40k Editorial – What Level of Cheese is Acceptable?
Live by the cheese – die by the cheese. Are you well prepared, or a babe in the woods?
Pick your Cheese
There has always been those armies that make you roll your eyes as soon as you see them—game over man ! To name just a few third edition had Black Templars, Blood Angels, and Feral Orks. Fourth edition had Chaos Space Marines, eldar, Lost and the Damned, Necrons, Nob Bikers and Tau. Fifth edition had Grey Knights, Imperial Guard, Necrons and Space Wolves. No matter how you slice it there will always be some potent cheese… It’s truly a 40k tradition.
Sixth Edition Cheese
The recent Las Vegas Open had one army reaching the final eight that immediately caught my eye… It was an Imperial Guard army with the Inquisition featuring nine Thudd guns and three Sabre platforms on top of a Skyshield with a Lord Commissar protected by a blob with the man Coteaz (you don’t want to risk getting seized on, right?) and another Inquisitor sporting everyone’s favorite grenades—psykotropic and rad. If you decide to charge the blob then good luck… They will first shower you with their psykotropic grenades—just hope you don’t trip on the way in to greet them… they are always ready to say hello in a big way—yes they definitely were expecting you. There was also three Vendettas carrying cheap scoring units for extra killing power and the late game objective grabs – not quite as reliable as Necrons and their Nightscythes but these scoring units can always paratroop if push comes to shove. This was a really nasty list thanks to our good friends at Forge World and the Inquisition (may the Emperor always bless them). Oh and by the way the second Inquisitor had some servo skulls on hand so don’t even think about scouting up on the blob.
Here is the army list:
Imperial Guard (Primary Detachment)
Lord Commissar
Infantry Platoon –
Platoon Command Squad (embarked in Vendetta)
• 10x Guardsmen (embarked in Vendetta)
• 9x Infantry w. Autocannon, Sergeant – Power Axe
• 9x Infantry w. Autocannon, Sergeant – Power Axe
• 9x Infantry w. Autocannon, Sergeant – Power Axe
• 9x Infantry w. Autocannon, Sergeant – Power Axe
• 3x Sabre Platform (TL Lascannon)
10x Veterans w/ 1x Flamer (embarked in Vendetta)
Vendetta w/ 3x TL Lascannon
Vendetta w/ 3x TL Lascannon
Vendetta w/ 3x TL Lascannon
3x Thud Gun (9x Crew)
3x Thud Gun (9x Crew)
3x Thud Gun (9x Crew)
Inquisition (Allied Detachment)
Torquemada Coteaz (Warlord)
Inquisitor w. Rad Grenades, Psychotroke Grenades, Level 1 Psyker, 3x Servo Skull
Fortifications
Skyshield Landing Platform
The Las Vegas Open was 1750 points and actually quite restricted so this list could easily be improved upon with the addition of double FOC, Lords of War and Stronghold Assault. For example add an Aegis Defense Line and Void Shields to better protect the blob (they are kind of fragile) plus more intercepting is always a good thing (choose your poison – quad gun or Icarus lascannon)… Let’s teach those Tau how to do it right ! Mix in some Basilisks and Manticores to rain more death down upon the enemy with all those Thudd guns because you can never have enough pie plates… The Emperor loves some pie too ! If you do it right there might even be enough points left for some Death Cult assassins so you have a counter assault unit to take out any enemy unit that actually makes it into combat with the blob.
Funny enough this army was beat in melee by an uber dark eldar BeaStar combining for the proverbial one two punch with a Wraithknight. The Wraithknight was down to its last 1-2 wounds and went in first to absorb the Overwatch so the BeaStar could nail the coffin. Fun times in the competitive world of 40k and probably no one saw it coming since we are all so worried about Jet Seer Council and ScreamerStar plus those every annoying Tau.
What the Future Holds
Imperial Knights are just around the corner and they will have a printed codex so it’s going to harder for tournament organizers to veto them from events as they have Escalation, Forge World and Stronghold Assault. If you are a competitive tournament player it is going to keep getting harder to avoid these types of things so it will eventually come down to fighting fire with fire… The day of the Jedi Masters is apparently soon coming to an end. It is what it is.
And thus comes today’s question:
In a world where standard Warhammer 40K codices (not Forgeworld, not Escalation or Stronghold Assault) will mean you can face D weapons and superheavies on the tabletop for casual walkup games.
Where do you draw the line for cheese? Where is the line between a fine Brie armylist and just being prepared for the dark terrors that now live in the woods?
How are you going to alter your armylists in the Brave New World? What is the “new prudent” for armylist creation?
