So after last week’s article on balancing out a list, I decided to respond to the feed back.
In general, the feedback was not good. It went something along the lines of “You haven’t fixed the problem. This still looks like something I wouldn’t want to play against. Go die in a fire.” That was paraphrased of course. So I have decided to address some of the issues people were having. Some of these will come from Frontline Gaming while Others will come from the Lesserofallevils.
#1 Neverness– Neverness brought up an issue with having two Wraithlords and 4 units of Bladestorming Dire Avengers. It didn’t seem like much at the time as I have never even seen these units in action. Than I got to think about it. There was no balance in this. It literally was rock paper scissors. Sure, it would hurt a lot of people, but with a counter, it is game over. The counter part isn’t even what bother me. What bothers me is the fact that if it counters you, you are in for the most boring game ever. The thing I hated about flyers was that often people needed six’s to hit them. So what did I do? I throw out a unit that can’t be hurt by anything unless it is S5 or better. Gonna change that one.
#2 Hive Angel– Hive Angel went on a huge long rant about how I was missing the point. He said that I needed more diversity. I “only” had six different unit types in a 1500 point list. He thought that this resulted in a list that was far to narrow and not as diverse as it needed to be. The new list that I put up wasn’t better but in fact worse. I took one of the most diverse armies in the game and narrowed them down to a handful of choices that got spammed. I plan to try and run more different units. I still think I have been in the mind set of the old Necron codex where at 1500 points, I had 3 unit types. My 2250 tournament list fit on a single que card. My friend’s Wolf lord had more options than my entire army had. So I have decided to include allies in the army as this will help diversify the army as well as jump up the points a little bit. Necrons are really expensive at times point wise. Also, the only thing I could think of when I read your giant rant about diversity was this.
#3 Reecius– Reecius suggested something I hadn’t thought of. Since balance at times can be subjective, allow the opponent to decide what they want to play against. Bring multiple lists. This way, everyone knows what they are getting in their game. If someone brings a soft list and wants to play a softer list, have one in the options. It is sort of a pick your own poison sort of affair. Even if this isn’t a permanent thing to do, it will help me learn what people want to play against and allow me to build something that both myself and my opponent will enjoy playing. Proof that every little idea helps. Could make a huge difference in the future and not just a difference now.
#4 Jgrand– Jgrand made the point that balance is often subjective. He than went on to tell the simple truth about the list I put up. The point of what he was saying that at some point you have to say enough. Have fun, don’t be a dick, relax, and most games will be fun. Some people may not want to face tough lists, but you gotta draw the line somewhere. This reaffirms the idea of bringing multiple lists, but it also suggest that just trying to have fun is the key to a balanced list. Sure, you can gimp the crap out of what you do, but if I write a list in order to gimp myself, than I honestly haven’t addressed the problem.
#5 Colddawn– His comment was pretty to the point. The Necron codex is broken but beatable and writing a Spam list made no since for balances.. While the spammy part was right, the Necron codex part is something I don’t completely agree on. It confirms for me that the idea of balance is subjective. The Necron book is good, but not broken. Sure, some things may be broken, but the whole book isn’t that broken.
So after all this, what have I done? I said screw it and wrote something using the units I feel are the most fun while maintaining a coherent force. I wanted every aspect of the game and decided to bring my grey tide Orks out of the closet. at 1850, this should be relatively balanced. It must be able to shoot, assault, be rather mobile, have psykers, and be diverse all while being fun for me to play. Every FoC slot is represented save elite. I decided against it for the sake of keeping out some of the cheese. Tell me what yall think.
Primary detachment
HQ
Overlord with phase shifter, semp weave, warscythe, mind shackle scarabs (warlord)
cryptek of destruction with solar pulse
troops
9 warriors in ghost ark
9 warriors in ghost ark
heavy
doomsday arks
doomsday arks
allies detatchment
HQ
Old Zogwort
troops
20 slugga boys with nob with Pk, bosspole
20 slugga boys with nob with Pk, bosspole
Fast attack
15 storm boys with nob with PK bosspole
Heavy
Looted Boomgun with hard case
This isn’t bad in terms of straddling both quirky/fun and semi-competitive. While there are good elements here, there are some “sub-par” and underwhelming units. At the same time though, many of these “sub-par” units,” such as Zogwart and the Doomsday Arcs might be fun to use.
I think that you have reasonably achieved your goal here. While not “cutthroat,” you can win with this. It definitely beats the complete gimp-job of the other article.
I will say that if opponents are still complaining after this, there is probably no pleasing them. If you find people are arguing that Stormboys and Zogwart are OP, you might need a new group.
Thanks. One of the real deciding factors of what went in the list was how much fun I had with everything. The necron half is what I am really good with and really enjoy while the ork half is what I was good with a long time ago when I started playing with my orks. Always used a warphead, but never zoggwort and always wanted to try. I could always switch out zogwort for zagstruk
While Zagstruk is a cool addition, he is not a HQ choice but an upgrade to the Storm Boyz.
I can just down grade zogwort to a warphead
Thanks. One of the real deciding factors of what went in the list was how much fun I had with everything. The necron half is what I am really good with and really enjoy while the ork half is what I was good with a long time ago when I started playing with my orks. Always used a warphead, but never zoggwort and always wanted to try. I could always switch out zogwort for zagstruk.
I have several armies and I generally ask people if the want to play my competitive list that I take to tournaments (or planning to take) or just a casual. If the say casual I generally take Black Templars. I don’t expect to win but if I do I get the added benefit of ribbing them.
I wish that worked, but in my area competetive could mean anything. 2 ghost arks with warriors, 2 ccb with necron lords with 2+/3++ mind shackle scarab war scythe lords, 2 doomsday arks and 4 crypteks of destruction with 2 gaze of flame and 2 pulses was a hyper competetive list at 1500….
So I am gonna swap out old zogwort since his 0 ballistic skill means he cant use powers 1-3 at all as they are shooting attacks. In his place I am getting a warphead and zagstruk and a couple more storm boys