How To Be A FAAC Player

Pimpcron shows you how to be a Fun-at-all-costs player. But it may not be what you want to hear.

Hey humans! Your best-est pal Pimpcron is here to teach you how to be everyone’s first pick to play with at the gaming group.

FIRST OFF: What Do You Want Out of This Game?

You have to be honest with yourself. Why do you play this game?

Do you play to win using all of the skill, strategy. points-managing, and shiny new nasty you can fit on the table to obliterate your opponent?

Do you like a completely fair fight where tactics win the day?

Does an unfair (but fluffy) fight bother you?

These are the types of questions you need to ask. Because gaming is a lot like experimenting with S&M: if you both go into this with different expectations, someone’s getting hurt. If you have vastly different ideas of how hard is “hard”, one of you ends up crying and the other apologizing. I learned something important from that infographic they put out when 40k players were interviewed a couple months ago. The majority of people said they liked “casual” play. But just like the “black & blue dress – white & gold dress” thing, two people can look at the same thing very differently.

The dress that nearly tore humanity apart.

The person who likes to play full-force with his army to win is very different from the person who likes to recreate narrative games from the fluff to see if they can change the outcome. To the fluff player, the competitive player is a jerk. To the competitive player, the fluff player doesn’t get the point behind this game. But both of them think they like to play “casual” games.

So you have to fully understand what you want out of this game, and be honest with yourself. There is no wrong answer: only a wrong choice in opponent.

For instance, what I enjoy about playing this game is having a fun time with another person. The main reason why I originally got into this game was to make new friends and get out of the house. So win or lose, I just want to have a few laughs. My preferred game is one where we are as evenly matched as possible and our strategy wins the game, but narrative games are another favorite.

Now To Find The Right Opponents

Once you know what you really want out of this game, you need to find the right player to play against. There appears to be a spectrum of players in this game and usually someone in your slot or one of the slots next to you are ideally compatible. Outside of that, you might run into trouble. The spectrum runs like this:

1. All-The-Nasty Players who play to win using any means
2. Competitive Players who play to win but like some boundaries
3. Strategic Players who play to win but like an even playing field
4. Casual Players who try to win, but really just want to play with the models they like
5. Narrative Players who know care more about telling a good story and winning doesn’t matter as much
6. Fluff Players who have little regard for winning, and just want to relive the spirit of the fluff and enjoy sometimes playing games with impossible odds (but a good story).

It’s funny when you look at this and realize that nobody will mind playing someone beneath them on the spectrum, but playing someone who is higher than you will make it harder to enjoy your game.

Pictured: a WAAC Kitty

So here is the conundrum: If you are a upper-tier player on the spectrum, you will be seen as a dick by all of the lower tiers unless you tone down your game. If you are a lower-tier player, it will be much easier to find agreeable players to play you, but you might get your teeth knocked in. There is no wrong answer here, but you can easily see that your choice in opponent will make or break your game. Which leads to my next point:

Here’s How To Be The FAAC Player In Your Group

This may not sit well with a lot of you, but if you want to be the go-to guy everyone wants to play in your gaming group, you have to make sure they have fun. You have to find out what kind of gamer they are, and try your hardest to meet them in the middle. Because just like the choice of opponent can make or break your game, it will make or break theirs as well. So the best way to do this is discuss the game with your opponent ahead of time, when you are making your lists. You should compare lists and make sure that everything you guys are bringing have a counter in the other person’s list. You also have to discuss if you are playing competitively or casually.

This is because I’ve learned something from experience. People who like this game will generally enjoy a game of 40k even if it isn’t their favorite way to play the game. So most level-headed human beings are willing to bump their game up or down a couple notches on that scale if you just discuss it with them. Despite what you might hear from the internet, most players in this game are pretty nice people.

So an All-The-Nasty player and a Fluff player want to have a game. But they follow their good friend Pimpcron’s advice and discuss it first. They choose the mission together and quickly realize that a hardcore game and a fluffy game are out of the question. Like cats and dogs people. So they both adjust their game accordingly and end up somewhere between a Casual game and a Strategic game. The Fluff player tries to up his game a bit and actually try to win while the Hardcore player tones his list down a bit and also tries to win. But there are no nasty surprises in their lists, and they both have a better understanding of what they’re getting into.

Without that discussion, one of them will end up like my Prom date: disappointed and crying.

Anything else to add my dear readers? What type of player are you on that scale? Be honest.

Author: Scott W.

Guest Columnist