Gaming 102: Improving your game (tactica)

Warhammer 40k Tactica

So, you have amassed an 40k army, and played a few games with it. Yet, you are struggling against some of the more experienced players. How do you step up your game? How do you make an army list that is competitive? Hopefully this post will allow you to make that next step.

Each army has a many, many different units to chose from, but some of them are... awful. Others are ok, and  there are some that can be a foundation for a great army. Usually, when regarding the usefulness of a unit, it will be referred to as:

-"Competitive"- This unit performs well for it's intended purpose, whatever that may be. It's positives outweigh it's negatives, and it is a unit that can perform well in tournaments if used correctly.

-"Semi-Competitive"- This unit may perform well against certain armies, but poorly against others. While not as good overall as "competitive" units, they may be useful in tournaments.

-"Casual"- This unit will probably not contribute positively to your army. It could be too expensive, too weak, or have too many negative special abilities. It also may be that there is an alternative unit that performs similarly, that is cheaper or stronger. These units should only be taken in special circumstances, like when playing against close friends.

Sometimes determining what category a given unit falls into is relatively easy- like when you can tell it is complete garbage or super awesome. Other times, it takes several games, putting that unit in situations to prove it's worth, for it to be correctly categorized. You should also note that these are only opinions, and depending on how you use that unit tactically, your evaluation can differ from those given by other players.

Creating a unit breakdown of everything in a given codex takes a lot of hard work, experience and knowledge. For a single codex, this could take weeks/months of playing games and analyzing outcomes. Therefore, I will be creating a list of Tactical articles that I have found and deemed acceptable. Here they are:

Grey Knights Tactica
Imperial Guard Tactica
Chaos Space Marine Tactica (not completely finished, but still very good)
Dark Eldar Tactica
Necron Tactica
Space Marine Tactica
Tyranids Tactica
Oks Tactica
Sisters of Battle Tactica
Tau Tactica (Only goes over changes since 5th edition)
Dark Angels Tactica


Most of the above links are from DakkaDakka. If I could not find decent ones there, I searched elsewhere. Some of the newest 6th Edition codexes aren't up here (Daemons, Dark Angels, Eldar) because they are so recent, nobody has had the time to write up a decent tactica for them yet. I will post they as they are available.

These articles are an invaluable resource. I highly recommend reading the one for your army, and the others if you have the time. It's in the same category as reading the codexes for the other armies: Basically, know your enemy.

These tactica serve another important purpose: knowing which models to buy. Instead of buying every model for the whole army (which would cost a fortune), you can create two or three competitive army lists with different specialities. Using those lists, you can then buy only the models needed to create them (saving you a bundle). It also saves you the time and effort of painting those models that will never be a sucessful part of your army.

I hope this has been very helpful to you all. Be sure to comment with suggestions, corrections, or other random tidbits of information.

Gaming 101: What you need

I have already posted once about gaming, and some of the things I will go over will be somewhat similar. I will try to make this as helpful as possible though.

What you need(Essentials):

-Your army- This is pretty much a given.

-Your army list(s)- A list of all the units you will be taking for a given battle. Having a clearly defined army before you start the game is essential, especially if you are using proxies. Proxies are models that are used in place of other models for one reason or another. I occasionally use my Chaos Daemon furies in place of Chaos Warp Talons, because I don't own any Warp Talon Models. An army list makes sure both you and your opponent are completely clear on what rules/weapons your models have.

Below is a screenshot of one of my recent army lists. It wasn't that great, so I made others, but this one is the most organized. You can see the point distribution for each of my units, as well as their wargear and special rules. The rules are defined on the right side, so I don't have to check the Rulebook every time I want to use that unit. This style of list has been extremely helpful, and I would recommend this way to any player regardless of experience.

-The Big Rule book (BRB)- This is, in my opinion, the most important thing that you bring to a game (besides your army of course). There will no doubt be times when a dispute of rules comes up, and you need to come to an agreement. There is no way you can memorize everything in there, so it's best to bring it along. The traditional rule book is $75 on Games Workshop, but you can always find it cheaper in other places (a used copy on Ebay will probably be cheapest). Also, a condensed version can be found in the Dark Vengeance set (I haven't seen/read it, so I'm not sure how thorough it is)

-Codex for for army/armies- Everything that applies to the Rule Book applies to this as well. Especially at the beginning, you will be constantly checking your unit's stats and special rules. You should also carry along the codex of your allied army(s), and possible the codex of the army you are facing (if you know it, and own the codex).

 

-Dice-  In a dice-based game, you definitely need some dice. You need more than just a few, though. My suggestion is to buy one of the games workshop dice boxes, which also comes with a scatter dice. Also, having some differently colored/sized dice is very useful for attacks that have different characteristics. Having a dice bag to keep them all together might also be helpful.

-Templates- In Warhammer 40k, some weapons use templates of different sizes and shapes for their attacks. There are three different templates which can be purchased, or cut out of cardboard (or another like material).

-Tape Measure- Nothing fancy, just needs to have a range of over 72". That is usually the longest distance you  will be working with in the game.

Other Recommended Accessories

-Carrying Case- This should probably be in the essentials, because it is so important. If you plan on doing any serious gaming, you need a carrying case. Otherwise, the trip to the hobby shop could leave your models broken or with chipped paint, which is a total downer. For those of you who don't want to fork up the $60 for the cheaper of the GW ones, you can always make one. I made one out of a cardboard box and some packing foam. There are also plenty of tutorials online on how to make your own. Here's one. Here is another using magnets (very interesting).

-Other Items- As I am almost positive I have forgotten something, or several thing, please let me know if you can think of them. As always, I appreciate the comments. They let me know what you guys think, because ultimately, I'm doing this for you.

Sometime soon, I will be doing some changes on the blog, trying to make it easier to navigate. Also, keep an eye out for more sculpting posts. I have sculpted many things since my last post, but none of them are worthy of showing anyone. One of my current projects is semi-promising, so we will see about that.