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Tournament advice
Topic Started: 18th January 2008 - 02:06 PM (292 Views)
skavenman


Hi everyone. for all those who have attended tournaments in the past what is the best advice?
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bakfire the experimenter
graduate of the school for dangerous inventions
i am going to my first tournie next month and the best advice i have been given is play as many games with your tournie list as possible before hand - this way you are less likely to forget things during the tournie games. it also lets you fine tune your choice of units / tactics / magic items
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skavenman
Jan 19 2008, 02:06 AM
Hi everyone. for all those who have attended tournaments in the past what is the best advice?

1. Dont expect a podium finish. No matter how good you may be in your local gaming circles, you may be a big fish in a small pond. You never know how good others might be, or how different their local gaming regimes may be, and hence how that might effect your performance games-wise. Plus tournaments may have scoring systems which do not exactly jive with your playstyle, army building standards, army presentation standards or expectations of conduct and/or sportsmanship which may slightly deviate from what you are accustiomed to, and the other players may just play strangely. This can lead to less than optimal points scoring, even if you thought you were doing everything right. You should AIM to win (not trying to win can be as disrespectful and annoying for your opponet as trying too hard to win), but you shouldnt EXPECT it.

2. Because of (1), above, play openly and generously, as it wont cost you anything. Even against tossers (they wont be getting a podium finish either). Inform your opponent of what you are doing and what you hope to achieve as (or before) you do it, so that every thing is clear and out in the open. This prevents confusion or misconception over what you were doing vs what your opponent thought you were doing. Be generous in your expectations - make allowances. Your opponent may be a stickler for measurement to the nearest fraction of a millimeter, thereby displaying an expectation that you will too, so you should make an effort to meet their expectations. Conversly, they might play fast and loose to the nearest inch or so during normal moves, in which case you can too - or, at least, dont play to the nearest fraction of a millimeter if they obviously dont expect you to.

3. Because of (1), above, take a non-obnoxious list. An obnoxious list will only make you That Guy, with no commensurate upside. Also see (2), above. IF you were good enough to win, you were good enough to win with an inoffensive list. And if you werent good enough to win, taking an obnoxious list wouldnt change that, and merely reflect poorly on you to boot. The standard you want to aim for, depending upon the event, of course, is generally "hard but fair". Pitch your army building so that you have something which wont fall over in a light breeze, but takes appreciable efforts in the movement phase to consistently win. As a rule of thumb, something which "doesnt lose often" is better than something which "almost always wins", if you can appreciate the subtle difference.

4. Know your shiz, and play as fast as you can - without hurrying to the extent that your opponent has cause to think you have something to hide (see (2), above: playing openly), so let them see your dice, and scoop up the 'misses', not the 'hits'. Tournament games need to proceed at a rapid pace for the event to work and so everyone has a fair go, so no delays. This also means move trays, and a means of transporting your army from table to table without packing them away. As Bakfire essentially said, know your army inside and out, backwards and forwards, so that you dont need to look anything up. In addition, know your rules, and where to find them, so that you can provide stuff at your opponent's insistence, where necessary, with minimal delays (see (2), above: playing openly). Plan your turn whilst your opponent is conducting their turn - if you have to think in your turn then you left it too late (also see (1), above - will that extra time really help?).

It all boils down to the fact that you may be playing complete strangers. They dont often play exactly like you play. Thus you should be on your 'best behavious' whilst not taking anything for granted. "Because we've always done it this way" doesnt cut it.

It isnt much really, and the more events you attend, the more accustomed you'll be.
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Stormvermin
My best advice, just have fun.

Every now and then you come across scenarios that basically make your army a walking VP vendor (extra 100 vp for all core units wiped out, this bit me in the ass once as I had 15 core units). Or the impossible to kill character, though this is much easier to work around. You have to just roll with it and work with what you brought.

Don't make a list geared to dominate only one phase, they seem very powerful at times, even almost broken. But usually such a specialized list will have a major flaw, and good opponents will exploit that. (saw a nasty chaos list with like 16 power dice, a few failed casting rolls and his mighty mages were run down by slaves)

And make your list with every function in mind, what do I have to take out 1+ save cav, what do I have to deal with magic heavy lists, how about gunlines/defense armies, ambushing skirmish armies? Good examples of this: a tunneling team of 3 is fine for killing warmachine crew, but what are they going to do if you face a Khorne army, they are not big enough to get any side/rear bonuses, they cant claim table quarters. So boost them to 5 and now they have multiple uses. I am quite happy to drop a tunneling team dead center of the table vs cav/chariot armies, many times popping up into a rear charge turn 2.

If you play to enjoy the game, this is usually noticed by your opponent, play to have fun, paint your models (not just the required 3 colors), make a theme list, and read the scenarios carefully and adjust to what you are supposed to do and you should come out of the tourney with not only a good comprehensive scrore, but a good experience :) *bsb* :)
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