You've taken the plunge. You've signed up for Warhammer 40k tournament, perhaps for the first time! This is the perfect opportunity to show off the beautifully painted army you've spent hours assembling and painting to other like minded gamers (hopefully you aren't running a gray legion, don't be that guy). But this isn't just a casual Warhammer Wednesday. Everyone has paid money and are staring down a full day of games with the hopes of running the table and coming out on top. It's exciting and it's fun, but like anything else you need to prepare beforehand if you're hoping to win games.
That's what I'm going to attempt to do in the following article, give you some general advice for constructing a list to allow you to compete in a competitive environment.
The Spectrum of Lists: Fluffy to WAAC
Now don't misunderstand terms here. I not going all the way over on the fluffy side as a list you would bring to casual play or for a narrative campaign. While you can certainly bring these lists to a tournament, you'll likely be handicapping yourself from the get go. If you're trying to place high in a tournament, leave the casual list at home. What I'm really referring to here is a thematic army list with some strong internal mechanics and synergy. This could be an Assault Marine army, an Aspect Host, an Armored Company, or something similar. These are all armies that could accurately depict a force from the background material; but with the addition of some unit combination and stratagems, turns into a highly potent force on the tabletop. Most of the armies you'll encounter at your local RTT will fall along this style. Perhaps there will be some stronger units included in the list that don't match the theme, or there's an extra Imperium character that's just too good to pass up (Bobby G, we're looking at you). So that's one side.
Going over to the other side are the dreaded "WAAC" lists, short for Win at all Costs. These are your spam lists. These lists are min-maxing to squeeze as many of the top units in as possible, probably using cheap troops to open up the Battalion for extra command points. These are "those" lists, you'll see them floating around on the internet, placing high at GTs and Majors, and usually piloted by the top players. Fortunately, allies are mostly gone in 8th Edition so you won't see any of the unholy alliances that 7th allowed but there are still some single factions varieties of spam out there. There's not a set formula on these list, but you know what they are when you read the list or see the army opposite you on the table.
So this is the spectrum that you should expect to see at a tournament. Most lists will be somewhere in the middle with players building around a central, synergistic theme with a couple force multipliers added in. You'll see some spam lists out there for sure, but these are not in the majority for most events.
Know the Meta, Know the Missions
For those that may not know the terminology, the meta is the environment in which your games are played and the players who play in it. In simple terms, the meta is the armies, players, and style of games you can expect to see at an event. For your local RTT, this will most likely consist of your gaming group and the guys/gals that frequent your FLGS. These players are your "enemies" and as Sun Tzu says "know your enemy" and you can achieve victory. This portion of the meta is based around "What can I expect to see across the table?" If it's just your local group, then you should have a pretty good idea of what armies will be making an appearance. This will let you tailor your list a bit more to counter your opponents. As the event starts to get larger and pull in more groups, this gets harder to predict outside of your standard "Top Tier" armies. National and regional meta comes into play at this point. This is where Take All Comer (TAC) Lists can be successful along with your odd anti-meta list that surprises and counters the top builds. Remember that everything, no matter how strong it is, has a hard counter out there.
Every group has its own quirks and styles of play, some even have special comp systems or ban lists. Some follow the ITC system, others NOVA, some play straight out of the rulebook. The important thing here is not which system is being played (although that is relevant), but how that impacts the armies and what in your army benefits the most from the given system. This feeds into knowing and understanding the missions.
So for instance, does the mission packet have a lot of objective missions? Are they end of game objectives or progressive? This difference has a massive impact on how you build your army. Progressive missions tend to require faster units that can bounce around the board as needed, end of game require a more resilient approach to your units. Another good example is Kill Points. With 8th Edition, there are two ways of scoring this: one unit equals one point or a unit is worth its power level. Depending on how prevalent KPs are in the missions, this could have drastic differences in how you build your list. This really bit me hard in the Come the Apocalypse GT as I had ten units of 2 drones each. Each unit was worth 1 point so I was essentially spotting my opponent 10 points. Major mistake in list building on my part. But knowing the missions will go a long way to know what you need to be successful and what will be a hindrance
Know Your Army
We've discussed some external factors that must be considered when prepping for a tournament, but what is the most important factor for success? YOU! That's right, you ultimately have the greatest say over your own success. So here are some ways to prep yourself before the event.
1. Read, read, read. Read your index/codex and know what your army does. You should be able to teach your army rules to your opponent by the time you get to the table (always offer to explain, but don't do that unless they ask). Know your special rules and how they interact across the army. There's nothing worse than thinking a rule is played one way and then realize you missed an important word that changes the meaning entirely.
2. Practice with your army. It's very rarely a good idea to walk into an event with an army list you've never played before. There are certainly exceptions to this, but for the most part you need to practice beforehand to know where your strengths and weaknesses are. You may build around the alpha strike, but will you be able to maintain your offensive potential into the late game? Throw it on the table and see how it performs. There are a lot of units that look great on paper but fizzle on the tabletop, and there are a lot of units that appear uninspiring on paper but are all-stars on the table. Again, you don't want to find out day of the tournament that your 400 point linchpin of the army folds to a stiff breeze and a mean look.
3. Watch/read Battle Reports. Not only are batreps entertaining but they can provide you with great ideas for tactics and combos to get maximum utility out your units. They also are an easy way to get exposure to different armies that may or may not be a part of your local meta. Frontline Gaming, Miniwargaming, Tabletop Tactics are among some of the best at producing this content.
4. Run What You Enjoy Playing. The current state of the game often seems like "If you're running Army A, then you must run XYZ. If you're running Army B then you must spam unit C." While there's a certain degree of merit to the idea that certain builds are more competitive, this ultimately should not be the determining factor in what you bring. If you don't enjoy Spamming Unit C, then don't do it! At the end of the day, you have to play the army and why would you play with something you don't enjoy? Some of the best lists I've seen run completely counter to traditional thought, but the player put in the time to know the army, get good with it, and win with it on game day.
At the end of the day, the list can only get you so far. The greatest determining factor for your success or failure is ultimately YOU. So do your homework, practice, and put in the time and thought required to hone a skill.
Happy Hunting!
Tau'va
Feel free to drop a comment below. Did this help? Did I miss something? Surely I'm not going crazy? Probably... and don't call me Shirley.
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