AI Tournament 15th Jan 23 Warhammer World

[Rik Lightstar]

As the title says there's an Aeronautica Imperialis Tournament at Warhammer World in Nottingham in January, myself and a couple of friends are going to be heading up for it and I was wondering if any of you fine fellows will be there too?

Ticket Link here

Rules Pack here

It's going to be my first AI Tournament although I've played in plenty of other tournaments for other systems, does anyone have any tips as far as competitive AI goes and if there's much of a "meta" to be aware of?

Rik

[Beaky Brigade]

Me and 3 or so of our local group are going, same as last year :)

[Firedrake Cordova]

I remembered someone from here went to the tournament - I had a feeling it was @Beaky Brigade but I couldn't find the post despite spending the last 5 minutes looking for it  

 

Wasn't GW's Nick Bayton taking part in the last one?

Edited October 11, 2022 by Firedrake Cordova

[Beaky Brigade]

 

6 hours ago, Rik Lightstar said:

It's going to be my first AI Tournament although I've played in plenty of other tournaments for other systems, does anyone have any tips as far as competitive AI goes and if there's much of a "meta" to be aware of?

Rik

 

It depends what lists you are bringing but 2020 and 2021 were very casual affairs with most players just happy to have a few games with new people.

 

That said, it will be the first official event with the new matched play scenarios. In 2020 they were going for an Imperial vs Orks narrative with linked games, then in 2021 there was no narrative but still using the attacker and defender lists, and this year all the games will by the symmetrical matched play scenarios I think.

Tau seemed popular at the event I went to in Aldershot a couple of weeks ago, though there were only 8 of us there were a few faces I recognised from the WHW events.

Necrons are very dangerous at close range, they will obliterate you

Thunderbolt Furries and Vendetta gunships are the best 'cheese' choice for Imperials

Know the manoeuvres and don't forget to use altitude to your advantage, and know your enemy and most games can be competitive IMO.

Just bring what you want and have fun :)

 

That said I consistently finish in the bottom 25% so maybe don't take advice from me :D

 

 

Oh, and the theoretical 'Cheese' list I want to try one day for fun is a full list of 12 to 15 Arvus Lighters for troop landing scenarios.

Each Arvus is 10 points but can score 15 victory points worth of landed troops, and there probably aren't enough turns to kill enough of them to prevent the high score lol.
 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Beaky Brigade

[Rik Lightstar]

Thanks @Beaky Brigade 

 

I'm not expecting or intending to be getting near the top tables and would much rather it's just a fun day of playing with tiny planes. The other side of that though is it gets a lot less fun when you lose all your games.

 

I'll probably be taking my White Scars. 

 

Aeldari are the other option but I don't really want to drop the cash for the Forge World stuff, you have to have a Raider to get any Transport Capacity and that bugs me.

 

Rik

[duz_]

I wish we had this kind of event locally 

 

Good luck to any attendees take picts! 

[Rik Lightstar]

Been playing some practise games through with a couple of the guys who'll be coming with me to this tournament and I wanted to check we're playing something correctly.

 

When a plane has the option to take TWO sets of missiles as upgrades can you fire both sets in the same turn?

 

Background of the format, which is as described in the AI: Companion for matched play

• There are 4 games, you play missions in the following sequence: Duelling Aces (straight dogfight), Ground Assault (destroy ground targets), Troop Insertion (land troops in the designated zone) and finally Duelling Aces again.
• The tournament is set at 120 points.
• You take two squadron lists so that you can cover the requirements for all the missions and you pick which list to take before each mission after seeing both of your opponents two lists.

For my 120 point "dogfight focussed" list I decided to try out taking 4 Xiphons all upgraded to have 2 sets of Hunter Killer Missiles and Infra-Red Targeting* which puts them at exactly 30 points each. 

 

The FAQ says that you can decide if you want to fire missiles after resolving a previous weapon attack giving the Xiphons at medium range 4 Lascannon dice with the option to add 2 Dice of missiles followed by another 2 dice of missiles as required. I appreciate that they're limited to a total of 6 missiles each per game but that still gives plenty of shots from them. They were absolutely brutal last night clearing all but one of the Imperial Navy planes I was up against in the the first 3 turns forcing him to disengage.

 

I managed the ranges well and had the Infra-Red targeting to ensure I wasn't scuppered completely by night fighting or bad weather but my dice didn't run particularly hot so the number of hits was what you'd expect from the shots I had.

 

Rik

[Firedrake Cordova]

My understanding is that you are playing it correctly.

 

My memory says that it was explicitly spelled out that you can fire under-wing missiles (Skystrike and the like) all at the same time (and decide after each roll whether to fire the next), but I can't remember where, which probably isn't that helpful. 

[Rik Lightstar]

46 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

My understanding is that you are playing it correctly.

 

My memory says that it was explicitly spelled out that you can fire under-wing missiles (Skystrike and the like) all at the same time (and decide after each roll whether to fire the next), but I can't remember where, which probably isn't that helpful. 

 

You can definitely decide whether to fire missiles after resolving other weapons, it's in the FAQ.

 

Just making sure that they count as two separate weapon systems so they're 2 systems with 3 shots each rather than becoming 1 system with 6 shots in the case of the Xiphon.

 

Rik

[Firedrake Cordova]

Ah, misread the question 

 

I think so (in the same way as giving a Thunderbolt 2 sets of Skystrike missiles), but the best bet might be to e-mail them to check? I think there's a "contact the event organisers in case of questions" address?

Edited October 25, 2022 by Firedrake Cordova

[Rik Lightstar]

Think I've cracked it.

 

Had another read through the FAQ and while it isn't asked in the same way I was thinking about it, this entry does make it pretty clear that if you have two or more of the same weapon system they count as separate weapons.

• "Q. Do I have to declare all my targets and all the weapons I’m going to use when activating an aircraft during the Firing phase, or can I nominate a weapon, resolve firing with that weapon and then nominate another weapon?
  • A. The latter – you can resolve firing on a weapon by weapon basis, provided you follow the targeting rules. For example, if a Thunderbolt has three pairs of Skystrike missiles, you can fire all three pairs one after the other should you wish. In this way, you can fire one pair of missiles and see what damage is inflicted before committing to firing the next pair.

Happy days, missile based death for all :D

 

Rik

[Rik Lightstar]

Aerial Engagement at Warhammer World was today.... 

 

Three of us from my local club headed up there, I had my White Scars and my buddies took Imperial Navy and T'au. 

 

It was a great day out, really well organised and a fantastic crowd of 50 players.

 

The format was a 4 round tournament playing Dueling Aces as the First and Fourth Missions with No Man's Land and Troop Insertion as Second and Third respectively. Meaning you needed a bit of variety and flexibility between your squadron lists. 

 

The capacity in my list to inflict quite a high level of damage in the first couple of salvoes along with the speed and maneuverability of the Xiphons paid off dramatically allowing me to have some control over activations in the later turns which has a big impact as the game gets a bit more tangled. 

 

I managed my first ever First Place Tournament Finish taking the overall win with 4-0 and the tie breaker of most planes destroyed having shot down every single plane I played against over the four games. 

 

I was also incredibly pleased to get 3rd place in the Best Painted based on player votes along with the Judges Pick for Best Painted. 

 

Meaning I came away from the day with THREE Trophies. 

 

Rik

[Firedrake Cordova]

Congratulations!  Sounds like a good day. 

[schoon]

Awesome job on all counts! Enjoy your well-deserved trophies.