After delving a little into why I love going to the team events – specifically the ATC yesterday – I decided it might be a good juncture to shed some light on the external team building process that we in WA go through…
First up – you need 8 guys crazy enough to fly across the country to play with toy soldiers – which can be easier to find than you think! Traditionally the local league ladder has been used to get the best ranked players from the year to make up the team and simply count back down the ladder as people decline their spots. This years team had to be done slightly differently as the league we had been using has now closed.
We settled on a mix of the last league results as well as a voting system from the team members that the league had given us as well as a nomination system to allow open applications.
What I (since I am the captain it fell to me) also had to consider was how well the team meshed socially. I guess that could be considered strange but I tell you what – I feel more confident about this years team than any other and that’s because we can all get along without ego or pride getting in the way.
None of us claim to be the best (though one of our players has managed to get the nickname Mr Green after his last years matchups!) and we all respect each others abilities on the table. We all rank consistently highly at events and the top tables will almost always feature one or more of us. That alone would bode well but its more than that. We all get along. Its easy to have conversations about building armies and the teams goal and how to get there because we all recognise that the teams results are all that matter.
Once you have the 8 we have to decide on the lists we will take. Each codex may only be used twice per team – once as the primary detachment and once as a non primary. No 2 players may have the same combo of codex and you only get access to 3 detachments. Lastly, 1 lord of war is allowed per player though each is considered unique. There are a couple of other little things but this is the gist.
Think about that for a second. Think about your immediate group of 7 friends and the armies they play. Could the 8 of you simply bring the last armies you played and meet these conditions? I would suggest that’s doubtful. We managed to have 3 players who could all have taken eldar, 2 for Guard, 2 or perhaps 3 for knights, and 4 of us for marines! Players at that point have to give and take and it often means building whole new armies – which in my case was what I had to do!
We ended up with a good mix in my opinion –
Eldar in a combined arms detachment
Daemons in a combined arms with allied chaos space marines
Necrons in a Decurion detachment with a cool Dynasty Ctan formation (whose name escapes me!)
Imperial knights with a Tau Fire Base
Imperial guard with Space marine and inquisitor allies
Blood angels with a secondary blood angels formation
White scars marines with an assassin
And finally me with Skitarii and Knights
As you can see the lists end up quite varied. I wont spoil the lists yet as they have not all been checked and confirmed by the TO but once they are I will post them. I will also post a summary after the event on the goals of each list and how they worked on the table compared to the theory that went into the builds since I don’t want to give the opposition any heads up about our plans!
Once the lists are all in its time for the round pairings – something that’s been worked on right now by the TO. We hope to have them soon. Once they are in – the real planning can begin!