International Teams Tournament
Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a good break over the new year. I am pleased to report that I am now largely settled in and up and running in the new place, and so as I discussed in my last Blog, some semblance of a schedule should start to appear.
Last weekend I went to the International Teams Tournament In Coventry, this represents my first time competing in the Teams format of 40k, which I am now considering to be the best way to play. Myself, Ashley, Nathan, (Other) Nathan, and Brendan are the motley crew that makes up DeadRedGaming: Resevoir Pandas, with my placed quite dubiously in the Captain Role. One of 5 teams from our Club.
The Dream Team (Outfit Coordination optional)
For those of you not familiar with the format, Teams 40k is not 5 people playing one massive game against 5 others. Instead it is more akin to Teams Chess, where you play 5 seperate games and aggregate the standardised scores at the end to evaluate who is the victor.
There is a pairings process (and requesite Spreadsheet Phase) that the captains of each team go through to draft who is playing who for the individual games, but I wont bore you all with that…. Much, fundamentally you want to engineer your team to have good match ups whilst your opponent has not good games. This is assisted by using a matrix, where you evaluate how your army does against each other faction in the game. Long story short: More green is good, More red is bad.
A Full matrix for all the factions into each other.
Before we get into the action, lets discuss the lists.
I was on Ynnari, with a strong leaning into killing elite stuff and vehicles especially, 15 Haywire Scourges, 10 Wraithguard, and 3 Nightspinners is sufficient to lock down and batter any list that doesn’t have the chaff or speed to play the keep away game.
Ashley was on a fairly typical Canoptek Court build, 15 Wraiths and all the friends.
Nathan 1 took “The Walking Dread” approach with his Ironstorm Marines.
Nathan 2 on a very interesting CSM list, with bikers and obliterators being the key units.
Brendan was our chief sandbag, a role which him and his sisters are able to slow down the opponents big bads well enough to stop them scoring big.
We felt this team was well rounded and definitely capable of going into a large portion of the field with confidence.
Rather than a full breakdown of each game I played, I will instead briefly detail each of the matches that we played. With Scores being reported DRG:Opponent
Teams scores are aggregated based upon score differential in the game, where each 5 points in the game scores increments the overall result out of 20 possible points. I.e. 0-5pt difference is a 10:10, 6-10pt difference yields 11:9 to the victor etc. etc.
Round 1: Carnage 2
Our First round opponents were Carnage 2, with a strong roster comprising:
World Eaters, Necrons, Adeptus Mechanicus, Astra Militarum, and Orks.
For this we got nearly our ideal pairings as our matrix was well suited into their roster:
Marines : Necrons - Nate had a good start to the game however, a few mistakes and underestimations of the output allowed Brett to swing the lategame scoring in his favour. Necrons win. 5:15
Necrons : Guard - Our most unfavourable match up given the Guards ability to consistency deal damage without line of site and from out of combat, Ashley reported through the round that the game was trending for another 5-15 meaning that we would need some big results from our other matches. However he was able to claw a few points back and tighten the scoring gap, Guard win 8:12.
Aeldari : World Eaters - Whilst not a favourite match up for me, given the lack of vehicles in the list I felt confident at least that my list would be able to efficiently deal with the tough 3 Wound models of the Eightbound. despite a rocky start from my damage output I was able to push for a more aggressive game and bring home a strong result. Aeldari Win 14:6
Sisters : Orks - Originally one of our draw predictions, this match up was a run at each other and start punching and hope for the best, however Brendan was able to push the score and capitalise on Adams lacklustre Waagh turn to bring home a strong result. Sisters Win 14:6
CSM : AdMech - Our final match, and one we were very confident in was Nathan taking on an interesting Ad Mech list, that enabled us to start the round of strong with an early max score. CSM win 20:0
Overall we were able to take the round reasonably comfortably 61:39
Round 2: Glasshammer
When the pairings came out over lunch it was with some excitement and trepidation we sat down to figure out our matrix into a Strong Glasshammer team, with a number of International Players and Team England Hopefulls. However we felt a strong start with our pairings and the games went as follows:
Aeldari : Black Templars - I knew from the off that this pairing was not good for me, I had been forced into it by a conservative draft, Ed had a very body heavy list that I simply would not be able to kill through, paired with Purge the foe and going second, I was on the back foot from the off. Ed played a very good game and took home a good result for his team. BT Win 3:17
Necrons : Aeldari - Fortunately Ashley was able to do to their Eldar player what Ed had done to me, after an early decision to push he was able to pile on the pressure and secure a dominant boardstate that translated to a very good score. Necrons Win 18:2
CSM : Necrons - Nathan took a bullet with this pairing, a tough mission for his match up and the instruction to just hold it as close as he could. This he did very well, however bottom of turn scoring tipped it away from him at the end. Necrons win 7:13
Sisters : Votann - Brendan took his sisters against the space dwarfs in what was another tough match up, again with the instruction to hold it as close as he could, however again the bottom of turn scoring just tipped it away at the end. Votann Win 7:13
Marines : CSM - Nate was our hammer for this round, paired into a skewed Chaos list I told him to push hard for the scoring and spike it as high as he could, through an epic slog he was able to report back with the phenomenal result. Marines win 14:6
Unfortunately, whilst the tournament classed our final result as a loss, BCP reported it as a draw which would come to impact us in later rounds. However the team put in a huge shift against this Goliath team to hold the final result as close as it was. Glasshammer Win 49:51.
Round 3: Carnage
As I mentioned, the fact that the tournament software considered our round 2 to have been a draw meant that we were able to pair up into a higher win bracket, and into Carnage (The 1st team from our first round opponent). As the other major team in Midlands region, we are no strangers to eachother and enjoy a friendly rivalry, and know that none of their players are to be underestimated.
However, from the back of our long game against Glasshammer and the short break time between rounds meant that I was not able to pair as well as we could have given a bit more time to prepare.
Necrons : Tau - Ashley initially felt confident in this match up as he had the speed and early game pressure to get in and amongst the Tau in order to disrupt their game, however on turn 1 when he lost 15 of his wraiths due to a lack of making a save he felt a lot less confident of this match. He was able to tenaciously dig himself out of the hole and claw back to a more than respectable final score. Tau win 7:13
Marines : Aeldari - One of the more eggregious errors in my pairing performance I ended up placing our vehicle heavy marine list into one of the strongest anti tank factions in the game, however Nate once again showing his skill as a player was able to take an early lead and use it to slow the final score down. Aeldari win 9:11
Aeldari : CSM - It was always going to be an uphill battle, my anti elite eldar list into the anti eldar horde CSM list on take and hold. I was quickly able to create a fantastic boardstate early game that was set to limit the scoring and bring a decent result. However based on feedback from how the other games were going I felt I needed to push for a big win to keep us in the round, this left me overextended and Craig was able to bring the game around. CSM win 9:11
Sisters : Marines - Brendan had one of those games that we all have had, the dice just didnt go his way, and his opponent was a very skilled player that was able to capitalise on the opportunities that this created, enabling him to quickly shut the sisters out of the game and keep them out. Marines win. 0:20
CSM : Sisters - perhaps the most surprising result of the round, and unfortunately the one I have the least detail on, however Scott is one of the top sisters players in the country and definitely leveraged that experience to control the game tempo into Nathan and recover from a behind position to finish strong for his team. Sisters win 4:16
In the end Carnage were able to convincingly take the round, with the benefit of hindsight its clear that pairings could have gone better had I had a bit more time to prepare, all the games were tough but a lot of fun across the board. Any single game could easily have been a final round at a GT - especially off the back of our round 2, well done to our opponents, who would go on to finish very well in the event. Carnage win: 29:71
One of the best things of this event was the chance to go for a Team meal and enjoy some relaxation as a group before day 2.
Round 4: 6++ Legion
Another day, another high tier team, chocked with very experienced and some international players, we arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed with a game plan that largely revolved around drafting mostly draws and one or two favourable wins. This went largely to plan, however I failed to get us any sort of terrain priority meaning that some of our favourable matches headed into the draw territory.
Aeldari : Tau - Initially I was over the moon when they picked this matchup for their Tau, as my list would be able to stage and control the board very well, however I lost the roll off and so we were to play on the light terrain, giving me much less cover and places to stage. This instantly took this from a Big win to a small win, and paired with going first gave my opponent bottom of turn scoring. He was able to use this and some very good tactical play to play keep away from my big guns and spike scoring at the right time to just take the win. In my favourite game of the weekend, Tau win 9:11.
Sisters : Votann - following his strong performance on the Saturday we were confident that Brendan would be able to hold this game close into what they might have assumed was a favourable match up. It also took one of the dread lists biggest predators off the field with the removal of the grav thunderkyn. as with day 1, the sisters hunkered down and brought home the points. Sisters Draw 10:10
Marines : Grey Knights - This pairing was to do one thing, and boy did it do it - The dreads were able to lock out objectives from the Grey Knights 3” deepstrike and the Grey knights were able to score solid secondary scores in return. Thus it was no surprise when the result was shared across the tables. Marines draw 10:10.
Necrons : World Eaters - An emotional rollercoaster of a game, at varying points I got word that it was going to be an 0:20, a 15:5 and a 0:20 again. However as is quickly becomming a theme, Ashley was able to fight himself out of a corner, Necrons draw 10:10
CSM : Space Marines - Nathan was the final game to be paired and the one we wanted the most, Blood angels into CSM normally can be a bit touch and go, however Nathan was able to deftly manage and control the flow to neuter the melee threat from the death company and ride that wave through to the end of the game. CSM win 19:1
A much more intentional pairing philosphy and game plan really showed through here, favouring consistency than glory and big swings we took the round. DRG Win 57:43
Round 5: Warwickshire Warhawks
The final round saw me and Ashley see some familiar faces - having both played one their players each, we knew this round would be no slouch but also a great way to round off the event. At this point we were playing in the 2-1-1 Bracket.
Necrons : Necrons - We defended first with our Necrons, and they laid down the challenge with the Necron mirror match, this also gave Ashley the chance to go for round 2 with their player have clashed in the UKTC before. Coincidentally this also helped clear some of the problematic matches from our matrix. Ashely unfortunately couldnt repeat the previous result into Jude. Necrons Win 7:13
CSM:Aeldari - They defended first with their Aeldari, and unlike them I wanted no part of the mirror match up, owing to my distinct lack of Yncarne. For this then I laid out CSM and Sisters, both of which would have been a dull match for the Aeldari to deal with. They chose CSM to help improve the matrix and accepted the lack of a smash. CSM Draw 10:10
Sisters : Tau - Following our freshly established method of pairing for draws we defended with Sisters as this had our Matrix as being able to guarantee at least a draw regardless of which attackers they layed out. However, Brendan apparently decided he wasnt satisfied with just meeting the establish goal, he decided to end the event with a bang and push the sisters to their limit. Sisters win 18-2.
Marines : Guard - This then left guard as their final defender, to which we presented Eldar and Marines, they selected to take the dreadlist, perhaps assuming that we would have chosen Chaos Knights for the sisters match to push Tau into Eldar for the final pair. Playing on the table next to this match up all I heard all game was laughing from both players as the dice decided to follow no known law of statistics, with the comment of “perhaps my funnest game of 40k ever” from his opponent Nate both scored well and gave his opponent a blast whilst doing so. Marines win 15:5
Aeldari : Chaos Knights, This left the reject pile - myself and Ben. Who have developed a habit of pairing into eachother in the final round of UKTC events, going into this I was 0-1-1 against him, and this latest captain vs captain showdown was exactly what I was hoping for, not least because my list had been hunting for a knights list all weekend. All the stars aligned and I was able to make short order of his list, despite Bens best efforts my choice of units ultimately proved too stron. Aeldari win 20:0.
A very solid last round saw us take the win in convincing fashion, ultimately finishing 3-1-1, which became 3-2 in the tournament ranking format. I am super happy with this result and very proud of the lads for the shift they put in against a strong field for our first excursion into the Teams format.
Round off
Given how long that write up was, I will spare you all a hobby update (msotly because I dont have any good photos of my Bretoniann knights).Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Come back next week to hear how I got on at the midweek RTT I have on Wednesday and my grand reveal of a suspiciously grumpy bone coloured terminator…
