Only Troops Score: How it Played

Hello everyone, welcome back. This is your friendly neighborhood PrimeAngron. Well it has been a little bit since my last post. For the last two Warhammer 40K tournaments, Troops could score objectives. The first event had a lot going against it. Several big 40k tournaments happened that same weekend, along with a major college football game. So out of fairness, I didn’t want to post findings on only an eight-man event. October’s tournament had a much better turn out, with 16 players showing.

For both tournaments, only units classified as Troops score objectives and tabling an opponent did not guarantee a win. Before the event, a number of players asked if they could do Maelstrom deck stacking. We took a vote and it was unanimous, so we did that as well.

The first event saw a lot of Super Heavies, as there were no restrictions on their use. Feedback afterwards suggested that we set a point cap on the Super Heavies; playing against a Revenant is not fun for anyone. So next event we set a limit that 30% of the points could be allocated to Lords of War.

The Good

With only Troops being able to score objectives, we saw a significant change in the types of lists that showed up. Everyone played strategically, which was nice to see. They were not simply sacrificing Troop units. When combined with the deck stacking players were able to tailor to their play style. These elements coupled together made it an event of good close games.

The Bad

The only negative feedback I got was the absence of the Shadow Council of Doom (see below). The rest everyone liked; no meta gaming and no unbeatable lists.

The Take Away

After running these tournaments back-to-back, I’m convinced that the power creep we’ve been seeing can be subsided by changing one simple thing, like only Troops score. True, there were extra rules about tabling, but that helped players approach Warhammer 40K in a new and exciting way. And getting in some good hard fought games that forced you to think strategically can make you a better player.

Next Months Tournament

For next month I will be bringing back the Shadow Council of Doom, as my community calls them. The council is a group of Warhammer 40K players from all over the U.S. that review and rate army lists submitted by players prior to upcoming tournaments. The council discusses the lists and provides a tier score between 1-4.

• Tier 1 is a list that is probably a new player with only limited models and units that are not strong together.
• An example of a Tier 2 list is a traditional three drop pod space marines army with Sternguard backed up with hard-hitting units.
• A Tier 3 list might have a mini star in it with some.
• A Tier 4 list is usually a full-on powerful death star backed by powerful allies or units that further enhance the death star’s effectiveness.

Tier 4 lists we usually reject and ask the player to tone it down.

Players with a lower tier ranking get bonus points to their overall score. So even if a player loses all their games, but they’re a good painter and excellent sport, they are still in the running for Best Overall. We do this to encourage new players to join tournaments and get their feet wet. There are already enough tournaments out there that emphasize a win-at-all-costs mentality. We don’t need one more.