Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Tactics & Tips – Playing to Your Strengths
Goatboyhere with 40k tactics. Today let’s talk about how to match your playstyle with your armylist.
I’m here again with some competitive tip thoughts as I get ready to throw down for my next big event (GW Nola). I would advise anyone getting ready for an event to really think about their army choice and make sure it fits into the style you like to play. I know that is a simple thing to think about – but picking something that works for you is just as important as picking something that is “good” enough to reach your event objective.
What Your Army Needs to Do
With most events, I arrive with one objective – to win more than I lose during the game. This means I need to have an army that will at least let me win. This means it needs to have at lteast three basic abilities:
- Movement options
- Ability to hold objectives
- Solid damage output
I normally range from very fast aggressive armies to bricks that sit in the center and stink up the place. These are thing things that I like to do when playing and ensures I pick the right missions to do this. I don’t play enough to really focus on new “ideas” as much so making sure my sleep-addled brain has choices that I know works is the best for me.
Having Fun, Being Realistic Matter Too
It’s why I like armies that don’t have a ton of units that need to do something. As long as I have things that can hurt something and I can push them around efficiently I end up enjoying myself. Enjoying yourself is also really important so finding an army-style that makes sure you get this nice rush of awesome is how you can survive bending over and trying to move your murder machines.
I also think if you are not playing a ton you can’t expect to reach to the top 8 no matter how many competitive groups you are a part of. Practice is how you can make this game work for you thru “bad” rolls and rough interactions. All the theory-hammer in the world won’t answer all the questions as the dice rolls bring math to your battlefield and averages roll out the door.
Control What You Can, Roll With the Rest
Listening to some of the game cast from Orlando, Nick had some good points in that good players don’t win by overwhelming you with dice – they win by making right choices in things they can completely control. Movement, board control, and correct threat assessment are the things you need to move from being an okay player to a great player. Then you have to of course mix in some luck and dice to work out for you and fail your opponent.
Practice With What You Have In Hand
I am hoping I can practice a game or two with the army I am currently planning for the NOLA event. It is looking like Grey Knights as I would love to do an Ork army but I get a feeling getting all those pieces will be really hard in the coming weeks as the book releases, all the squigs come out, and the Rukka Trucks leave the scrapyards.
This is another big thing – making sure you can get all the pieces, get them together, and actually play them. It is frustrating a bit right now but sometimes it is for the best as building a simpler list might end up doing more for you as you try to survive 6-8 games of brutal beatdowns. Remember, theoryhammer can’t hold a candle to hard-won tabletop experience with a particular list.
What style of play do you like? Are you a conservative/timid general or a crazy Waagh machine of death? What do you prefer to do – let your opponent make mistakes or just don’t give them a chance thru the brutal crunch of a power snapper?
