My friend Kyle wrote a really interesting article on his blog ( http://imaginarywars.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/yu-gi-oh-killed-40k/ ) where he talks about the current mindset in regards to how 40k/Warhammer’s players are adopting a video game/collectable card game mentality when playing/list building. What he means by that is people are no longer playing armies/taking units that they like because of its background/looks/fun factor and instead are just choosing it based on competitiveness (ie min/maxing). I can see it more and more in tournaments that I go to. More and more you are seeing just space wolves, blood angels and imperial guard because they are the newest/most competitive books and less of most other armies with a lot of the lower tier armies are just absent. The importance of painting is taking a back as people focus more and more on list building. I am used to being one of the top painted armies at any tourney I go to but now I just have almost no competition here in Calgary (obviously there are exceptions :). I am not saying that I am that good at painting…I am saying that nobody is putting any effort into it anymore (I saw a blood angels army at the last tournament I went to that was literally just primed red...THAT’S IT!).
‘Ard boyz is maybe the best example of the direction that our hobby is taking. It is a tournament that forgoes all aspects of the hobby OTHER than winning. You don't even need to have a painted army. If that is the direction that 40k is going what is the point of even making it a model’s based game? Why not just proxy everything or have GW just sell shitty pre-painted models like so many other game systems? The biggest focus from a gamers’ standpoint in these tournaments is to make the single most unfun (ie competitive) lists possible. If you think about it 40k or Warhammer Fantasy might just be the worst game systems around to run a “winning is everything” tournament because of the way Games Workshops writes and releases their miniatures/army books. You have roughly 12 different armies per system, being written by 4-5 people over the span of 12 years and 3 editions (that last one was for 40k). There is no way even half of the armies can be balanced enough to do this type of tourney well. I personally think that ‘Ard Boyz just might be the worst thing to happen to our hobby since I started playing 40k, especially when you consider that it replaced the Grand Tournaments/Conflicts as the GW supported tournaments. Those tournaments are what we should have instead of ‘Ard Boyz as they focus on all aspects of the hobby, not just list building/winning. I have been to 4 conflicts and grand tournament and they were all incredibly fun to play as there was something for everyone at them.
After thinking about Kyle's article and thinking about ‘Ard boyz I have decided that I want to start “Taking the Fun back!” with the next army I make. While I do love my Tyranid army it’s list has been redone well over 20 times, constantly being refined and turned into something that I feel is very competitive, but maybe not all that fun to play against. It ONLY has the most competitive choices in the codex (well…people will argue Mawlocs and Venomthropes being added into that grouping lol).
When I talk about making an army that is designed to “Take the Fun Back” I am referring to two different aspects of army building. First is to make an army that should be as much fun to play against as it is to play (there are two people playing after all J ). It doesn’t really have to be super competitive but shouldn’t be a complete push over either as challenge is part of the fun playing the game. The second is to also focus on an army story and overall theme. This I find goes 100% hand in hand with the first aspect as it gives you another, in many ways a more compelling reason to take units in your army other then “it’s the best”. I have a couple of armies in mind for my next project and as of right now I have two that are standing out. Here they are:
Army #1: Ultramarine Tyranid Hunters (ie the flip side of my Tyranid army since they have Ultramarines strewn all over their bases and it was made to be one half of a larger army project)
Ultramarines 2000pts
HQ
Captain Decimus Cabro (Counts as Darnath Lysander)
200pts
Chaplain Cassius
125pts
Elites
Tyrannic War Veterans (10) (ie Sternguard) – Decimus goes Here
- Combi Meltas x 4
- Sergeant – Power Fist
- Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon
340pts
Terminator Squad (5)
- Cyclone Missile Launcher
230pts
Dreadnought
- Multi Melta
- Power Fist w/ Heavy Flamer
- Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon
160pts
Troops
Tactical Squad (10)
- Multi Melta
- Melta Gun
- Sergeant w/ Power Fist
- Rhino
235pts
Tactical Squad (10)
- Missile Launcher
- Flamer
- Sergeant w/ Power Fist
- Rhino
230pts
Fast Attack
Assault Troops (10) – Cassius goes here
- Jump Packs removed
- 2xFlamers
- Sergeant w/ Power Fist
- Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon
245pts
Heavy Support
Predator Destructor
- Lascannon Side Sponsons
120pts
Vindicator
115pts
Everything I have in this army was taken with killing Tyranids in mind as well as things I think would be cool to see in a Tyrannic War Ultramarines Army. The first logical choice are the sternguard as they have hellfire rounds which were designed to kill Tyranids. I wanted Lysander to go with them because I both LOVE the look of the model and he has one of the coolest most underused rules out there…bolter drill (ie any member of his squad can re-roll all misses when shooting bolter based weapons). He also has the ability to bolster defenses which makes sense when encountering a Tyranid assault (since 100% of the time they are the attackers). Cassius is also a no brainer when talking about Tyranids and Ultramarines. He doesn’t really do all that much to help the army, I just think he is characterful to have. I also wanted to have Terminators in the army but I despise Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Termies (as I think they are greatly undercosted for what they do and they are the most cut and past unit in the book) and I think that regular terminators fit this army better anyways. The Dreadnought is there only because I have the Forge World Venerable Dreadnought and it is one of my fav models FW has made. Everything else is taken in the mindset of eradicating bugs (ie lots of flamers and large blast weapons with some heavy weaponry to kill larger bugs).
Army #2: Heaven and Hell
Blood Angels 2000pts
HQ
Dante (Angel of Light aka Heaven)
225pts
Astoroth (Angel of Death aka Hell)
220pts
Elites
Sanguinary Priests (2)
- Jump Packs
150pts
Troops
Sanguinary Guard (5) – Dante goes here
- Chapter Banner
- Inferno Pistols x 2
- Power Fist
260pts
Sanguinary Guard (5)
- Inferno Pistols x 2
- Power Fist
230pts
Assault Squad (10) – Sanguinary Priest goes here
- Melta Guns x 2
- Sergeant w/ Power Fist
235pts
Assault Squad (10) - Sanguinary Priest goes here
- Melta Guns x 2
- Sergeant w/ Power Fist
235pts
Death Company (10) – Astoroth goes here
- Jump Packs
- Power Fists x 2
- Power Weapons x 3
445pts
This army has as much to do with how much I love the new models as the overall theme. I really like the idea of having these golden angels fighting alongside these insane killing machines who have lost all control. I see having the assault marines in there as a kind of bridge between the two different sects of the army and they will also add some nice variation to the overall look to the army (so it isn’t JUST gold or JUST black). I also think this army will be very fun to play as everything will just go into reserve and deepstrike into battle. Another nice thing is every last model in the army moves 12”.
These are just two of the “Themed and Fun” armies I have bouncing around right now. The main reason why they are both marines is because I want to do something with a lower model count. I do already have a Death Skullz ork army mostly built including scenic bases, but I just can’t bring myself to do another horde army as there are 125 models in the 2000pts list lol.
One thing that I am really enjoying about living in Calgary is that there are people here who see this game more or less as I do and are doing some great things about it (like that Eye of Terror Tournament which was the definitive anti ‘Ard Boyz tourney lol). I would love to see more tournaments like that in the future and to see more people buy into that mindset. Anyways, I have rambled on long enough and I want people to keep in mind that this is 100% just my personal opinion and should be taken as such :). It would be great to hear what others think and if anyone has any suggestions/comments on the two army lists.
- Ghoulio
