Goatboy’s 40K: Winning with Small Model Count Armies
As we wait on some new 40k love to come out let’s go over the benefits of going all out in a 20 model or less army!
I am known to play a lot of small model armies. Beyond the sheer factor of saving your poor back (old player problems), it also allows for a lot of other benefits beyond just the sheer joy of saving your vertebrates from the crushing reality of concrete floors. As we wait on some new 40k love to come out (Blood Ravens and maybe some Marine stuff?) let’s go over the benefits of going all out in a 20 model or less army (gots to get those command points somehow). In reality, it is 4-5 model army as those are the important pieces while the helpers are there do much of anything – maybe engineer something.
Models With Benefits
The biggest thing I like about a small army is having the ability to make a bunch of really sweet looking models for the army. A few big fat Tanks, Knights, or monsters to work on means you have a lot of space and design to work with. The army ends up looking really impressive on the tabletop, can have some awesome conversions, and you usually even have time to build up a sweet display board or something else. It’s the conversions that get me excited to build these types of armies. I won’t lie – the initial pull of apocalypse back in the day was having the giant monsters doing giant monster stuff. Taking candy, not paying taxes, and even shooting fireworks off at 2 am on a Tuesday. They can be jerks, look cool, and be an awesome addition to your collection.
Lower Back Benefits
I already hit up on this a bit in the intro – but saving your body from the torture of trying to push around 300 models during a weekend event is a huge benefit. It is just so much pressure to push those models, try to get as much as you can each turn and keep from accidentally destroying one of your models or your opponents due to the clumsy nature of trying to move your big man-boy body around the table. Piece of advice number one: beyond having a small quick army on the tabletop is to make sure to get sensible shoes. But that could be a whole article on how you should get yourself ready for an event. Saving your back, saving your hips, and saving your brain are all good things when picking an army.
Carry-on Benefits
I also really like small model count armies because it is easy as heck to travel with them. You will most likely have a small case that you can fit above you in the airplane, underneath your front seat for even smaller armies, and most likely can easily check it if you have to. It’s these sort of things you have to think about because you never know if you’ll get delayed flying in, have to quickly change flights, or just ensure that you have enough time to get in, set up, and fix anything that has an issue. I won’t go into how annoying it can be to fix a buddy’s broken army that with a huge model count. How much glue do you have to burn to fix all the guns, armies, tanks, flyers, and whatever other nonsense he decides to bring to break the game? Trying to fly with all those models is just too much for a fragile old man Goatboy.
Time Benefits
Beyond all the physical benefits of rocking a small model count army, there are the gameplay benefits. Games are fast and you have no real worries about not having enough time from the chess clock/game clock/etc. This is big because there are so many events that are pushing for faster game times. Playing an army that you are not worried about completing your turns is a great way to keep an event nice and classy. No one is going to say you slow played them. You will always end up having some time to get some food, a drink, and just have a nice chit chat with your friends that you only see a few times a year. I don’t get to go out nearly as much on the weekend and throw down on the battlefield that is 40k. This means having a chance to have an “adult Warhammer nerd” conversation is lacking as my days are usually built upon what my kid thinks is funny for the day. Thus – having a smaller army I don’t too think too hard on is the best. It gives me all the time to talk about the grimdark universe, how kids are doing, and maybe the future of 40k.
Mission Benefits
I also really like how the games play out. Your decision making is quick and a lot of times you can see who wins within the first few turns. A few beyond average saves, some better than normal damage, and a full-tilt or two and you all of a sudden have the game in control. It also has a benefit of locking your opponent into some specific secondary missions, which can be helpful because you can easily shift in your game plan from crushing to just pulling points. Which of course makes again an interesting game as you push your giant toys around.
Have I told You About How I LOVE Chaos?
This all moves back into how I love the new Chaos Knight book. It lets me bring big monsters that have more rules than they used to have. It lets me figure out another small model count army that now has some new rules to help mitigate some of the issues it had before – whether this is pushing into a specific answer based options for the army or just figuring out the best choice in a new, bigger field of monster options. I am sure you can already figure out the weird type of army I plan on writing up for Friday. Say hi to the new Knight warlords as they pound the battlefield with tiny dancing feet.
~What model count do think is ideal for your playstyle?
