First-Time Tourney Goer

[Grimnak]

I'll be attending my first NE Ohio tourney and admittedly have no idea what to expect. I'm not exactly bringing an "A" tier either so is it best to scrap it and bring all "A" units for a chance to win? This particular tournament had no RtW format as far as I can tell, so there's no reason to not bring the standard Q9, Deathreavers, Raelin or something equally insane.

Thanks for any help/insight in advance!

[dok]

Literally everyone just brings "A" tier stuff, right @Dad_Scaper ?

[Dad_Scaper]

Go ahead and show yourself out, dok. That's right.

Here's the thing, Grimnak. I'll let you in on the big secret: You are going to have a great time. I am jealous that you will get to have the experience of going to a Heroscape tournament for the first time, because you only get to do that once, and it's pretty great.

Don't worry about your army. It doesn't matter what you bring. I'll give you some guidance here, but the main thing is that it doesn't matter what you bring. The big secret is that (quoting others here) as soon as you sit down to play, you've already won. You'll find out.

Here's your guidance, in order of importance:
1. Bring something that you like and that you know pretty well. You'll be staring at those cards all day; make sure they're ones you like putting order markers on.

2. Bring an army with manageable order marker placement. This isn't *nearly* as important as #1, but often I see tourney newcomers struggling with five different army cards, each demanding its own OM. And that's tough.

Really, though, it doesn't matter. Bring what you want and have a good time. I'm jealous of you getting to game with those guys.

As for the A units? Don't worry about them. You don't need them to win, you likely will not play against them, and you sure as heck don't need them to have fun.

[wriggz]

In my experience Heroscape tournaments tent to be very Game oriented instead of Win oriented. That means people focus on having a fun game and enjoying the 'sport' of it, rather than focusing only on winning.

I've actually seen people groan (not upset though) at the thought of playing a long Deathreaver infested game. At NHSD I brought a Greek army and won the day, but that was secondary to the number of times I would call one of my figures Ajax or Achilles when he survived a brutal attack or destroyed a key figure.

[bmon]

These comments are spot on. I went to my first Heroscape tourney last year and had a blast. I did end up bringing an "A" grade army (blasts/glads/Q9) - mostly because I hadn't played with them before and knew they would be solid - but it was clear after a game or two that it wasn't necessary. All the matches of the tourney were very fun spirited, with a few appearances by some C3V/SoV figures too (allowed in the tourney I went to).

It was a really great time. Highly recommended.

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by bmon

a few appearances by some C3V/SoV figures too (allowed in the tourney I went to).

. . . and allowed in the tournament *you're* going to, Grimnak. Look at the first link in my signature block, if you're interested. And look at the site home page, because there's a fresh announcement with new units today!

[Grimnak]

Well, I'll be rolling two cheerleaders so that could be an issue :P

I have no doubt I'll have fun though. Nerves will undoubtedly set in when I'm staring at a GenCon proven army, though.

[Dad_Scaper]

The only real "issue" would be a failure to attend. Have fun!

[Grimnak]

I'm curious: without RtW, how many people actually show up (on average) with cookie-cutter GenCon builds that are incredibly competitive?

[Dad_Scaper]

I've looked at the list of people attending your tournament, or considering attending it. Of the (few) ones who I know, there is zero chance of them bringing a pure Tier 1 army.

I don't think I've ever read an account of an expert player wielding a Tier 1 "GenCon cookie-cutter type army" anywhere outside of GenCon, though it's probably happened somewhere. Not that I read about on these pages, or saw in person.

[Grimnak]

My samurai appreciate that :P

[Dad_Scaper]

I didn't encourage you to bring Samurai.