Off to BoLSGamesCon w/ Dark Eldar- essential items (pictures!)

Well folks, it's that time of year again.  I'm making the trek to Austin by plane this time, rather than driving the 18 or so hours it takes to get there.  I'll be taking my newly painted Dark Eldar- should be some good fun, heh.  Figured I'd post expectations and all that awesomeness.

Here's the army itself at 1850 (no beast squad)

First, here are some links, if you're interested:

Last Year's BoLSCON Tournament Report with lots of pictures!
Dark Eldar at the Bugeater GT Batreps with lots of pictures
Dark Eldar Tactical Analysis for BoLSCON with awesome diagrams :-p

List of essential items for a GT (not including 40k stuff, lol):

Ipod is useful between games, or before the tournament starts.  Also, in transit.  Ever listen to Yiruma?  He's a classical music pianist.  Seriously awesome, if you like that calm sort of stuff anyways.

Mmm... fast food for 3 straight days.  Tums is a must-have for cons.  Seriously- we went through a ton of these last year.

I wouldn't ever go to a con with CJ without earplugs.  Seriously- it sounds like he's choking to death when he snores.  These are literally more important to me than bringing clothes.

Can't forget the phone charger, can we?  Wish I wasn't so dependent on the damn thing though...

I tend to drink a lot of water every day.  Like, 2-3 Nalgenes full.  I guess it's a throwback from all my various sports in High School and military excursions in the summer to places like Missouri, Mississippi, and Iraq.  Anyways, I function much better when I can drink water at a tournament.  Enter the Nalgene.

I wear this guy to every tournament I go to.  Sometimes people take heed...

....like here.

Lol, please please please always come fully stocked with deodorant when you go on trips, people.  The amount of Nerd Stank at Cons is horrifying.  Gladly, I won't be a contributor.

Sometimes you just need to freshen the mouth, right?  Well, I do anyways.

Guess that's it.  Also don't forget socks or underwear.  Seriously.  I almost did this year, lol.

Anyways, here's the list I'll be bringing to the GT:

Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus

7x Incubi // Raider w/ Flickerfield, Advanced Aethersails, Grisly Trophies

3x Wracks // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons
19x Hellions w/ Helliarch

6x Reaver Jetbikes w/ 2x Heat Lances
6x Reaver Jetbikes w/ 2x Heat Lances
Beast Squad w/ 3x Beastmasters, 4x Razorwing Flocks, 5x Khymerae

Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield

So, it's a list that I don't really have a ton of experience with.  I've used the Beastmasters a total of never (well, come to think of it... once), and expect them to be misused by myself at least my first few games.  The upside is that I'm used to using beast squads (Wolfstar FTW lol), so I'm not entirely ignorant.  However, they do have lots of differences... the Beasts don't cost 800 points to start, lol.

Anyways, I've done well with the DEldar so far, my record being 10-1.  This doesn't mean that I'm necessarily awesome with them, but that my opponents don't really know what to expect from a Dark Eldar army, and therefore don't know exactly how to deal with it.  BoLSCON will have lots of quality players, and I don't expect to get away with very much this tournament.

Previous Tournament Placings:

2009:  7th overall with PDF Blood Angels
2010:  6th overall, and Best Sport with the Wolfstar 

My expectation is that I'll end up 4-2-1 (4 win, 2 loss, 1 draw) for the tournament, with an above average score, but nothing closer than top 15.  My goal however is of course to win the whole thing.  Why enter a tournament if you don't try to win?  That will always be my goal.

Here's my army that won Best Sport / 6th overall last year, somehow.  A wolfstar list with 18x Longfangs?  lol, not sure how I got perfect sportsmanship- all my opponents were great for sure, but it's still surprising, given the Death Star nature of the list.

What will I be happy/content with?

Well, I guess 5th overall or better would be a good start.  Also, winning all 7 games but still not winning the tournament would be funny- it would be a good example of Battle Points System fail at least.  Any kind of award will make me happy though- I am the defending Best Sport, lol.



My Reluctance about Battle Points:

Real quick here- don't want to go into rant mode.  I don't think that the system is balanced- if two great players play, and neither of them gets a whole lot, because the game was super close, they both essentially lose the tournament because they don't get many points from it, even the 'winner'.  Top player vs. top player makes all the best players lose, since they can't max their game against another top player, which makes sense.  Lots of times, a mediocre player will win the tournament by flying under the radar the whole tournament, and get two massacres at the end FTW.  I'll stop now- lots more to say, but I'll stop.

Suffice it to say that after experiencing the 'light' that is the NOVA system, I'm not a huge fan of Battle Points.  We'll see how it goes though :-p
  
Battle Points and Dark Eldar

Let's keep it quick and easy:  I don't expect to score a ton of Battle Points with Dark Eldar- I can win games, but maxing them against good players will be extremely difficult, due to the fragile nature of my dudes (and due to my inexperience with the army thus far).

Who will win?

I predict the person who wins will only be on the top table a maximum of 2 games, and potentially less than that. The army I predict to win is... Wolves?  Simply due to the fact that everyone is playing wolves in tournaments these days.  Though this fact means that the total talent playing Wolves will be diluted, I also think that this means that there will be more Wolf players at the tournament, and therefore through saturation, quite a few of them will do well- numbers are in their favor.

As a sidenote, I hope I play 7 Wolf players.  Or 7 Guard players.  Even 7 Blood Angels players.  I need experience with my Dark Eldar against these 'top' armies badly, and if I can get the majority of my games against them, I'll be pleased, as strange/boring as that sounds.  /shrug

Mirror Match:

I'll be playing in the Mirror Match event on Friday- everyone in the little tournament will have the exact same Vanilla (Sicarius) list, so the 'best' pure player should be able to win, right?  I guess we'll see.  Expect a post analyzing that event tomorrow, actually.  Don't want my opponents to see my thoughts on it, lol.

Will I get drunk?

Well, I will if I'm out of the tournament.  Honestly though, I don't enjoy playing wargames when I'm hammered.  I doubt I'll be anything more than tipsy the entire event.  We'll see though, heh.

Am I excited to go?

Well, yes.  I love GT's.  Lots of games against good (and usually fun) opponents, 3 nights sleeping on the floor, a usually cool grab bag, and most importantly:  meeting new people, and seeing old friends.

It's going to be a blast, Pappadeaux and Pappacitos are both awesome restaurants, and I'll take a picture of the awesome huge goblets they serve beer in for ya.

Expect a full report of the GT itself, and potentially the Mirror Match, though we'll see.

Cya on the other side!!