Hey everyone White925 here. This last weekend I attended a 1500 point tournament in Sacramento (Great Escape Games Tournament of Champions series, roughly 60 attendees) and placed 2nd with my Nurgle Chaos Space Marine army. Now my question is: is 1500 points enough points for a tournament?
I will give you reasons on both sides of the argument. I will start by saying yes, 1500 is a viable point level to hold a tournament at. The great thing about having tournaments at low point levels is that you don’t need to much time to finish up rounds which means you can play more games and have an overall winner in a one day RTT. We run 16 man, 4 round tournaments at 1500pts all the time, and the entire day is over and done in 8 hours, no problem. Another great thing is that the armies in the tournament consist of just the bare necessities; no fat left around at that point level. A lot of armies actually excel at lower point levels which makes the playing field a lot more interesting since you play against a lot of armies you usually wouldn’t such as Chaos Space Marines and Tau. The last positive that I can think of would have to be how much easier it is to acquire and paint a smaller army. More people can put a 1500pt army on the table than an 1850pt army, for example.
Now for the down sides to low point levels. I think the main down side would have to be that you have to trim all the fat off of your other tournament lists, which can feel weird. After working to get a list just right at a higher point limit, taking away units can feel like you are giving too much up. Another down side is that some armies do not play very well at low point levels such as Black Templars and Deamons. I also do not like low point levels because I hate not bringing all my little special upgrades that aren’t nessessary but are a lot of fun. At 1500, you really have to bring only the best units you have. The last down side to using lower points is that you really can’t make any mistakes while playing because your army’s numbers are dropped drastically in the point difference which makes every unit very valuable throughout the game.
My overall opinion on 1500 points being the default point level for tournaments would have to be no, I would prefer not to see that happen. I enjoy the higher point games too much to give up units that I always use. Now I would like to get your guys opinions on the topic, 1500 point tournaments yes or no? And why?