Smaller 40k Games Are The Answer?
Pimpcron has a way to deal with WAAC players, and game balance.
Welcome, friend. You’re in Pimpcron’s house now and you’re welcome here any time. But call first; I ain’t no seven-eleven.
So the thought occurred to me the other day that changed my view on 40k. It was one of those deep, existential epiphanies that shake your world view to the core. Kind of like “Why are they called ‘apartments’ when they’re all stuck together?” or “If a ‘UFO’ lands on the ground and we find out what it is, does it become just an ‘O’?”.
These are the hard hitting questions you have to ask. So I was wondering if we play too many points. I think maybe we should play 1250 points games in order to fix many of 40k’s problems. Here me out, fam.
Smaller Points, Shorter Games
Even though I like to really sink my teeth into a several-hour game once in a while, I find it really refreshing to play a game that is only, let’s say 2-hours long. It is fun, but doesn’t drag out. We’ve all played those games that, for whatever reason, take forever. Finally, after 5 hours of playing you end up calling it quits at the end of turn 3. I’ve seen friends do this time and time again. When planning a game they get all excited and overzealous. Let’s do 4000 points per side! Yeah! And when the store finally closes and kicks them out they didn’t get halfway through their game, they’re tired, and burned out.
It should say “Who Cares I’m Playing Apoc.”
Being that there is no real guideline for whole many points you are “supposed” to play at, maybe we have slowly crept up our game points.
Smaller Points, More Challenging Lists
Another interesting part of smaller games is that each unit has more value. Suddenly your Troops aren’t just bland meat shields, you will have to use them to best of their abilities because there are fewer supporting units to help them. When you have fewer moving pieces in your list (ie: units) it makes every move and every decision much more important. And when you have fewer units, you have to think much more about how they are kitted out. You might find yourself adding in special weapons to units that you normally would never add. Can you handle flyers? Can you handle armor? Are you mobile for objective taking? In a larger point game, you tend to be more cavalier with your unit choices because it kind of becomes a “throw everything at them and see what sticks” kind of strategy. I’ve noticed that a few of my friends who are not that great at strategy never, ever want to play small games. They want to bring everything and the kitchen sink to the battle and hope they can get lucky. You could even say they’re … up all night to get lucky.
Smaller Points, Less Cheese
-IF- you are playing with a CAD, the mandatory HQ and Troops take up precious points that would normally be used for bigger, nastier units. If your opponent does choose to bring some nasty units, then they will be less capable of taking objectives and can afford fewer support units for the cheesy one. But even if you’re not using a CAD, they are still limited in their points compared to a normal game, and it helps cut down on what they can afford.
Plus, sometimes players take cheese because they want to be competitive, while other times players take cheese to off-set their inability to strategize. In the case of the former player, it gives you a better chance of winning against them on your strategic merits if you take them out of their 1850-point comfort zone. That will set the tone of the entire game because they will struggle with what units to include and worry that he didn’t take the correct ones.
Maybe I should have taken more Terminators. I mean, what if he gets my nose?
In the case of the latter player, it makes it easier for you to win on your strategic merits because they are lacking their “throw everything at the problem” crutch. I like games that are won or lost on decisions, and trimming the points down to 1250 really puts that into focus.
So at the end of the night, my friends are still on the top of turn 2 with their humongous game that they won’t finish. Meanwhile I got to finish my game, had to work hard to make my list well, enjoyed a tactically-challenging game with the few units I had, and don’t even feel burned out at the end of the night.
So who wins there? The bank. The bank always wins. But besides that, and in 40k terms, I do.
