Wargames Con is in the home stretch, and we’ve got some great players battling it out for the top spots!
In the end, Pajama Pants beat Darkwynn to win tournament champion. Space curves beat Mike’s Battle Company in a close game to win renaissance man. It was a great event. More details to come later, been busy cleaning up after the event and having post game drinks with friends.
Final Round.
Well, here we go, folks. The final countdown has begun! On the top table is Alan “Pajama Pants” Bajramovic with his Orks and Daemons vs. Nick Rose and his Scouts and Centurions Ultramarines list. On table two, we’ve got Ben “Spacecurves” Mohlie with his Necron death-star vs. Mike McKinney and his Min/Maxed Battle Company with a Culexus and Blood Angels list. Hanging on by the skin of their teeth, we have Thomas “Goatboy” Reidy with his Knights and Space Wolves and Mat Allee with his Endless Swarm Tyranids. One of those genetlment will walk away as the tournament champion!
Day 3
It’s been a smooth running, fun event and everyone’s got a smile on their face, which is awesome. Only 1 drop from day 1 to 2, which is nuts! Usually we see a higher percentage of no-shows on day two.
We’ve got a ton of the top armies present, with Eldar and Imperial Knights all over the place. Necrons are also very popular and, unsurprisingly, the new Space Marines proving to be quite popular. Space Wolves are also still holding strong with many players either playing all Wolves or having some Wolves allied in to their armies, often to get access to the mega powerful Thunderwolf units.
Also, Khorne Daemonkin are present in good numbers, which is awesome! That army has really proven to grab the hearts and minds of tournament 40k players (myself included as that will be my next army after I finish the studio War Convocation army). However, this weekend every time we’ve seen a Daemonkin army run in to the brick wall that is Eldar, they’ve gotten routed fairly quickly. Those Scat Packs are just murderous.
Speaking of Eldar, wow, Jet Bikes everywhere. The most points efficient unit in the game is, unsurprisingly, very popular. Some of the Eldar lists in attendance are just brutal, but, they are not running the tables, which is good. We watched a 5 Knight army get mowed down by Scat Packs though, which was crazy, as the Eldar player Doomed the Knights an then hit side armor with massed strength 6 and cut the Knight army down. Ouch.
Many of the most skilled players here are playing Necrons, and the metallic undead have proven to be quite good, which will come as no surprise to many that have played them. Most lists feature a Deathstar unit of some type, with crazy defense and a Solar Staff to give that near invulnerability for a key turn, often after the unit has jumped into a position to assault.
Tau are also very popular at this event, and there are many a Firebase Cadre to be seen. Funny, that the first formation to come out is still one of the most powerful. The Tau shooting is still quite fierce and we’re seeing them hanging on in the top tables.
We’ve got a few AdMech armies, although none of them are having the greatest showing, probably due to being so new. Drop Skitarii have been having a rough day and a War Convocation list also, is on the bottom end of the spectrum, so far. In time I expect to see these armies topping the results of events as folks master them.
Space Marines are very popular as well, and we have several Battle Companies. I have been keeping an eye on these games are everyone that played them expressed that it felt overwhelming to face so many units, but that they enjoyed the games. Most of the folks asked said the Battle Company didn’t do that much damage, but was excellent at winning missions, which is what most of us expected. None of them made it into the undefeated bracket though (Edit: Mike’s list does feature a Battle Company and is in the undefeated bracket Game 4), as they got bumped out when facing armies with superior kill power or in the kill points mission which proved to trip most of them up. Only Nick Rose and his Scout/Centurion army has made the cut going into day 2 sporting a Space Marine CAD, and Mike Mckinney with his Blood Angels/Space Marine combo.
In the undefeated bracket starting day two, we have:
Nick Rose, Austin, Space Marines Space Marines/Space Marines 3033
William Abilez,Comacho, Eldar/Eldar 3032
Alan Bajramovic, Chicago Kamikaze, Orks/Daemon 3031
Cody Jiru, Jiru, Dark Eldar/Eldar 3028
Mathew Allee, Austin, Tyranids 3026
Mitch Tucker, Chicago Kamikaze, Eldar/Dark Eldar 3024
Thomas Riedy, Austin, Knights/Space Wolves 3024
Ben Mohlie, Austin, Necrons/Necrons 3022
Mike McKinney, Blood Angels/Space Marines 3022
Johny Smiley, GCWA, Tau/Tau 2520
What? Only 3 Eldar in the top brackets? But, but, they’re so broken a monkey can win with them! Or so I’ve been told by Internet forums and comment sections.
Well, to be fair, they are beating up on folks pretty badly and if you count the Dark Eldar with Eldar, they are the most represented army in the undefeted bracket. But, a lot of the most skilled players here are opting to do something different on purpose to prove a point.
Make no mistake, Eldar have the most pure power in the game without a doubt, but, they are not unbeatable. They have quite a vulnerability to reserve units such as pods or outflankers that can pack a big punch. Head to head though, even Crons just melt to them. You have to have a trick up your sleeve to deal with them.
All 3 Deldar players drew tough matches, though, so we’ll see how many make it through to round 5.
More support to Reece here, while I don’t necessarily think *as* highly of Eldar as him, the evaluation of whether an army is “broken” is literally NEVER determined by the top bracket / top players.
It’s determined by how one-sided games are in the mid-brackets and lower portion of the field. As player skill on average reduces, the impact of an army’s “brokenness” or power level comes more and more into play. So if someone makes their way to the top bracket by heavily outplaying various Eldar (Even if it’s harder on them than it would be against non-Eldar opponents), that really doesn’t comment at all on Eldar. But if roughly equivalent players not fully leveraging every possible trick of the rules are playing and Eldar are handily crushing … that says a lot more.
For this reason, tournament results often say very little about the “fun level” of an army. Better to look at # of players who bring X army and how those armies do in an average game of 40k. That players like Nick or Alan or Ben do well is not even marginally a reflection on the armies they chose to bring. If every single top tier player were to bring, say, Sisters of Battle allied to Chaos Space Marines (presuming CTA were allowed for purposes of theory), those watching the results of the tournament would probably jump a “SoB/CSM are broken” bandwagon, just as erroneously.
That all said, Eldar are pretty bonkers. Just not on account of whether they’re winning tournaments or making undefeated brackets.
Excellent point!!
Very much so, the complaints aren’t usually about the kick-all-nuts tournament scenes, but the reality of your local gaming cave. Where OP cheese may be less welcome or ruin your beer-and-pretzels time.
Like WSS, it’s one of those annoying things where you HAVE to have an answer to it built into your army and it defines the meta. Which gets rather old.
A single tournament of 5 games is not a significant data point. The entire ITC season may be good to do research on. There are no armies that are so flat out insane that they can’t lose, so to determine what is broken, you’d have to make a baseline and compare tons of results to it. I did it personally a ways back when the season had about 15 events and found that eldar had more 1st place entries than any other army, but the necrons statistically had the highest average ranking for the highest necron player at any given event.
Stop with your facts and common sense. We eldar players want to point out that we are underpowered and all the hate against us in completely unfounded and the result of fearful fanboys who only think Imperial armies should win just by showing up.
True story, btw 😉
I think the best definition of broken is it immune to counter strategy? Clearly Eldar are not.
Disclaimer: yo they are mad broke if your opponent is genius, but then again you never had a chance lol
Are y’all going to live stream the top table?
No, we didn’t bring the equipment with us.
Also the players that are worst tactically will usually be the ones that will go for full scat pack forces, which makes them a bit more fragile as those players assume the units will win them the game on their cheese-ness alone without the need for strategy.
We can see the army list in internet?
I’m very curious about Nick Rose list and Alan Bajramovic list (orks with daemons!!).
He has the Librarian Conclave, 2 Ironclads in Pods, 40 Scouts, and 2 Grav Cents units in Pods and a Culexus.
Very nice list, i really love it!
Do you have the ork/daemons list? Im really curious.
Maybe some days later we could have a few battle report?
Ty Reecius 😀
I’ll second the request for the Ork/Daemon list!
I’ll third it!
3 Detachments.
Mogrok’s Bossboyz (His Warlord was a Warboss on Bike, Big Mek on Bike, Big Mek with SAG, Big Mek with SAG, Wierdboy rolling on summoning)
Khorne Demonkin decurion-style formation (I think. It included a bloodthirster and a Heldrake)
Demons CAD. (With Fateweaver).
Anyone know what is in Mathew Allee’s Nid list?
He is running a mash-up list with a Dimachaeron, Mawloc, some Fexes and the Endless Swarm formation which has helped him a ton to win missions, however this last round he drew a Scatterspam Eldar army that is eating him up.
Thanks Reece, does he have a trygon in there for the tunnel?
I don’t know, actually. He does also run Swarmy and a Malanthrope, though.
Sounds like a fun list.
Yeah, you need Swarmlord to complement the Endless Swarm to give it Furious Charge or Preferred enemy to push the scales on assaults or hull rear AV10.
I’d be interested to see his full list. I’ve been tossing around the idea of an Endless Swarm list backed up by CAD and Skyblight; 6FMCs, 30 recycling Gargs, and 65 recycling gribblies. Just a pain to move and set up is all 🙂
He did have a Trygon. No Mawloc. Just Trygon.
I watched part of his 3rd round game. I’m pretty sure his list was basically this:
Tyranid CAD:
Swarmlord
Malanthrope
Malanthrope
30 TGants
Tervigon
Dimacharon
Trygon
Endless Swarm:
20 HGants (TS)
20 HGants (TS)
20 HGants (TS)
10 TGants
10 TGants
10 TGants
Very cool, thanks tag.
Really excited to hear the full report about the tournament.
Interesting with the endless swarm. It doesn’t get obsec, correct?
how long are game rounds, and how many turns are people finishing on average?
Soooo, who won?
Orks!
Daemons really, with some Orks in the list.
I’m glad to see variety in the finals tables. It seems a good variety. I’m looking at Battle Company with Drop Culexus or an Endless Swarm list for BAO so nice to see both represented.
Im excited to start seeing DA make these spots soon!!
> Usually we see a higher percentage of no-shows on day two.
Yeah, Texans are like that. Remember the Alamo?
Glad to see half the top 3 tables are Austin locals. Reece, thanks for running the event so we Austin folks can actually get to play!
Surprised at the lack of Ad Mech
I think it is just too new still. Everyone already has Space Marine models, but a whole new faction will take longer to build up.
Where can we find the top bracket players lists. Id love to see that ork/daemon list pretty awesome!
Orks!
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/643385.page
Top necron list here. Haven’t found the others.
Assume orks/demons might have been summoning fatey plus zhardsnark the ripper with bikes as troops?
My hope is for a warpflamed green tide but I think that’s just me.
What was the orks daemons list? Super curious in all things daemons!
Formation: Mogrok’s Bossboyz (6#, 508 pts)
1 Mogrok’s Bossboyz, 0 pts
1 Big Mek Mogrok, 105 pts = (base cost 35 + Warbike 25 + Kombi Weapon with
Skorcha 10 + Power Klaw 25 + Da Finkin’ Kap 10)
1 Warboss, 135 pts = (base cost 60 + Warbike 25 + Power Klaw 25 + Da Lucky
Stikk 25)
1 Big Mek, 99 pts = (base cost 35 + Shokk Attack Gun 50 + Ammo Runt x3 9 + Big
Choppa 5)
1 Big Mek, 99 pts = (base cost 35 + Shokk Attack Gun 50 + Ammo Runt x3 9 + Big
Choppa 5)
1 Weirdboy, 70 pts = (base cost 45 + Upgrade to Pysker (Mastery Level 2) 25)
: Combined Arms Detachment (17#, 769 pts)
1 Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (HQ) [cd], 325 pts = (base cost 275 + DR: Lesser
Rewards x1 10 + DR: Greater Rewards x2 40)
1 Kairos Fateweaver (HQ) [cd], 300 pts
11 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (Troops) [cd], 99 pts = 11 * 9
3 Nurglings (Troops) [cd], 45 pts = 3 * 15
: Allied Detachment (13#, 570 pts)
1 Be’Lakor (HQ) [Chaos], 350 pts
9 Chaos Cultists (Troops) [Chaos], 36 pts = 9 * 4
1 Cultist Champion [Chaos], 14 pts
1 Heldrake (Fast) [Chaos], 170 pts
Yeah, I wanna know what the ork/demon list was 🙂
1850 Pts – Codex: Orks Roster – Alan Bajramovic Wargames Con 1850
Total Roster Cost: 1847
Formation: Mogrok’s Bossboyz (6#, 508 pts)
1 Mogrok’s Bossboyz, 0 pts
1 Big Mek Mogrok, 105 pts = (base cost 35 + Warbike 25 + Kombi Weapon with Skorcha 10 + Power Klaw 25 + Da Finkin’ Kap 10)
1 Warboss, 135 pts = (base cost 60 + Warbike 25 + Power Klaw 25 + Da Lucky Stikk 25)
1 Big Mek, 99 pts = (base cost 35 + Shokk Attack Gun 50 + Ammo Runt x3 9 + Big Choppa 5)
1 Big Mek, 99 pts = (base cost 35 + Shokk Attack Gun 50 + Ammo Runt x3 9 + Big Choppa 5)
1 Weirdboy, 70 pts = (base cost 45 + Upgrade to Pysker (Mastery Level 2) 25)
: Combined Arms Detachment (17#, 769 pts)
1 Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (HQ) [cd], 325 pts = (base cost 275 + DR: Lesser Rewards x1 10 + DR: Greater Rewards x2 40)
1 Kairos Fateweaver (HQ) [cd], 300 pts
11 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (Troops) [cd], 99 pts = 11 * 9
3 Nurglings (Troops) [cd], 45 pts = 3 * 15
: Allied Detachm
aos], 350 pts
9 Chaos Cultists (Troops) [Chaos], 36 pts = 9 * 4
1 Cultist Champion [Chaos], 14 pts
1 Heldrake (Fast) [Chaos], 170 pts
How did he get the Insensate Rage Thirster in a Daemons Detachment? Is that a tournie specific ruling? Doesn’t sound kosher….or halal.
What was the darkeldar/eldar list ?
Dark Eldar CAD
Succubus, Glaive, Haywire, Parasite’s Kiss
x5 Mandrakes
x3 Grotesques, Raider
x3 Grotesques, Raider
x5 Warriors, Venom
x5 Warriors, Venom
x5 Warriors, Venom
Razrowing Jetfighter, Lances, Cannon
Raider, Lance
Eldar Allies
Autarch, Scorpion Chainsword, Fusion Gun, Banshee Mask
x5 Scatter Bikes
x2 Hornets, Pulse Laser
x2 Vaul Batteries, Shadow Weavers
Aspect Formation
x6 Swooping Hawks, Exarch
x6 Fire Dragons, Exarch
X7 warp spiders, exarch, twinlinked spinner
The rules where published in the white dwarf right after the deamonkin launched and its on Army Builder.
He was basically unkillable when you get the right gifts.
Care to comment on the orks portion of the list? What did they bring to the table that you couldn’t get from Daemons or elsewhere (‘Nids possibly?)
Just curious as I’ve trying a lot of different Daemons combos lately.