For the past month, I've been playing at two venues. I'm going to be picking up a 3rd, and possibly 4th. One thing I can definitely say is that the armies played in different places are very, very different. No place I play is very competetive right now (though I certanily don't look forward to the next time there's a great prize up ><), but I get to see all sorts of ideas and strategies played out.

The point I'm getting to is this--one venue plays range hate armies. Another plays fun armies. The third has a lot of swarm, and the fourth relies heavily on Pimped out Uniques. I consider myself lucky to see this kind of variety. I've seen most of the 'power peices' in use, run into all sorts of spell silliness, and it's really helped my game. If I had sat around beating on the same four people every week, I'd be great at fighting those four people. I'd probably get tossed around when I went to a more competetive venue and there were new players with new armies I'm not accustomed to seeing.

Now you bring up another couple of points. Those that can predict to a degree what will be at an event have an edge in design. Now when one knows a veneu plays a certain type of army then they can shift the advantage by playing "hate" armies. A better thing to do is to create a build and take it to each of the venues to see if it can hold up against each. Build in outs for the build by figure selection, terrian, or tactics.

the ability to predict and to handle certain extremes is important.

I also think one of the biggest qualities is imagination

If you're starting to prepare for Nationals right now, do yourself a favor:

Stop.

Stop looking at figures, stop studying relic combos, stop studying the meta-game. Because a lot can happen in 6 months. New rulings, a new set, a set to be retired, and god knows what else will be coming.

Hold off until at least April when the new set is released. Then you can begin planning. Here's some other tips:

Build a few different armies, pit them against each other with friends, see how they play them, see what you would do in similar situations. Do the same with a "meta-army". Build it, even if you arent going to play it, see how you're going to beat it.

In testing, don't dismiss a bad die roll. They're going to happen, and if you're counting on a key roll, then you need to rethink your design (unless of course, you're a Dice God. Then by all means...)

Be ready to fight a chariot. A titan. A tank. A dragon. Unless they get removed from play, you can get paired up against one.

Be ready to fight a single figure army. Be ready to fight a swarm.

Take your perfectly planned army, now dump out a bunch of bad figures. Build an army worthy of a 10 year old. See if you can beat it. You might be surprised.

Take your army, look at it carefully, ask yourself how you would beat it. Modify as needed.

Prepare for capture attempts. 23 defense and double invulnerability won't make a bit of difference to somebody who's wielding a fang shield.

Oh, and above all else, yes, there will be cheese, yes, there will be long waits, yes there will be bad rulings and slipups coming from every direction. But the reason we're all there is to have some fun. Sometimes it's a lesson in humility, sometimes it's an easy game, sometimes it's the challenge of your life. But in the end, shake their hand, and mean it when you tell them "good game".

I'm not going to the US ones for a pretty good reason... I'm Canadian (which means I'm just so much better then everyone else of course! :cool: )

Now man am I looking forward to actually see what happens AFTER tat event... so many hopefuls will have their dreams crushed, it's gonna be a riot on the boards :)

BTW: kudos to Video for the wisdom of his latest post :)

I've been to 3 Nationals and think you need the following:

1. Very good knowledge of the rules & figure stats (and now relics and spell books)

2. A solid understanding of the cutting edge "metagame" or combos that are du'jour ..... as an example my worst beat down in this last years Nationals was against a turtled Storm Maul army (the Storm Maul was subsequently FAQ'd). Bottomline, you have to know what's hot and how to play it or how to defend against it.

3. Practise, practise, practise, against some very solid players. Find the absolute best players you can find and play them regularly. Mix it up. I have played against and talked with many players who thought they were "all that" against their local venue players but got cut to pieces against hard core players. Bottomline, play against the best.

4. Try to break the game. Find the edge. Find the spell, or domain, or relic combo that others are not talking about. MK is very much like momentum investing. Many people follow the crowd. Try something different to screw people up.

5. Have fun. Bottomline, if you don't enjoy the competition and the high level of competitive play then you won't enjoy the nationals or higher level. People are out to win, so you need to be prepared to show your teeth, but have a good time.

Take my comments with a grain of salt....the highest I finished in the USA Nationals was 24th.

Steve

Your post was a thing of beauty Video...

Best way to prep for Nats I've heard yet: ACTUALLY SIT DOWN AND PLAY THE GAME!!!

Who'da thunk...

:D

I have to disagree with something video said and that is do not start now. You know which set will eb gone so you can look past those figures. By Jan Sorcery should be well settled which means Omens is the thing you have to get a grasp on quickly.

the past 3 years we have started getting ready for Nationals about this time or Jan. The more you play an army the more you know how to create the matchup you want.

Now noble brought up the point about look for the thing no one else is looking at. One of the best ways to do this is go throughthe figure pool that that you will have. then look for those what ifs as in if Omens has "A" then this army would final work and so on. A lot of times those missing links are small figures with just the right SA combination for the price (in 1.0 Autumn was a great example).

In the end if you do nto knwo what to do then wait for German Nationals and play the winning army.

Bshugg has a method of playtesting that simulates game action very well. I know a lot of people that have playtested there stuff through emails and PM but I think you have to have a stronger understanding of the game.

One thing no one has brought up about Nationals is there si be about 20-25 strong players and then the rest of the field.

YAY!

I'm the rest of the field!

;)

Oh, yeah! Well, I'm out standing in my field!


:p

I would have ruled the winning army illegal even then and still think the EIC should have tossed the player out on there ear for using a cheap ( amazing how close that word is to cheat ) trick to win.

and what cheap tirck would that be?

auto damage armies. you dont have to do anything but point and say take damage.

i agree with some of the above, start now and keep a very close eye on the cheese combos there will be a plenty.
i dont think the player cheated, i just think its poor judgement to play such rediculous armies in a national tourney. but who am i to say, i still love the shield golem dead-eye/demi magus combo that hamofaman uses.

after nationals this year i learned that i take things way to seriously and if i make it to 2005 nattys i will be playing just to hang out with all of the people i have met over the years.
its just a fun game.

When else would you use such an army? Nationals is suppose to be the second biggest event there is during the year. Playing such an army all the time at the local venue where many play for fun is one thing but this is fo rthe chance to be named National Champion and represent one's country at Worlds. I have to say this is the exact time to play such armies.

Auto damage has been a huge thing since Unlimited. Ram of course from Wirlwind but shakeoff was the ultimate autodamage. Most players do everything they can to lower the amount of luck or to increase one's odds of success. One has a better chance of rolling a 2+ on a D6 then one does of rolling a 7 or in the case of ram just moving into b2b. That is one of the reasons mounts were so popular near the end of 1.0. Bshugg two years ago is the perfect example of how having to roll can cost you a game.

i just wouldnt use it.

id rather not say i won nattys or worlds with a now illegal army.

thats just me.:D