Why I choose some of the units I do in my tournament lists

There are a lot of reasons why I choose the units I do in my army. I will quickly go over some of them.



#1. It is a good unit.

These are the best units in the game and most people take a lot of these units. The best armies are nothing but these units or are built around them. We all should all know what these units are already.


#2. Adding synergy to the army

Some units do not work well by themselves, but in combination they are better than the sum of their parts. An Avatar in a footslogging Eldar list is like this. In a Mech Eldar list the Avatar is a poor performer, but you put him in with a foot army and he shines. He makes the army fearless, he is an awesome counter-assault unit, and a very good fire magnet.



#3. They are the models that I own.
You can only play with them if you got them. This is generally not a problem for me, but it does come up from time to time when I am unable to finish a unit in time for a tournament, or I don't have, or can't get what I want. As Donald Rumfield said "You go to war with they army you have, not the army you want".


#4. Appearance

Here are the units that people look at the army lists on the boards and don't understand why you would take them. The answer is sometimes they look good, but may not fight very well. You know what they say "It's better to look good than to fight good!" Remember that most tournaments are not just a table top game, but a beauty pageant. You are being judged on appearance, so it may be a good idea to take a possible hit on battle points to gain some appearance points. There was one tournament where I was debating what units to take, and I took the better looking ones. I did lose that tournament, but I ended up winning best appearance, so in the end it was the right call.



#5. I like the unit

Here is another head scratcher to people who are looking at a list and wondering why certain units are included. For an example, I love the Thousand Sons. For the most part they were my first 40K army and I really like their fluff (Heresy for a competitive gamer!). So when I play chaos, I will always have them in the army. Are they are very good unit? Heck no! They are bad because with 5^th edition everyone gets 4+ cover now so that diminishes their AP3 bolters, and their 4+ inv save. Add to that that they are very, very expensive, and most of the 5^th edition codex's can cripple your psychic powers means that they are a massive waste of points. On the other hand Plague Marines are the best troop choice in the codex and I own 0 of them, and I have no plans to buy them either.


#6. I do not want to win with what everyone one else wins with. 
I could take a Seer Council or go full Mech Eldar (I own 2 Falcons, 2 Fires Prisms and 4 Wave Serpents that I have never used) or play with Plague Marines. I could play the full Space Wolf army I own or Mech IG that I have most of the parts for, but I do not wish to. If you or I win with a leaf blower list, what does that prove? That Mech IG is good? We already know that. But if you are able to win with a list that others do not think is good, then that shows that you are a good player. In the UK GT finals last year there was a guy who came in 5th or 6th with Necrons. Now that was impressive and showed that he was a very good player, rather than the guys who finished ahead of him with Chaos and the other top builds. Winning is good, but it is even better if you can do it with style, and a bit of panache!



So there are some of the reasons why I take the units that I do, and the reason my some of my lists are not totally optimized. They are my armies and I get to play with the toys that I want to, and I enjoy playing with. At the end of the day it is a game, and one that we have to have fun playing.

Blackmoor’s ‘Ard Boyz report

I had been planning on taking my Tyranids to the 'Ard Boyz but I was unable to get the big bugs and bone swords necessary to get the army together, so it was on to plan B.



So it is back to my old standby of Foot Eldar. I almost switched to Chaos the night before (and maybe I should have) but at that point it was too late.



I am playing at Empire Games in Mesa. Since there are only 4 stores running the tournament in Arizona, and the other stores are smaller, a lot of the overflow came there to play so they had 20+ players.


My list:

HQ

Eldrad

Avatar


Elites

8 Harlequins w/Kisses, 2 fusion pistol

Shadowseer

Troupe Master w/power weapon


Troops

10 Guardians w/Brightlance

10 Guardians w/Brightlance

10 Guardians w/Brightlance



9 Dire Avengers



3 Jetbikes w/Shuriken Cannon

1 Warlock w/Singing Spear, Destructor



3 Jetbikes w/Shuriken Cannon

1 Warlock w/Singing Spear, Destructor


Fast Attack

9 Warp Spiders

1 Warp Spider Exarch w/2 Spinner, Withdraw, Surprise Attack



9 Warp Spiders

1 Warp Spider Exarch w/2 Spinner, Withdraw, Surprise Attack


Heavy Support

Wraithlord w/Brightlance, Missile Launcher, 2 Flamers

Wraithlord w/Brightlance, Missile Launcher, 2 Flamers



4 Dark Reapers

1 Dark Reaper Exarch w/Fast Shot, Missile Launcher





So on to the games!

Upcoming events

Hello everyone! I am in the middle of a move, so things on the blog have crawled to a halt, so I will post some this weekend.

First up it will be my foot elder goes to the 'Ard Boyz.

Then I will finish the last 2 batreps of the Broadside Bash from last Feb.

And the last thing I will write up is a piece on obits, and why they are so darn good!



Here is a list of my upcoming events:



June 26^th and 27^th ConQuest Invasion in LA, CA
July 29^th-Aug 1^st BolsCon in Austin, TX

September 11^th and 12^th Tides of War-Desert Assault in Mesa, AZ



That will do it for summer I think.
I hope to see you all there!!!

The truth about WYSIWYG

I see a lot of people talking about WYSIWYG and wondering if it is ok to play at tournaments without being 100% WYSIWYG.



For example:

Is it ok to use spinegants for termagants?

Is it ok to use a power weapon for a powerfist?

It is ok to use X unit for Y unit?

Etc.



Here is the truth: Tournament organizers normally don't care, and most of the time neither will your opponent. The only time it will ever be an issue is if you get the wrong type of opponent and you start to beat them. Then all of a sudden WYSIWYG will be an issue because then he will start to complain about your models and might have the TO come over to do something about it.



As they say in boxing, 'you must protect yourself at all times', so just as a precaution, you should always be WSYWIG as much as you can, and when you can't, talk to the TO beforehand, and clearly explain to your opponent before the game begins what is, and what is not WYSIWYG.

What I have been up to

I have been getting ready for the 'Ard Boyz. I have a couple of weeks to get ready. Lucky for me the army does not have to be painted. I am torn between trying out the new Nid's and going with the old tried-and-true Eldar. With the new codexes that are out there we are going to have trouble with some of them but Seer Councils are the great equalizer, and I will see if I can make it work.



I may just play both of them and do the marathon 'Ard Boyz. There is a store that has the 'Ard Boyz at night so I can do like I did last year and play 2 tournaments and play for almost 20 hears strait like I did last year.



2009 'Ard Boyz #1 Space Wolves (old codex, a year too soon!)

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/248537.page

2009 'Ard Boyz #2 Eldar

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/250049.page

After 6 long games I was beat, that was a lot of 40k in one day.



Also this week I am I am working on some e-mails that I have received asking for Eldar advice that I will be posting shortly. I have not had the time to get to yet, but I will write the posts up at work this week.