Raath goes to a tournament!

[MasterRaath]

I went to a local tournament on Saturday and had a really good time, placing 20th out of 22. To put that in context I had a whole 2 games under my belt beforehand. I ran a Lion's Blade using the Dark Vengance and Assault on Black Reach contents pretty much WYSIWYG.

First round was against Blood Angels. The guy running them was a really great guy to play against and he would pop in during subsequent rounds to provide me a bit of assistance here and there. As I'm still pretty new I can only give a summary of the matches but here goes. He had 3 land raiders with dudes inside I'm sure but my dreadnaught got blown up before he moved a toe so I really didn't have any way to crack that armor, so I was forced to ignore his entire army by and large. I tried to play to the mission but couldn't quite close the gap. Final score 7 - 2 BA.

If the first match hadn't been brutal enough second round was against a guy with an army full of T-1000 looking robots with glowing green weapony things. This opponent was a real elitist jerk (who went on to win the tourney undefeated). He didn't feel the need to explain to me what was going on at all but the impression I got was that every time I shot at his robots he just got to reroll his dice repeatedly until he was satisfied with the results. Then he would shoot and simply say something to the effect of "make 15 armor saves". I think I may have killed 4 or 5 of his robots before he tabled me in 3 turns. It was an extremely frustrating and confusing match and honestly, if my first game had went like that I would've given this hobby a miss entirely. As a 35 year old man I'm not used to feeling the need to go hide in a corner and cry for a while but there you have it.

Third round was against an army full of monsters big and little. This guy was a riot to play against. He had 2 giant flying things I couldn't hurt and I think they were responsible for about 90% of my casualties. He also had a couple big monsters on the ground, one with a huge grin and a giant gun sticking out of its head that fired large blast plasma without "Gets Hot" and another that was spitting out giant swarms of little monsters. Although I lost the match it was a heck of a lot more fun because I was actually able to kill things. I think the final score was like 12 - 10 monsters but the game was an absolute blood bath.

Fourth round was against Chaos. This guy too was a lot of fun to play with but had an army that far outclassed mine in every way. He had a flying Dragon machine that basically instantly killed whatever it looked at. The two times I managed to actually hurt the stupid thing it had a 5+ save that always seemed to work out for him. He also had a giant blob of trench coat wearing dudes behind a wall backed up by some power armoured dudes that put out a TON of firepower. I never managed to break through that wall and in retrospect I'm pretty sure i was just feeding my army into a grinder I probably should have just avoided. Tabled here again.

5th round I got the buy. 1 - 4. #22 was a store employee who couldn't place and #21 was a guy who dropped after 3rd round. I wasn't dead last at least. Oh wait. Yes I was. Oh well. I did win a set of Dark Angels objective cards as a door prize however so my $10 entry fee totally worked out in my favor.

Afterwards we went to the bar just down the row from the game store where my opponents from round 1 and 3 proceeded to comfort me with beer. Just what I needed. Also Sarg from round 1 gave me an Interrogater Chaplian that apparently was part of the DV set at one point but I had never seen it. Totally cool of him. In the end I lost over and over again but had a really (well mostly) good time. They invited me to join the store's league and I made a couple new friends. Cant ask for much more I guess.

[Knight Angels]

Nice to read. Never been to a tournament. Im sure you will learn how to survive with dark angels by playing more and more.

[JGeils81]

Congrats on making it to a tournament! I've yet to play a game yet... Good to see you made some friends.

I do have one bit advice if you don't mind..: Know your enemy. You don't have to get a codex for everything you may go up against, but read up on them a bit and some of their standard abilities etc. It will help you to know what to expect from "a guy with an army full of T-1000 looking robots with glowing green weapony things".

and hey, you didn't come in last!

[PhilB]

At least you got out there and gave it a go. I've yet to venture into any clubs/tournaments since coming back to the game, I guess I find it quite intimidating.

I'm stoked for you that some of the players approached you the way they did and helped out a new player!

Sadly, you'll always get that guy who's so focused on winning that he actually misses the opportunity to make a new connection.

Great work Raath, keep it up.

[Jazzhands]

Very brave to take on a tournament so soon!

 

Never let "that guy" push you out of the hobby. We have all played one like that.

 

Most players are friendly and as a 36 year old who has only been back in the hobby for a year I can promise you will get better.

 

Keep playing and you will start to get a feel for your army.

Play with friendly types and ask if you can use some proxies to help you find out what you want to add next

[Polythemus]

gotta say that it was awesome to read your impressions. I have to say that my first impression of necrons was pretty similar to yours, " ... he just re-rolled til he got a result he was satisfied with." Is a great description of how it can feel to play necrons. 

 

As for the rest of the armies keep at at it. Your playing one of the better power marine armies and as you learn more tricks it can get better. Great stuff.

[DarkAngeal]

I loved reading this report! My local gaming group is pretty intense and high powered, so I went 4 or 5 tournaments without winning a game before I managed to technically defeat an opponent. I hope you continue to play the game, though and grow in skills. Sadly, there are some people like your round 2 opponent out there... but there are far more like 1 and 3. At the end of the day there's nothing better than playing a friendly game of warhammer with a few beers.

[Black_out]

Really inspiring to see you putting yourself out there so early into the hobby and having a "generally" good time!

 

I definitely suggest trying to brush up on some of the opponents you'll be facing for any future games. It'll give you a good idea of threat assessment and where you need to focus, but all that will come with more experience.