Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: How To Have a Great Tournament
Goatboy here and today I want to discuss how to go to an event with a realistic plan to have great 40K tournament.
Now, of course not everyone has the same sort of thoughts as I do. I enjoy having a good time with my army, playing my opponents, and just soaking up the event itself. I put more value on those activities than on winning every match. In fact – winning every match can be one of the more frustrating things. Remember that as you continue to move up the ladder, games get harder, and you end up questioning your choices more.
Build The List You Want to Play
First of all the game is won a lot of the time when you build your list. We know this because if you have the best tools you should have the best chance to win the game right? At the very least you have the options to do well bar some truly horrendous dice/decision making. I don’t think games are won by the list alone – but it does help a lot. If you play a bunch of underperforming models it can feel like throwing wet noodles at your enemy. You can realistically expect to lose a lot of games with those types of lists
Align Your Expectations With Your List Honestly
Why am I talking about this? Well, when you go to an event you have to decide on your list and you will have to decide how far you want to push that list. If you decide to come to an event with a subpar list that is fun for you then don’t expect to win every game. I say this as a lot of the time I see players get upset at their dice when in reality their army probably wasn’t the best choice to win the whole thing. This should be totally fine and one of the reasons why I really like how events moved to best “army” faction awards. These help incentivize those players to try something that isn’t just a top 8 full of the same list.
Someone down there is just gonna get lucky all day.
Someone Will Just Get Lucky
So when you build your list be truthful in thinking how many games you could win with it – facing the best of the best. There are always those players – especially in big events – that seem to dodge all the bad matchups. In a large enough 40K tournament, someone will get into or near the top 8 with a list the majority think is kinda bad. It is just the nature of a big event with a ton of players. Not everyone is willing to bandwagon jump from army-to-army to always have the best gun in a knife fight.
Set a Win-Loss Ratio You Can Realistically Achieve
I normally try to win as many games as I lose as that is the normal “measure” for Goatboy doing cool Goatboy things. It is easier to come away feeling like you did alright especially when I prefer to play armies that fit my aesthetic versus armies that are deemed “too good”. Plus – I prefer to play things I painted meaning it needs to be something I want to paint versus whatever is the hottest thing on the table top.
Emotionally Prepare for a Great Tournament
Next time you get yourself ready for an event in a few weeks think about how you want to spend your time. If you bring an amazing list that somehow doesn’t win will that bother you too much? Will it get you too mad at your dice? Will it make you salty when you end up not winning the whole thing? If that list is the cause of these kinds of feelings, then you might want to look at something else. Maybe something that is more fun to play with, against, and looks great? Or go for winning in style and try to pick something that you can win best-of and feel like a great 40k tournament.
It’s YOUR game – have fun on your terms!
