Mekboss Badrukkk: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Unbound.

4 Minute Read

Aug 12 2014

Here’s a dose of the silly that has been flying around at my local, demonstrating that old hands like me really need to unshackle themselves from the force org.
Mekboss Badrukk here with more musings on gaming, community, and the general craziness of wargaming. Although most of my opinions are whispered to me by grot helpers theses days, as the squig-brain transplant has had impacts.

Like a great many of you I got really excited about unbound. Unlike a select portion of folks my first thoughts were about how awesome it could be for those of us NOT interested in competitive gaming, but excited by narratives and story games.

Then I immediately went back to filling my force org like a good little automaton.

More than 20 years of “thou shalt” has conditioned me to think a certain way, and breaking those patterns is surprisingly hard.

If you’re like me, and more honest with yourself, you’ve likely had similar issues.

So why the article, well because last week I was mingling at my local and I eavesdropped in on a conversation between two of the “new starters”, they were discussing armies they’d like to make.

Guy 1 Wanted to field nothing but Tau Drones. That’s it, 100% drone.
Guy 2 Had concocted some dastardly scheme involving blobs of conscripts which I will elaborate on later.

But neither of them were thinking about the force org AT ALL, they were just tossing ideas around which pleased them, and then going for it.

Inspired I have since abandoned force org entirely. End result, I now field a boatload of painboys 🙂
And my win/loss ratio hasn’t changed much, but I’m having more fun overall.

So here’s a few ideas off the workdesk. Some are madcap, some are copy-paste abominations, what they all have in common is that they have been inspired by the simple expedient of letting go of my preconceptions of what a 40k army is.

1. The Bunker.
Fortifications, and lots of them.
Crew them with techmarines/meks/techpriests or whatever your poison may be and small units.
Then cover them with guns and surround them with void shields.
Once surrounded by razorwire and tank traps these buildings swiftly become a real hazard and provide a very different gaming experience for both you and your opponent.

2. The copy-paste monstrosity.

Drones, rippers, scarab swarms, ork buggies, the game is filled with cheap and versatile units which in small numbers can be nasty, but taken as a whole army can be both terrifying AND playable.
Imagine a player suddenly FORCED to hide in his transports and buildings for fear of your huge swarms of rippers and sky-slashers.
Or the image of marines stood bulwark against an ever flowing metal tide of scarabs as they devour the armour from off their very bodies.

3. The Force Multiplier.
Some characters totally change how a unit behaves, imagine the fun you can have with combinations.
A green tide with added Grotsnik becomes a rampaging monster that an opponent must divert and out-think, for they will never slay it.
Slap a biomancer and a priest in a 50 man conscript unit and suddenly you have a horde of rabid fanatics, fueled by dark magic and hatred, now simply multiply until the points run out!
These forces can totally change the nature of the army, and really add a challenge for old and new players alike.

4. The character bomb.

Did you know there are currently 6 variations on the humble techmarine, and they are all ICs that could be added to a unit. Yeah, mull that over, hear the whisper of mechanicum conversions in the wind?
How about allying in one random IC from elsewhere, that adds something new to a unit and watching the sparks fly?

5.That one guy that just turned up.
Somethimes there’s something so cool in the background that you just wanna make it happen no matter what, you can. You really can.
Arbites, in Rhinos, with shotguns? No problem.
Genestealer cult? Yeah, why not.

When this was written the contents of Codex Space Wolves were still officially a mystery, but assuming there’s no wulfen in there, why not just add a unit of Death Company? They certainly fit the bill.

As usual I bring my rambling wall of text to a stumbling halt with a badly thought out conclusion.

It is simply this, we’re suddenly free. And like any domesticated animal now that I am free I’ve wandered back into the barn and begun bleating because I want a nice easy meal.

But we’re being given the chance to race across the open fields like and aging farmboy’s metaphor, so why aren’t we?

Have you REALLY been using unbound to the fullest? Or just taking the odd extra HQ like me? Maybe you just think I’m wrong, or would like to write a 2 paragraph message about the nature of the tournament meta and why Unbound just doesn’t work, or want to share your unbound list that consists of nothing but Rhinos?

If so comment below, I’ll even check in for a week or so and may even condescend to reply to anyone I deem worthy.

Peace out ya’ll – Badrukk.

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Author: Guest Columnist

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

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