Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Goldilocks and Doomsday Scenarios

Let's talk about two different scenarios when you bring up your army list to other 40k players.  Going to let you guess which is brought up more.  I honestly wonder why.



JJ typing, First up Goldilocks Scenarios, as I call it.

This is the game where everything works perfectly and nothing goes awry.


This a rather simple scenario to describe.  You make all of your To Hit, To Wound rolls and Saves.  Your opponent deploys foolishly.  A round at a tournament with someone who has never played before.  Opponent has nothing that can stop your tanks or heavy hitting squads.  This can go on and on, which is more of an exercise in redundancy or beating a dead horse.


Now for the other side of the coin.  The side of the coin so many Haters, and others, love.

Doomsday Scenarios.



This scenario is also easy to describe, yet is described more often

Getting the basic ones out of the way: dice go bad, bad match ups shooty-Tau against close combat Orcs.  Forgetting key models at home and having to put other models in the army because the game is WYSIWYG.  Now onto those scenarios that we hear when bringing up our lists.  You talk about your Wraithguard list and someone brings up poison weapons, you bring up your Necron Solar Pulse list and someone brings up Tau Black Sun Filter, you talk about your Canoptek Scarab farm and someone brings up IG pie plates, these examples go on.

You can prepare for one while putting yourself more at risk for other lists.  List tailoring is advantageous.  However you can't list tailor for pick up games or Rogue Trader Tournaments, one day tourneys, or Grand Tournaments, multi-day tourneys.  While goldilocks scenarios are rare to come by, it seems doomsday scenarios are everywhere.  On the table, internet and 40k shop talk over food and drinks.

The question at the beginning of this post stands.  Why do 40k players always bring up doomsday scenarios when someone is talking about their list?  I never do this because it is not in my nature to piss in someone's cheerios.  Now be a general asshole and sort of unfriendly, that I'm intimately aware of.  But to come up with ten reasons why someone's list won't work.  Or poke holes in someone's idea.  Purposely, notice I typed 'purposely', steal someone's thunder.  Never understood that.


slainte mhath

2 comments:

  1. I'm sure many will want to blame WACC players, I finally realized that it's the dichotomy between GW wanting the game to beer & pretzels and the complexity of the rules paired with the variety of army combos that makes it feel very competitive and overwhelming for even veteran players. o_O I got out because I had limited time and chose painting over gaming. With 6th I felt like I was studying or exams or boards and constantly worried about ruining some one else's good time with my full on suck. It stopped being fun for me. Add in the time factor (2+ hours to play a pick up game?!!!) and it was dead to me. Still, some great models though...those knight titans? Droooool...

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    1. Really like how you put it. Relaxed game, with complex rules while making competitive/overwhelming lists. I'm glad that you chose to stick with painting. Definitely inspires me. Yeah, risking a pick up game with That Guy, has stopped me from doing any pick up games. Which results in me not being a strong player. Now the Knight Titan is a sexy model. Can't wait to start working on it. Lucky for me people are approaching me for commissions. All my painting time til at least til April will be for commissions.

      I'm truly thankful.

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