During this past weekend, I got a chance to play in my first 5E tournament, hosted by FLGS extraordinaire Battleforge Games here in Austin. BFG's "Hobby Tournaments" (which emphasize fun army lists as opposed to kill-em-all WAAC lists) are somewhat legendary -- this one had 28 players, and a free catered lunch (not bad for a free tournament, eh? Is it any wonder BFG has earned a large and loyal fan/customer base? It probably doesn't hurt that BFG is the venue-of-choice for the Bell of Lost Souls guys, too).How'd I do? Well...1 loss, 2 draws. I wasn't in the top ten, but I consider this improvement, as in my first tournament, I lost every match, in my second, I had one loss and one tie (and a bye).
The picture is was taken by Jay, aka Bushido in the 41st Millennium during our match in round 2. If you'd like to read more about that match (and good match-by-match batreps by Bushido for the whole tournament including pictures from each), you should check out this act of bloggery he committed.
You may notice his gorgeous Eldar army in the photo. It looks fantastic, every unit has been lovingly given attention, and his vehicles are as beautiful and elegant as they are deadly. :) You'll also notice my Ultras are outnumbered. This was taken during the next-to-last turn. That loss I mentioned earlier? Yep, this was it.
You may be curious about the top five in this tournament, being is that it is one of the first 5E tournaments ever:
1. Eldar
2. Chaos Space Marines (Nurgle)
3. Imperial Guard
4. (tie) Black Templars
4. (tie) Tyranids
Hmm...looks like even with the new edition, some things have changed all that much. :) Although I should point out that most of the players in the top five consistently win tournaments using different armies (which lets you know they're good generals in any case).
There were a lot of marine armies in this tournament, which led Frank (aka Capt Tyranus on B&C) to comment that he thinks more people are picking marines up again due to the rumors about the upcoming codex, and it's supposed power. Interesting.
Does this mean we are entering into a Marines Ascendant era?
Which leads somewhat to this question: do you think the new marine codex will change the overall "power level" of the army?
Lastly, I'd like to say that having played 2 tournaments under 4E and now one under 5E, I greatly prefer the 5E ruleset. The games seem to have a more even ebb and flow, give and take...dare I say it: balance. I'm really looking forward to the bright times ahead in this hobby.
OMG! You said the "b" word... balance! Could this be the beginning of the a golden era of 40k?
ReplyDeleteI think the appearance of balance was largely due to the lack of anyone brining a Rending Pony to the tournament...
Yeah, Rending Ponies aren't allowed in "Hobby" tournaments. It makes the mech Eldar players cry.
ReplyDeleteI heard that the tournament had a *lot* of "Draw" results for games. Did you see it as a problem?
ReplyDeleteWell, I didn't see it as a problem, really, only as a progression of my abilities as a player in a tournament setting. However, I get the feeling that until some army lists fully "embrace" the 5E way of doing things, we're going to see a lot of draws. Without a lot more Troops choices, the ability to hold objectives is going to be difficult...add to that the fact that any unit can contest an objective and you've got the makings of a lot of draws. I think we're going to need to really strike a balance between holding objectives backed up with enough firepower to prevent them being contested. I see this as the biggest challenge under 5E.
ReplyDeleteWell put Joe.
ReplyDeleteI believe the crux of 5ED is not army list building but in army list PLAYING now.
Some people have lists designed to "contest" while others have lists to "control" objectives. It's going to be a matter of what kind of army you like to play and then HOW you want to play it. Like MtG, you hear about certain kinds of deck builds that are plyed to acheive certain results... I think we'll start seeing that in 40k.
Congrats (consolations?) on the 0:1:2 record Joe, you played much 5E before the RTT? Cause I think you and Ron are onto the change of play style required with the new missions and scoring / contesting. I noted the number of draws in a RTT report on Dakka and got a similar reply, that it's the 2 objective game that draws most often but if a player is out to win s/he can play as simply as holding their objective and contesting the enemy's. Seems simple enough ........
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Oh, congratulations are correct. :) I've been playing for less than a year, and the Austin tournament scene is VERY competitive. I'm pretty even overall in the win/loss ratio so I think it's all part of the learning process. I've actually gotten pretty comfortable with my army -- both its capabilities and its limitations. Of course, now I have to change it to do the objective thing and for the new SM codex, but that's OK. Learning how to play with new toys is certainly fun, right?
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