Tits for Tournaments: Brawling with the Green Tide

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of going to my first large Warhammer 40k tournament in 7th edition and it was damn fun! The event was Brawl in the Fall, held yearly in Fresno California. This year saw them expanding to a two-day event with around 48 players. Brawl sells out every year and brings in a vast array of players. This year the event used the BAO mission packet, showcasing once again why the format simplicity of design makes it really easy for players to follow. In addition, allowing Forge World and limited Super Heavies adds a lot to army variety. The event sure had a cross section of armies, with perhaps a sprinkling of Imperial Knights being the biggest constant. As for me, I took Ork and not just normal Orks, but Green Tide Orks. I ended up going 3-2 in my first go around with the army. The two losses only came down to assaults just going my way in the end. I was able to get to turn five in all my games and even turn seven in my final game! I found it to be an extremely fun army to play and my opponents after the initial shock really enjoy facing it. On the battlefield the Green Tide formation itself worked smashingly in every game, doing the bulk of the work, it was the other elements of the army that need some serious work.

Here is a link to the list I played.

TastyTaste’s Brawl in the Fall Orks

As you can see I took Mad Doc for Feel no Pain and a Weird Boy for some psychic defense. Snikrot and the Kopters were designed to keep my opponents from hugging the sides or backfield forcing them into the middle to deal with the overwhelming Green Tide. In practice the Deffkotpers failed in every game, easily out maneuvered and dispatched. Snikrot worked in about half the games, but I still felt like he wasn’t worth his points in the end.

The major problem with list was, while the Green Tide was mostly in Assault dispatching every type of unit sent against it, it still left the rest of my opponents army to easy pick destroy whatever else I had. When designing the next form of this list I will certainly need support while the Tide advances. With Mekgunz being on the top of my list. I have to say the Weird Boy was my biggest MVP for at least three games providing me with extra units through Daemon Summoning. I know most Ork players take Santic, because of Hammerhand, but that is a one in six or one in third chance, where if you go Malefic you get Summoning no matter what. Sure the three success Warp Charge can be a pain, but if you take a level two Weird boy in a Green Tide you will always have at least four dice to play with every turn. Once you drop in a unit of Horrors takes pressure off the Weird boy who will usually die after two castings.

Being part of a real 7th edition tournament was great experience.

It seems with each new codex, the fears of 6th edition boogeyman lists keep disappearing, with only the Eldar codex being the clear problem child for the game currently. One thing is for sure, the game just seems much more fun these days. The less restrictions the better, if you were at Brawl in the Fall you wouldn’t have seen the same armies and those differences go deep, within the armies themselves, like me taking Green Tide and another Ork player taking the Bullyboyz formation. Then you have Forge World which does wonders for armies like Necrons and Tyranids, not to mention all the fun unique Imperial tanks you see around.

The 7th edition seems like a game of manageable challenges. What I mean by this, is combos are not longer Wargear based, with some combination of tricks making your list unstoppable, instead the combos are army wide like Formations and certain allies, but they don’t overwhelm an opponent or take any sense of fun away. Super Heavies like Imperial Knights are manageable, opponents have fun of blowing them up just as much as people like fielding them. Things like the Green Tide are the same way, once people realize they are just Orks and the green skin body count rises my opponents relaxed and executed sound plans to defeat it. Sure there are still dumb things like Transcendent C’tan, but for the most part, events have created no-no lists to avoid the obvious un-fun elements certain units can bring.

All in all, I really think the Warhammer 40k heading in the right direction and I am sure at Games Workshop current pace we will see the Eldar nerf around March of next year, just in time for Adepticon.

Here is also some photos I took from the Brawl in the Fall. I sure better pictures will be up for the rest of the armies, but these were a few that caught my eye.