So before I begin discussing armies, I would like to give a shout out to all of the guys who throw the event. Jay, Shaun, Chris, and everyone else who makes it possible, keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing all of you for the 4th year in a row.
Now, last year Da boyz eliminated comp, however this was only temporary. Well.... it is back and surprising balanced and fair. Comp... fair? Yes, believe it or not it doesn't overly hurt any army and most players will still be able to take the lists they have been playing all along. Here is a link to the rules.
1) Flyers and Flying monstrous creatures are limited to 4
2) Special or unique named characters may only be selected from either the primary or allied codex but not both
3) All unit selections will be 0-2 with the exception of those from the troop category. If a unit has the ability to be taken from both troops and another category, (such as tervigons) then the 0-2 restriction would apply regardless of what category these units are selected from. Please note that if a unit selection merely "shifts" to the troop category and may no longer be purchased outside of the troop category then the 0-2 restriction would not apply. Dedicated transports that could also be selected in another category (such as land raiders) will also fall into the 0-2 restriction. All other dedicated transports will be 0-4 regardless of which category they are selected from.
At first glance a Space Marine bike army would be restricted to 2 bike units. However the tournament organizers clarified that if no bikes are taken as fast attack choices and only as troops, there would be no penalty. They feel this brings space marines in line with dark angels (which is awesome). Here is a link to that discussion.
So in short, 1) any army I would consider taking is not really limited, since I typically don't own more then 2 of a single unit and 2) it is completely possible that there will still be top tier tournament builds at this event, as the comp rules don't restrict them. Therefore, I need to be able to field an army that not only looks awesome on the table, but is able to go toe to toe with the newest builds. At this point in time, I am considering two armies which can accomplish that goal to varying degrees.
My legion of the damned bike army has been improved thanks to the new space marine codex. They are also well painted so any additions to the army would have to meet that standard so I can achieve a good overall score. However in the initial play tests of the army, the bike list still suffers from the same weaknesses as before, low model count, low amount of anti-air, and not being able to ignore cover, but it also shows a lot of promise, Scout, Hit and Run, ignoring terrain, Barrage TFCs, Grav Guns, Strength 5 hammer of wrath attacks, and adding +1 cover to jink saves.
My Tau and Eldar army on the other hand is more balanced from a tournament perspective. It is able to take on all threats and given decent rolling by both parties, I have the tools to dissect most builds. However, appearance wise, they look terrible. Well not terrible but not good. It would require a substantial amount of work and money to make them look good, and with only 5 weeks left, it just isn't going to happen.
Therefore, I left with the quandary of how I want to approach the event. I am currently leaning towards bikes for the sheer fact that even though there is a new codex, there really aren't that many marine armies running around given the dominance of Eldar, Tau, and Daemons and that I can make up lost battle points with a solid paint score. In addition, some of the weakness of the bike list can be fixed given potential ally combinations which would make the list more competitive overall.
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| Hmmm could Tau be making an appearance? |