Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts: Metagame?
I was going to put together a painting article this week, but I didn’t get the camera I wanted to use to take step by step pics. Those interested in speed painting info will have to wait a week or so. But I swear it is coming. I also changed up my personal blog to just show the models I painted over the week.
Enough of the intro. Today’s thought deals with the idea of a 40k “metagame”. If you’ve played Magic in the past, you have seen this word passed around a lot. It deals with the idea that there is another game that lies outside of the basic rules of the Warhammer 40k game. To play this outside metagame you must try to foresee the type of armies you might face in an upcoming tournament.
The goal of the metagame, is to get yourself fully prepared, as well as make sure you have an army that will be able to take on whatever comes your way in a competitive environment. You can do this by tailoring your lists to counter other common armies you expect to play. If you see a whole lot of mechanized armies, you might take more anti vehicle weapons, instead of the anti infantry weapons. If you know you will see a lot of a certain type of list, you might try to take some things that can give you a distinct advantage when competing against it.
You can “metagame” pretty easily by just thinking through the game a bit more broadly than you normally do in single one-off games. There are many ways to “break” the basic norms of the game to try and create an advantage for your army. If you know certain list builds are always seen at the top tournament tables, then most likely you will start to see them showing up at the local scene, as knowledge of them spreads through the community. Here are some ways you can “metagame” and try to create lists that will help give you an advantage that is a bit more reliable than hoping your roll hot.
What’s new? The newest codex on the block will usually have a strong showing in any given tournament. Buy the new codex and look at the toys people might play with. If they look pretty neat you will probably see them on the field. This works both ways, as some of the new books might have cool toys that can give a big bonus versus the newest tough armies.
What has been winning? Look at tournament results both locally and nationally. People can be lazy. If an army is winning a lot, then there is a good chance some people will just copy the list and not test it. If you see a lot of one style army, tailor your army a bit to help fight these guys. Just like taking a bit more heavy weapons to deal with the rise of mech or more anti infantry guns in case of hordes.
Metagaming has come to the forefront of many popular games where competition comes into play. Whether it is a videogame, card game, or Warhammer 40k, this extra game that surrounds the hobby is important to consider. Of course, metagame can back fire on you. There might be someone with the army you never see, but somehow kicks your butt all over the place (looking at you Dark Eldar players). You can also out think your own army, by building a ton of tricks in it and never see the armies you can play those tricks on. So beware when metagaming yourself into odd-ball byzantine army lists. Sometime the best trick is an army that has none.
This is one of the reasons why I build fairly redundant armies. I like tricks, but I try to make sure I cover as many bases as I can. It does hurt me at times, when facing an army I wasn’t prepared for (Dark Eldar… grumble), but again that is just a part of the game. If I could be prepared for everything, then I would lose some of the excitement in playing things I normally don’t see. It also means I get to hear some people cackle as they brought some pain onto my power chaos marines, orks, or weird daemons.
How does this all fit into the casual gamer experience? Well the biggest way is to just look at what you normally play against every week. You might not be fighting for some kind of prize, but you still don’t want to bring sticks to a gun fight. Just look at what you regularly play against and try to tailor parts of your army to combat it. If you always play your friend and his half painted orks on Friday night, why would you take lots of lascannons? If you play versus a ton of Land Raiders, why not take some melta guns.
Now onto this week’s 40k list that builds up from 1500 to 2000 points. I really enjoyed the Fabius Bile/The Father list and thought of some ways to make it more fun and less, “I hate Toughness 5”. The push of Khorne marines into the list should give me some more fun games. It is like I am running a bunch of mini bezerkers. I used to love running them back in the day, and would be a terror with the Axe of Khorne. I know why the took it out, but I do miss it. (For those wondering, it was if you rolled a 6 to hit, you got another attack. It was a power weapon, so it would get pretty goofy when you started to hit 6 or so times with 5 attacks heh).
1500
HQ: Fabius Bile – 160 pts
Troops: Plague Marines (8), Plasma Gun (2), Asp Champ, Power fist, Plasma Pistol, Rhino, Extra Armor – 319pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Weapon, Combi-Melta, Rhino – 305pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Weapon, Combi-Melta, Rhino – 305pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Weapon, Combi-Melta, Rhino – 305pts
Elites: Dreadnought, Multi-Melta – Pts 100
Pts: 1494 – Scoring 4 – KP – 10
1750
HQ: Fabius Bile – 160 pts
HQ: Daemon Prince, Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime – 175
Troops: Plague Marines (8), Plasma Gun (2), Asp Champ, Power fist, Plasma Pistol, Rhino, Extra Armor – 319pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino, Extra Armor – 330pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino, Extra Armor – 330pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino, Extra Armor – 330pts
Elites: Dreadnought, Multi-Melta – Pts 100
Pts: 1744 – Scoring – 4- KP – 11
2000
HQ: Fabius Bile – 160 pts
HQ: Daemon Prince, Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime – 175
Troops: Plague Marines (9), Plasma Gun (2), Asp Champ, Power fist, Plasma Pistol, Rhino, Extra Armor – 342pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino, Extra Armor – 330pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino, Extra Armor – 330pts
Troops: CSM (10), Melta Gun (2), Bile Upgrade, Mark of Khorne, Asp Champ, Power Fist, Combi-Melta, Rhino, Extra Armor – 330pts
Elites: Dreadnought, Multi-Melta, Hvy Flamer – Pts 105
Elites: Dreadnought, Multi-Melta, Hvy Flamer – Pts 105
Elites: Dreadnought, Multi-Melta, Hvy Flamer – Pts 105
Pts: 1982 – Scoring – 4 – KP – 12
So there you go, a build up based off the initial base into a 2000 point build. I am building up dreadnoughts as we speak with Forgeworld goodies. I used to love them back in 3rd edition days, and I’ve decided to just play with them now since they look fun. I can’t wait to see my own dread blow up some of my dirty rhinos with some super awesome rear armor shots…haha. Plus the fear of my butt getting shot up by multi-meltas will give a nice fun addition to the game. That’s why they are not built up with heavy bolters or other weapons that are not as deadly. There is no fun in that. I will take pictures of them for my own blog and see if I can get some better shots with Bigred’s camera.
The army is metagamed for my local environment. Lots of melta to deal with Land Raiders and other fun armored vehicles. I wanted to try Mark of Khorne on my guys since I feel Khorne just doesn’t get the love he needs. Blood for the Blood GOD!!! And of course, not one, not two, but three dreads for the pure hilarity.
Oh and here is the picture of all the stuff I messed around with this week. Minus one Loota I painted to replace the one I lost in Baltimore.
For those interested, I am open for commissions. This is for painted figures as well as drawings. If you are interested, shoot me an email. You can also use that email to ask me any questions about army lists, painting and anything else.
