The tournament was scored according to your win/loss record, with the two teams that went 3/0 splitting the top prize, and the 2/1 team with the most victory points receiving 3rd place. There were 14 teams in total. The final scores haven't been posted, so I'm not sure where we fell within the group, but we won 2 games and lost 1, and scored around 2800 victory points over 3 games. This being my first team tournament, I thought we did pretty good.
The list we ran was split up as follows:
Emperor's Champion
14-man Crusader Squad in a Land Raider Crusader
2 5-man Crusader Squads with lascannons, one with a Rhino
Vindicator
Inquisitor Lord Karamazov
Callidus Assassin
2 6-man Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Squads
Priest
2 squadrons of 3 Penitent Engines
We ran into some trouble when Farmpunk pointed out that Karamzov could only be fielded in armies of 1500 points or more. Caanaan had overlooked this restriction, so we scrambled at the last minute to rearrange his half of the army and wound up including an Inquisitor Lord with bolter/crossbow combi-weapon and excruciators with a multi-melta gun servitor and 2 warriors with plasma guns.
I'll post battle reports of the games later, but I wanted to talk about what the tournament did right and what left room for improvement.
I really liked the team format. New tactics were needed to face different combos, and it was neat to see the combinations that people came up with. If this type of tournament became more frequent, I think it would be cool to see more people making themed team armies. I would like to see one or two of this type of tournament every year in addition to our normal tournaments.
There were a few things that could be improved upon, but overall I had a great time. I wanted to make sure I stressed that none of the things I took issue with diminished my having a good time, and my criticisms are intended to make a better event in the future.
Prior to the event, I would have liked to have seen a statement that clearly spelled out how the tournament was scored, and what the schedule was going to look like so that I as a player know what to expect. CaulynDarr took over as TO only a few days prior, but it would have been nice to know how long each game would last, and what time to show up. The posting on the website said to be there at 11:00, but the first game was supposed to start at 11:00. There could have been some time scheduled to register each army, and figure out pairings prior to the starting time. Inevitably, some gamers will wait until the last minute to show up, and it usually makes the entire tournament start late.
Each game was given 2 hours to complete, which I felt was not enough time. At 2000 points, most games were not getting finished. I don't know if that is a result of most of us being used to playing games at 1750 points, but I think 2.5 hours was needed.
I would have liked to have seen printed mission sheets to give each player a reminder of the victory conditions as well. At the beginning of the tournament, it was explained that victory points would be used as a tie-breaker between the 3-0 teams to determine a winner, and the 2-1 team with the highest victory points would take 3rd place. I don't remember hearing that victory points would be used as a tie-breaker in the games, and that there would be no draw results. There were several people who, at the end of game 2, were surprised to find this out. A printed mission sheet could have resolved this issue.
The terrain was themed by table, and looked very nice. The problem with this was that the terrain was very inconsistent from table to table. The first table I played on had only impassible terrain, with no area terrain. The last table I played on had only ruins, which were in the 4 corners of the table with nothing but some hedges in the center of the board. I prefer to see a little bit of each type of terrain on each table, so as not to benefit one type of army over another too much.
I want to say again that I had a great time, and I look forward to the next event by Hive Fleet Indy. They have a 1750 point tournament scheduled for November 6th. I hope to see some of you there.
Your comments on ways to improve are truly what I'd want to see if I was the TO- a list of what he did right, with a kind, non-blaming discussion of points for improvement.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like CaulynnDarr did a great job, especially with not having a lot of notice that he would be the TO.
I'm curious- does your group usually accept that a TO won't play? Is a playing TO something your group would ever be ok with?
The guys that took third tabled their first opponent, and ended up with around 4000 vp's at the end of the Tournament. Farmpunk and Sandwyrm where only about 200 vp's behind them at the end. I'll get around to posting the final scores sometime this week. Though some of the 0-3 and 1-2 players didn't score their vp's in the final round.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I did't do a good job explaining things. I was rushed at the start of the tournament due to arriving late. I defiantly learned a lot from the experience and will make sure to be better prepared next time I run an event.
I'm glad you had fun.
@ Loquacious I was originally going to TO and play but received some negative feedback from that possibility which I agreed and asked CaulynDarr to TO. He gladly accepted. It is hard to TO a regular tournament and play. I at first thought it wouldn't be an issue with a team tournament but didn't want to have any issues with players. Thanks again CaulynDarr.
ReplyDelete@ Wienas. I agree I should have put some better time lines out. That is my bad. I had a good time as well. I think in the next tournament we should probably prohibit teams from taking the same special character. That is the only issue I see. There is even the possiblity to split a force org chart instead of having seperate ones. Your thoughts?
I forgot to post about the victory point to settle any ties. It was in the right up along with what you posted about the time at 11am. :)
ReplyDelete@loquacious: I'm fine with a TO playing in his own tournament, so long as he is ineligible to win prizes. No matter how fair a game they played, it looks shady when someone awards themselves a prize.
ReplyDelete@CaulynDarr: I don't know if it wasn't explained, or I just didn't hear it mentioned, but there were a few of us in the back tables that didn't know about the vps.
@Spaguatyrine: it sounds like there was a little bit of miscommunication between you, CaulynDarr, and the players. Since you guys are part of the same club, the information could have been exchanged in store, or just assumed since you seem to be of like minds. It wasn't a big deal, I just wanted to leave some feedback since I know many of us want to work towards a better tournament scene here in Indy.
@Spaguatyrine: I think limiting unique characters is a good idea. I see no problem with limiting the force org chart as well. I was thinking today about making a combined force where you have 6 long fangs, or 6 squads of lootas. Part of me smiles with sick glee at this thought, but the part of me that wants everyone to have fun thinks that this probably shouldn't be allowed.
ReplyDeleteI'd thought of going with 6 Heavy Support if SandWyrm and I had done IG/WH.
ReplyDelete3 Exorcists, a few Russes, and a few Hydra would have made people cry.
we decided to do a more friendly list, that still had some teeth.
overall, I didn't really have problems with the tourney, it went off smooth-ish.
We will take your suggestions and ensure we improve on this already great experience! I do like the idea of sharing the same FOC. That would stop more than 1 unique character and force an even based army.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about a quad team tournament? I have been approached with possibly running one of these. Quad teams would have their own FOC and would be either randomly selected or chosen by the team before pairings in round 1. I think this could be fun!!! Thoughts???
I've been very curious about the 4-player team tournaments that are held at Adepticon. My main problem is trying to find and organize a 4-player team. I feel that I would want to have an army that is a combined effort and has a theme running throughout. This is hard enough with 2 players, let alone 4.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it would be very interesting to try to put forth your best player against the other teams' best player. You would then pick which player would play along side your opponent from their teammates.
Exactly! I will begin working on the background and throw it out for future use. Possibly as a secondary tournament on a second day at a mini GT???? More to come on this!
ReplyDeleteI do have an issue with a TO playing. What if his opponent needs to call a judge against him? Can you call slow playing since he might have to be pulled away to answer other questions? Things come up. I don't think TOs should ever play.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you say sharing FOC, you meant two of them? I personally think it should be sharing one FOC, so that two HQ, and 4 troops are required, and then the three elite/fast heavy are shared from the codexes. Sharing 2 FOC while eliminating unique, just asks for more abuse and craziness.
4 player teams would be crazy and would take too long to play I think. 2 hours for 2k is not too difficult, but when you have 4 people trying to all do their things, that's what slows it down. A 3v3 Killteam mission took forever, I'd hate to see larger point missions.
I had a lot of fun, and I do hope another one happens in the future. My only complaint is I brought a bad list, and we all know who's to blame for that.
They're not actually talking about an eight-person 4v4 game when they say 4-person teams. At Adepticon they do a tournament where you come with a 4-person team, then play three 2v2 games, so that you end up getting paired with each of your teammates once. Since each team is actually playing two games at any given time, your team ends up with six results over the course of the day.
ReplyDeleteAlso, our VP total for third place should have been 4314. We got 2000 in round 1 and 666 in round 2 which were both easy to remember, and then 16xx in round 3, though I'm pretty sure it was 1648. But it's definitely in that neighborhood.