Goatboy here to talk about the latest hotness that is too good in the current 40k Meta.
I survived another localish tournament up in Dallas, TX called the Dallas Open GT. I will be doing a small report on it later on this week, but I wanted to talk a little bit about few things that might be a little bit too good right now in the current 40k Meta. I took a pretty mean list that ran through 3 opponents and only had issues with two armies – packing what I think is probably one of the biggest “warping” stratagems in the Game – Agents of Vect.
Agents of Vect
First of all, I will say my initial thoughts on the power were pretty spot on. I thought facing any army that needs some kind of Stratagem advantage to win will have to figure out a way to play around this power. Either they need to bait out its usage and thus burning the DE players command points – or figure out a way to get them to waste it on a particular ability and utilize another one in the same phase. Of course, this was all before the new “upgraded” amount of Command Points most armies which need them are working with and thus my newer, fresher, and more cautious outlook on the power.
My buddy Kenny had some good quotes on this so I figure I would use his words to start off this discussion.
“In a game that locks USR’s behind a paywall in which “Command Points” are the currency “Agents of Vect” is simply bad game design in it’s current iteration.
To be clear I think CP farming is also bad game design.
For some reason I only read about Dark Eldar players defending AOV and never have I heard an Imperial player defending CP farms. It is like the Imperial players know its OP.
8th ed is beautiful game and resourse management is what creates unique combos and builds. I am uninterested in the tired argument I read from a lot of DE players to “git gud” or “learn to win without strats” Which is fine as long as you don’t have them either but then we are not playing 8th ed anymore. Currently DE and to a lesser extent Eldar are playing a different game.”
We’ll start off with what I think is the biggest issue right now in that specific armies are built with the idea that the only way they can indeed “work” is by utilizing a Stratagem or two. The Vect ability to stop that means that the army loses its ability to function and thus has to suffer through the consequences of a few bad turns. This can be devastating as the DE can easily punish any army with powerful weapons – especially when combo’d with Doom or other Eldar options/abilities.
We have built this nifty Death Guard army that needs Cloud of Flies to get the mass of Plague Marines moving up the field. It is a single Battalion utilizing some underwhelming options that get a heck of a lot better with a protective Stratagem. One single stop of the ability completely shuts down the army. In fact – as all of its good Stratagems happen in different phases of the game – the DE player can just Vect each power, remove the offending unit/units, and then merrily dance on their way as the opponent is left without much to do. Bar some amazing Disgustingly Resilient rolls, and you just have a game that isn’t just based on dice rolls.
It Really Is Too Good
This leads me to my next point in that Agents of Vect can be used in every single phase of the game. Unless your army has multiple stratagems that can be done in the same phase – you are left without any ability to indeed bait the power out. Think about this – if Agent of Vect was only usable once a game turn you could easily try to push an early power out in hopes you can trick the DE player. This would lead to a much more interesting interaction as you try to build a bluff game into your armies in hopes you pull the power out. It also makes the DE player have to think a heck of a lot harder as they try to see if they can stop some bits instead of having every chance to say no to a power or two.
My question to DE players is that do you think Tide of Traitors is a better Stratagem then Agents of Vect? That Strat was knocked down to once a game, and I wonder if will see Agents face that same change whenever the updated Generals book comes out? I know with the current changes to the amount of Command Points armies have available gets larger the initial thought that Vect was too expensive becomes less and less of an issue. A good buddy had another friend of mine pull 5 Vects out in a game. There is no way that wasn’t crippling especially to the Stratagem hungry armies like Eldar can be.
I know both of my games had Agents of Vect do a number on my chances at winning. My first loss was less of an issue as my dice were not the kindest to me but the last game of the weekend had one Vect shut down my chances to win. I will go into it more when I type out my report, but it was very disheartening that the one power left me hanging in the breeze. Of course, I could have gone gangbusters on my saves, but you can never count on that.
Agents of Vect Solutions
We’ll end this in that I do like this power. I think it is something we could see more of (Agents of the Emperor anyone?) and a few small changes could easily keep it good, keep other armies viable, and add something better to the game. The first thing I would say is it is only usable once during a game turn. This would mean both sides of the player turn. I think this would help keep the game aspect of this power and let players showcase some different aspects like bluffing. I also would say the power should automatically work and just refund the players Command points. If we are already limiting it, then we shouldn’t have to roll to see if it even works.
I know some players are saying once a game, but I feel that is a pretty steep change. Like I said earlier about Tide of Traitors – which is still an amazing power – limits can be severely crippling to an army. If the power were moved to once a game, I would for sure remove any chance for it to fail. I know some others have talked about increasing the Command points cost as well. I don’t like that as I think three should be the maximum you spend on any Stratagem. Using things that get into the 5’s and 6’s just feels like the power should be much stronger and thus even more back breaking. This would start to get into the real of two Brigade armies, and I wouldn’t like to think of armies that could quickly fill out all these slots, get all the Command Points, and profit on all the underpants they are stealing.
This is Fine…
Is this doom and gloom for the current 40k meta? Probably not as I expect some armies to come out that burn through all their command points in the beginning and building armies that don’t need Stratagems during the game. The use of a single point here and there to reroll something can be strong enough for a lot of armies. I would think anything that creates some super unit options at the beginning of the game and pushes the aggressive nature would do well. There are not too many of them, but this might be what needs to come out and shake the current 40k tree and knock down this silly pain loving Space Elves.
But hey – the Dark Eldar are for real – their army is pretty dang good, and be prepared to eat a ton of Disintegrator shots in the coming months. Especially if you are investing in something big, that loves to get Doomed by their Eldar cousins who love to utilize some command points. I could go on and on about how some Eldar things are too good (Doom usable by friendlies is rough) but it is nice to see the Dark Eldar something to worry about as well.
Celebrating 10 years of gaming so come on down and throw some dice in lovely city of Austin, TX. Warhammer 40k Champs & Team, Age of Sigmar, 40k Narrative, Shadespire, Warmachine, and Bloodbowl are the events throwing down this year.
Dates are August 17th-19th
I should be there – most likely very tired as I will have a lovely new Kiddo – so come on down say hi, throw some dice at some models, and maybe win a few games.
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I've been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on - or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
