Tuesday, December 9, 2008

What constitutes "obvious concessions" in army lists?

In Australia, there is a long tradition in Games Workshop run tournaments to give a generous number of tournament points to so-called "soft" areas that are not related to battle outcomes; perhaps up to one third or even a higher fraction of all tournament points given out. That means things like painting, force composition and sportsmanship can directly contribute to determining the winner of a tournament. This system results in an environment that is both good fun & friendly, but remains competitive for those players that want it.

Take the example of the force composition category in GT2008. For maximum points in this category, players were encouraged to field miniatures that looked good or were well painted, rather than being game-beating. Additionally, players were encouraged to give "obvious concessions" in their force compositions. Clearly, those players taking three land raiders missed out on the majority of the points here.

But curiosity asks the question: what would readers consider to be "obvious concessions"? Here's some knee-jerk reactionary (and not very thought-through) thoughts that I had about the two kinds of army that I regularly field.

(a) Chaos Space Marines.
Chaos Spawn. They can look very cool, but: have no saving throw, have a random number of attacks, and are a slow & purposeful, mindless fast attack choice. They're fun to watch on the field, but they don't last very long!
Maybe Possessed Chaos Marines? They also look great but the random special ability that they get at the start of the game can be poorly timed.

(b) Daemons.
Furies of chaos. They're jump infantry that aren't as good as assault marines or raptors despite the comparable cost.
A pure Nurgle army lacking Epidemius.

What about other armies? I'd like to hear what other readers think constitutes "obvious concessions" in force compositions.

5 comments:

Matt said...

HMMMM a concession army. Well it would die fast but as a vanilla marine one that would look really cool and would be fun to use although it would get wasted by a power gamer is....An all socut army...I know craziness but here it is.
Telion HQ
6 scout sqauds TROOPS
2xsniper 1 ML in each
2xbolter 1 HB in each
2xpistol/cc weapon
3 Scout bike squads with nade' launchers. FAST ATTACK
then although its not scout its a light weight tank
3 razorbacks
and some fire support
2xWhirlwinds Heayv support
probably would be short some points you could squeeze in some speeders or maybe a dread. It would get originality points for sure. However I see it getting wasted quickly

jabberjabber said...

Hi Matt, A 100% scout army sounds like a great concept! :) Thanks very much for sharing it -- it isn't something I would have thought of, nor is it anything I've ever encountered. Good stuff!

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

Interesting question...
I try and build lists that I would mind playing against. If I look at a list and think to myself that I wouldn't want to face off against that in a friendly game then I usually don't go with that build.

That would be my "concession."

Even though I don't play in tournaments, I don't agree with the idea of padding someone's soft score just to be nice. I would expect them to earn the points they get in those categories.

Gamers World said...

@ Matt: Sorry Telion isn't a HQ he is just an upgrade for a scout squad. I love the idea though and it's a great concept of facing storm troopers with better weapons. The worst of the best. (marines are the best).

Matt said...

Gamers-Yeah i know Telion isn't an HQ , but being a concession style army I figured use him that way, just ask up front if your opponent minds him being your hq. This makes for the whole point of the "niceness" if he says no then OH WELL!!!! eat some termies. HEHE.

As for the list yeah I have been thinking about it for awhile since I have a ton of scouts. I may play it next week.

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