Hey everyone, Reecius from Frontline Gaming here to talk some shop: will the 40k meta settle a bit during the Age of Sigmar releases?
40k has been a rollercoaster lately, with weeks of big releases back to back for quite some time. It’s been pretty crazy, but a lot of fun, too. One of the impacts of this rapid-fire release schedule has been an ultra-turbulent meta that has created a unique environment in the tournament scene. We’ve been unable to have a “settled” meta, so to speak. While all metas are typically local, there is a prevailing tournament meta that tends to apply across the larger scene. With this manic flow of new rules, the meta has remained in flux and we’ve seen some really creative lists popping up, which I think is great! On the flip side, though, it’s been tough to plan for what you’ll be seeing at an event, leaving many feeling that the TAC (Take All Comers) list remains nothing more than a dream.
With Age of Sigmar looming on the horizon for the foreseeable future, do you all think we’ll have a chance for the meta to settle a bit and see some predictability in tournaments? Or do you think we have so much of a backlog of information that the meta will remain in constant flux, even through this AoS induced 40k dry spell?
For me, I am actually excited about getting a break from new material. There’s a ton of stuff we didn’t even really get to try, such as Harelquins, Imperial Knights and Cult Mechanicus. We didn’t have the opportunity to dig into some of the various formations out there, either, or explore the real depth of the “big” Codices such as Eldar, Space Marines and Dark Angels. I think this hiatus will be great! I can’t wait to try out some more of the combos and tricks that lay undiscovered among the material we have, now. While I would never want to go back to the glacial release pace of 5th ed, I must say with hindsight it really did allow us to truly master a new codex.
One of the joys of this game, and what keeps it fresh over the years, is the endless amount of variety available to us as players. With all of the awesome combos and such you can run through allies and formations, the game has become effectively endless in variety. I think that we don’t have to worry about a stale meta, like we saw at the end of 5th ed, for many, many years to come in 7th ed 40k. Vive le variety!
What do you all think about the current 40k meta?
I still haven’t gotten to play a proper game with my Daemonkin! When I also play Skitarii, IG, Renegades, CSM, Daemons, and any combination of these, I just don’t get enough games in each month to try out all the combinations, lists and themes I think about.
While I would have liked a new CSM codex, I’m happy about a calm period for 40k releases.
I’m kinda sad that the old 7th books are already somewhat outdated compared what we have been seing since the Necron release. As a BA player i was very happy with the 7th book, pretty good internal balance. 5-6 months later i felt like a yellow cab for the rest of the imperium. Still most books feels balanced for casual games if you take a non decurion style/free point list. Only exception being Eldar, even most of the fluffy lists are quite competitive.
That being said the amount of different lists finishing in the top spots really reflects how much more diverse the fields are, i am only worried we might see more and more battle companies. But the various chapter tacticts does help with adding a lot of flavor. I didt play in 5th, but i’m loving 7th edition.
As history has shown, just when everyone thinks they are caught up on 40k rules, GW will change things again (maybe with a FaQ, lol)
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AoS will be good for other games, as AoS may bring some of those Veteran WHFB players that like to have fully painted armies into other game systems (KoW, 40k, etc.).
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We can only hope that some of the; unpainted, proxy, codex jumping, newest-meta, mostest powerfuls players will go over to AoS with its pew-pew, no rules, no points, infinite summoning BAIT as well…
40K is hard to even recognize after only this past year of releases. It has been daunting and to a degree, demoralizing. My interest in local competitive play has certainly dwindled as I don’t want to dish out hundreds more dollars to get my armies up to par with what I read about.
My biggest issue with the 40K release schedule is you can’t even buy, model, and paint this stuff in time before the next newest thing shows up that either roflstomps your army or a new book drops that nerfs your army into oblivion. I was still working on some wraith knights then the new eldar dex dropped and now no one will allow me to use them. (so much for being able to play with the models you own, but I digress) I was also working on some grey knights and well that new book grey knighted them. I think the analogy of GW being a roller coaster ride is pretty spot on. If they continue to put out codexes at the pace they have…they are literally going to sell one copy and everyone else is going to pirate that copy from the intrawebz.
Man, what stuck-up, pansy-wearing part of the world do you play in? I’ve got guys asking me to bring 2 Wraith knights because they want the challenge of seeing if they can find a list that can win, either by aligning with mission requirements or by being bigger and meaner. They haven’t found one yet, but a couple of the games have been close.
I feel for you.
The only guy that’s straight up quit was a guy I got paired with in a tournament (only 1 Wraith Knight). He was just coming back after years away and thought a tournament would be ‘fun’. I completely understand his frustration, since he had no way of knowing what’s out there. But guys at a local club/scene? As Immortan Joe might say, “Mediocre.”
Whenever things seem “too hard” or “unfair” ask yourself WWIJD?
Does the ITC ban them? I am not really up on their rules…if not maybe i should find an ITC tourney to play in.
In the ITC Lords of War are limited to one per army. Wraithknights are Lords of War.
I’m excited. I’m hearing that it’s going back to the alternating schedule. Aos, than 40k.
Honestly this might be the first time that I’m happy with them slowing down releases. Im at that stage where I’ve got the models I want and im just building/painting them, and its nice to not have 3 new codices come out while your painting one squad of dudes haha. This should give people time to get themselves ready for whatever new foe will come in the near future.
Personally I am hoping that the Sigmar Hiatus will give you guys at Frontline and the rest of the ITC a chance to do a more in-depth review of what should be FAQed in the latest releases, and to reevaluate the format. Some things I would like to see addressed (and put to a community vote) are:
– the limit of only one CAD. With war convocations and battle companies running around, limiting a list to only one CAD seems arbitrary, and seems like a hold-over from 5th/6th when armies were much more confined in list building.
-Daemonkin summoning. The book seems clear to me about summoned bloodthirsters arriving at the start of the turn before the movement phase. Switching flight modes is not movement. This should be put to a community vote instead of being decided by Oz behind the curtain.
– the Scryerskull on the Tech Priest Doninus allows you to identifyyaterious objectives, yet the ITC missions do not mention mysterious objectives. So does the scryerskull allow you to turn an objective which was otherwise not “mysterious” into an objective of a specific type? Does playing with the Dominus require both players to use the rules for mysterious objectives? If there are no mysterious objectives, does the scryerskull do nothing?
These are just a few things that need to be addressed. I hope more time will be spent hunting down the most confusing rules (and rulings) and addressing them. Ideally, they should be put to another community vote. I appreciate all you guys do for the game, but if you don’t keep up with all the problems the new books introduce it will all collapse into a confusing mess.
I second the point on bloodthirster. Wonky rules interpretation makes them pretty useless. Also, itc does use mysterious objectives already
I would love to see a powerful Harlequin army bat rep. I have the makings for an army but just can not play it without some eldar to help. Would love to see how somoene else plays it. Hell there are not even that many bat reps out there with Harlies.
There really isn’t a “good” pure harlie army, harlies are a supplement to CWE/DE pretty much. Harlies suffer from being both expensive (points wise) AND fragile, and need their cousins to make up for at least one or the other.
That being said, I’ve been pushing around the idea for a Harlie star for a while. Jain’Zar + a big squad of harlies with farseer support could absolutely walk through an opponents army. Put them in a building with an escape hatch and you can start stringing together multi charges from turn 2 on while being safe from alpha strikes before you get posers off. Jain’Zar synergies with Harlies in a criminal way, especially if she’s you’re warlord.
I’m definitely looking for a bit of a break in the release schedule. I still haven’t had a chance to put my Cult Mechanicus on the table, and have only played my new Knights and Skitarii twice and my Dark Angels and Crimson Thunder Marines once each. On the one hand, yeah, I know, I’ve got too many Armies, but still, that was, what, 8 Dexes in 6 months? Kind of ridiculous.
The 40k meta for the last year or so has transformed the game from tabletop miniatures to collectible card game. Its become Magic in its heyday of thousand dollar instant win card combos. Basically you just buy whatever is the absolute best from the last codex and you win if you are even half competent. Thats a real shame. You may have not liked the “stale meta” of 5th edition but at least you could play an army you had built more than 6 months ago and had half a chance of winning.