[Plainville MA] Warhammer 40k 500 Points of Victory Tournament - 1/19/2013

[Chase]

The vibe in the room was outstanding.

One of the best events we've ever had from what I saw of it.

[andalucien]

It was a very cool event, I think I would usually choose play in a 500pt event over an 1850 event.  You get a lot of games in against a lot of different people, and the games tend to be very different from each other due to the armies being so different.

I got first place this:
1 Dakka Flyrant
11 gaunts
1 Tervigon

I played against:
- IG blob squad with a Hellhound
- 2 Soul Grinders and a bunch of plaguebearers
- An all-wolf army featuring Canis (I think this got 2nd place)
- 2 long fang squads + 2 grey hunter packs in razorbacks
- 20 Cultists, 3 Obliterators and a Heldrake

We could have fit in a 6th round (to accommodate more than 32 ppl) and it STILL would have been quicker than a normal 3 round tourney.

[Benjamin]

Bat reps.

Shark Marines
Tactical Squad, flamer, missile launcher, sarge with melta bombs
5 scouts, 5 sniper rifles
Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
Thunderfire Cannon

Round 1 - Patrick from Montreal, Daemons
Two Soul Grinders with Phlegm, 7 Plaguebeaers, 8 Plaguebearers. Very casual game, because I saw the writing on the wall. With one marine left in each combat squad, I fall 1/16" short of the second objective I needed to win, and I lose on VP tiebreakers.

Round 2 - Kevin from 11th company, IG.
I know I'm about to get rolled by IG, so I try to make a game of it. Our Weapons are Useless is a completely hilarious rule, as my Dreadnought swam into a 20-man blob that couldn't kill him.

The tale of Marbo in this game must be told. Marbo shows up, kills 3 marines with the demo charge and the remaining two marines go to ground. Next turn, Marbo shoots one on the in, kills the second in assault. Then Marbo turns around and kills my Techmarine manning the Thunderfire. Somewhere in there, I started rooting for Marbo.

Round 3 - K thanks, Bye.
So I win a game!

Round 4 - Stephanie from Montreal, Tyranids
She brings lots of Tyranid models, and my only chance is to know no fear. I decide the Gargoyles must die and I line up across from them praying to the Emperor for one good turn of shooting; otherwise I lose hard. I use my Dreadnought to hold off the Hormagaunts. Termagaunts claim the Thunderfire cannon, as Genestealers outflank 1" from me. BUGS!! If the game had gone longer, I would have still been overrun by bugs, with three Warriors strolling across the board too. My shooting was enough to win the day by about 100 VPs.

Round 5 - John, Chaos Space Marines
Two Noise Marine squads, and a 4 man Terminator blob that deep struck. This was the rare game for me in which everything came up Milhouse. Chose the far better board edge for the mission, and the Thunderfire cannon was devastating. I played as a gunline, taking advantage of my opponent's aggression. My Dreadnought actually kills things in close combat, first time all day.

I think if my opponent started the Terminators on the board, I would have had a harder time dealing with them *and* the Noise Marine dakka.

[GossWeapon]

Please post the top 4 lists like you did with the invitational, I really like seeing what the playing field looks like, especially in this diverse format/meta

[Sir_Prometheus]

Lists were much more balanced than I was expecting.  One of the disadvantages of low points is that it's easier to bring rock paper scissors lists.  I only saw one list with a Helldrake (I was expecting someone to take two).  No one took flamer/screamer demons (one guy took a cool looking nurgle list with two nurgly soul grinders).  I had been trying to plan for what I could do against flamers at 500 pts, gave up trying. 

My favorite list I saw was probly a balanced chaos list, nicely painted int blue and green--Cultists with autguns, CSM with flamer in a rhino, a hellbrute, and a Lord oin terminator armor and a powerfist.  I was laiughing a little bit at the lone  lord deppstriking on his own, but it turns out it can be really, really hard to kill someone in termie armor at 500 pts.  My one railgun kept missing, it nearly scrapped my hammerhhead. 

There was quite a bit of Tau, generally. 

[Bill]

Really upset I missed this but i had way too much painting to get done for Templecon. Looked like alot of fun and I had a blast at the first one.

[andalucien]

There were definitely a lot of rock-paper-scissors type armies there too (like mine).   Actually, I think every army I played against took something to the extreme.    2 squads of long fangs is about as much str 8 shooting as you can possibly have...  2 soul grinders would be tough for for many 500 pt armies to crack... the wolf army had zero scoring units...  there was a guy with Bjorn the Fell Handed (275 pts)... etc etc.   

The good thing about it is, if you end up with a mismatch, you only invest 45 minutes into it, and then it's on to the next game.

That being said, if less-rock-paper-scissors is desired, it might lead to another type of (perhaps even more fun) tourney.  Banning flyers & flying monstrous creatures might be a reasonable place to start.   

[Benjamin]

Removing the HQ requirement got the format exactly where I want it to be. Last tournament with HQs, power armor armies suffered greatly. This time, power armor contended in every bracket.

This format needs no comp. It is not Kill Team. We're early in 6th Edition, to which I would attribute any imbalance far more than the game state at 500 points.

The spirit of the event is for any crazy thing you can do, your opponent can too. Don't hold your breath waiting for comp.

The players with big characters I talked to were delighted that their models were finally bad-asses on the table, instead of getting shot up by 1850 points on first turn. Terminators are scary, like they're supposed to be. Monstrous Creatures are scary, like they're supposed to be.

I'm still waiting for someone to run Mephiston...

[King of the Elves]

Removing the HQ requirement got the format exactly where I want it to be. Last tournament with HQs, power armor armies suffered greatly. This time, power armor contended in every bracket.

 That was a great idea.