G are more ETC style events. They essentially use a mix of 1 Eternal War mission and 1 Maelstrom mission in each game, in addition to things like first strike, linebreaker etc.

However, B&G use insane combinations – usually all the missions you never ever see in a competitive environment, so, it in itself is a completely different ball game.

GW Heats just use the CA Eternal War missions.

So, if you want game practice, I’d start by focusing on all the new missions in CA2018.

Fair enough. I actually assumed ITC was a global tournament standard (I don't actually play in ITC events, so I don't know...)

Right,

Time to set I a goal for this week. The pledge shall be....

Paint one unit of GSC Neophyte Hybrids.
Purchase another new unit. Ideally a Goliath, but depends what my local store has in stock. Possibly Purestrains, as I don’t have any with Talons. Given Talons are currently a free upgrade, and come in handy should I get swamped (extra attacks FTW), seems a wise investment.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to set up the spray booth and do some undercoating!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, an open question, if I may.

Whlist as covered I’m aiming for a 1750 point force, I am aware I’ll likely need to collect and paint more than that, to provide options and list flexibility.

For those that followed the same thinking, what do you reckon is the ‘right size’ of collection?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Also, an open question, if I may.

Whlist as covered I’m aiming for a 1750 point force, I am aware I’ll likely need to collect and paint more than that, to provide options and list flexibility.

For those that followed the same thinking, what do you reckon is the ‘right size’ of collection?

Honestly, I don't think there is. Whenever I attend an event, I'll write up a list, tweak, and playtest (proxy if I have to) until I'm satisfied that it's the list I'm bringing. Then, if there are models/units I'm missing, I'll buy/paint/add them to my collection and grow the army that way. I have a tendency to stick to one list for a period of months, and I only really adjust with what I think are significant meta changes.

You'll probably be good building towards a set 1750 list, that you might tweak along the way as you get more games/experience under your belt. The great thing about playing in tournaments is it's burst-goals. You set a list based on mission pack and meta, build, and play in the event. After the event is over, you'll re-evaluate, find out what did or didn't work, consider your next event (and it's mission pack) re-consider the meta, and then tweak and re-build. And if you're playing the same army, chances are you'll now have a solid foundation of units to pick from, and it's just a matter of supplementing as you go.

Ignore whoever told you to drop a Stalker (a good necron unit post CA) for an Annihilation Barge (a mediocre-to-poor Necron unit all edition).

Anyway, best of luck with starting up the GSC. A buddy of mine is trying to get from 0 to 1750 with GSC in time for a tournament in May. I'm lucky, I only have about 1250 to paint up in that time.

 DV8 wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Also, an open question, if I may.

Whlist as covered I’m aiming for a 1750 point force, I am aware I’ll likely need to collect and paint more than that, to provide options and list flexibility.

For those that followed the same thinking, what do you reckon is the ‘right size’ of collection?

Honestly, I don't think there is. Whenever I attend an event, I'll write up a list, tweak, and playtest (proxy if I have to) until I'm satisfied that it's the list I'm bringing. Then, if there are models/units I'm missing, I'll buy/paint/add them to my collection and grow the army that way. I have a tendency to stick to one list for a period of months, and I only really adjust with what I think are significant meta changes.

You'll probably be good building towards a set 1750 list, that you might tweak along the way as you get more games/experience under your belt. The great thing about playing in tournaments is it's burst-goals. You set a list based on mission pack and meta, build, and play in the event. After the event is over, you'll re-evaluate, find out what did or didn't work, consider your next event (and it's mission pack) re-consider the meta, and then tweak and re-build. And if you're playing the same army, chances are you'll now have a solid foundation of units to pick from, and it's just a matter of supplementing as you go.

I would suggest having at least, a legal 2000 point army. While some of the events are 1750 points, there are still quite a few big events here in the UK running 2000 points. With that in mind, i'd build your 1750 list first, play with it a couple of times to get a feel for what you are lacking, then start filling those gaps until you hit 2000 points. You can then start to experiment with different ideas.

IanVanCheese wrote:
Ignore whoever told you to drop a Stalker (a good necron unit post CA) for an Annihilation Barge (a mediocre-to-poor Necron unit all edition).

Anyway, best of luck with starting up the GSC. A buddy of mine is trying to get from 0 to 1750 with GSC in time for a tournament in May. I'm lucky, I only have about 1250 to paint up in that time.

lmao he had the thermal stalkers which are not good unless your opponent ignores them. DDA is what I actually wanted him to swap it out for btw.

I think I'm going to give the same list another whirl. As identified, the main issues were poor deployment, and not getting to the good targets fast enough. So for now, there's enough evidence to blame the workman rather than his tools.