Tournement Army- Whats the best?

[Steellegioncpt]

Ok ok ok, Im sure most of you have your army, some designed to crush and get a win quick, and some for the purpose of good old fun.

It is in my opinion that 99.0943422% of all tournement armies are Space Marines or Chaos Marines. I guess, cause I was one of two tau players in a tournement at Adepticon 06. And I was one of three people with a Imperial Guard army at another tournement, I did well....

I mostly play Armoured Company Battlegroup found in the Imperial Vol. 1 its really good however the legality is fickle. So Im trying to change armies and get one main tournement army. I was thinking the Elysians Hardened Vets found in Vol 3 but again since its an Imperial Armoury army its still sometimes not allowed.

SO whats your guy's opinion?

[MarkedByChaos]

this was a hard one for me, I play many different armies so I had to go with the one I would use next time. I have played most often with Death Guard and World Eaters, but branching out was a real goal of mine after about a year of playing so I play alot of different armies now.

you should play the Hardened Veterans, or some varient there of. even if you just go mostly generic, I am sure you will have fun and scare people with 'em. the neat thing about playing ternys is that most everyone does play SM or CSM so you can rely on your choices being productive, where as all those SM and CSM players are not going to be building to beat IG.

[Steellegioncpt]

Yea I wanted to Start up the Elysians D-88 they are found in Imp Vol 4 a ton of cool rules, the biggest being Hardened Vet Squads can be troop choices.

[Inquisitor Rosenadel]

I would have to go with Chaos Space Marines, myself. There are just so many options! They are tough like normal Marines, don't have ATSKNF, but have higher leadership, and they can be upgraded to be as specialized as a swiss army knife, or just plain and lots of them (relatively speaking). Plus World Eaters, Death Guard, Emperor's Children, and Thousand Sons all make more options avaliable.

That said, I do think that ANY army could be made to suit a tournament. I just think Chaos Space Marines have the most options avaliable.

However, since lots of tournies do have lots of SM and CSM players, the "decent all around" strategy doesn't work as well. So, I think, as long as more people keep going with Marines, going with another army might even be better.

I think I would play Tau. The idea of shooting the piss out of anything on the board appeals to me... and they can be hella deadly if you use them right. I mean, so can any army, but HELLA deadly, and they don't even have to touch your models...

[Ikarus]

Hmm this may be a tough choice. First I must question the Tyranids hah. But as far as others, its a tough tough choice. Most Imperials have great accesss to many things that makes them ready for any force given, and CSM is just an all around beast in itself. so its pretty much split opinion, and no real defined answer. Though I hand it to the Emperor's Space Marines

[Steellegioncpt]

Well I think people are just making more and more pure anti space marine armies for tournements (that includes CSMs). you know like lots of power weapons, missile launchers. A perfect combination for Imperial Guard. TON O ANTI MARINE. Anyone say Leman Russ ?

[Inquisitor Rosenadel]

Originally Posted by Steellegioncpt

Well I think people are just making more and more pure anti space marine armies for tournements (that includes CSMs). you know like lots of power weapons, missile launchers. A perfect combination for Imperial Guard. TON O ANTI MARINE. Anyone say Leman Russ ?

I can say it! "Lee-mann Ruh-ss!"
I would assume they are. I would look on the GW website and look at all the Grand Tournament winners and see what army comes up the most.

[Torquemada Coteaz]

well, next year's canada games day will be my first actual GW sanctioned tournie, and im planning to use either my templars or my drop pod SM army (which uses my templars models, but my BT already have modified chapter symbols and icons and stuff, and are actually a successor chapter. fluff up hopefully soon.)

[Steellegioncpt]

Ah geeze, well good luck at Gamesday Tournements. Theres a lot of Aceholes, if you know what I mean. There are people that will be such asses they might as well just shake your hand before the game and say "I won, do you still want to play?" Thos damn rule benders. Anyways, I've seen a lot of drop pod amies and one of my friends had a drop pod army in a GT last year in Chicago, he did well. SO goodluck.

[Ikarus]

Heh just looking at the votes, everyone is on split ends on armies. Everyone is voting for themselves. I say we should discuss why we think each army is worthy to be even voted. In fact, I want to argue with those who voted NECRONS And ORKS haha.

Necrons - Resilient, not power gaming, and limited units.
Orks- Need a new update, and they are pretty bleh right now.

[Torquemada Coteaz]

I like fluff/models over powergaming and definite win.
for me, best display and best sportsmanship is where its at, overall best winner is a bonus.

and i know what you mean by "aceholes", they lose a lot of sportsmanship points from me. though playing droppod armies lose me some as well (and for those aholes, possibly the subsequent "shove-your-200+-point-chaos-spikey-land-raider-up-the-backside" after a game :P)

[Steellegioncpt]

Originally Posted by Torquemada Coteaz

I like fluff/models over powergaming and definite win.
for me, best display and best sportsmanship is where its at, overall best winner is a bonus.

and i know what you mean by "aceholes", they lose a lot of sportsmanship points from me. though playing droppod armies lose me some as well (and for those aholes, possibly the subsequent "shove-your-200+-point-chaos-spikey-land-raider-up-the-backside" after a game :P)

Oh yea tell me about it, I go for the fluff/style more then anything, however its getting frustrating so... I may turn to the dark side (but never be an acehole).

[Torquemada Coteaz]

yeah. Well my tournie army choice is 1) models 2) fluff 3)game style
theres no "win" in there anywhere.
P.s. gotta love Iron Warriors cheeseheads... i mean that spikey dread/defiler/pred/landraider has to go SOMEWHERE when he's walkin home right?

[experiment 626]

well, personally i feel for 'out-right power and ability to crush anything' the best army is still craftworld eldar. yes the new codex has nerfed alot of the supposed 'better' options, but it's also given the less used options a much better deal! (bladestorm anyone?!) you also have to shudder slightly at the mention of the words, 'autarch', 'reper launcher' and 'jetbike'!
a well thought-out eldar army will also be able to wipe the floor with the more 'one-trick-poney' armies such as the min/maxed iron warriors & las/plas marine armies...


still, for myself my drop troops and their not-so-nice boss inquisitor odion are my #1 tournament choice!
they're a fun and highly adaptable army and they never fail to surprise an opponent! i heartily enjoy hearing the dismayed cries of, "oh my god! it's raining guardsmen!!!"
the other deciding factor? dice HATE! me... with a passion!!! i never even think of entertaining the thought of winning 'best general' or such
if i can give my opponent a run for their money and still have a game that tells a great story, then for me that's victory enough!

cheers!

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

gods only know why, but i posted tyranids. bear with me, my explanation may just make sense in a moment...

most armies you see in tornies (as im sure you all agree) are power armour (marine, chaos, necron, sisters) which makes mid-strength low ap weapons great agianst them (the reaper exarchs' tempest launcher being a perfect example! yikes i hate that thing). so my reasoning is use an army that doesnt have much power armour, but is quite good against it. first thing i though of was nids.

with most armies filling up on anti-marine weapons, i take it a good nid army with god balance of big gribblies and mass hordes will be quite good. Cant really say though, because you never see enugh nid armies at tournaments.

well, i never said my choice would make real sense

[rintinglen]

We are Many, They are few.

The last tournament I went to, I played my steel legion army and did pretty well, shellacking an overconfident Iron Warriors army (Battle Cannon=Ap3, Plasma Cannon=Ap2)whose deep striking obliterators learned why plasma cannons rock when stuck on tanks. I fought a Space marine army to a draw, (Damn those assault cannons), and had a narrow win over a tyranid army (Carnifex + Leman russ=no more leman russ).
However I think that the army to beat is the Tau. Those grey skinned xenos got the sun, moon and stars when their latest codex came out. I don't know who is play testing these new codices, but the ability to split fire in squads and the ability of their tanks to move over 6 inches and fire completely changed the dynamics of the game. Simply put, they get lots of penetrating hits with their strength 10 ap1 rail cannons and you can't get any on them.
Meanwhile, their Fire Warrior squad leader shoots a marker light at a tank while the rest of the squad shoots up an opposing troop squad (for a measly 5points). Coupled with the rest of their already good advantages (jet packs, str 5 basic weapons, generally low points cost, and all that marker light cheese), they have become lethal. In fact, the joke around the club where I play is that is no longer called 40K, but Warhammer"Tau Wins.

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

ha! I think everything you mentioned about tau is from the old codex, not the update! though yes, they are good, though, similarly to eldar, they rely on combos and cannot get bogged down in protracted firefights. battlesuits are reatively tough, but catch them in the open and theyre toast

[Torquemada Coteaz]

Haha, more like Warhammer 40k Pulse-shots.
I've seen (non deathwing) SM drop armies dish hell on tau with mass bolter and whatnot.
Berzerkers, CC troops and Orbital Bombs are always bad news for them too.

Every army has it's highs and lows, and can be catered to win easily, but then can be defeated by other specialised armies.

[DeAd_cOmMaNdO]

thats the thing with specialised armies - you pile up on one end of the spectrum youll be great against some armies but *excrement* agianst others.

the thing wit hbalanced armies is theyre pure jack of all trades - dabbles in all, amsters of none. theyll do relatively well against most armies but wil lexcell at none, i think.

which is great - its always better having a choice of what kind of army to make over none

[experiment 626]

i find a good tournament army is one that tries to include a bit of everything; good solid fire-power, one or two units who can tip the balance in an assault *and* a good deal of mobility!
the main problem my drop troops run into is the mobility factor; once down, they're reduced to only 6"/turn movement... (that and all my inquisition units, while very characterfull, are a total waste of pts! well, maybe not my asssassin...)

the other main factor in tournament play is the guy who wins is usually the guy who can keep focused on the mission objective!
in the hallowed words of the venerable jervis johnson, "before you pull out a single model from your case, READ THE MISSION OBJECTIVES CAREFULLY!!! at the start of turn 3, step back from the table and read the mission objectives over AGAIN!!!"
so many people get so carried away with simply killing their opponent and then seem surprised when they learn they've only earned a draw, or worse yet, they've lost because the other guy is holding the prize!!!

cheers!

[infiniti]

i use my space marine army for all battles they are quite balanced buti think that when i can i will use imperial guard for tornemants as i will nearly always out number the enemy as there is usualy ether sm or csm its actualy quite boring as you usually dont get to fight any thing but sm and csm

[carson]

My personal opinion is that the best army you could run in a tourny is the one that you like & enjoy playing the most. You say you're already an IG player, and that you want to field the D-88 guys. Thus you should do it.

As far as the FW stuff(rules) not always being allowed? You should take this into account. Purchase just enough "extra" stuff so that, when needed, you can field your Elysians as standard/doctrine units straight out of the codex.

[historis]

I haven't played any tourneys, but if I ever do, I'll most likely play my Guard. I have a godawfully large master list, and I can always give my opponent at least a run for his money. (My last game was 3000pts cleanse against Dark Eldar and Necrons; I lost most of my heavy armor and all of my poor stormies [about 1250 pts], but left not a single enemy model on the table