Adepticon update!
Day 1 has come and gone!
As predicted, it was deathstar mania. Beastpacks, Seercouncils, Centuironstars, and Oh’vessastars everywhere. Flying Daemons, Space Marine Bikers and Wraithknights and Riptides shortly behind them. The horror!
The finals are an all Deathstar affair. Jy2 almost made it in with Wraitrhwing Crons, but lost a close game to Tim Goreman’s Centurionstar. Frankie also almost made it but got stopped by Tau in game 4.
The finals is a group of the usual suspects, all playing “fill in the blank” stars.
There were a pleasantly, surprisingly large number of Tyranid players in attendance, although none made the finals.
We will update this post as the finals progress!
We have an FMC daemon on daemon finals! Nick Nanavati and Rob are duking it out in the finals. They overcame two Beastpacks (Sean Hayden and Tony Gripando) in close games. Speed and psychic powers on the Daemons in an environment with predominantly kill point missions gave them an edge in a meta filled with Deathstars.
It was a great event for the camaraderie and enviornemnt but the meta really was a bit of a downer with so many lists designed to layer USRs through allies combos. Half the armies present rerolled damn near everything, ignored cover and/or were immune to many in-game effects.
The overall atmosphere was upbeat and everyone was having fun, but everyone is hungry for a change. The game as is creates such hyper powered combos that the gap between the average list and power list is becoming not only nearly insurmountable but fun killing.
The best players take the best lists to stay competitive with each other but at the cost of the overall tournament scene. We need to decide as a community of tournament players to tone it down a bit or watch our favorite pass time bleed players to other games that are more fun to play than 40k currently is for many players.
Oh, and a side note: I kept my eye on the unrestricted 40k event (that drew all of 13 players) and it was pretty crazy to see. Almost every game featured some type of titan, and almost every game was decided by who went first. In all seriousness and fairness, unrestricted 40k, played with everything allowed in the rules at present is extremely unenjoyable to play in my opinion. There is nearly no skill required to win the game. It comes down to packing in d weapons and going first. It’s so out of whack as to approach absurdity.
That said, AdeptiCon is a blast! So much to see and do and we’re having a great time.
Before we destroy adepticon with our ___Star, Tell us the location of the rebel base?
Up vote!
Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?
The follows the fool blindly.
nerf the centurian star!
Also how was the FMC star that Geoff brought doing?
(because it might not be one unit but 7+ monstrous creatures is still a friggin death star :))
Tyranids aren’t a Deathstar! Lol
Were Formations in for the Championships?
No
Well I’m definitely impressed that Tyranids had a strong turn-out in that environment.
How many Coteaz? And for that matter, wtf is the pural for Coteaz?
In most cases, it’s simple to pluralize a name. Just add an “s” at the end.
•Wrong: The Smith’s
•Correct: The Smiths
There are some exceptions and cases that cause confusion. When names end in… •”o” add “s” – such as The Delanos
•”x” add “es” – such as The Foxes
•”z” add “es” – such as The Cortezes
•”s” add “es” – such as The Joneses
•”y” add “s” – such as The Purdys
•”ch” add “es” – such as The Burches
•”sh” add “es” – such as The Marshes
ask and ye shell receive!
It was kind of a rhetorical question.
More than I could count without taking off both shoes and socks!
Of the top 16 lists Tasteytaste posted, only one of them that could take Inquisition didn’t.
Did I call that one or did I call that one? lol.
Actually, I am slightly depressed to have been right on that.
But Centurions aren’t good! How can they be winning?
What I find interesting is that the ‘most broken unit in the game’ isn’t out in front of all the pairings. And its currently not nerfed to the BAO standard… In fact it is outnumbered completely in the top 16 by SM, Chaos (the ‘oh poor me my codex sucks’ guys) and Tau, with Chaos and SM being the most prevalent. (all this from what I could gleam from the adepticon pairings image).
Sounds like people should buck up and stop blaming combos and start recognizing the same thing others have, everything in the game has a counter, not ‘everything should be able to counter’.
it’s**
You’re oversimplifying the argument based on anecdotal evidence. The seercouncils got beaten by similar armies. You can say man up, but I’m watching players quit the game, left and right.
Its not anecdotal if the Seer Councils wasn’t beaten by itself, its actually proven fact, you don’t need the deathstar to beat it (the top two lists at Adepticon weren’t ‘stars’, and that was with the 2+ re-roll in effect). I concur the game is crazy right now, but probably more due to the machine gun to face rules/codexes that we have gotten since 6th broke, than to the “OMG everything is so broken, the sky is falling”, which is what many people fall too because they don’t have time to assess and adapt to the game as they could in previous editions.
In regards to Deathstar mania…If you bring a knife to a gun fight, why would you be surprised that you got shot? Bring your own gun and maybe after you shoot the other guy a few times they might want to try something else, like going to the Circus. 😉
Not all armies can build an unkillable deathstar though. Also its boring as hell. You want a bit of action and twists and turns in a game of 40k, not two deathstars staring each other down for 6-7 turns then jumping on objectives.
Amen brother! I love all the new units, in-depth details and love going into the game but you need variety! deathstars are lame. lame lame lame.
Oh I agree, I dislike playing the deathstars myself, they simply don’t offer that interesting a game, and I play Eldar.
My point really isn’t that Deathstars are good and yeah for them, more that Deathstars are going to happen(and have) in every edition of the game. Building your lists to accommodate them (whether through ignoring them and targeting the juicy bits, or bringing your own), will ultimately provide the better and more rewarding solution, over nerf bats and rage quits.
The Circus, although not a ‘deathstar’ is still very tough to defeat, does that mean we limit the number of flying creatures so that ‘everyone’ can have a better chance? Some armies simply have no real good option against flyers just like others can’t build the Voltron robot.
I forsee the Nids coming into its own soon, and as Reece said ‘its no deathstar’ but when you place 7-8 FMC/MC on the table people are going to get concerned and will probably have a rough time dealing with it and the other power lists.
@z3n1st
You are right that deathstars have always existed. I have no problem with them in principle. It’s just that they have never existed to this extreme before.
And not one is rage quitting, just looking for a way to stop the competitive scene from bleeding out. Every single player I talked to at Adepticon at the top tables thought the deathstars were lame and they were using them! lol, we have to come together as a group to decide what to do, otherwise competitive players by their nature will take the most powerful lists they can and the scene suffers as a result.
Whenever you say “its a proven fact” based on a very limited pool of data, you sound like an idiot. And, again, ‘its’ is possessive. You’re looking for ‘it’s’, the contraction of ‘it is’.
Just as importantly, keep in mind that game-breaking doesn’t mean the same thing as ‘literally impossible to beat’. It just means that it skews the balance of the game drastically. Instead of going into a game with a 50-50 chance of victory, or maybe a 60-40, dependent on skill, you’ve got a 90-10 where you have to hope your opponent rolls poorly, your dice are on fire, and your opponent makes major mistakes, and you play a tight game.
Okay English Police it’s it’s ;), here’s a cookie
I think you may want to go back and read the thread again, and then refresh yourself on what the term ‘fact’ stands for, here is a hint:
something known to exist or to have happened.
So before indicating that I may sound like an idiot please, pause, take a deep breath and then verify the statement.
Did I say they never get top slots?
Did I say they are easy to defeat?
No, I am pretty sure I said you don’t need a deathstar to beat it.
Also note the Uber Star really only has a what, roughly 80% chance of being uber? (because without Fortune its a point sink and causes your opponent to giggle with glee!) This means that the Uber unit that costs you around 800+ points is only uber 80% of the time, which will take your 90-10 chance of winning and pretty much flip it in your favor (maybe not as drastic, but I think that 90-10 is being pretty darn generous as well).
I am not defending the Deathstar, as I said I don’t play it myself (although I do own it, and have since 3/4th edition, whenever it was that it first became available), but neither is the sky falling because its in the game. The game is ‘broken’ because the standard checks and balances are taking a back seat to the new and shiny push that has become GW.
Does that mean that everything gets nerfed? Does everything get modified? It feels to me that it starts to troll into Fandexdom and sorry but after spending almost 20 years and thousands of dollars I want to play for that which I paid, not someone else’s version of it.
We have this discussion on the main forums, I suspect, don’t we Darklink? (guessing here), my intention wasn’t to derail the discussion here to become one that exists somewhere else.
Also note I didn’t say I wasn’t an idiot, but please don’t insult someone because their opinion differs from your own. (Which appeared to be the case here)
You got four beast stars, four tzeentch circuses, Fennel’s Jetseers, several Taustars, and Gorham’s Centstar. Props to the dudes who made it with Drop Wolves and Legion of the Damned.
Any steps taken to nerf deathstars must also do something about the flying circus, or it will take over as the top build and nobody wants to see that.
I wonder though if the missions were the same as last year or if they updated them. I thought those missions last year favored both deathstar and Flying Circus pretty heavily (KP was everywhere, player placed terrain is a godsend to both types, etc)
The missions were a big part of it, yes. MSU armies counter deathstars and Flying Circus lists fine. And personally. I have NO problem with the Flying Circus. It is a fun army to play with and against. While it can be crazy when they get really good powers, that is an army that you can interact with and are not just watching it do things, helpless to react.
I feel like that has a lot to do with the meta as well. I glanced over the top lists and from what I saw most of them completely lacked anti-air. In other words they kind of ignored the existence of the Flying Circus. That combined with favourable missions and clever players…
an unrestricted tourney of 13 players, isn’t really going to be a good representation of what a tourney will like. it will mainly be played by people who just want to use their toys. you’re not going to get the best players , nor will you get people that will take anti super heavy lists.
I just don’t think that is a “tourney” setting. it’s just guys getting big toys out.
I disagree. The game is a joke with no restrictions. It’s not a game any more.
Reece I kinda feel 40k is where fantasy was in the nineties during the heyday of Herohammer. Even if it can’t compare to todays possibilities in 40k that still doesn’t change the fact that it is the same problem or rather challenge we face now.
In an article called beardy something the entire WD and a lot of the designers talked about what was enjoyable and not in casual but also competetive gaming.
The point here is that they proposed a simple comp that levelled the field and made it impossible to abuse the ruleset to the levels prior.
Now how to do that in 40k today.. I do not have the answer but I believe a comp is needed and perhaps a serious look at objectives to shake things up and remove a lot of the auto includes of today.
Oh and cheers for keeping us updated! I’m from Norway and we’ve got such a small gaming environment that this is one of my go-to places for tactics and great articles 🙂
Hey Tommy, glad you liked the updates! And yeah, Comp may have to happen to make the game more fun for everyone.
You understand what “getting the big toys out” means, right?
That you think about penis way to much?
Reece
I played in the exterminatus and it was funny because the flying circus won that too. The reavers had no way of dealing with all the flying MCs. I played the knights and they are by no means over powered. I agree with your assessment of current state of 40K right now though.
That is funny but I agree. The game has become insane.
Im a novice SW player. Anyone know or have any guesses how that SW list organized his pods? I know Logan goes with long fangs but do you think he put the other hqs rhere too? I wonder if he gave wolf guarss to the 5man grey hunter squads and if he used all combi meltas
I think arjack is good in a pod list
Nerf the Circus, clowns are scary!
Lol, clowns are scary!
Clowns are okay unless they say “they all float down here” or they are trying to turn you into cotton candy and drink you
For myself competitive 40k has never been as fun / interesting as it is now. The amount of crazy combos out there just motivates me to become a better tacitian and more aware of what’s going on. And those of you saying that Death Stars are boring , in my humble opinion, are mistaken. When playing against beasts/seers I find myself being at the edge of my seat the whole game. “Is he going to get fortune? Oh he also got x and y power, need to watch out for that! How can I prevent him from getting that multicharge? Maybe he’s got the better list, but can I outplay him?” And of course there will always be OP builds. I mean come on, we’re not playing monopoly here, 40k, like magic/yugioh, will always have good builds. In these card games, people are also running crazy combos which ignore a lot of the basic game mechanics. And if you don’t want to run an “OP” build, then expect to lose, that’s just the nature of most competitive games. Or run a less powerful list and try to focus on becoming really good with it, like Reece did with Footdar in 5th – I’m sure he can tell you how difficult, but rewarding, that is.
Also I would like to point out that back in 5th the top builds all consisted of tin men in boxes, which were all identical and boring ( aka razorback spam) . At least now we’ve got
SOME variety in the game.
Of course everyone has their own right to do what they want with their own hobby, but if you want to become good at competitive 40k, I feel that it’s appropriate that you have to make some sacrifices.
Sorry for the rant, just my $0.02 🙂 And please don’t get mad at me, I love all of you 40k players out there 🙂
For me personally, +1 to the above :
well said
Hey Olliswe, thanks for the feedback.
Some players do like playing deathstars. Some players like the challenge of playing any difficult lists. I am like you, so is Frankie. We both enjoy the challenge. However, MOST players that come to a tournament don’t. At all. In fact, it turns them away.
I have been having good luck with CSM+Daemon allies in at my local RTTs and Leagues. I won a fall league with only one loss in my first round against Gonyo (Grey Knights) and then ran the table with the next 8 games. I have been on the final table at the Huzzah Hobbies RTT the last three months (going 3-0 twice and 2-1 once, lost to Chip and his Beast-Star in the final round). Many of the players at these events here are the same ones in the top 16 at Adepticon.
I do not say this to brag but simply to make a point that it is possible to win outside of the Death-Star meta but you are certainly facing a bit of an uphill battle. For whatever reason I match up well vs Seer Council, Beast-Star, and O’vesastar, the best part is I do it with a very balanced army, though I forgo any sort of AA other than a pair of Heldrakes and their vector strikes.
I also find that all of those lists really start to struggle if you take troop choices that have a little lasting power (I take a 20 man Horrors unit and a 20 man Plaguebearer unit from my allied slot). Just my observations over the last handful of months.
I am not a competitive player but i would be really appreciate getting a look at your list.
As a CSM player i am always looking for more input to make chaos stronger…
Sure man, you can hit me at at Smurfalypse@gmail.com and I will send ya a PDF of my current list I have been running at tournaments.
Tks man, email sent 🙂
Did not get it.
Just sent another one…check your junk email in case
Tks
Fred
I had the honor of battling Tony Kopak and it wasn’t SO bad 🙂 I had my chances.. what an honor. Didn’t finish well and that is on me.. lost to a necron/csm player and a tau player both of which I should have beat but my mistakes overtook me.. learning and looking to improve!
Grats man, wish I had been able to go this year. I am super jelly!
Are the full results posted somewhere? I would love to see how the field finished, especially where Nids landed.
Sorry it didn’t go well for you iNcontroL!
I haven’t seen the results, yet. Let us know if you find them!
I really enjoyed adepticon this year and as this was my first I think I’ll definately be back next year. It was good getting to meet people I only sort of interact with online but follow their doings.
@iNcontrol It was cool to meet you, this is Steve the guy who played you and Frankie with Jim on Friday.
It was cool to meet you Reece and talk some nids and whatnot.
Great to meet you, too!