Post by ohgodsnakes on Mar 2, 2017 15:04:56 GMT -5
I figured this would be the best place to pop in my report of the Barrie Bash.
Format
The Barrie Bash was a 2 day ITC format GT using the current ITC FAQ and GW FAQs. There were 5 games over the course of 2 days (3 saturday, 2 sunday). There were several door prizes as well as awards for best sport, general, presentation and of course overall. Runner ups in these categories also received recognition. Another fun award was "Best of Faction", meaning that you got something if you were they only one playing a weird, and potentially under powered army.
I ended at 11th overall, and tied for Best Tau, which I consider pretty darn good for what I found out to be a woefully inadequate list for the current competitive meta (more on meta below). My high sportsmanship and presentation scores helped pull up my middling battle points (I believe I was 24th in generalship)
On The META
Tzeentch deamons are on a ROLE. They took 1st place overall, as well as best general, and 4th best general. Not far behind are Craftworld Eldar and their new Ynnari rules. I played a mono harlequins/ynnari list and soulburst is VERY powerful. Cult Mech War convocations were also heavily featured, though their scores are erratic. Shows that it takes more than a cookie cutter list to win!
Things that well over half of the lists included
-one or more of the following units; Scatterbikes, Wraithknight, and Riptide Wings (very rarely with other Tau).
Scatterbikes: Honestly, in every single game, I could have used some scatterbikes to just spam high strength shots and then jetpack to objectives. They are INCREDIBLY strong in ITC, where being almost anywhere on the board is a huge bonus. I will be buying some, though they probably won’t see Kingston play very often.
Wraithknights: I don't think I need to elaborate on this one. Whether it’s the Skathatch or the Sword and Board Wraithknight variant, this big dude was everywhere this weekend. It is stupid good. A sword and board will mess up my stormsurge every time if it gets in combat, which thanks to modified D, it has a decent chance of doing. The Wraithknight is still the unquestionable king of superheavies. Mix it in with a couple of other heavy combat threats (Think thunderwolf cav) to make target priority an issue, sprinkle in some scatter bikes, and you have the only list able to table me over the course of the weekend.
Riptide Wing: Let me first say, nobody running a riptide wing placed exceptionally well. In fact, the two top Tau players (myself and Tristan Mitchell, who’s army was gorgeous) didn't even have one. What I did see was a LOT of slotting in a wing in random-ass armies, which rubs me the wrong way. It is an unquestionable fact that the bog standard riptide is now no longer competitive. It requires too many markerlights to be effective, and those markerlights are now being used by a Stormsurge. Running the heavy burst cannon is risky because you have a 1/3 chance of punching yourself in the groin to use its MUCH better profile. Running the The Wing fixes these issues, without a tax, while adding some pretty damn good rules on top.
THAT BEING SAID: It still falls flat in the face of a talented deamon/eldar player. Who cares if they hailfire you if all you have within line of site is some Pink Horrors that you got for free, that then split into blues? Who cares about 72 rending shots if you correctly place your warpspiders to jump just out of their limited range, and all your scatter bikes are hidden? Positioning and target confusion is a very viable tactic against the Wing. Fun Fact! One dude took 2 detachments to this tournament, and one was a single Culexus assassin. Can you guess what the other was? That’s right, a max’d riptide wing. He got 35th out of 46. Definitely not a good army.
Also, Magnus with Treason of Tzeentch and/or a Cyclopial Cabal LAUGH at the wing. Give first turn to Tau, let them nova their guns to kill some pinks, hide your magic casters. Your first turn, fly 24”/ ride your bikes out towards them, and make them shoot nova’d death at each other. Psychic shriek whatever is left. GG.
Riptide Wing Bottom line: The riptide wing is GOOD, great even. But is it the be-all and end of competitive play? Obviously not. Now, are they a good thing to see at a casual tournament? Heck no, but neither should a Wraithknight. If 8th doesn’t bring sweeping changes to how the game works, expect this formation to stay until the meta catches up, though that’s already happening.
Not Present:
Some striking exclusions to the list of attendees are Necrons and Genestealer Cults. There was a Sisters army for goodness sake! From what I gather from some of the tournament junkies present, Necrons are really struggling in the current meta of Scatterbikes, summoning of cheap expendable troops, flying deamon psychic spam, and Wraithknights. As for Genestealer Cults, perhaps their random nature is to much to consistently perform up to top table levels.
Best Coast Pairings:
The Best Coast Pairings app was probably the biggest surprise of the event for me. It was free, relatively easy to use, and such a good tool. We knew our matchups 10 minutes before round started, including opponents name, the table we were at, our opponents previous W/L record, and even their list in most cases! It apparently handles matchups automatically, as well as creating “pods” for day two! I believe with only a couple tweaks to the mission format, the Club Championship could use the app as well, (though we’d need to bring in a router for people to connect to lol).
Salt Levels:
Mcdonald’s fries with two extra packets level of salt detected. I think it’s just the norm for 40K players to be hella salty all the time. I’ve seen it called “Fan Entitlement” in other hobbies, and we are no different. Thankfully, most of the salt I faced stuck to the old proverb “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”. Overall, most people I met we’re pretty awesome.
Feedback (If Skari is reading this):
Shorter first day lunch, and between game one and two, not two and three. 1.5hrs is too long, and 2pm or whatever is too late. I also understand there was some difficulty with the prizes, but the ending ceremony was very late, and a good couple people had 4+ hour drives to make that night. That’s pretty much it though, the rest of the event was awesome.
Format
The Barrie Bash was a 2 day ITC format GT using the current ITC FAQ and GW FAQs. There were 5 games over the course of 2 days (3 saturday, 2 sunday). There were several door prizes as well as awards for best sport, general, presentation and of course overall. Runner ups in these categories also received recognition. Another fun award was "Best of Faction", meaning that you got something if you were they only one playing a weird, and potentially under powered army.
I ended at 11th overall, and tied for Best Tau, which I consider pretty darn good for what I found out to be a woefully inadequate list for the current competitive meta (more on meta below). My high sportsmanship and presentation scores helped pull up my middling battle points (I believe I was 24th in generalship)
On The META
Tzeentch deamons are on a ROLE. They took 1st place overall, as well as best general, and 4th best general. Not far behind are Craftworld Eldar and their new Ynnari rules. I played a mono harlequins/ynnari list and soulburst is VERY powerful. Cult Mech War convocations were also heavily featured, though their scores are erratic. Shows that it takes more than a cookie cutter list to win!
Things that well over half of the lists included
-one or more of the following units; Scatterbikes, Wraithknight, and Riptide Wings (very rarely with other Tau).
Scatterbikes: Honestly, in every single game, I could have used some scatterbikes to just spam high strength shots and then jetpack to objectives. They are INCREDIBLY strong in ITC, where being almost anywhere on the board is a huge bonus. I will be buying some, though they probably won’t see Kingston play very often.
Wraithknights: I don't think I need to elaborate on this one. Whether it’s the Skathatch or the Sword and Board Wraithknight variant, this big dude was everywhere this weekend. It is stupid good. A sword and board will mess up my stormsurge every time if it gets in combat, which thanks to modified D, it has a decent chance of doing. The Wraithknight is still the unquestionable king of superheavies. Mix it in with a couple of other heavy combat threats (Think thunderwolf cav) to make target priority an issue, sprinkle in some scatter bikes, and you have the only list able to table me over the course of the weekend.
Riptide Wing: Let me first say, nobody running a riptide wing placed exceptionally well. In fact, the two top Tau players (myself and Tristan Mitchell, who’s army was gorgeous) didn't even have one. What I did see was a LOT of slotting in a wing in random-ass armies, which rubs me the wrong way. It is an unquestionable fact that the bog standard riptide is now no longer competitive. It requires too many markerlights to be effective, and those markerlights are now being used by a Stormsurge. Running the heavy burst cannon is risky because you have a 1/3 chance of punching yourself in the groin to use its MUCH better profile. Running the The Wing fixes these issues, without a tax, while adding some pretty damn good rules on top.
THAT BEING SAID: It still falls flat in the face of a talented deamon/eldar player. Who cares if they hailfire you if all you have within line of site is some Pink Horrors that you got for free, that then split into blues? Who cares about 72 rending shots if you correctly place your warpspiders to jump just out of their limited range, and all your scatter bikes are hidden? Positioning and target confusion is a very viable tactic against the Wing. Fun Fact! One dude took 2 detachments to this tournament, and one was a single Culexus assassin. Can you guess what the other was? That’s right, a max’d riptide wing. He got 35th out of 46. Definitely not a good army.
Also, Magnus with Treason of Tzeentch and/or a Cyclopial Cabal LAUGH at the wing. Give first turn to Tau, let them nova their guns to kill some pinks, hide your magic casters. Your first turn, fly 24”/ ride your bikes out towards them, and make them shoot nova’d death at each other. Psychic shriek whatever is left. GG.
Riptide Wing Bottom line: The riptide wing is GOOD, great even. But is it the be-all and end of competitive play? Obviously not. Now, are they a good thing to see at a casual tournament? Heck no, but neither should a Wraithknight. If 8th doesn’t bring sweeping changes to how the game works, expect this formation to stay until the meta catches up, though that’s already happening.
Not Present:
Some striking exclusions to the list of attendees are Necrons and Genestealer Cults. There was a Sisters army for goodness sake! From what I gather from some of the tournament junkies present, Necrons are really struggling in the current meta of Scatterbikes, summoning of cheap expendable troops, flying deamon psychic spam, and Wraithknights. As for Genestealer Cults, perhaps their random nature is to much to consistently perform up to top table levels.
Best Coast Pairings:
The Best Coast Pairings app was probably the biggest surprise of the event for me. It was free, relatively easy to use, and such a good tool. We knew our matchups 10 minutes before round started, including opponents name, the table we were at, our opponents previous W/L record, and even their list in most cases! It apparently handles matchups automatically, as well as creating “pods” for day two! I believe with only a couple tweaks to the mission format, the Club Championship could use the app as well, (though we’d need to bring in a router for people to connect to lol).
Salt Levels:
Mcdonald’s fries with two extra packets level of salt detected. I think it’s just the norm for 40K players to be hella salty all the time. I’ve seen it called “Fan Entitlement” in other hobbies, and we are no different. Thankfully, most of the salt I faced stuck to the old proverb “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”. Overall, most people I met we’re pretty awesome.
Feedback (If Skari is reading this):
Shorter first day lunch, and between game one and two, not two and three. 1.5hrs is too long, and 2pm or whatever is too late. I also understand there was some difficulty with the prizes, but the ending ceremony was very late, and a good couple people had 4+ hour drives to make that night. That’s pretty much it though, the rest of the event was awesome.
)
. But yes, with the addition of comp to the matchup matrix, using the app would be very difficult.
. If someone's alternate version of Necrons started sweeping the big tournament circuit, guaranteed you'll see very similar lists at lots of tournaments. Scatterbike spam just dismantles wraiths while always being able to run away, all the while taking objectives. 
