Warhammer 40K: Preparing for Your First 40K Event

Goatboy here to let you know how to get ready to play in your first Warhammer 40K (or any tabletop) competitive event.

Let me tell ya it is gonna be a wild week.  Lots of stuff and other fun things coming out – the least of which is two new codexes that actually reach people’s hands.  It will be a wild time, a fun time, and hopefully something everyone is going to look forward too.  Today while we eagerly await “Edition 10.5”, let’s talk about what you need to do to get ready to go play a competitive event.

If this is your first time or just another notch in the battle belt for you – getting prepared for an event is something we should all do.  With that let me go through a list of things you should think about before leaving for an event, jumping in a packed car, or flying across the skies to defeat the False Emperor on the neoprene tabletops of a random hotel’s conference room.

Check and DOUBLE CHECK Your Army

Make sure you check all your models, look for every piece, and ensure your army is ready to go at least a week before you have to leave.

This is a huge thing, and I won’t go into some of my friends who have messed this up, had to use terrible koozies for representative models, and got grimgark-shamed for it.  I always try to go through and look at what my army needs to play legally, pull out every single model, and determine if I need to paint/fix things to get it right.  Just doing this a week before the 40K event means you can get whatever army carrying option you have ready to go and hopefully don’t have to worry about forgetting things when you actually leave.

Pack Up All Your Gameplay Gear – In Advance

Prepare all your game materials beforehand – your battle backpack/bag filled with your tape measures, default numbers of dice, objectives, and anything else you might want.

I always make sure I have a pretty solid bag set up for an event.  I try to have two sets of dice for an event in case I get mad at one set (when the dice goda abandon me) and need to move to the other set of emotional support dice.  I normally build my armies into blocks of dice rolls so having that set aside can make it a lot easier to be ready to go as you move in that crowded mad dash from table to table.  I also end up having a few extra tape measures, my chess clock if needed, extra objectives, and just anything else I could want.

Normally, dice, objectives, and a tape measure do it for most folks, but when I play my big monster Daemons, I try to have easy-to-set-up wound counters as a method to keep the game tracked.  It helps me and makes sure my opponent knows what they need to do to send that thing back to the Warp.  Or at least get sad as they see that all their offensive damage didn’t do jack to the monsters built of the Warp.

Pack Your Tourney Medi-pack

Set up a few medicine-like things to have on the go so you can keep talking, playing, and having fun.

I always have a big bag of cough drops, gum, allergy medicine, cold medicine, and even heartburn meds on me most of the time.  A lot of the time these events have you eating later, eating worse, and just talking way too much.  The cough drops keep your throat from getting wrecked, the allergy meds help deal with whatever new con-crud is floating in the air at your event, and even the cold meds just make sure your headaches and sinus issues are kept in check.

Charge Up Everything, Bring Extra Batteries

I started in the days of matchups being printed out and pasted on a wall while crowds of eager 40K players tried to find their tables.  Now we have a nice little app that shows the table, who we are playing, their lists, and even missions.  I won’t go into how much better it is now, but if you have a device you need to play – make sure it is charged or you have battery backups to keep it going.  Things like Tabletop Battles makes this game so much easier to play and just make sure you can play as best as you can.  Heck, the GW App is how I bring my rules to the game with its quick methods to look up things like abilities, shooting attacks, and the glorious melee options.

Bring Water, Or A Way to Carry Water

This is one of the things I am not always the best with either – but hey get a water bottle you can fill up.  I quit drinking sodas and really most alcohol a while ago so water is my key source of fluid power to help me conquer the battlefields of the 40K universe.  I think I should brand out a bottle or something so I can feel cool carrying a Goatboy water container like the cool kids.

Pack An Army Transport Tray

Having your models in a tray helps out a lot when moving from table to table.  It just makes it easier that you don’t have to move over there, pull everything out of your case, and then try to set up in a timely manner.  There are a bunch of companies that make them and thankfully a lot of them break down in a way to make it easier to fit in your carrying on bag or just in some kind of backpack.  Currently my go to’s are some Frontline Gaming break down trays but I know there are other types that lots of people like.

Last But Not Least- Pack A Great Attitude!

Finally let’s say just have a decent attitude.  Everyone is here to have a good time, get away from reality, and throw some dice.  Always remember this is a game – for fun. I know we all want to win but sometimes you just don’t win.  That is the biggest thing is that you just take loses on the chin, move on, and try to wreck the next match up.  Heck even if you lose again, it is ok to. No matter what the amount of dice we roll in a game still isn’t enough to truly get the average we all live and die for on the tabletop. With dice games, some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you.

Hopefully these things help you out when you are going to your first event, going to your latest event, or just help you prepare in general.  I really enjoy the competitive scene and have been enjoying 40K 10th Edition more now and just can’t wait to see the cool new things coming down the pipeline.  This game has really started to gel pretty well especially with a company paying attention to things and hopefully keep the game fun, fair, and exciting.

Happy Gaming!

Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.

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