Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to grumble my way to mediocrity!
Welcome back everyone. I’m taking a break the working the FAQ salt mines to talk about 40K. As many know, I have been playing the game for a long time. I have been playing in tournaments since the early days, when Games Workshop ran the show. Due to the latest FAQ from Games Workshop I have had to rethink the way that I build my army, at least for now. A few people have suggested that I change the legion trait that I use, or use certain models. To that I said *Cartman voice* “whatever, I’ll do what I want”
I’ve played chaos from the beginning of my Games Workshop gaming life. I’ve specifically played Black Legion since Rogue Trader and the Slaves to Darkness chaos book. I have been fortunate enough to have played during the 3.5 edition codex and continue to play Black Legion. I played during the sad days of 5th and 6th edition. We got a little boost with the formations during the last days of 7th edition. All this time I’ve only played Black Legion.
With the new edition, most players have the flexibility to include other chapters, septs, or legions, to cover whatever shortcomings your army may have had. I understand that if I include certain legions or units that it would make my army better. There is plenty of evidence that those specific legions and units actually would make my army better in a tournament, but there is a very good reason I don’t use them. I don’t care!
I’m a Taurus, in case anyone is asking. Stubbornness is a trait of a Taurus and I have plenty of it. I know what I like, don’t like, and don’t care about. Simply put I do not have the desire to drastically change my list in order to be more competitive. I like being that special snowflake that is able to win by using an army or unit that other people either don’t consider good, or even consider at all. Let’s face it, we all want to be a special snowflake.It is difficult for me to even consider another legion whose color scheme isn’t black and gold.
I’m also a tactile learner. I learn better hands on than by being lectured. During training for work, I would always get sleepy and nod off, but would become wide awake and alert when we start actually doing what we were learning. As a result, the best way for me to actually learn how armies and codexes operate is to play with and against them. That being said, I still refuse to make the necessary changes to my army.
Will I ever make the necessary changes to better my chance at wining a RTT or *gasp!* a Grand Tournament. No. My stubbornness, and laziness, kicks in and I refuse. Although some would say my play style is also a reason that I don’t win the tournaments. Lies and slander, I say! I will win in my own way, dagnabbit*.
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Hopefully you’re more flexible than I am. Drop a note in the comments about anything you refuse to change or include in your army and let me know if there is anything you want me to cover. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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*I will be adding an Alpha Legion detachment to my Black Legion army. Don’t tell my teammates, shhhh.
I applaud you good sir – play the game the way you want to play it and have fun with your plastic toy soldiers. As a longtime DE player, I feel some of your pain. Playing the way you like (fluff-wise) can help make you a better player, imho.
I’m the same way. I always try to write lists with style, not just power. I don’t mind if I lose a bit of oomph as I enjoy myself far more and the victories, when they come, are sweeter for having done it my way.
At least Abaddon the despoiler is boss. With presience + diabolic strenght and a 6 roll on Drach’Yon every imperium unit shits in the pants. Who cares about top 10 ITC lists when u can smack down imperium knight with 20 atacks.
And after movement phase for 2CP u heal D3 wounds with nurgle stratagem. Mortarion u pitiful monster, thats what u get for not having infantry keyword :).
Abby is extremely good. I am surprised more people don’t use him, frankly.
Speaking of “play how you want”, I want to see someone take a (mostly) infantry T’au list to a tournament. I’m talking hundreds of firewarriors and breachers with ethereal, fireblade, and pathfinder support.
BLUE TIDE!
That’s the exact list I am building =P
There is a dangerous side to this.
If you stubbornly refuse to change your list or play style and GW decides to drastically change your army’s or the game’s core play style, you can end up with an unplayable illegal army or a very fluffy barely functional one. Being fluffy and stubborn isn’t bad, but you have to accept that when things change around you, you may not be able to play you 13 Hellbrute meme list and your army of only Rubrics will feel extremely unsupported compared so other stuff.
You need to know when yield on stubbornness also. Granted this is usually when the water is up to your neck, but you should know when to maybe make some changes to your list to make it legal or find another army your main one has slowly or quickly morphed over editions and you no longer enjoy the way it plays.
Remember, this is a game and the point is to have fun. If you are stubbornly resisting change to have fun your way, more power to you. If you are stubbornly resisting change as your fun drowns because the island moved, you may want to makes some changes so you can still play.
People are so possessed about chasing the “perfect” and “competitive” lists that in the end they are the ones who lose all the fun from the game. Why people end the game even before it starts just by looking at the list. Or even claiming the game is “unplayable” and u need to change it so u can still play.
Also playing 1000 points games on average is more fun than the 2000 points in 8th. The first turn dakka is lot less dramatic and with less units the objectives and missions gain bigger impact on games. Units like dreadnoughts, tanks, wraithlords have more impact on games because they need to survive 2 times more shooting in 2000 point games than in 1000 points game even trough they have the same defensive stats.
There are a lot of judging, sweeping opinions in that post.
How about. Everyone enjoys playing 40k differently. I personally find playing casual 40k and just “throwing dice” around very unsatisfying. 1000 point games even more so. They are so limiting that dice always feel like the biggest factor.
For just trying out new units and combinations its much better to play a short game on a smaller table. Its like straight jumping into round 3 without the 2 hour of i shoot this, that.
You’re not wrong. This was starting to happen to me as the Decurion was released. I wanted to have all the options, so I didn’t necessarily chase the meta but I wanted to be ready to play all of them all the time and after a few months I found myself with 18 new Destroyers and 30 Tomb Blades, not half of them painted. Instead of converting and painting models at my own pace like before I overextended like crazy and in the end that made me quit the whole army.
I totally understand that. I do make some changes but I think, at this stage of my gaming life, I prefer to do it at my own pace. I know that today I do not have the drive nor determination to try to win a GT, like I did back in 3rd and 4th.
Sticking with your theme and army may have two sides to it but so does everything, including being on top of the meta. Even if you play at tournaments, which I find lovely because you see new boards, different enemies etc.you can set yourself different goals than placing high. Let’s face it, few of us would ever be on top of the heap anyway and if you stick with your army and know it inside and out you might be able to take on someone who just copied a top LVO list but isn’t the league of player that used it there.
Love it. I’ve played Ulthwe since 3rd and enjoyed the fluffy build then and I was pleasantly surprised with the Ulthwe stratagem in the codex (just to name one). I’ve around long enough and have the models to make slight modifications to my lists as rules change and meta changes in my area. However, the core of my army has been the same for almost two decades!