{"id":2459,"date":"2014-10-20T11:51:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T15:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2015-10-26T13:17:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T17:17:06","slug":"40k-berks-pa-doubles-railyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/10\/40k-berks-pa-doubles-railyard\/","title":{"rendered":"Berks PA Doubles @ Railyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-42\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/kingbreakers-icon.png\" alt=\"kingbreakers-icon\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>Saturday\u00a0the dynamic duos of Colin and Brett and John L and I went out for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/589801611143092\/\">Berks PA 40K Doubles Tournament<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.railyardhobbies.com\/\">Railyard Hobbies<\/a>. First of all, that place is amazing. I haven&#8217;t been to the Railyard before,\u00a0and it blew my mind. \u00a0It&#8217;s ridiculously huge, and the terrain building supplies are all but endless. Definitely a good tournament venue, and\u00a0though a bit out of the way from Center City Philly, potentially worth the trip for terrain materials and tools.<\/p>\n<p>Armies were 1500 points per player, battle forged but\u00a0no other restrictions.\u00a0Both players on a team fielded a warlord. All partners were treated as Allies of Convenience. A single psychic warp charge pool was shared.<\/p>\n<p>Eight teams showed,\u00a0with various Marines, Imperial Guard, Daemons and Chaos Marines, a small Eldar presence,\u00a0Necrons, some Imperial Knights, a couple more\u00a0Knights dropping out of a Thunderhawk, and oh yeah a C&#8217;Tan and his buddies who just happen to also be Knights. Photos are in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/sets\/72157648859188505\/\">Flickr gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2471\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9006.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2471\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2471\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9006-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"For the Emperor.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9006-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9006-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2471\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">For the Emperor.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Armies<\/h2>\n<p>John and I fielded what I feel\u00a0is a well\u00a0balanced and relatively normal army. Originally we were going to\u00a0divide into\u00a0John on\u00a0offense and me on defense. But then we were both busy and didn&#8217;t coordinate at all,\u00a0so we wound up\u00a0with a combined thrust across backfield, midfield, and the\u00a0frontline.<\/p>\n<p>On the Raukaan side:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Epistolary\u00a0w\/ The Gorgon&#8217;s Chain<\/li>\n<li>Ironclad Dreadnought w\/ Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li>Sternguard x5 w\/ 5x Combi-Melta, Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li>Tacticals x10 w\/ Meltagun, Lascannon, Lascannon Razorback<\/li>\n<li>Tacticals x10 w\/ Meltagun,\u00a0Lascannon, Lascannon Razorback<\/li>\n<li>Stormtalon Gunship<\/li>\n<li>Stormtalon Gunship<\/li>\n<li>Centurion Devastators (Grav-Cannons and Grav-Amps, Hurricane Bolters)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the Kingbreakers side:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Captain Angholan<\/em> (Vulkan)<\/li>\n<li><em>Squad Harmon<\/em> (Sternguard x5 w\/ 3x Combi-Melta, Drop Pod)<\/li>\n<li><em>Squad Scolirus<\/em> (Tacticals x10 w\/ Powerfist, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Drop Pod)<\/li>\n<li><em>Squad Harbinger<\/em> (Tacticals x5 w\/ Combi-Melta, Meltagun, Meltabombs, Drop Pod)<\/li>\n<li>Scouts x5 w\/ Sniper Rifles<\/li>\n<li>Devastators w\/ 2x Plasmacannon, 2x Heavy Bolter<\/li>\n<li><em>Knight Errant Greenheart<\/em> (generic melta Knight)<\/li>\n<li><em>Inquisitor Hersch<\/em> (Coteaz)<\/li>\n<li>Imperial Bunker w\/ Void Shield<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The few &#8220;gimmicks&#8221; in there are the Knight, Coteaz, the Void Shield Bunker, and the Librarian\u00a0with The Gorgon&#8217;s Chain hanging out with Centurions hoping\u00a0to cast Invisibility on them. Well, ok, maybe that&#8217;s a couple of gimmicks. \u00a0But it&#8217;s no re-rollable 3++ on a 6 HP model or a world-ending god shard. And it&#8217;s a solidly fluffy, Marines-out-for-a-stroll force composition.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2472\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9026.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2472\" class=\"wp-image-2472 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9026-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_9026\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9026-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9026-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2472\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Come get some!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Round 1<\/h2>\n<p>First up we faced Ethan and Dustin with Imperial Guard and Space Wolves with\u00a0a Knight. Mission was Dawn of War (12&#8243;), five objectives, double value Slay (effectively quadruple if you tagged both opposing warlords), Linebreaker, and bonus points for killing both opposing warlords while losing none of your own.<\/p>\n<p>These guys did a good job deploying, in part through simply having so much to field. We had\u00a0no\u00a0juicy, vulnerable alpha strike targets and wound up taking risky\u00a0drops against the opposing Knight, tucked hard into a corner and surrounded by Guardsmen. One Combat Squad\u00a0went well off\u00a0course but luckily toward our own forces, and bunkered down in ruins on an objective until it had a chance to pop out late-game and help slag a Punisher. The joint\u00a0Sternguard attack put five hull points on the traitor Knight but didn&#8217;t manage to take it down before being summarily blown off the board. A lone surviving veteran\u00a0did tie up the enemy Knight in combat for a turn or two, though this mostly just protected it\u00a0from our lascannons.<\/p>\n<p>Our Knight meanwhile trudged\u00a0forward dropping melta on Terminators and Guard tanks, eventually walking\u00a0onto an\u00a0opposing objective.\u00a0Centurions defended our center table and wiped out Terminators that made it\u00a0to threatening positions. Squad Scolirus\u00a0and Raukaan Tacticals burned out\u00a0Creed and the Guard&#8217;s\u00a0Company Command, but paid for it when Captain Angholan was forced to face the full withering fire of a Punisher at point blank and was mortally wounded. With things looking grim in the mid-game,\u00a0\u00a0the Space Wolves and Guardsmen\u00a0\u00a0started taking chances on risky reserve drops with\u00a0terrible results\u00a0teleporting in and dropping from flyers, further boosting\u00a0our momentum.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2474\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8966.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2474\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2474\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8966-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Scoping out the battlefield.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8966-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8966-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2474\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scoping out the battlefield.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2473\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8977.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2473\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8977-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Creeeeed!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8977-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8977-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2473\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Creeeeed!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p>We wound up with\u00a0all the objectives and secondaries, only missing out on max points by losing my warlord. Unfortunately I took a bunch of chances on\u00a0Angholan withstanding the Punisher, trying to tank wounds on him rather than his squad. He actually made it through the main gun pretty ok, but I forgot it would also then be shooting heavy bolters and a stubber at him and it was just too much. On the upside, it seemed like almost nobody got this bonus either.<\/p>\n<p>The big thing here was that we had a bunch of weapons to fight Terminators, enough alpha strike and mobility to pen their army up against their back line, and\u00a0nothing\u00a0especially fearful of the Guard&#8217;s large blasts or heavy weaponry. Our small Combat Squads all over the place made for inefficient\u00a0blast targets, and a combination of good line-of-sight blockers and\u00a0the Knight&#8217;s shield rendered the missile launcher and lascannon teams largely moot until we could take them out.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2475\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8991.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2475\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2475\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8991-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Aaaaaahhhh!!!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8991-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_8991-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2475\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaaaaahhhh!!!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Round 2<\/h2>\n<p>Next up was Zack and Brad with Imperial Guard and Grey Knights. Mission was Vanguard deployment (corners) for table quarters control with bonuses for Slay, surviving friendly\u00a0Warlords, and no enemy units in your deployment zone.<\/p>\n<p>Joint Sternguard blew up a Landraider,\u00a0dumping out the many Purifiers inside on foot, far removed from our central area. The Sternguard along with reinforcing\u00a0Raukaan Tacticals and an\u00a0Ironclad Dreadnought\u00a0spent the battle in an ongoing\u00a0fight with them before eventually prevailing. \u00a0Our Knight got an early lucky hit torching the Grey Knights warlord and his bodyguards. Greenheart\u00a0and our lascannon teams then wore\u00a0down a squad of\u00a0plasmacannon Sentinels before they could target our Centurions. Squad Harbinger put a lot of wounds on a\u00a0Dreadknight, which then shunted right into the middle of\u00a0half a dozen Raukaan lascannons. Captain Angholan and Scolirus\u00a0spent the battle in assault\u00a0with a group of Bullgryns protecting their Lord Commissar, eventually\u00a0smashing her. A late arriving Vendetta and Valkyrie harried a thinly held rear table quarter, but were slowly attrited away by Stormtalons and lascannons.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2476\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2476\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2476\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9016-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"No further!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9016-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9016-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2476\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">No further!<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_2477\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9030.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2477\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2477\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9030-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Aaaahhh again!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9030-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9030-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaaahhh again!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p>We wound up with max points in this one, controlling all the quarters and picking up the secondaries.\u00a0This battle was very similar to the previous\u00a0one\u00a0given the matchup. Again we were fortunate to have\u00a0many tools, especially the Centurions and Knight Errant, for taking\u00a0out Terminators. Zack did a great job of drawing it out\u00a0with his Guard via\u00a0harrying thrusts all over the board, but\u00a0with us largely taking out the Grey Knights early on we just had too much momentum.<\/p>\n<p>I really liked this mission. I wouldn&#8217;t want to replace standard objectives with table quarters, but it&#8217;s a good mix-in. One thing I liked was that because it&#8217;s harder to calculate on the fly, and in some ways easier to swing at the last minute, it can be much less clear who&#8217;s ahead and by how much,\u00a0raising the tension throughout.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2478\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9025.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2478\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2478\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9025-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"You're following the wrong path, commissar!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9025-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9025-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2478\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You&#8217;re following the wrong path, commissar!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Round 3<\/h2>\n<p>Finally we faced Mike and Al with their four Imperial Knights and\u00a0Necron C&#8217;Tan army. Mission was\u00a0Hammer and Anvil deployment (long axis) for a combination of kill points and objectives, with bonuses for Slay and each surviving troop unit.<\/p>\n<p>All three objectives wound up placed in a short line along the table center cross axis. We mostly positioned far forward, as near to them as we could, and held on\u00a0as long as possible. Join Sternguard got a good drop on one of the opposing Knights but its rerollable save via the Adamantine Lance formation shrugged it all off. The Knights and C&#8217;Tan hung back for several turns pinging away at our\u00a0threatening weapons before coming forward supported by\u00a0Night Scythes.\u00a0From there\u00a0the forces of good got slowly rolled up.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2479\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9057.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2479\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2479\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9057-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Yep.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9057-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9057-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yep.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p>We picked up a single point for the Raukaan zapping\u00a0a Night Scythe, and otherwise gave up an obscene amount of points as all our units\u00a0except one lonely\u00a0Drop Pod got obliterated.\u00a0We felt it was a moral victory that we lasted until Turn 7, but the outcome was pretty much foregone from the start. Four Knights with three in an Adamantine Lance, a Transcendant C&#8217;Tan, and\u00a0four Night Scythes with Warriors is a rough force to be looking at across the board.\u00a0Playing the long axis didn&#8217;t help, as it enabled them to lurk out of range of our lascannons for most of the game. I really don&#8217;t know how we could have done any better against this army though.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2480\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9081.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2480\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9081-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Hands up!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9081-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9081-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2480\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hands up!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Outcome<\/h2>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t come in with any tournament bonuses (early list submission, fully painted, etc.), but it seemed like few people did so that didn&#8217;t matter. Despite the third round drubbing,\u00a0John and I held on for second place by a reasonable margin. First place, our Knights+C&#8217;Tan opponents, were\u00a0ridiculously far ahead. A couple people quietly cheered us as the &#8220;non-cheese real\u00a0winners.&#8221; I was happy with how we played throughout, and the final results. Depending on how\u00a0you consider the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/09\/nova-open-40k-trios-recap\/\">NOVA Trios<\/a>\u00a0(we got crushed on games but got the 2nd best prize), that\u00a0maintains what I believe is still a straight\u00a0record of 2nd place results for me throughout 2014.<\/p>\n<h2>Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>A couple more general thoughts.<\/p>\n<h3>Meta<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;m always hesitant to single out individual units, but it seems very plausible that\u00a0the\u00a0Transcendant C&#8217;Tan is a gamebreaker.\u00a0Talking afterward I asked Al what could beat it. He replied &#8220;Well, you could buy a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forgeworld.co.uk\/Warhammer-40000\/Titans\">Warhound<\/a>.&#8221; I had to work\u00a0pretty hard to keep a straight face. Eventually he did come up with some other ideas, but they were all generally very specific and substantial purchases.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.belloflostsouls.net\/2014\/07\/40k-review-red-waaagh-formations.html\">Adamantine Lance formation<\/a> is\u00a0certainly a huge problem. It makes absolutely no game design sense to take an extremely strong, somewhat undercosted unit like the Imperial Knight, and give a collection of them\u00a0huge bonuses for no additional points cost. Sure, they have to stay within 3&#8243; of each other to get the effects, but that&#8217;s barely a limitation\u00a0for the group\u00a0in practice. Some of GW&#8217;s\u00a0formations make rules sense to me as a way to fix or buff underpowered units and armies, like\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blacklibrary.com\/games-workshop-digital-editions\/Dataslate-Adeptus-Astartes-Storm-Wing.html\">Stormwing<\/a> formation. A huge problem in frequently being a deliberate cash grab, like the Tyranid supplements (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.blacklibrary.com\/games-workshop-digital-editions\/Tyranid-Vanguard.html\">1<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blacklibrary.com\/games-workshop-digital-editions\/Dataslate-Tyranid-Invasion.html\">2<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blacklibrary.com\/games-workshop-digital-editions\/Dataslate-Tyranid-Onslaught.html\">3<\/a>), but otherwise solid. Others like the Lance though are definitely detrimental to both the game&#8217;s affordability\u00a0and its play.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2482\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9071.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2482\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2482\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9071-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Lords of war.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9071-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9071-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2482\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lords of war.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Tournament<\/h3>\n<p>The final mission highlighted issues with the scoring approach being used here, and I gather in several of the Berks PA events. Rather than\u00a0determining games by\u00a0victory points and then giving tournament points for wins and losses with bonuses for some special conditions, points earned in missions were simply\u00a0summed throughout. In that last game the\u00a0entire opposing army would have only given up fourteen kill points total even if we&#8217;d somehow managed to destroy everything. Meanwhile, John and I were each fielding that many\u00a0units. That&#8217;s one thing in terms of the problems inherent to kill points missions, but a huge problem for a tournament if that\u00a0goes directly into the tournament standings. It wouldn&#8217;t have mattered, but those last\u00a0guys got a massive points boost off John &amp; I\u00a0between the kill points, objectives, and bonuses, unfair to everybody else. In general, tournament points should always at least be capped, preferably normalized.<\/p>\n<p>That matchup\u00a0was also a good\u00a0example of where optional continuous scoring can\u00a0really help balance the game. If we could have scored points throughout by holding objectives then we could have played a more tactical game, sacrificing units to try and hold up the oncoming tide with no expectation of lasting to the end. We all but certainly\u00a0would have still lost, but potentially\u00a0we&#8217;d have stood at least a chance of not being completed wiped on points,\u00a0given that our opponents had so few units with which to attempting claiming and holding throughout.<\/p>\n<p>On a final note, three thousand points total is\u00a0probably too many points for a doubles game. Somewhat counter-intuitively, they tend to run slower anyway. At that many points there&#8217;s just a lot going on to begin with, and doubles\u00a0games can take a very long time. That&#8217;s particularly true if at least one side is active in all the phases. It seemed like Colin and Brett really suffered from this, with several of their games cut short when they would have benefited from more turns.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Despite those concerns about the scoring and the serious balance problems built into 40k itself right now, this was a super fun event, well run in a low key but smooth manner and with a great crowd. Berks is going to run another team tournament in January, and I&#8217;ll definitely try to make it to that.<\/p>\n<p>Again, more photos are in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/sets\/72157648859188505\/\">gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2481\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9078.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2481\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2481\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9078-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Wwwwaaaaaahhhhh!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9078-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_9078-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2481\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wwwwaaaaaahhhhh!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday\u00a0the dynamic duos of Colin and Brett and John L and I went out for a Berks PA 40K Doubles Tournament at Railyard Hobbies. First of all, that place is amazing. I haven&#8217;t been to the Railyard before,\u00a0and it blew my mind. \u00a0It&#8217;s ridiculously huge, and the terrain building supplies are all but endless. Definitely &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/10\/40k-berks-pa-doubles-railyard\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[272,252,257,137,38,238,17,274,178,29,24,40,325],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battle-reports","tag-40k","tag-berks","tag-featured","tag-grey-knights","tag-imperial-guard","tag-imperial-knights","tag-kingbreakers","tag-miniatures","tag-necrons","tag-page","tag-space-marines","tag-space-wolves","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3595,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/3595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}