So Space Marines just came out with a new broken supplement… again… What’s there to do about it!? Well come on in and see what myself and a couple of my locals are doing to deal with it.
Hey guys and gals, BigVik here with another in my series on metas and personal improvement.
We’ve all seen them, the looming bogeyman of the coming Space Marine supplement of the week.
First it was White Scars, super assaulty, lots of tricks, also Ultramarines are still blue…
Next it was Raven Guard and Iron Hands, one EVEN more tricksy, and the other now the benchmark for brick to face.
Next were Imperial Fists and Salamanders, with Salamanders being the second best at taking a punch, the best at giving one, and Imperial Fists REALLY liking bolters and vehicle killing.
I’m writing this blog post after seeing a couple locals getting discouraged about how the meta seems to be pushing toward Marines only. The wailing, gnashing of teeth.. The … not playing any games.
I understand, I really do, I’ve played Guard since late 4th edition, and 7th had me about to quit the game entirely. But i did one thing that kept me in it. Even in the darkest days of never getting content for my army of choice, I was still pulling 3-2’s out of GTs. How?
It comes down to one thing, and one thing only.
Play the game.
Play with the marines, play against the marines, just play the game.
With the rapid hard FAQ’ing that Iron Hands got after they had a meta bending weekend, it is clear that GW will not just leave us all out to dry while the marine players just get to run roughshod on all of the other armies.
And even in the meantime, learning to play into strong armies can and will get your base skills honed in the game you love to play.
There’s a really strong aura ability?
Cool, figure out if your army has a way to snipe the character out, or turn off the aura entirely for the turn you’re trying to kill the buffed models.
Your opponent using an out of line of sight character to stop you shooting at their front line? Figure out a way around it, or figure out what you can do to win the game using that as an asset.
If your opponent has one of their units balled up in the middle being made untouchable, you now have one clear choice, kill everything on the table outside that buff. Pure and simple. Not easy, but simple.
Well that’s my two cents on how to manage the challenges of a changing meta.
What challenges have you had to deal with in and around gaming in the ever changing meta that is 40k, and other games, post below!
And as always, Frontline Gaming sells gaming goodies at a discount, every day!
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That is your advice play the game? lol I hope they are not paying for these articles! how about expecting a retailer to actually test play these codex’s so every release a third of the other armies get shoved back in their holes. How about making more than a fourth of my army worth playing regularly? Since 8th came out I have literally watched my entire 40k group quit because even though they are listening they still keep nerfing things… I am glad Marine players finally get some good toys and rules but….. fix the other armies too!
thanks for you reply Blue
As will happen with every game over time is a shift in the useable units in any codex. If your local people aren’t chasing the meta, then there’s no problem. What I’ve seen is people with responses similar to your own where they neither see the latest strongest unit, nor do they want to continue playing because of the idea of the existence of this bogeyman.
Marines is a great codex, and though GW is letting things past the printer, at least they’re nerfing the stuff within a few weeks to ensure the health of the game as a whole.
With regards to fixing other armies too, psychic awakening has done some very interesting things for Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Chaos. I’m looking forward to what they do for Blood Angels and Nids next
Broken META ? So what happened with the Knight Soup for over a year, Aeldari Soup et al earlier in this version. And then the Tau who are still winning NOVA and SoCal despite not being part of a META. Or the Orks who won GW GT 2018 without a Codex.
Are the best generals still winning ? Is any army auto-win ? Do folks actually stop playing when a new Codex/Supplement/campaign book or do they whine ? Are 100s cancelling going to LVO because of the SM current ascendancy ? Or course not. Every army can be beaten, but not by every player.
And what about the missions ? According to GW these make much more of a difference than unit points costs. Now missions written for the new META are released in CA2019 in a week and these will be used at the 2020 GW GTs in UK, Australia and Texas. It will be interesting to play them.
Hi Rob, thanks for responding.
As the article hints at, a regular occurance after the Marine codex dropped was for 2 people to show up to play, and 4-8 people to filter through on 40k night and complain about the new broken thing in the most recent supplement, saying it’s “broken trash” and to say they won’t play until its nerfed. Two-three weeks later it is nerfed, the next supplement was announced, or Psychic Awakening, etc, and these people continue to salt fest.
After the Marines Codex came out, but before the major nerfings, there were large numbers of drops from a number of GT’s throughout the country, along with the mass migration of many of the best players over to Space Marines.
But that aside, the game is at the most balanced it’s ever been, and the CA2019 missions do look to be interesting.
I have successfully adjusted to the new meta by buying 20 centurions.
Truly, everyone should follow my example on how to adjust.
To be fair, I think that’s the best thing about the giant Marine-balance-turd GW threw on their games.
Love the Centurion models and it’s great they are getting some table-time. Now if I could get some for my Space Wolves, I’d be content.
Something fun I’ve found in my playtesting against centurions is that Calladius grav tanks can pick them up pretty handily with their now flat two damage. deepstriking and outflanking them brings the screen game back in.