I would like to think I understand many things. Like humans were created when Tepeu and Gucumatz held a conference and decided that, in order to preserve their legacy, they had to create a race of beings who could worship them. Or when Gary Cherone joined Van Halen, I knew things would not end well. What I also understand is that Games Workshop has created a hobby that has qualities that appeal to all of us. I can remember picking up that hard covered Rogue Trader book back in 1989 and thinking now I can make the perfect robot! At the time 40k was some freak RPG-skirmish hybrid. Now 20 years later and five editions in we have a full fledged wargaming culture.
As 40k has grown, people have become specialized in the ways they get fulfillment from the hobby, for reasons other then an unhealthy relationships with Asdrubael Vect slave girls. We have players that got hooked by the fluff; falling in love with the Greater Good or kneeling before the false Emperor. We have players that create painted masterpieces without even knowing the model's stat line. We have players that spend hours on end building lists and frantically comparing them with others on forums.
We have players that want to see a mass of plastic and metal across on the gaming table just to realize the brilliant fantasies in there heads. We have players that love their beer and chips and play the game with their buddies just to get away from the daily grind. We have players that only want to win, feeding their id in some futile attempt to validate their own self-worth. Then, there are players like me that fell in love with all of it and are so invested it almost becomes an extension of who I am as a person.
What I don't understand is the competitive player. I am not talking about the guy that goes the local tourney to throw some dice against people he has never played before. I am also not talking about the win at all cost player that has serious control or inadequacy issues. I am talking about that guy that is a good sport, but doesn't have any desire to paint or understand the background of the game that makes it great, he just wants to beat face.
He is not interested in tactics as an art, but as a means to an end. It is a certain mentality. One that GW does not understand because GW is concerned not with a game, but with treating us more like model train enthusiasts. It is a bonus that there is a game for our train sets. I have read many comments across the net and one narrative I have seen is - Games workshop fundamentally does not understand the mostly American competitive desire to win. Even as an American I do not understand why more and more 40k players have become infatuated with competitive play.
Here is the basis for my confusion: there are game systems with better and more balanced rules. With 40k (more than most games) every victory can be marginalized or questioned. The competitive player's list can be perceived as unfair or it was just his dice rolling. Opponents or the community never give validation easy, even if the competitive player is deserving. To top it off, GW does not have a structured league system to determine the best players. Is it really as simple as the wargamers nature is inherently competitive or is there more?
What makes a competitive 40k players different from competitive players in other games? Would you consider yourself a competitive player and why? What place does competitive play have in Warhammer? Help!
If you want to be even more confused join the conversation with me on www.bloodofkittens.com
Can't Touch This!
Curse 40K club mate Danny Internets for tarpitting my council with TH termies!
Cool Tricks
Ok, so now some ideas for my fellow craftworld players… I’ll leave council size and warlock power load out up to you, but consider dropping the witchblades for singing spears along with adding Guide on the farseer. Spamming jetbike spears can make any army cringe in fear. On the way in your Farseer can Guide on your accompanying Vypers, oh sorry…Vypers suck…Wave Serpents…and then break off and Guide on the council.
Get up close to that pesky enemy tank and throw 11 S9 shots re-rolling failed hits. When the thing explodes then assault! Yes you lose an attack compared to witchblades, but with some synergy with your other units it is easy to make up for this. Move the council up, throw spears and pop tank, other long range units like fire prism then lay templates on the disembarking dudes thinning the numbers, and then you assault.
The other bit of tactical advice I want to leave you guys with is sometimes it's not what the seer council does, but rather what it can do that wins the game. Using a tricked out council to project a sphere of influence is a powerful option. Take the example of Chimera spammed IG. Does your warhost have enough shots to stop all those tanks? Even with the speed of your grav-tanks how can you counter the ability of IG to fan out across the table? You want to bottle neck all those tanks and logjam their movement.
What I often do through objective placement is force the bulk of my opponents tanks to pass a central point where I can completely hide my council from LOS with the given angle- of course this depends on the table terrain!
I then fortune up and just sit there waiting…
Why is there a brick in the cente of this table? Who cares as long as we can hide behind it! Fortune up!
Being able to jump over the terrain 12” and throw the spears 12” projects a nice anti-tank bubble. Being able to move up on the terrain, shrug off difficult terrain, throw the spear 12” and then hide back 6” also works.
When this scenario does present itself, the threat of what my council can do often has a bigger impact. This also works well with reserving all your forces so when your opponent moves around your council threat bubble and is close to the table edge you can hit them when your reserve units enter the game..but that is tactica for another time…
What's your take on Seer-councils Monkeigh? Fritz out.
DAWN OF WAR TACTICS
In Dawn of War, most armies do well to have the first turn and put something disposable on the center line, so as to restrict the enemy’s ability to get across the board. For Guard, I find that 2 empty Chimeras and a long combined Infantry Platoon works fantastically if I’m going first. I can put the enemy right on their board edge, and the Chimeras can use spotlights to let the Heavy tanks kill them. This is generally transparent, so most opponents choose to hold everything off of the board, which is, again, great for me. I would rather have nothing to do until turn 2 and my opponent entering from his board edge than have a chance to kill something on turn 1 and my opponent more aggressively deployed. If you have the second turn, you either accept that everything is coming from the Board edge and hope to have enemy units entering in useless places, or you try to use your deployed units to draw enemy attention to a location that suits you. Whatever you deploy as a second player in Dawn of War should not be meant to accomplish more than distraction. Lash Princes can do some good by grabbing the unit on the center line, but mostly you can’t reach what you’d like to assault, and whatever is on the center line probably isn’t worth the deploying units to try to kill. Almost all armies benefit from the same strategies as in Pitched Battle in the same ways, with the exceptions given above.
SPEARHEAD TACTICS
In Spearhead, we have some very different circumstances. First, armies can deploy further away (almost 7 feet) and closer together (less than 18 inches) than in any other mission. Second, normal Reserves provides a lot of ability to cover ground – a Rhino deployed at the edge of your deployment zone has to drive full out for two turns to reach the furthest objective near your long board edge, whereas the same Rhino could enter the board and be on that objective without possibly getting shot or tipping your hand. This is also true of objectives in your opponent’s deployment area – you may be able to reach them more quickly and safely by using Reserves than by deploying normally. Third, consider that units advancing from one deployment corner to the other will be hit in the flanks, and possibly rear, by enemies entering from the long board edge away from their own deployment area. This is especially good for destroying Chimeras and Predator chassis vehicles.
Spearhead provides a lot of obvious advantages to the best Firepower armies, as Railguns and Battlecannons have the range to take advantage of the deep deployment areas. What is harder to see is how Spearhead benefits Assault armies. Because Spearhead has the deepest deployment area for your whole army (Dawn of War has more deployment area, but only for a small portion of your army), the temptation to go for every objective is often irresistible, which means that you are more likely to be able to get into assault sooner and with more units. When considering how many objectives to pursue in a Spearhead deployment, remember that lower Resilience armies have to deploy more force per objective. I favor going for a small number of objectives while ensuring that enemy Troops can’t make it to more than one as the means to winning, especially in Spearhead.
I’ll continue discussing the missions and deployments next time. Your comments and questions are welcomed.
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