Hopefully there won't be many people looking like this there...
Ok so the Caledonian Uprising is rapidly approaching. It’s next weekend in fact.
The event is primarily a selection tool and fundraiser for the Scottish ETC team but more importantly for us jolly English types it’s a great excuse to go to another tournament and move some toys around.
There will be a great number of top quality players there and it will be extremely difficult to do well at the event. Lets look at the army breakdown for the event:
Grey Knights 19
Space Wolves 14
Imperial Guard 12
Necrons 11
Blood Angels 10
Space Marines 8
Dark Eldar 7
Dark Angels 6
Eldar 5
Tau 5
Chaos Space Marines 4
Tyranids 4
Black Templars 3
Orks 3
Chaos Daemons 2
Nuns with Guns 1!!
So perhaps not overly surprising that Grey Knights are very well represented. They are a strong codex and generally have an answer to most things out there. I think there will be a few Paladin lists although whilst they give a tough game i’m not convinced they are the optimum use of the GK codex.
As would be expected there are also plenty of wolves and guard. 4th on the list is Necrons. A new codex that many people (including myself!) are still trying to work out. They are very good with 2 solar pulses and i would expect them to give the guard armies a very tough time.
Other points of note are Neil taking Daemons, 1 of 2 players out of the 115, who i’m sure will surprise a few people with a tough army build and Chuckie (James Ramsey) who is the only person braving sisters. Having played them i can assure you that they won’t be a walk in the park.
What am i taking?
Space Wolves of course. Unfortunately i originally submitted a Bjorn led list but have now changed to a Logan led list because i’m desperate to beat fellow CSM’er Gary Marsh (according to him anyway!) so i’m on a -10 points penalty which will probably affect my final position quite a lot. But i’m taking the longer view and looking at it as 6 more practice games with Logan. The full list is:
HQ1: Logan Grimnar [275]
HQ2: Rune Priest: Runic Armour, Seeker of the Slain, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf, Wolf Tail Talisman [135]
TROOPS 1: Wolf Guard Pack: 5 Wolf Guard: Terminator Armour, Terminator Power Fist; Cyclone Missile Launcher [145]
TROOPS 2: Grey Hunter Pack: 7 Grey Hunters, Wolf Standard, Melta Gun [120] + TRANSPORT 1
TROOPS 3: Grey Hunter Pack: 7 Grey Hunters, Wolf Standard, Melta Gun [120] + TRANSPORT 2
TROOPS 4: Wolf Guard Pack: 10 Wolf Guard: 2 Terminator Armour, 2 Terminator Chain Fist; 2 Cyclone Missile Launcher; 3 Combi Melta; 3 Power Fist [375] + TRANSPORT 3
ELITE 1: Lone Wolf: Terminator Armour; Chain Fist; Storm Shield [85]
ELITE 2: Lone Wolf: Terminator Armour; Chain Fist; Storm Shield [85]
ELITE 3: Wolf Scout Pack: melta gun [85]
HEAVY SUPPORT 1: Long Fang Pack: 5 Long Fangs + 1 Squad Leader, 4 Missile Launchers, Las Cannon [155]
HEAVY SUPPORT 2: Long Fang Pack: 5 Long Fangs + 1 Squad Leader, 4 Missile Launchers, Las Cannon [155]
TRANSPORT 1: Rhino: Dozer Blade [40]
TRANSPORT 2: Rhino: Dozer Blade [40]
TRANSPORT 3: Drop Pod [35]
There are a few side bets floating around but i won’t go into details yet…!
See you there!
Cold Steel Mercenaries 
Nice list Alex, hopefully I may end up getting paired up with you at some point over the weekend.
I must say I’m very surprised to hear you stating, “There will be a great number of top quality players there”. Looking at the competitors list I’m more inclined to thinking, There’s a few top quality players, along with alot of “jump on the band wagon with a point and click WAAC list” players that will make it extremely difficult to do well.
However personally for me this event (and probably all those I go to) is much more about the social aspect and having some fun games as opposed to just going to win (although it’s always a
bonus).
I suspect I’m just getting older, but it does seem that the majority of Uber competitive players the scene has fostered over the last couple of years firmly reside in the 18-25 bracket.
Well Blood for the Blood God, and see you all on Saturday.
Hiya,
I agree there will be a fair few of those players as well but i think if one is good enough then those players can be beaten. Agree about the age bracket for the players who take it the most seriously, for most people the will to win to the exlcusion of all else drops of a bit after then.
I’ll look out for you in the draw, whats your name btw?
Or should i just look for a pairing with the Guv! š
Elementary dear Westie, the clue is in the name itself (and if you still can’t work it out just ask Mitch).
Well i’m assuming its not Paul Ince…!
So i’m torn between Ian Miller and Rob Cullen. Given the khornate reference i’m going to go with Rob? š
Hee Hee!
Hi Alex,
I knew you’d get there, although I’m unsure on your Paul Ince reference.
Rob.
Paul Ince was reportedly sold from Man Utd because he got to big for his boots, calling himself the Guvnor in the changing room š
Thanks for that nugget of football trivia.
The term of reference for me is definitely not Paul Ince/football related.
I’m sure with a little thought you can deduce my reasoning, but if not I can enlighten you at the weekend.
Got to admit I am finding the ‘top end’ of 40k very stale of late. I pretty much only play H/WM here in York and have become used to all the variety of lists and the fact that pretty much anything can win. Compared to when you get on the top tables of 40k it has just become a case of ‘oh you have that army…. right this is how the game will go.’ At least that is what I feel like after not having played a none tournament game of 40k in over a year!!! Hence why I am cranking out, or at least failing to, a bike army for the next bunch of tournaments I am entered into (there is a clue to what I am taking next weekend in there…..). Hopefully playing with a less ‘traditional’ list will shake up the game play for me, and if I loose more games than usual so be it, maybe I will end up avoiding the ‘standard top end’ builds and again playing something different.
I’ve got to paint 3 Typhoons and 4 Melta Gun bikes on Thursday evening for Caledonia (read base coat and a wash for now). The rest of the army is getting loaned from Matt Robertson (it is pink – Fennel would be proud!). Then ‘all’ I have to paint for the Invitational is 3 Sergeants and 5 Scouts. Oh and I will only have a Thursday evening to do that in as well……..
…. maybe when I graduate I’ll be able to find the time paint armies for myself properly…..
….. though I am likely to be signing up for 3 odd years more Uni in Sweden :-S
I think we can all feel a bit that way at times and unfortunately in my 35 years of gaming experience all rules will eventually feel a bit like this, especially at the top end of the game. Before I go on I should say that ALL systems do get stale and predictable at the top levels. The more the players the quicker this happens as the ‘filtering’ system for army lists is so much more rigorous and rapid.
So if all rules end up like this then what can we players do to liven things up?
Neil has done exactly the right thing. Throwing the ‘odd’, err, ‘odd’ army into the mix can really mess up the list building meta for those players at the top. Chris’s use of Tau recently has made players reconsider and I get the impression that horde Orks are a potential threat as well. the more players experiment instead of playing safe the more the situation will change and, except for the top players who play to win, we all like change!
Finally, the situation Neil describes is only visible in the top tables. From table ten down the list and army variety is amazingly diverse. The lists would not be considered very good by top table players but they do deliver a variety of games that perhaps is missing from the top and thereby keep the game interesting.
One idea might be to force top players to play less good players by using a handicap system. This would mean that lists that are good in the top tables would meet varied lists and would not be able to plan for lists they may expect to meet. Throwing this out there, how would that work? My initial view is random draws after the first two games which are swiss chess. After that the handicap being the difference in percentage terms of placings after the previous game. This needs work, but I think it would be fun to do and would prevent the normal situation of the same 20 players playing each other at the top tables all the time.
Surely spreading the knowledge by playing different players is good for the community and if it makes players less sure of their army’s, and the games less predictable that is a good thing, right?….right?
Any statisticians or mathematicians who can develop a handicap system based on the above are welcome to post. If it looks good i will use it.
No idea if it would work, or how the hell you would be able to manage this at a large event, but maybe a simple handicap would be to have, say, half the games as random draw. Then you compare the previous scores of the 2 players, dividing the difference by 5 or 10 (not sure which)(rounding fractions up and down appropriately) and then apply that bonus/malus to the final game score according to who had the lowest/highest scores going into the round?
Oh sorry and after those 3/4 rounds like this just revert back to Swiss for the last few rounds.
To be fair taking different armies or ones that are viewed as less than top drawer is still fun. I still use my Emperor’s Children as they are my favourite list. Cutting edge, killer net list they aren’t but they still put a smile on my face when I kick someone around the table. Also being asked what noise marines do still never fails to amaze me. But are they effective … well last time they were out in anger at a tournament I came 2nd so yes much to the disgust of the 40% Grey Knight lists that turned up!
Steve
Nice one Steve, I’m pretty certain your placing will certainly have upset a few Mathshammer army builders.
I still can’t understand how some of the current “Top” players don’t seem to realise taking a point and click army requires very little skill. There are a few of these “Top” players who can take numerous different lists and still do well but not many.
Until more of these players start to stretch themselves then I think there will continue to be a strong degree of stagnation.