Saturday, July 31, 2010

Mental Expansion: An ode to odd tourney rules.



On August 28 the Team will (mostly) be participating in a Rogue Trader in Carbondale, IL. Normally this would not be blog-worthy, but the tournament rules set us back on our collective heels and I thought I'd share my ponderings on the situation at hand.

The abnormal rules are as follows (edited and cleaned up for spelling and grammar):

'Old school' force comp is what the RT turnies used ten years ago. It stated that you had a minimum of 40% troops so at 1750 points you need to spend at least 700 points on selections from the troops section. That includes any transports and upgrades. You cannot spend any more than 25% on HQ, Elite, Fast Attack, OR Heavy support, so you can spend up to 437 in any one of those catigories.
Now, at first reading I was like "Huh?" Then I re-read and re-re-read and finally it clicked. At this point a couple team members opted out due to not having enough models or just plain not wanting to deal with it. And that's fine. I refuse to play Champions for the same reason.

I was about to join them until it hit me that a) I'd be passing up a chance to hang with my bros, b) I'd miss out on much needed play experience before Adepticon MkII, and c) I might just learn something. So I reluctantly stepped outside my little box and started banging away at an army list.

Submitted for your edification, it is thus:

HQ: Marshall with Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield, Crusader Seals

Elite: Sword Brethren Assault Termies- 3 Lightning claws, 2 TH/SH Furious Charge
Heavy: Land Raider Crusader- Extra Armor

Elite: Emperor's Champion w/ Accept Any Challenge

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolt Pistol/CCW x8, Flamer, Pistol and Power Fist
Neophytes- Bolt Pistol/CCW x9

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolt Pistol/CCW x8, Meltagun, Pistol and Power Fist

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolter x3, Plasmagun, Plasma Cannon

Troops: Crusader Squad- Bolter x7, Meltagun, Pistol and Power Fist, Frag Grenades
Transport- Drop Pod
Fast Attack: Land Speeder- Assault Cannon and Heavy Bolter

Heavy Support- Vindicator- Dozer Blade, Extra Armor

Total: 1750

Elites: 12.3%
Fast: 4.6%
Heavy: 22.9%
HQ: 8.3%
Troops: 44 %


It works and it might actually work on the table. Guess we'll know in a few weeks.


9 comments:

chosen1 said...

From top to bottom, here are my thoughts:

As always, the idea of an independant character going on inititative 1 scares me. I love your converted Marshall model, but even with a squad around him he can be singled out in close combat. His sword brethren are nasty but he makes me nervous. I like your large "blob squad" of troops. I would loose the plasmagun on your small crusdader squad and extra armor on your vindicator. Can you take teleport homers on your drop pods? Might be worth it to drop get your speeder in there to help that squad podding in by its onesome. This is not a list to be timid with, so charge the guns no matter how badly you're getting shot to pieces. Focus your lads, you don't have the mobility to fight on too many fronts. If a guy brings lots of templates, "accidentally" tip over the table and then blame it on him.

chaplainaerion said...

I can only take teleport homers as wargear so I'd have to find an independant character to drop with that squad since I don't get sergeants.

I agree the I1 Marshall is risky but so far he's only been killed once. Normally the squad hits so hard and so fast coming out of the Land Raider that they get at least one good squad kill before they start taking damage. The Vow lets me reroll hits AND damage on the lightning claws so that's a nice balance for the marshall. He's mainly there for Leadership and to get more chances to bust vehicles/monstrous creatures. This is my first time rolling without a Chaplain so my comfort zone is back at mile marker 2 somewhere already anyway. As usual I'm not expecting to win so this is more an experiment with new restrictions in an attempt to hone my abilities to play when it counts.

As for pie plates, it's one of those things my codex has no answer for so I'm used to it.

chosen1 said...

No worries. You've got more mileage with him that I do obviously, so I'll just wait for the battel reports. I agree with the vehicle/monstrous creature killing ability...and as I mentioned, he looks awesome and that goes a long way towards his inclusion in our lists. :)

Partho said...

The Crusader can probably deliver the squad unscathed. But check your point values or calculation, you only add up to 92.1%

chaplainaerion said...

Army builder did it. I'm not sure why. I didn't list the Wargear category, but that's only 1.4%. I'll look into it. Thanks.

dean said...

It's not all that much out of the box is it... It's pretty much the same list you beat me with a month ago....

chaplainaerion said...

Not even close. No Chaplain is HUGE (this is the first game EVER without one), as well as no assault flamer cheese. Okay, it's at least one leg out of the box.

Zephyr said...

I'm sorry, but black templars is one of only three codecis that i dont own... so if i get it wrong, feel free to correct me with extreme prejudice

What really do you lose from a chaplain to a marshal? Only things i can imagine is maybe a wound, and your invuln going from 4+ to 5+ (do you have iron halos in that codex? i'm not sure...)
You still get to reroll misses, and your high Ld makes up for fearless, which should be good anyway.

Besides, it's good to not get too stuck on only one bit of the codex! Play the field!

chaplainaerion said...

You're right. With the vow I'm running I don't lose much. It's more a comfort zone thing. The extra WS 5 power weapon with 5 attacks on the charge is nice, but in the big picture the LD 10 saves my bacon more than anything. I'm not really worried. Just slow to adjust ;)