GW Grognard: Don’t bother chasing the Dragon

Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio and hater of fun, here to throw some cold water onto your 40k face.

Chasing the Dragon. It’s something we all do at one point or another. Some people are always chasing the Dragon while others are leading the Dragon. What is this? Basically it’s another way of saying “Chasing the meta” and is why we see people running “netlists” and the latest models from Games Workshop. This isn’t something new but it has become more widespread thanks to the internet and coaching services. It’s always good to have that competitive itch but one should temper it with some humility and, maybe more importantly, a real sense of your abilities. I say this this because, for probably 90%* of you, there are 2 things holding you back.

Money

This is probably the biggest thing. If you are chasing the Dragon you are probably constantly spending money on the newest model or army. As we all know, Games Workshop models are not cheap, especially if it contains a lot of Forgeworld models. I know that there are some people that can do this but this doesn’t apply to everyone. You could always borrowhammer an army, especially if good units are in a fluid state during an edition change. This can lead to a hodgepodge of an army and many times doesn’t look nice on the table so could affect your paint score. Just be sure to return the models to the owner. The other option to you is to convert a model or use a proxy and this opens up a whole new can of worms. If you go this route be sure to check with the TO/judge before the event to get approval. I won’t even go into how those types of armies look. I guess as long as they aren’t beer koozies it’s fine.

Talent

Sorry to tell you but you are not as good as you think you are. Very few people are. Just because you were able to afford a netlist army doesn’t mean you will know how it operates. There are some lists that really only work because of the person piloting the list, not the list itself. The list you copied may not play to your style so you may not do well with it. You may be able to win games locally but once you go to a larger pond, the sharks in those waters will most likely eat you up. That doesn’t mean you can’t be good, just that you may need to practice more and develop your own way to play the game and pretty soon your name could be up in the lights.

So what should you do? Just give up? No. You just need to keep playing and try to play an army that you enjoy playing. I have found that sticking to an army you enjoy and play for a while allows you to better understand the army, it’s strengths and weakness, and how to play them to the best of their ability. It just takes patience and practice.

That’s all for this week. Let me know what you think, how good you think you really are, in the comments section below. 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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*More like 95% but I don’t want to be mean