Pimpcron: WAACs & Fluffs, Living Together
Pimpcron has a plan on how every skill level can play together.
Salutations good people of Earth! Your 100% free-range and non-GMO Pimpcron is back. Today, I bring you an idea that was sent to me by a friend of mine. Robert from Fandexes contacted me years ago when I have my own blog and we have stayed friendly ever since. His website features fan-created codices that he and others have made. Check them out, they have lots of rules for different army types and even rules for AoS armies to enter 40k! I’ve used several of his codices and they are well written and balanced.
We Aren’t All The Same Skill Level
This is a topic I covered all the way back when the Pimpcron first started. It may have been my first article. I described how players make up a huge range of experience, skill level, and natural strategic ability. Some of us just suck at thinking; its science! Some of us just want to tell a good story or see a story unfold through models, and others just want a challenging game putting our skill to the test. Obviously if you have a normal gaming group, you will learn who is awesome and who needs supervision. In that case, if you are the better player, it is your duty (in my opinion) to do what you can for the weaker opponent and still make it fun for you as a challenge.
“Boo!”
“Ahhh! Don’t do that Jeremy. I peed a little.”
In my article, I explained how I deal with this when I’m the better player. I will just take a handicap in points, which usually ends up being 10%-20% fewer points than my crappy opponent. Unless they really know your army, they will never be aware of the disparity, and their feelings won’t be hurt. But on the flip side, you get more of a challenge because of your up-hill start to the battle. If you see yourself as a better player, than do what you can so that you both enjoy it.
It was last week that Robert private messaged me on Facebook with a new idea how both players can be happy.
Robert’s Suggestion
Robert: “I used to play to the best of my ability for years and without realizing it I was making the game less fun for my opponent. Since then I have tried to deliberately make the game harder for me to balance it out. Nowadays I use a difficulty level setting whenever my win ratio gets too high, and recommend it to those players who think that they’re really good to prove that it’s their skill, not their units, that results in victory.”
Ya hear that WAACs? Put your dice where your mouth is (but wash them first) and if you really feel that you are the mightiest of gamers, you won’t mind making it a little harder for yourself. You’re probably already doing that in your life anyway, making things harder for yourself, I mean. #everyoneisselfdestructive
WAAC Player: “So, do I just keep hitting on you while you ignore me, or what? This is how I date as well.”
It’s fairly basic but the general rule is the fewer units you can choose the higher the difficulty, and to stick to a theme. I will explain it using Tyranids:
Very Easy: Unbound.
Easy: Combining units from multiple codices or using a new codex.
Normal: Using an index army or a theme that rules out less than half of your codex.
Hard: Using a theme that rules out more than half of a codex.
Very Hard: Using a theme that cannot fill part of the FOC, e.g. no Troops or no Elites.
My Nid List Explanation
Very Easy: Take as many of any nasty thing you want.
Easy: Four Imperial Knights with some Genestealers? Sure.
Normal: Basically just write a normal list with mixed units.
Hard: Take all Tyranid Warriors with Tyranid Primes, can you handle it?
Very Hard: Take only Tyrant Guard. Go ahead; don’t be afraid if you’re such a great player.
They’re so cool, they pop their collars up.
You see? You will get the fight of your life, and your opponent with face a more fair fight. It’s a win-win scenario and everybody walks away happy. Also, there is no risk of them finding out that you handicapped yourself, you can just explain your list away as something you wanted to try.
As a side note, I had no idea that I always play on Hard Mode. It’s just the way I play, and I never thought about it. I always theme an army list just for fun, and because I’m a glutton for punishment, I do love my Tyranid Warriors. [Winces at the thought of weapons that do multiple damage]
Having played many, many different types of players, I would rate myself as about 7 on the strategy scale, and a 4 on the list-building-for-competitive-play scale. I just don’t have it in me to optimize a list to win. I’d rather throw a list together with no cohesion and say, “Can I make a win out of this?”
But to each, his own. Would you or do you use a strategy like this for making sure you both have a good time? Or do you not like having friends?
Or contact me at [email protected] for the latest rules if you don’t do the Facebooks.
