Tomorrow I'm off to the Bugeater GT...

...and I'm excited.  It's the first tournament I'll compete in with my Dark Eldar.  The drive though boring Nebraska should be offset by the fact that my friend CJ who is going with me, is bringing along his 'Horus Rising' audio book.  Since I've always wanted to give Black Library books a try, and I have no patience for most of the writing that goes on there, perhaps a book on tape will make it more palatable.  But I digress.

The Bugeater should be
fun though- the missions are all similar to the NOVA format in that there's the 'standard' three objectives (kill points (win by 3), multiple objectives, and table quarters by Victory Points), but the multiple objectives are different for every mission, which is good- I like a little variation :-p

There will be 48 people there apparently, which isn't super huge as far as GT's go.  There are two tracks a person can win- the 'Sweepstakes' track, which is technically Best Overall (using painting, sportsmanship, and battle points) and the 'Tournament Champion', which is the single undefeated player at the end of the tournament (which has 6 rounds, and is possible that nobody is undefeated after that, lol).  Both are apparently 'equal' in prestige and such, though the titles say it all- Tournament Champion is the guy who really wins.  He's the one who gets into the NOVA invitational, etc.  It's also seeded after the first round, by Battle Points/record.

This guy is too awesome not to share with you guys.  Not relevant to the post, but still quite awesome, neh?

 So how do I think the Dark Eldar (Kabal of the Awesome Sauce) will do?

Well, if I'm realistic, I think I'll get a little bit destroyed.  I've always been a good tournament player, and I actually think that the only time I've lost 2 games in a tournament ever in 40k was at my first GT, which had 7 games- and the number of tournaments I've lost 1 game can be counted on one hand.  I've certainly been lucky. 

Past tournament success notwithstanding though, I've also never gone into a GT with this little experience with an army.  Not only am I inexperienced, this is a 'finesse' army that requires lots of time to get even decent with.  I foresee myself losing 3 of my 6 games, at least 2 of them because of mistakes I've made due to inexperience and tweaks I need to make to my future list.  It's kind of sad to have such little faith in myself, but I think it's realistic- hopefully this GT will get me ready for BoLSCON in a couple weeks, which is a much bigger deal :)

Who misses Ultima?  I do :(

What's my goal, then?

Heh, my goal is to win the stupid thing.  If I can get either of the 'skillful player' awards, I'll be very happy.  Like I said, I'm not sure it's realistic, but why should I try for less, when I never have before?  Maybe I'll surprise us all :)

As to realistic goals- what about Best Sportsmanship?  I won it at the last BoLSCON out of the 200?ish players there, even though I took my Wolfstar.  Then again, people seem to react better to losing to a close combat army than to a shooty one- close combat just feels more honest for some reason:  it at least gives the other guy a chance to roll dice as well, instead of simply removing model after model from withering firepower.  /shrug

Now all I have to do is paint 3 Wracks, a Haemonculus, and 26 huge obnoxious bases, and I'll be ready.

Expect a battle report and lots of pictures from the event as always.  If you want to read any of my other GT reports, there's a battle report link on the top right part of my blog, with lots of reports.  Alright, off to paint!