Thursday 12 January 2012

Blog Wars 2 - Conclusions and Reflections

Wow, what a tournament – 3 games played a loss, a draw and a win! I had a really good time, and met a bunch of brilliant people. Overall I think the custom scenarios worked quite well, and I feel having to include a special character was an interesting bonus.
I only really had one niggling issue and that’s with how the Tournament points were worked out. I don’t know whether it was just the nature of the games I played, but the system seemed a bit wonky to me. My fellow blogger the 6th Degree lost 2 games and won 1, a worse overall record than me. However he ended up 4 places higher in the rankings with a TP total of 8 compared to my 5. I understand that Alex was after rewarding close games, and wanted a way to reward people for playing competitively – however I don’t feel this was successfully achieved. I think that some reward should have been given for winning – not just points awarded for killing your opponents stuff – the focus was more on “tabling” than playing – something incredibly hard for my army to do. TP’s being awarded for having more KP/VP than your opponent seems a bit one-sided, for example If I played a game and scored 1725VP but my opponent scored 1726 – he would walk away with the TP and I would have nothing to show for my efforts. I think this should be addressed so that secondary TP’s are awarded for achieving a set number of VP/KP rather than having more than your opponent. This would also give certain armies a chance in scenarios where they are on the back foot from the start (my army in capture and control for example) This is only a minor issue and not one that detracted from my enjoyment from the day – but it is something I hope can be addressed for Blog Wars 3.

As far as my list is concerned, I certainly learnt a lot about what works and what doesn’t. I LOVED my Dreadnaught’s, and would like to give a huge word of thanks to Chris for his suggestion about taking Psyfledreds. They were awesome for me, and in most games easily made back their points in taking out enemy transports or tanks. The Paladins, unsurprisingly were also awesome! I don’t think I played them as aggressively as I could have done – and this tournament certainly taught me not to be afraid of shoving them down my opponent’s throat. They’re incredibly tough and hard hitting and I think were easily the MVP’s in all three of my games. Draigo was certainly epic – his destruction of the DE Wyches in my first game secured his place in my heart and I don’t think any other GK special character even comes close to him in terms of fluff or on-table prowess. I don’t think the Vindicaire was a good inclusion, I wanted to use my Scope conversion, but I just don’t feel he had enough impact. Although I did get a few results from him – blasting a dark lance and taking out melta-marines – I think the 145 points could easily be better spent. In the future I think I’ll invest those points in an Inquisitor and a henchmen Warband. This gives a more versatile option, and also I can have a Chimera for mobility and contesting TQ’s or Objectives.
I think I’ll run a very similar list if I do end up going to BW3 – I don’t want to play the usual Razorback Spam that every other GK tournament lists consists of. Overall I'm really happy with how it played out, and considering this was my first "proper" competition I'm over the moon to have come 16/22 - not last!!!

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