40K: End of an Era – The Death of Super Friends
Today friends we gather to mark the death of the latest King of 40K – the Superfriends.
Hi everyone it’s your ever friendly BBF swinging through your neck of the internet to spread more mischief. Today is a very special day – it’s one of those rare days when your favorite army finally gets hit by the nerf bat and oh boy it really hurts when GW uses the short end. It eventually happens to every top tier army… It’s only a matter of time and all it takes is one rules change – that rules change being now Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Grey Knights and Space Wolves negate Space Marine Chapter Tactics (CT) if joined together with a Space Marine unit. Yes it’s the death of Super Friends as we all know it or hate it and yes I’m sure many will say it’s a good thing for the game. In my eyes I see competitive Eldar and Tau players rejoicing around the world.
The Early Days
I still remember when I first started to play White Scars and go all in on Super Friends… Even as easy as they seem to be it was rough in the beginning, almost like starting 40k all over again. I lost a lot of games before that magical point when it finally clicked and everything came together. I mostly play 30k now so it’s not that big a deal to me really and to be quite frank it’s probably the best for the game from an overall point of view… Well at least for Eldar and Tau players… Heh !
I can laugh about it because I don’t really care that much. If we always play the same type of army over and over again we won’t grow as players learning how to develop new strategies and tactics. I ran White Scars with Space Wolves and then Ravenwing just like everyone else that played Super Friends. It was a glorious time for playing Imperial allies but now it’s all over. It’s time to move on now and play something else.
Why the Nerf
I can’t say why GW decided to nerf Super Friends but think it’s most likely due to one player totally dominating the independent tournament circuit. It will eventually happen to Eldar and Tau just like it did to Grey Knights and Imperial Guard. There’s no point in getting upset about it… That won’t change anything. Even if you love something consider how others might not like or even hate it. If you’re bringing one of those armies everyone else doesn’t enjoy playing against maybe you should stop and take a moment to think about it and ask yourself why do your opponents feel that way.
It’s kind of like Tau players that always want to bring a Supremacy Suit or Eldar Players that always want to bring a Revenant Titan (rolls eyes). Even though it might be fun for you – well maybe that’s just you and not everyone wants to play against super powerful units intended solely for games of Apocalypse… It’s literally the same thing with Death Stars and super shooty armies that can literally gut your army if they get to go first.
It finally dawned on me when I played in a couple of tournaments versus another Super Friends army and while I won both games having to play against another Death Star I finally realized how much unfun it can be.
Moving Forward
Now let’s be really honest and ask ourselves has anything really changed… The answer is mostly no because you can still field Ravenwing to build your Super Friends army. Dark Angels don’t have CT so you can still work the critically needed universal special rule Hit and Run into your Death Star. So while GW took away with one hand they didn’t really close the proverbial door. Like I said above I pretty much exclusively play 30k now so either way it doesn’t matter much for me.
Even if GW were to re-address this FAQ the loss of Hit and Run won’t stop Death Stars – they are never going to go away any time soon and there will always be new ones cropping up all the time – it’s how 40k works. Nob Bikers didn’t need Hit and Run nor did Screamer Star. If a Death Star is truly nigh unkillable and super duper choppy believe me when I tell it can and will grind through everything that crosses its path.
Look who’s back!
The Re-Emergence of GMCs and SHW
If we take the long view in my mind the change to how grenades work in melee is actually the biggest blow to Super Friends… Those melta bombs did work versus gargantuan monstrous creatures (GMCs) and super heavy walkers (SHW). Heck even krak grenades were better than nothing. It doesn’t make sense to me why GW chose to change this one particular rule and it will truly change the meta, much more so than the new Space Marine FAQs. GMCs and SHW just got that much better now so you’ll be seeing them even more often on your local tables. If GW really wanted to address external game balance they would make it such that you need your opponent’s permission to field them which is pretty much how 30k works in reality. 30k is not really something you see in a lot of tournaments which is one of the reasons it’s become so popular but try explaining that to the players whom wish to always field their big toys… Good luck with that one !
In Closing
Well like I said above Super Friends is not really dead, you’ll just have to use Ravenwing as the kernel for your Death Star which is often the case anyways. The biggest nerf to Super Friends is how grenades work in melee now and those stomps can really hurt too ! Ravenwing works just fine in conjunction with Space Wolves (neither of which have CT) and White Scars so don’t worry… Super Friends are still very much alive and doing well… Sorry !
