Yesterday was the ninth (!) episode in the Blog Wars saga with a record attendance of 48 players (two players cancelled at late notice due to sickness). With around double the attendance of BW8 it was a real test of my organisational skills. Nevertheless I think the event ran pretty smoothly we started a little later than scheduled since a few players arrived late but generally speaking I thought it went well. Of course, I never really know how it went until I get the feedback from you guys though. As ever, I'll be posting about what I think worked and what didn't at a later date and I want to hear the same from you guys too.I was originally planning on playing but, as you'll read in a later post, I only played in round two. This gave me an opportunity to see how feasible it is to play and run the event at the same time. It's never really been an issue at previous events (okay, perhaps once!) but certainly with this number of players even the one game I played caused the next round to be delayed. This was partly down to my choice of Orks for my army but I still finished my game with 20 mins to spare but the sheer number of results that needed entering meant I still didn't get them done within the time. I think if the event continues to attract these numbers I won't be playing in future.
There were some really strong lists in the mix. This was the first time I've allowed Lords of War (i.e. Super Heavies/Gargantuan Creatures). As I posted about before the event there were around two thirds of the lists that didn't feature any Lords of War at all but even with a relatively low uptake I think they made a big impact. The four lists that featured 3 Imperial Knights all finished within the top 20 but only one of them managed 3 wins out of 3. Speaking of which here's the final results:
As usual these have been added to the results archive. As you can see David Irving and his combination of Tau with 3 Imperial Knights ran away with it. He played Ryan Kemp's Adepta Sororitas in the final round but even with tons of melta Ryan wasn't able to stop the knights. It's worth noting that David wasn't running the Baronial Court but rather the Household Detachment. He was, however, using Gerantius (although not as his Commander SC). I think it was the combination of crisis suits (including Farsight) and 3 IKs that proved unstoppable. Without any prompting from me David himself told me he never wanted to run 3 knights again as it wasn't much fun for him (never mind his opponents). I'd still like to congratulate David, Daniel and Ryan though!
For me at least, I think allowing up to three Knights in a list was a mistake. I don't think they'd be ridiculous at a normal competitive event but Blog Wars isn't like other tournaments. Some of the filthy lists that you see at other events could probably deal with the knights (and some are probably designed for that very purpose). Those kind of lists just don't appear at Blog Wars though. However, like everything I do at Blog Wars I'm not going to make a change like that without hearing from you. I got some verbal feedback on the day but I'd love to hear what you think.
I'll be covering the painting competition(s) in subsequent posts but I thought I should mention the raffle. The winners were:
- Matthew Tennant (Promethium Relay Pipes)
- Tom Capper (Promethium Relay Pipes)
- Lee Ridgway (Skitarii Codex)
- Nick Thrower (Imperial Knights Codex)
- Luke Capper (Assassinorum: Execution Force)
- Daniel Clarke (Grassy Plains F.A.T. mat)
- Robert Nathan (Imperial Knight)
Remember, entry into the raffle is included in the ticket and all of the prizes were worth more than the entry fee. I think we know who the real winners were then!
Conclusion
I had my concerns that I'd sold too many tickets and the atmosphere wouldn't be the same but generally speaking I think it was still as good as ever. There was a decent mix of about 2:1 veterans and first timers which I think helped.
I was again amazed at the standard of the painting competition and, of course, I'll cover that in more detail later. The extra prize for Best Conversions worked to an extent but I'll go over that in depth in the discussion post.
As I've already said, I really want your feedback on the event and on the "Imperial Knight issue" in particular. Do you think 3 is too many? Was it the formations that were the problem? Was it simply a case of rock/paper/scissors? Do you think Lords of War should be banned completely? Whatever your opinion on anything, I genuinely want to hear it. Help me make the next Blog Wars even better!
Speaking of which, the next one is on Saturday November 7th. Hopefully see you all there!
Great day, three pleasant opponents. I took a single CAD necrons list (the white ones).
ReplyDeleteI felt it was well organised and I really didn't notice any delays. The atmosphere was calm and friendly throughout with a really nice crowd.
I liked all three missions, the maelstrom was a slog for me but my fault for taking a very slow list.
I didn't face any superheavies down in the mid tables. But I don't need to stand in the canal to know that it will be cold and wet, in the same way I suspect that I don't need to play three knights to know that i would rather stand in the canal.
I did find the scoring a bit weird. I don't attend to be competitive except with my own mates. I won all three games and ended up behind my mates who only won one each. I know there isn't a perfect system but that seemed off. This would never stop me coming back.
Overall an excellent day and I can't wait till the November Blog Wars. Many thanks for your efforts putting it on.
I can answer your question on the scoring, your scores are out of a possible 33 for each game. So the blood points you kill in the first game will be worked out against the possible score of 1950 (100 point bonus for killing the special character) and then converted to a score out of 30... kinda like an odd percentage. Your next two games have a maximum primary score of 30 too. Then each game has 3 secondary points available, for a tournament total of 99.
DeleteNow I think I spotted your results (a necron player mid table with three wins) Now you killed about half of your opponents army in round one, probably got around 17-18 points out of 30 for that. The second game you got 15, the third you got 8. That works out to about 41/42, plus whatever secondarys you got. Now I've no idea who your buddies were, but if they scored maximum points on the first game, zero points on the second, and then narrowly lost a high scoring third (say 28 maelstrom points to 25) with plenty of secondaries scored in each, well they'd be on at least 55 total points before adding in first strikes and slay the warlords... and that's assuming they scored nothing in game two!
Basically, if you score well in the mission, you score well in blog wars. So in the first game if you get tabled as your opponents very last figure kills your very last figure, you'll score better than the guys who castled up and picked off one or two transports of each others armies. Winning or losing is less important than completing aspects of the mission. It's proven contentious in the past when someone came to blog wars to kick face, and was most upset that tabling their opponent didn't give them maximum points in an objective mission, but I quite like the way this event is scored... even if it can throw up the odd curveball. At the end of the day, in a three game event, you need a better way to separate your scores than 3 points for a win 1 for a draw, otherwise you'd probably have a dozen people tied for first place.
I'm going to look again at the scoring as it happens a few times where people win games but don't place higher. I might employ a similar system to what Matt is proposing for fluffageddon where degree of victory matters but a win is still better than a draw/loss.
DeleteThanks for the explanation Ian. Glad someone understands the system. I like that the scoring makes winning less important but it should still count for something.
Hey Alex. Thanks for running a great event. I really enjoyed my day rolling some dice :)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was fortunate that I did not play any lords of war (phew) I am not sure that they fit too well with the friendly blog wars ethos. They are another thing to have to tailor your list to beat, and If you have not then they can become pretty unfun (some of the feedback I heard from other players at the event).
3 knights is way too much. If lords of war are allowed then I think no more than one in a friendly event like yours
I'm reluctant to ban them completely because some people enjoy using them and indeed playing against them. You're right I think three knights are too much but I want to discuss it properly in a separate post before deciding.
DeleteYeah that it fair enough. I thought it unlikely that a full ban would be considered but thought I would mention it.
DeleteI'd agree with nafnaf here, glad(ish) that I didn't face one (my lances weren't having a great day, and haywire blasters seemed to be playing with blindfolds at times too) but I think three is way too many. If I were to suggest a tweak for next time, no more than 1 super heavy and it can't be a named one (like gerantius for example, don't know if there are any others).
ReplyDeleteOverall though I had a blast (especially dropping 4 large blasts on a group of wind riders and dark reapers). Moment of the day was in the second game when Urien rakarth held the central objective against a full squad of warp spiders by about 1/8".
I'd love to come again, sadly November is unlikely but next year should be good!
I think Gerantius will be going but then if it is just one super heavy per list would he be so bad
DeleteAnyway, glad you enjoyed your first Blog Wars and hope to see you again.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex, great event. I really enjoyed myself. Iv been to lots of gw events and a few smaller independent ones and your doing a great job! Keep it up. I think the knights codex and formations are very over powered but as people that played me will know some units in the sisters codex are a little over powered. I think 1 LOW is the way to go. That way the people who enjoy taking them can still take one and have fun with it whilst people like me who like to make lists with out them have a chance when them come up vs one. I played a low every game, which was fine but knights with 2 up / 3 up invons hitting on 2's is disturbing:D see you next time!
Ryan
Ryan I'm looking into the 2++/3++ and BS5 thing. I'll be emailing you later about it in fact. Glad you enjoyed yourself though.
DeleteJust a quick message to say a massive thanks to Alex for organising a day of fun for us all!
ReplyDeleteI will post my thoughts (all positive) later, but suffice to say I had a great day with three very enjoyable games, so thanks to my opponents, and a big congratulations to Dave Weston for winning the best painted army prize again. I definitely think that he should continue to be allowed to be eligible (and win!) the competition, as his army is phenomenal.
Cheers,
Graham S.
(Squat Guard)
Thanks Graham, although I swear I am trying to get another army painted, honest it's just I keep painting more nids. Still I think I can break the back of the Dark Angels and perhaps have a fully functioning so long as I ally it with a couple of Knights!!! Which brings me to...
DeleteHi graham, I was your third opponent, had a great game, just wondered if you fancied coming over to our club at some point (Asfordby outside melton).
DeleteAlternatively if your fellow bloggers (claws and fists is it?) fancy we could arrange an inter-club comp?
Hey nick :) we didn't meet but I've been reading your blog a bit- quite a few of us go for Leicester, we could eaisly have a inter club thing if u wanted?
DeleteSounds like a good plan - I've posted something up on my club's forum about it - drop me an email at madwargaming@gmail.com if you want to discuss details, I've had a few thoughts already!
DeleteHi Alex, thanks for running the event, it was really good fun and I really enjoyed my day. I thought I'd provide some feedback, as requested.
ReplyDeleteFirst, food.
Subway is decent. The last Blog Wars I attended with 7 and thought that food was quite nice too, though I heard you had some issues at BW8. So, while I preferred the hot meal that was provided at 7, if they can't manage to cater to you as the event grows, subway is a good solution to the problem. I felt the spread was good and am perfectly happy that I was fed in a satisfactory manner. As an ork player, you'd have known if I wasn't, as there was at least one kid running around I could easily have mistaken for a grot and eaten if I was still hungry. Luckily, this rather awkward situation was avoided.
Missions.
I liked the missions. I felt they had a good variety of challenges, and challenged people to come out of their shell. Competitive tournament lists that rely on castling up and obliterating your opponent off the table for the win will struggle to get maximum points in these missions (well, the latter two anyway) and I like that. One of the things I like about Maelstrom missions is they encourage you to leave your deployment zone and manoeuvre a bit more. Thus I had no complaints on mission three, I play maelstrom regularly at my club and you were far more relaxed than we are - in our place, if you draw scour the skies and I don't have a flier, tough shit you'll just have to ditch that one this turn. Your removing of impossible cards from the deck is a generous move that I think helps avoid people feeling like the deck screwed them. It isn't infallible, you might still get a turn 1 hand of score linebreaker, kill a flyer and score the objective right at the back corner behind all their models, but it does help make that less likely.
Lords of War.
With the list I ran with power klaws galore I am more than happy to face lords of war, and if anything was a little disappointed I only faced off against one in my three games. But then against my army, where the meganobz can put out a ridiculous amount of str9 attacks on the charge, the most dangerous part of facing a three knight list for me is the explosion I cause potentially wiping out the orks that just uppercutted a knight. Other armies however, were not so well equipped to deal with them. I think allowing one super heavy in would be acceptable, as then a simple rule of "one LOW only" would allow people to field a super heavy and keep certain special characters such as Ghazza in the mix... However, if the consensus was that ALL LOW should be removed, I'd accept that. It would be a shame for the special characters that are moving to that part of the codex, but if it prevented people from getting kerb stomped by a titan, I'll take the hit.
TBC
Continued...
DeleteAny Other Suggestions
Yes actually. Having seen Tau ally with knights and Eldar ally with knights and Dark Angels ally with knights and having been on the receiving end of a very brutal game against Sisters/Guard (no complaints against my opponent, his list was just the perfect counter to my own army - my buddy Ken would have loved to have played him with his tyranids, whilst I would have loved to have faced the wraithknight/imperial knight he struggled against) and my aforementioned friend Ken struggled against an Eldar Dark Eldar alliance... I wonder if perhaps rather than banning knights, the answer may be to ban alliances. A list of knights alone will struggle in objective missions, but when they can take some jetbikes to cover their weaknesses, they are a lot stronger. I know allies is the way Games Workshop is taking things, and I can see some fluffy justification for allying the Imperial forces together, they are supposed to be on the same side after all... but some of the alien alliances are rather less likely, it feels like they're allowed so people do not complain of an Imperial bias. All our armies have weaknesses, and in competitive tournaments absolutely use all the tools at your disposal to counter those weaknesses and bring your A-game. But blog wars isn't meant to be like that. Maybe we should embrace our armies, warts and all? Got no anti psyker? Oh well, just hope not to face any psyker lists, or in my case just run at their psyker and punch him in the face cos that's what orks do to all things that confuse them.
Anyway, just thought i'd throw that idea out there, I was discussing it on the journey home and it seemed like an interesting idea.
hope the feedback helps Alex, and once again, thanks for running a great event.
Interesting idea, could work I think.
DeleteI agree with your assessment too, if you don't have anti psyker, find some way of dealing. In my case it was a crap ton of missiles and poison shots into the farmers face 😜
Woah that's a big comment. Let me try to respond to it all.
DeleteFood.
I was really let down by them at BW8. The in-venue kitchen has now closed though and apparently Element will take over soon. In the meantime I thought subway worked well. Hot food is great but for people like Dave Weston who play til the bitter end and then have to set up for the painting comp it might be cold anyway. They can also cater for dietary requirements better. I'm happy to stick with Subway.
Missions.
Glad you enjoyed maelstrom. I'm probably going to keep things the same for BW10. Need to justify making all those cards! I had thought about bringing back Control Freak in place of Emperor's Relic as it's getting a bit tired now.
Lords of War.
I'm posting soon about this. Would love to hear what you think of my proposals.
Allies.
I've thought about it before. A friend of ours, Rob McDougall ran an event called Faction down in London that only allowed a single rules source. The idea intrigued me but I think it's a step too far in comp for now.
Alex, once again it was a great day and your efforts are very much appreciated by myself and the rest of the guys - Liam, Pete and Ben. I think this was perhaps the best Blog Wars so far, I enjoyed every single game. My only issue is still how tight it is to fit all the games into the 2.5 hours but once again if I will bring a horde army it's my own fault I suppose. And, as 1850ish points seems to be THE points standard now the Hive must adapt, or maybe the Emperor should intervene.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Knights, I for one have only ever faced one before and never felt I was capable of removing it from the board. My opinion was to not even bother with them, ignore them completely. And my first game, killl points no less, was Dave Halfpenny with three and you know what? For an army that has no answer to the knight problem I though I did alright. OK Dave did over twice as much damage to me than I did to him but I did manage to kill one knight outright, sure it took 14 genestealers with it when they tore it apart but y'know sacrifices needed to be made. AND, I put two Hull Points apiece on the other two knights. If I'd been a little more fortunate and Dave had failed some ion shield saves I could have got the half points from each,
What I'm saying is I feared one knight, let alone three but personally I'd be happy to go against them again just to see if I could do better. Maybe three is too much, perhaps two as a max butafter the last few games where I felt my nids just had no positives this was a good result even under difficult circumstances. I lost but the end result does not represent the whole story.
Anyway, fingers crossed for November.
Hi Dave, I really enjoyed our battle- and it could have gone either way if my rolling was anything like my last game!
DeleteHi Alex.
ReplyDeleteIt was my first blog wars and I enjoyed it very much. Food was good as were award and price options.
I would agree with above statements regarding knights and only allow one super heavy or none as 3 knights are better for overly competitive tournaments. I specify super heavies as I think character LoW should be allowed regardless.
I look forward to the next blog wars either way as I had a fun day (admittingly the prize win did make it more sweet haha).
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteThanks for another amazing tournament, I had a lot of fun in 2 out of 3 of my games, and even though in the first round Sam had little to no chance of killing a knight with his demons it was still a great game.
I was happy with Subway for lunch, as the hot options in the past have been a bit dodgy and very slow – the only problem I had was the filth cucumbers on them, but that’s just my issue!
I felt the missions played really well, it’s the first time I’d ever played a maelstrom mission, but it was so much fun! Even with my knights I managed to play a close competitive game with Frank’s Grey Knights and it was very tactical. I’d be more than happy to keep that mission in in the future, and thought the deck worked fine and wasn’t unbalanced. Emperor’s relic and the bloodpoints mission, as always, were fine too.
My only issue is with the order of the games. I know killing each other first is easier to understand early in the morning, but for me it always screws me over! I don’t think there are any lists that would be able to score 30vp in Objectives and Maelstrom that would fail miserably at killing, but I think some lists are much better at this first mission. As you’ll see from every one of my blog wars results I do much better in Bloodpoints, as I don’t play very often it’s the one where I know what im doing!. This shoots me up the table, to be destroyed mission 2!.
I’d quite like this to be changed, if we played relic first, then maelstrom and ended the day with Boodpoints I think the pairings might be more balanced over all. As the more competitive lists that can do well in all three missions will be sifted towards the top earlier. This time around I ended up playing the winner of the tournament in round two! I think that could have been avoided with a change in running order.
With regards to LOW, I brought 3 knights so obviously I’m happy with bringing them :D I think a lot of people who complain about them, simply just didn’t consider them when building lists. And it’s the same with anything, if you don’t plan you will fail. For example if you build a list really low on Ap/high strength weapons and come up against any mech list you’ll really struggle, never mind knights. I agree that the formations are perhaps overpowered at this event, and agree that non-imperial allies is probably a bad idea. I’d hate you the ban them next time, as I think they’re a lot of fun to play with/against if you have the right mind-set.
Having been in a similar boat for scoring well in Blood Points (second placed after round one, dropped about 20 places for round two after being tabled and scoring nothing, not even a secondary) I have to say I disagree...
DeleteIt looks like 9 armies got max points on the first game, 11 on the second, none on the third. So I think keeping maelstrom till last is fantastic - It's the one where you'll struggle to get max points, and hell you might even lose, but if you score a lot of points while losing you could still do better than someone who ignores the objectives and just tables their opponent.
With so many people getting max points from game 1 and 2 I suppose they could go either way round and if you are one of the people who claim max points, well you're in amongst a substantial number. Not like you're automatically against the favourite. But as you said, just kill each other is far easier to process early in the morning, and with such a hell for leather mission being all about removing models from the table, well it's the perfect game to play before the lunchtime best army judging - chances are more of your army is back on it's tray after that game than after an objective mission.
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteJonathan Lyness here, just in the office at the minute, I had a great time at Blogwars 9 (much better than I initially expected) and this was very much in relation to my great opponents!
I had some amazing games at the event and I am more than happy to attend, just hoping to make sure I get the time off from work (the joys of having to work abroad at the drop of a hat).
The day was great and I have some great memories of the day:
Game 1 - The Benny Hill Show featuring Warp Spiders, Deathwing Knights and Black Knights
Game 2 - The Rocky Double Knock-Out - Arjac rockfist and my techmarine both killing each other on the final rolls
Game 3 - Vulkan He'Stan forgetting he wasn't eternal warrior and taking a smite mode smash to the face from the deathwing knights before they got bogged down in combat.
Really happy that my purple Sammael got some votes for the painting as I enjoy painting more often than playing, especially with the amazing models that were also at the event! The Tyranids were amazing, loved the blimps, Farsight was amazing and those tau objective markers were definitely the best conversion I seen on the day!
I can't really pass judgement on the restriction of IK's as I didnt face any on the day (though any more than one and I would have been unable to deal with them with my list). I think a vote on their restriction is the best way to go, though I would always be hesitant to restrict what someone wants to play especially if they can come up with a valid fluff reason. I think named LOW's should not be removed as they are less of a game breaker in my opinion.
All in all, a great day met some amazing people, saw amazing models and definitely looking forward to the next blogwars!
PS. And Tess, I seen you came ahead of me in the end, so a friendly rivalry is now born! :P
Hi Alex – awesome event yet again! Lost every game, but had a blast doing it and despite my stupidly expensive and overkilly LoW, I think my opponents had fun playing me.
ReplyDeleteMissions were great and I really enjoyed Maelstrom (my first time playing it) and I think the pre-made BW mission cards really helped.
My thoughts on LoW – obviously I brought one, but ignoring Knights, were they particularly overpowered? I think my Lord of Skulls and a Baneblade were the bottom of the lists, so I would guess not – not sure how the others did though. Either way, mine was fun to play with, but made my army useless tactically, so I’ll be leaving it at home next time – although would have no problem if people were allowed to bring them next time (probably just one would work best I think).
On to Knights – to sum it up, I just don’t think they are fun to play against. One is alright and most armies should be able to deal with it. Two is tricky, but if you have a decent amount of shooty you can manage it. Three or more and in general I think you need a dedicated list to counter it and some armies don’t even have that option – which IMO makes them at odds with the ethos of Blog Wars. And that is when you are just looking at basic Knights – when you start adding in named Knight characters (which we all thought you said wasn’t allowed) and formations to boost them – as well as rules being played wrong or manipulated (which I heard of anecdotally from a number of players and it probably ruined their games) I think they just don’t work.
I think an overall restriction of 1 LoW would work and hopefully solve the issue. I expect you’d have moaning Knight players but you can’t please everyone (despite me moaning to you about Forgeworld units every tournament, I realise they are restricted for the same reasons).
Painting comps were great – Dave absolutely deserved a win again and letting players self-moderate if they don’t want to vote for an army or character that has previously won is their own prerogative. I really liked the conversion comp but maybe it would be helpful to have had a field on the painting slip to indicate which model(s) you are entering and what the conversion is. For example, I thought Liam’s was stunning, but I didn’t really focus on that one model because of the effort he put in to all of his army and I didn’t know what conversion work he’d actually done on the model.
Overall - great day and already thinking about BW10!
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteFirst ever Blogwars and first tournament full stop. I had a great day (despite losing all three games) and would love to come again. Despite not doing too well score wise, I think I gave each opponent a decent game and something to think about with the brand new, not yet proven Skitarii.
With regards to LoW, I think limiting is fine, but banning seems a little harsh to me. Characters like Dante, while decent are not infallible and tend to be expensive anyway forcing people to make the choice. Clearly running three IKs has done some people some favours. Having only run a single Knight and having it destroyed in 2/3 games anyway, I cannot honestly say it gave me an unfair advantage, any more than running a Land Raider would. For a fragile force like Skitarii, adding a Knight seems like a good way to add a bit of heavy clout and a single knight will always draw alot of fire anyway. I could run other things with them, granted. I'd like to see a restriction of maybe 1 IK per force. Also you could consider special ally conditions for them (battle brothers only) to stop people doubling up really hard hitters.
Either way, great day, well organised, great opponents. Looking forward to BW10!
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeletethis was my first blog wars and I had an absolute blast. Three very tense and exciting games against some great opponents.
I was also fortunate enough not to play a superheavy, though I don't think I would have had much fun if I did.
The food was great, I didn't really notice any delays to the day and managed to get at least 5 turns played in all my games. The staff were great, you never seemed to be without a drink for long as they were always around and checking.
Got lots of great photos and notes to write up as battle reports in the future.
Hopefully I can make it to the next one.
Mike (White Scars).
HI Alex,
ReplyDeleteFirstly thank you for all your work and effort on putting on the biggest BW ever- I was hoping that somebody would have stood up to thank you as a group at the end- and for you to get the round of applause you deserved.
I really enjoyed the 3 games, and hopefully my opponent the same- 3 knights is a frightening prospect, however my last game verses Peter’s Necron’s I was well and truly smashed losing 2 knights by turn 2 with Gauss fire. Is there an answer to the question over allowing knights and/or formations- I’m not sure. I think there will always be 2 camps with this one, the for’s and against- with both having good reason to have/have not them in BW. It’s a tough call.
I think with the major aspect of Blog Wars involves having at lease on special characters, I think all special characters, HQ and LoW ones should be classified as a separate unit on top of normal FOC/CAD, like the BW9 I could have had Calgar in a primary force as a HQ, and a knight, whereas if I had gone with Grey Knights Dragio would have been an LoW. This makes no sense as Calgar and Dragio are in game terms the same.
I thought the food was great- no problems here- and the table service was excellent. Great venue also!
I enjoyed all 3 games, it was the first time I had played Maelstorm- I enjoyed the concept, but literally my force was on its last legs by T3- so was very tricky to make the objectives by that stage.
I understand there has been a few comments over certain lists, I’ll email you about it rather than post on here which would be unfair.
Thanks again- and I hope I can make it to BW10! (hopefully it won’t be call Knight(less) fighting..
Hi,
DeletePeter here,
I must say I faced 6 knights (3 in game 2 and 3 in game 3) I didnt really find much a struggle ripping hull points off of them with massed gauss fire. Did especially well against your three Dave although Lord Daverus proved to be hardier than his fellows (Kirk and Calgar).
I can see why people would struggle against 3 of them myself as it requires a lot of thought and well built lists to take them on. Necrons are a kind of hard counter to Knights as even the basic troops can drop hull points off of them. I think it boils down to Necrons also being able to take all of the punishment coming there way from the knights. After turn 2 where I somehow dropped 2 knights on the same turn I feel I had the strategy the take them on - present threats to all sides and shoot until it dies.
Overall I think the Knights werent too much of an issue for me personally but I can see where the issue is - plus the baron formation makes them a little harder to take head on.
Alex I will email you regarding some of my other thoughts but it was a fantastic event and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge presented by my three opponents who were all just as brilliant.
Woah! That's a lot of comments for the first day. I've just been responding to a couple of emails about the event and I'm now going to watch GoT before going to bed. I'll respond to all these comments tomorrow at some point so bear with me.
ReplyDeleteHey alex, so sad I couldnt come to blog wars, I've been wanting to since I started following your blog, if only travel wasnt an issue! Hopefully I'll be able to make the one later this year, or BW11 for sure if not.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex
ReplyDeleteFirstly I want to say how much I enjoyed the event last Saturday, I had 3 really close games (in fact losing in the closes game of round 1) and 3 really grate opponents. The whole 3 knight things seemed to course a lot of upset (especially for my friend Ryan in round 3) but I was lucky enough not to face them. I'm hoping by the next event you work something out to nurf them or the codex's become good enough to deal with them over time.
Anyway I'm looking forward to attending an event of yours again in the future and hope they keep improving.
Hi Alex well done for organising such a great event everyone seemed to have a great time. The food was good too. The games i played where ok maybe I should have brought my stompa and I would have enjoyed my games more. I like Dave found it hard to finish the games 2 and 3 in time but like dave said its my own fault for bringing a horde of necrons along. I have used my necrons in both the blogwars I've attended so maybe its time for a change? Im not sure Ive fallen out of love with the necron decurion its painfully durable and whilst my opponents will no doubt say they had a good time Im really not sure they did at least they all bleated alot about its durability.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Knights to be honest I was disappointed I didn't play any and I was unfortunate to play 3 marine armies 2 of which where almost replica lists. I was pleased for both Liam and Dave and of course never entered my own army as I know they paint far better than I can ever dream of, but I will try and enter the painting comp in November if I attend.
In conclusion brill day Alex and the missions all work well you do a great job of trying to ward off the cheesy lists well done.
Hello Alex :)
ReplyDeleteAs ever, a great event. I played three great ppl (jacob, mj and mike) and all three of my games went down to the wire.
I didn't have to face a LOW of any flavour, so whilst I don't have first hand thoughts I would be in the 1 per player camp. My army could prolly have dealt with 2 Knights if I'd played my cards right, but it would have been the rock to my scissors. I think there is only a certain amount you can accommodate for them, as with say having anti-horde, anti-meq etc. but I do agree with others that perhaps 1 super heavy is a better way of comping it, I'm not sure I'd be so bothered by Logan or ghazghukl (and they are special chars after all!)
I'm also all for Dave winning the painting comps again and again and forever. If he was winning 1st place every time then the challenge would be to beat him as a player. I'd want to suggest that it's the challenge for us as painters to step up.
I was actually really happy with subway. I don't know how easy it was for you, but it seemed blindingly simple from my end. Especially as a veggie.
I think the missions are in the right order (not trying to argue honest!) because I'm always aware that to be in with a chance I need to beat the best there.i think that being able to table your opponent is tactically different to then adjusting to playing for objectives more and more. I like the balance, even thou I think a reversal of mission order might help me out.
Anyways. Thank you again for an excellent experience. Really glad to be a part of something like blog wars.
Luke
Hi Alex
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for what was a very well ran tournament. I didn't even notice the late start time and everything from a food/missions/location was spot on. We will deffo be going to the next one :)
The only thing I would comment from an organisational point of view is that I would have liked to have a separate official as a referee. Not that there was any problem with your ref'ing when i called for rulings but you seemed very busy and I was reluctant to distract you. having an on hand official that anyone could ask for rulings would have been much better.
The hot topic of conversation seems to be lords of war and knights. I don't think lords of war should be banned, I played my first knight in the first game and didn't have a problem with it. I don't think id have liked to play three though.
I think the problem lies in having an excessive amount of a powerful unit as opposed to the unit itself. On a related note both myself and my friend Dave played the 2nd place tyrannid player Daniel and, despite him being one of the nicest players i met all day, both Dave and I had the same feeling when we played him; when he put his army on the table in our respective games we both already knew we'd lost (a feeling I think this tournament was trying to avoid). I think the problem comes back to having an excessive amount of the same powerful unit (in this case 3 hive tyrants and a total of 5 flying monstrous creatures). I know multiple monstrous creatures is what tyrannids do but i think this was excessive.
I'd try and avoid banning units such as knights all together but I think limiting the number on things such as knights will avoid people going up against lists that are unmanageable
Thanks again, we all had a great day and I hope we'l be able to attend the next one
Sam
There are a lot of lists that seem to rely on extremes, tyranid flying monstrous creatures are one of those lists, but so is an all biker list or a green tide list for example, but they don't seem to get the grief that the flyrant lists do, when in essence it's the same concept. Just out of interest did you take any flyers or AA?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex
ReplyDeleteThanks for great event, was first time and hope to come again.
Think Sam cover my opinion of comp best ,didn't face Knights but don't think would enjoy playing 3 and tbh tried my best to have a laugh and enjoy my game against Daniels Nids but I didn't feel like I was in the game at all, I know that one of the Knight playing said it was our responsibility to balance our army to deal with these threats but not many can have anti flyers , anti tank, anti marine and be able to deal with hordes, armies with always have something they will struggle against but saying that it can be over the top which is what I feel 3 Knight and 5 flying monster is.
On different note food was great , didn't notice any problems with time and I have no problem with Dave winning painting, the rest of us have to give him a challenge and do better.
Cheers again
Dave
I was trying to reply to all of these individually but I'm still at it a few days later. I'm now making notes and writing a post to address the feedback people have given!
ReplyDelete