Monday, September 26, 2016

Tournament of Losers

After a few months of planning, scheduling, and rescheduling.  My gaming group got together for our 'Best of the Worst' tournament.

The rules were simple.  Make the worst 1000 point list you can.  We would randomize our lists each round, and you would try to win as many games as you could with various terrible lists.  

The conditions for the list were as follows:
The list could be more than 1000 points, but not less. (so you can't screw over your opponent by not taking any models)
You must actually have the models represented. (Can't run mutilators unless you own them.)
No formations.  (Keep things simple)

Everyone printed out a Battlescribe roster and we spent 5-10 minutes before each round going over rules with the person that would be using our list.

Round 1:

I played with Drew's Astra Militarium list.  It included:
A command squad with every upgrade imaginable, flamer, grenade launcher, and a sniper rifle.
Two squads of veterans with flamers and mortars.
Sentinels with a giant pile of upgrades and a heavy flamer, lascannon, and autocannon.
Ogryns

I played against Sean who had a Chaos Space Marine list:
Chaos Lord: Tzeentch, plasma pistol, Scrolls of Magnus, icor blood, gift of mutation
Librarian: Slaanesh, plasma pistol, dimensional key, icor blood, gift of mutation.
Two squads of cultists: Mark of Nurgle, autoguns
Possessed:  Mark of khorne, gift of mutation
Predator: Twin linked lascannon, destroyer blades, warpflame gargoyles, daemonic possession.

We rolled The Relic with vanguard strike and I went first.

Ogryns defiantly holding the relic!

We both ended up just pushing for the center with everything we had.  On turn two Sean had 4 units set to charge my ogryns, but only one squad of cultists were able to make it in.  Because of that consolidation I was able to pick up the relic first.  Eventually the ogryns were killed by the possessed, but not before I killed the majority of the chaos army.  (Ripper guns turned out to be very effective)  I ended up killing everything except for the predator and we called the game there.

This was a fun game.  I could have easily lost if he had made any more of his attempted charges in turn two.


Round 2: 

I squared off against Drew, who also won his first round.  This time I played with the chaos list from the previous round, and Drew played with a Death Korps of Krieg list.

Command squad with some crazy expensive character and a lot of plasma guns
3 units of rough riders with no upgrades
2 units of veterans


We rolled Purge the Alien with vanguard strike and Drew went first.

Do NOT let those horses through!


I used one squad of cultists to screen my possessed while the predator, two HQ's, and the other cultists pushed his weak flank.  We figured out pretty quickly that the predator with destroyer blades and warpflame gargoyles was much more suited to taking out infantry.  It just chased down every squad that it could, and even though it killed numerous guardsmen and rough riders, none of them ran away.  On the other hand one squad of rough riders was seriously intimidated by cultist shooting and decided to run away on turn 1.  They eventually regrouped, but not before they were way out of position.  One squad of rough riders did take out my librarian, but then died pretty quickly afterwards.  Once the rough riders had used up their first charges there wasn't much they could do to stop the possessed.  My possessed champion did end up turning into a daemon prince, but on the last turn of the game it didn't make much difference.


This was an incredibly fun format, if you are willing to swap armies with some friends, I would strongly recommend it.  My renegades had the only transport (a valkyrie) that day, and it ended up being one of the most effective units.  My renegades also had the least effective unit; a BS 2 vanquisher leman russ with a lascannon.  In two games it killed a total of two rough riders and a guardsman.


PS I know things have gotten a bit quiet around here, but I wanted to wait until things were more solidified before making an announcement.  I have been doing some guest writing for Frontline Gaming as well as my FLGS TableTop Game and Hobby.  Keep an eye out both of these places for more articles and I will throw a link in when I write something new.


7 comments:

  1. This seems like a honor system tourney. How does it work to play games to win while building crap lists? If the players are incentivized to win then they have no incentive to actually build a crap list. they would simply need to look like their list is crap but in reality is decent enough to win. Especially if they can take more points than the opponent. I dunno, seems fun but sketchy.

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    1. We didn't play with the list we made. Before each round, we randomized who would use each list. You want to make a crappy list because there is a chance that you are going to be playing against the list you made.

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    2. They have done this before, I believe the person with the voted worst list also wins.

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  2. I still think the Chosen from DV would be one of the best-worst units in the game! Put a bunch of 40pt + MEQs out there with Powerfists and watch them get eviscerated as they try to footslog across the field with their powerfists.

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    1. Thats what people thought about Ogryns and Possessed, and they ended up kicking ass. It simply wasn't enough to pick over-costed units. The units that were truly terrible were the ones that were not suited to any roll. Chosen with powerfists and heavy weapons forces you to make one of the two completely ineffective.

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    2. I definitely don't think I would have gone with Possessed. They get a lot of flak - but they're far from useless. They're actually pretty strong in close combat, they just aren't the most efficient choices against a good list. But against a bad list with poor armour saves/CC-capability they could do well.

      Chosen just have so much "potential" because you can bloat their points so quickly. Give them a terrible mix of pfists and heavy weapons and throw stuff like Mark of Slaanesh on top of it and you can very easily put almost half your list into just that one squad...

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  3. Dude. I would love to do something like this. I've got so much stuff that I've picked up because I loved the Models even tho they suck in the Game. Old One Eye, Pyrovores, Raveners, and Hormagaunts, here's your chance to shine!

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