40K-arma Chameleon

3 Minute Read

Oct 22 2010

Howdy, boys and girls! Crazy Red Praetorian here to give you my thoughts on the growing trend of using one Space Marine army to represent all power armor codices.

Every store seems to have several of these armies(and more everyday), Blood Wolves, Ultra Wolf Angels, and the dreaded Dark Blood Ultra Wolves of Nurgle. You’ve all seen them, most of you have played against them, and some of you are playing them RIGHT NOW.

Yesterday, I was reading JawaBalls‘ blog and he mentioned this trend and commented “but that is another rant”. I thought, “Wow, I’m not the only one that has a problem with this.” Many of you probably don’t have a problem with this trend. It’s your army do what you want, most would say. Okay, I can dig that. That is a very good point and I do believe in the “most important” rule, HAVE FUN.

However, when I see wolves in sheep’s‘ clothing or wolves in blue, red, purple, or candy apple pink armor, I can’t help but feel a little……bored. That’s right kids, it’s downright, utterly, coma inducing, put me to bed boring. I set up to play a nice looking Black Templar army and the first thing I hear is this is my counts as Wolf army. My next game is against an Ultra Marine Mech list….yep, Blue Wolves. Chaos, nope, they’re running as Khorne Wolves. BORING!

What happened to the die hard chapter loyalists? DA players hated SWs and the trash talk was epic. Epic I tell you…..and fun. BA players wouldn’t think of using another army’s rules. The Blue Boy Scouts wouldn’t stray from THE CODEX if it meant picking up some blue Sisters of Battle. Nurgle players wouldn’t bathe in order to be more Nurgle like( well, maybe those were Magic players). Anyway, my point is players seem to be less connected with their toy soldiers these days, they give up their own codices too easy.

The guy that taught me how to play 3rd Ed 40K was an Outrider (anyone remember those guys). Anyway, Steve was an Eldar player. He loved the Eldar. Even though he had about twelve other armies, he still would rather play Eldar(win or lose) than anything. I see very little of this kind of behavior anymore, at least in my area.

Has competitive play broken that old spell that a particular chapter used to cast over dice throwers? Is the need to play the “strongest” codex that important? I know that getting beat is no fun. But, most of the current codices are capable of winning. So, why desert the fluff that drew you into the hobby in the first place? Why betray your chapter? Here are some of the reasons that I have heard:

Cost, it’s cheaper to run one army with multiple rule sets.
Wolves/Angels have a better codex.
I can do more cool conversions.
Wolves/Angels have a better codex.
This is my custom chapter….that happens to use flavor of the month rules.
Wolves/Angels have a better codex.

I’ve got to run! Go Roll Some Dice!!!

CRP, out!

If you’re playing “counts as” Wolves or BA, I’d like to hear why. I’m serious, maybe I’m missing something here. I know that I do miss seeing different chapters on the table.

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Author: Guest Columnist

This article was written by a Guest Columnist who requested anonymity.

Editorials Miniatures Warhammer 40k