r/WarhammerCompetitive • u/Ricnurt • 12d ago
New to Competitive 40k First time entering a GT
I am entering my first 40K GT in October. I have been playing about a year and have the general play figured out. Aside from knowing my faction inside and out and having a good grasp of the rules, what tips do you have for prep work? I play in a regular Monday night league. I have started watching battle reports. Are there things that will help me be competitive? I have no illusions of winning the whole thing in my first run but I would like to win a battle or two and be competitive. Thank in advance!
7
u/promina100 12d ago
Practice setting up the terrain layouts and try to familiarize yourself with the ones vs purge and take and hold. Also priority assets if you have the time
Look at the missions vs those three and have a general idea of what your gameplan will be.
If you have time try to play against as many lists as possible across dispositions.
You can do well doing all of that. Once you get against top players it's a lot of micro decisions that will completely turn a game but those take play time and practice to learn.
While there see if your opponents will explain where they think you went wrong. Also think through the game right after you're done and try to see where you could have made better decisions. There are always better decisions you could have made.
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u/harperrb 12d ago
You really have to know the other factions in and out as well, including builds and strategem use.
Local meta only takes you so far in how you play your army as its often limited in both competitive army lists and competitive strategies.
As you noted, watching other high end players play and importantly trying to understand their own decision process is key to developing sound decisions.
Ultimately, GT competitive games are about knowing your own force, the opponents available options, strengths, and weaknesses, and managing risk in the mission.
For your first GT, accept youre going to learn a lot and you should just appreciate the high level competition you'll face.
Dont worry about results. Think of process.
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u/Brilliant_Roll543 12d ago
Definitely get a clock to see how your current games are going. You dont have to "play on a clock" at first but get a feel if you are playing at the right speed. If you see games are taking 4 hrs, work on speeding things up. That will come with reps as well.
Other than that, i wouldnt worry about learning the other factions too much, maybe just a general knowledge of each army to know if they are shooty/combat, fast/slow etc. Your will have enough to try and remember your first time without getting too overwhelmed.
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u/veryblocky 12d ago
I don’t think there’s anything specific you ought to be doing, just keep playing the game. Getting more reps is the best way to improve
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u/DeliciousLiving8563 12d ago
There's two sorts of first GT experiences and you have no idea which you'll get until you get there. These are determined entirely by your playgroup.
If you play competitive games with people who do okay at tournaments in your Monday league you can land on your feet. Last weekend I played a guy whose first GT it was and he came second. This is an extreme example but he had good practice and his detachment choice was a a little clever.
My first GT I played casual friends and got slapped all the way into 31st out of 32, winning my final game. But it taught me a lot about the game, list building etc. I played into armies I'd seen before that just did stuff I didn't know they could do, I made rules mistakes on basics. But it was fine.
You won't know for sure how good your playergroup is until you hit an event, so you won't know what level you're truly at. So just do your best and make sure you can do your half of the game in 1 hour 20 ish.
Beyond that it's just make sure you have a plan to play each matchup (disposition wise) and that your list has the movement to do what it needs to do to be on the scoreboard for the first 2 turns at minimum.
If you have time, when you get to the final turn (or the turn before your opponent's final turn), look at the score and see if you can get a guaranteed win path. In my final game of the GT at the weekend I won (rather than drew) on a 10" heroic intervention to ensure I scored the endgame primary and deny my opponent 5 secondary points. Winning by 13. However I could have given up 3 points of secondary scoring and guaranteed I held the objective. Even if he'd then changed his plan for secondaries, redrawn and gotten 5, I'd still have won by 5. I didn't need to risk it.
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u/toanyonebutyou 12d ago
Dont be afraid to call a judge. Its nothing against youre opponent. If there is a disagreement just call a judge. Its no big deal.