Afternoon all,
Some major updates for the NOVA Open, that will be reflected on our new website when it goes live within the week!
Warhammer 40,000
The NOVA Invitational is set at 1,750 points (AND ONLY THE INVITATIONAL)
The NOVA Open GT remains set at 2,000 points
The Team Tournament Primers and Formal Points/Org Settings will release this week
Warhammer Fantasy
Fantasy GT tickets will go live within the week; we'll set the cap at 32-64 players, with 5-6 rounds, split casually on Sat/Sun; this subject to change based upon final scenarios, being produced by the Inner Circle Gaming Club
Malifaux
Malifaux ticket now grants a massively improved suite of events for Malifaux attendees, as follows:
"Through the Breach" - 30ss Malifaux tournament (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. 30ss, declared faction
b.Friday, 10am - 6pm
c. 32 slots
"Bad Things Happen" - Daily Achievement League (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. Achievement based prizes for playing Malifaux games
b. Friday round & Saturday Round
"Bayou Five Card" - Malifaux fixed/unique crew Mega Battle (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. 25ss, declared crew
b. Saturday, 11am - 3pm
c. Rotating game access (to be explained in the players pack)
"Malifaux Midnight Madness" - Single Elimination Midnight tournament (Players Pack to follow before the end of May)
a. 35 soulstone, fixed faction
b. Saturday/Sunday, Midnight - single elimination
c. 8 slots
Full information on the Malifaux events coming via Bill Anderson sooner than later! He'll post it up on Whiskey.
Additionally, subtle rumors indicate a major Black Library author may be making a weekend-long appearance amidst a series of events at the NOVA Open 2011 ...
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Notional - Tourney Hammer vs. Store Hammer ... Reliability vs. Min/Max
So, let's take a look at a couple of lists, and identify what the differences are:
1 -
Njal Stormcaller - 245
6 x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Power Fist - 258
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
2 -
Rune Priest w/ Lightning, Jaws, Chooser - 110
6 x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Heavy Bolter Razorback - 178
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
Now, which of these lists is better?
One list has a character with saga of majesty and some whacky powers, plus the full toolkit if psychic abilities; it also has large more combat-ready grey hunter squads (though they have no higher firepower really).
One list has 3 more plasmabacks, 3 more speeders w/ mm/hf, an extra razorback, just as much firepower in every single scout and hunter squad, and still has psy defense and a chooser.
Having been through and organized / watched through several serious, competitive GT's now ... here's my thought: Contrary to internetism, the first list is MUCH better for a high caliber GT player. The 2nd list is much better for convincing yourself Min-Max is the way to go, beating people at your store (even if they are good) regularly, and playing above your skill level in a tournament.
Note - I'm not saying one is better, period, but for someone who is good enough to beat his opponents skill-wise, the first list outperforms.
Why?
Well, it's more reliable. It can be boiled down argument-wise into that - his squads of grey hunters hit harder if they have to, take a hit harder, and are less vulnerable to unlucky allocation sniping out their LD9 or melta weaponry. He has the ability to re-roll failed morale with Majesty off the edges of Njal's Rhino, which actually makes the 6" aura fairly decent (especially combined w/ the flexible disembarkation of friendly rhinos). He still has reliable double melta to pop transports and vehicles when the situation demands. He will win games by a smaller margin as a general rule.
For the 2nd list, in a perfect world where the odds are rolled it can be much better. The problem is, if a couple of squads fail unlikely LD tests, there's no protection. If a squad takes a handful of armor saves, it can rapidly lose its melta weapons instead of its bobos. If a few lascannons miss in a row, you've rapidly got wasted points down on the field. If you get knocked out of position or de-meched at the wrong time, or ganked outside the odds ... your squads can't take nearly as much of a beating, nor can they react as well to having to fight against easy odds.
Where I'm going with this is the age old excuse you hear of someone's dice just failing him in a key tournament game. You see this happen a lot - where someone has this min-max awesome list, and it's not his list that failed him, or his skills, but he failed a disproportionate number of LD rolls, or he kept losing only the key weapons to allocation, or blah blah blah blah blah. Knock it off. While bad luck can and will happen to the best of us, min-maxing a list can be the quickest way to win MOST of your games anywhere, but lose on occasion to that bad luck, instead of having the list insulation to give yourself resilience to it. This is where you get into internetism - you play all the time with your min-maxed list, winning big most games, and you can readily and easily blame the losses on ... luck.
Look at the recent performance of people who play with lists more like the former ... while luck certainly will always play a factor in a game where dice determine the results of most actions, and I'm not at all suggesting you can completely remove it, wolf lists patterned off the first one are in position if PLAYED WELL to win nearly every game they participate in, even if by the squeakiest of margins.
As more and more tournaments take the lead of the NOVA, and shift over to W/L or W/L/D, and as winning becomes the priority over massacring baby seals, you're going to see more and more success of lists that don't succumb to bad luck. This is even more the case now that less and less tournaments allow for a near loss due to said bad luck, if you can capitalize on it by using your min/max list to massacre your other opponents for higher BP.
Food for thought, but food that has served people well ... it's a theory of list building that helped me run 3-0 at AdeptiCon 2010, and 7-0 at the Battle for Salvation 2010. It's a theory that helped Tony K run 7-0 at the NOVA Open 2010 and 8-0 at AdeptiCon 2011. Might just be something to it ... especially when some of our higher profile wins came against players who would thereafter point out the streaky failrates of their units ... due to ... bad luck ...
1 -
Njal Stormcaller - 245
6 x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Power Fist - 258
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
8 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino - 170
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles - 115
2 -
Rune Priest w/ Lightning, Jaws, Chooser - 110
6 x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Melta, Heavy Bolter Razorback - 178
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Wolf Scouts w/ Meltagun - 85
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Meltagun, Rhino - 115
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
5 x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer, Plasmaback - 150
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF - 70
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
5 x Long Fangs w/ 4 Missiles, Plasmaback - 190
Now, which of these lists is better?
One list has a character with saga of majesty and some whacky powers, plus the full toolkit if psychic abilities; it also has large more combat-ready grey hunter squads (though they have no higher firepower really).
One list has 3 more plasmabacks, 3 more speeders w/ mm/hf, an extra razorback, just as much firepower in every single scout and hunter squad, and still has psy defense and a chooser.
Having been through and organized / watched through several serious, competitive GT's now ... here's my thought: Contrary to internetism, the first list is MUCH better for a high caliber GT player. The 2nd list is much better for convincing yourself Min-Max is the way to go, beating people at your store (even if they are good) regularly, and playing above your skill level in a tournament.
Note - I'm not saying one is better, period, but for someone who is good enough to beat his opponents skill-wise, the first list outperforms.
Why?
Well, it's more reliable. It can be boiled down argument-wise into that - his squads of grey hunters hit harder if they have to, take a hit harder, and are less vulnerable to unlucky allocation sniping out their LD9 or melta weaponry. He has the ability to re-roll failed morale with Majesty off the edges of Njal's Rhino, which actually makes the 6" aura fairly decent (especially combined w/ the flexible disembarkation of friendly rhinos). He still has reliable double melta to pop transports and vehicles when the situation demands. He will win games by a smaller margin as a general rule.
For the 2nd list, in a perfect world where the odds are rolled it can be much better. The problem is, if a couple of squads fail unlikely LD tests, there's no protection. If a squad takes a handful of armor saves, it can rapidly lose its melta weapons instead of its bobos. If a few lascannons miss in a row, you've rapidly got wasted points down on the field. If you get knocked out of position or de-meched at the wrong time, or ganked outside the odds ... your squads can't take nearly as much of a beating, nor can they react as well to having to fight against easy odds.
Where I'm going with this is the age old excuse you hear of someone's dice just failing him in a key tournament game. You see this happen a lot - where someone has this min-max awesome list, and it's not his list that failed him, or his skills, but he failed a disproportionate number of LD rolls, or he kept losing only the key weapons to allocation, or blah blah blah blah blah. Knock it off. While bad luck can and will happen to the best of us, min-maxing a list can be the quickest way to win MOST of your games anywhere, but lose on occasion to that bad luck, instead of having the list insulation to give yourself resilience to it. This is where you get into internetism - you play all the time with your min-maxed list, winning big most games, and you can readily and easily blame the losses on ... luck.
Look at the recent performance of people who play with lists more like the former ... while luck certainly will always play a factor in a game where dice determine the results of most actions, and I'm not at all suggesting you can completely remove it, wolf lists patterned off the first one are in position if PLAYED WELL to win nearly every game they participate in, even if by the squeakiest of margins.
As more and more tournaments take the lead of the NOVA, and shift over to W/L or W/L/D, and as winning becomes the priority over massacring baby seals, you're going to see more and more success of lists that don't succumb to bad luck. This is even more the case now that less and less tournaments allow for a near loss due to said bad luck, if you can capitalize on it by using your min/max list to massacre your other opponents for higher BP.
Food for thought, but food that has served people well ... it's a theory of list building that helped me run 3-0 at AdeptiCon 2010, and 7-0 at the Battle for Salvation 2010. It's a theory that helped Tony K run 7-0 at the NOVA Open 2010 and 8-0 at AdeptiCon 2011. Might just be something to it ... especially when some of our higher profile wins came against players who would thereafter point out the streaky failrates of their units ... due to ... bad luck ...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
BUSY! GK and Addendums
So I'm getting closer to a GK list I'm happy with; I've been bad with my blog postery, but that should pick up in the next week or so.
I may, however, end up spending a fair bit of next week in Nairobi, Kenya. If that happens, more blog delayage.
In the interim, here's the current iteration of GK listage that I'm zero'ing in on ... trying to have "just enough" long range fire support for early suppression, coupled with a strong midfield presence, good counter-punch capability in a pinch, and the ability to outflank into things like MSU armies and long fangs and the like if the opportunity presents itself. So how do we start to get there?
Inquisitor w/ Servo-Skull, Terminator Armor/DaemonHammer, Psycannon - 83
Grand Master w/ Psychotroke Grenades - 190
Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband - 3 Multi-Melta Servitors, 3 Warrior Acolytes, Chimera - 97
10 Grey Knight Terminators w/ 2 Psycannons, 4 Daemon Hammers, 4 Halberds, Brotherhood Banner - 475
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
So, why the multi-meltas on the dreads instead of Psyfleman? Well, I want the dreads moving up more aggressively ... not that they can't with the psyfleman upgrades, but the multi-meltas become increasingly important, b/c they have a strong impact on your ability to actually KILL transports ... psycannons are very good at putting damage results down, but the AP1 helps a ton, as does the +2d when the going gets tough.
Why the Grand Master? Besides being able to roll with the Terminators on occasion, he's there for Scout. Outflanking GK squad? Going to be useful. Hell, outflanking Terminators could be useful. Also useful ... scout moving the terminators up, so that they are like to start firing full bore from midfieldish on turn 1. Also useful .. scouting up a rhino or two of GK. The GM will start off riding in the Chimera most likely, but he'll join whatever squad needs him, typically the termies to apply Psytrokes and add Hammerhand to the auto-ID banner (this helps a great deal against annoying things like TMC's).
Hopefully you can see where I'm going here; lots of scoring bodies that can all combat squad; plenty of firepower; enough vehicles to get up into midfield, late game move block, help shield and take punches, etc. Plenty of multi-meltas to deal with land raiders, and to deal with reliably killing vehicles and saving psycannons and storm bolters for the chewy interior. Yatta yatta yatta.
I may, however, end up spending a fair bit of next week in Nairobi, Kenya. If that happens, more blog delayage.
In the interim, here's the current iteration of GK listage that I'm zero'ing in on ... trying to have "just enough" long range fire support for early suppression, coupled with a strong midfield presence, good counter-punch capability in a pinch, and the ability to outflank into things like MSU armies and long fangs and the like if the opportunity presents itself. So how do we start to get there?
Inquisitor w/ Servo-Skull, Terminator Armor/DaemonHammer, Psycannon - 83
Grand Master w/ Psychotroke Grenades - 190
Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband - 3 Multi-Melta Servitors, 3 Warrior Acolytes, Chimera - 97
10 Grey Knight Terminators w/ 2 Psycannons, 4 Daemon Hammers, 4 Halberds, Brotherhood Banner - 475
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
10 Grey Knights w/ 2 Psycannons, Rhino - 260
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
Dreadnaught w/ Multi-Melta, Psybolt, TL Autocannon - 125
So, why the multi-meltas on the dreads instead of Psyfleman? Well, I want the dreads moving up more aggressively ... not that they can't with the psyfleman upgrades, but the multi-meltas become increasingly important, b/c they have a strong impact on your ability to actually KILL transports ... psycannons are very good at putting damage results down, but the AP1 helps a ton, as does the +2d when the going gets tough.
Why the Grand Master? Besides being able to roll with the Terminators on occasion, he's there for Scout. Outflanking GK squad? Going to be useful. Hell, outflanking Terminators could be useful. Also useful ... scout moving the terminators up, so that they are like to start firing full bore from midfieldish on turn 1. Also useful .. scouting up a rhino or two of GK. The GM will start off riding in the Chimera most likely, but he'll join whatever squad needs him, typically the termies to apply Psytrokes and add Hammerhand to the auto-ID banner (this helps a great deal against annoying things like TMC's).
Hopefully you can see where I'm going here; lots of scoring bodies that can all combat squad; plenty of firepower; enough vehicles to get up into midfield, late game move block, help shield and take punches, etc. Plenty of multi-meltas to deal with land raiders, and to deal with reliably killing vehicles and saving psycannons and storm bolters for the chewy interior. Yatta yatta yatta.
Friday, April 1, 2011
At AdeptiCon
hanging outside the main ballroom if anyone wants to open game ... have terrain. under the weather, gonna hit up chitown in the afternoon, yatta yatta. commence the shit giving for not playing in the champs mobile posting
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