Warhammer 40K: You Won’t Believe Who Is the Top of the Meta
Goatboy here, with the surprising turn of events with Warhammer 40K’s meta. Someone very unusual is on top.
Goatboy here to wax poetically about the current state of 40K. I will say that this has been one of the most “balanced” instances of 40K we have had in a long time. The mixture of tactical missions, decent terrain for most events, and a better balance of army rules means that 10th Edition is in a pretty good place. Yes there are some powerful armies out there but they can they CAN be beat, beyond just failing dice roles.
Wow, 40K is Actually Totally Fair Right Now… How Weird!
Which of course is a good thing in this landscape of competitive tabletop games we like to live in. It is important to let anyone’s favorite army have a chance to play and succeed. I was talking about this with some buddies, and we all agree it has been nice to actually believe that the army we like could actually be good instead of just the current newest bit of meta nonsense being the best. I do expect some changes to help clean some things up, but I don’t think we’ll see massive rules tweaks beyond just bringing some of the lower armies up a bit.
Really, it feels like points are doing the job of making almost any unit work well, or at least be worth it to take in your army of choice. Letting points balance things helps out a lot and while not everything is as exciting as we would like it – it does make things easier as a whole. I think I just wish we had more codexes coming out for the year. Plus, of course, making all the Chaos ones making landfall sooner than later 🙂
Now the Player is What Matters, Not Their List
Today I want to talk a bit about how as a player you have to shift and change your game plan when playing a game at times. You can’t always rely on powerful rules of your plastic warlords doing the damage they need to do. The difference between a good player and a player playing a good list is actually, that the good player can win without the crutch of powerful math crushing your opponent.
This can mean things like not thinking about removing enemy units and instead removing aspects of allowing the enemy to score. If they don’t have enough Primary to win in the end they lose even though they destroyed all your Plastic Dudesmen on the battlefield. It is how these “Jail armies” work by just focussing on the aspects of the game that are not nearly controlled by the dice – such as how and when you can score points.
This can range from players needing to master when to be aggressive, when to be patient, and when to discard a secondary card for something new in hopes to not get too far behind. I think the biggest player skill in 10th Edition right now is recognizing when you are going to be behind, when you can see that you got enough time to catch up, and exactly when you need to pounce. There is a lot more to 40K than just overpowering your opponent with math and stacks of rules.
With the game really pushing towards locked in Terrain set ups you can easily plan out your turns with back up plans and choices. I know the Secondary missions are random but if you have enough options to do almost everything you can at least have a chance. This really is where I see the skill level come back a bit in 40K as players who have played a long time can easily map out the turns of the game in their head, and the right choices they need to make during them.
YOU, the Player is Now Top Of the Meta!
How have you been finding the game lately? Beyond some of the lower armies does it feel pretty balanced? What are you excited for in the future?
~Do you think skill has come back to the game or is it all just about who can pew pew a unit the most?
