Post by Frosty the Pirate on Sept 11, 2018 12:29:16 GMT -5
www.frontlinegaming.org/2018/09/10/chapter-tactics-81-how-to-win-with-off-meta-single-faction-lists-in-40k-tournaments/
Today's Chapter Tactics was a very interesting subject, revolving around the concept of playing mono-codex based lists.
Honestly it's 1000% worth the listen for the general tactics section, as summing it up really doesn't do this episode justice, but I'll give it a shot.
TL:DR Version:
Mono Builds don't often win big major tournaments, but you can always build around a single book without gimping yourself in everything but ultra-high-level competition, in fact many mono-builds often make it as far as 4-2 at major events while running up against the top-tier meta breaking lists.
Keys to Mono List Building
Take Units with a Purpose
I see this quite often, where people avoid taking a unit that would actually be quite good for their list, just because "They read somewhere that it was bad". You need to decide for yourself if a unit works for your list. The only way to truly know if a unit works in your list, is to play it! Synergy is important, even some of the "worst" units in the game can be devastating. And even the worst unit in your book can win you the game in the right situation on the table.
Redundancy Through Roles, Not Unit Spam.
I see this quite often when people build a list. They see Unit X and go "that unit is great at this job I need done, so I'll take 3 of them". Which sometimes works, but more often then not, you've given yourself a good match up and a bad matchup. Three Predators with Quad-Lascannons is great when you run into Knights but then when you run into 250 Ork Boyz or 160 Chaos Cultists running across the table at you with a ton of characters in behind, there is just no hope.
To counter things like this, you need to think about roles a unit can perform on the table, and try not to rely on unit-overspecialisation (Units that are only good at 1 specific thing). This doesn't mean your list should be made entirely of swiss-army-knives, but it also doesn't mean your list should be all single-role units either. For example, that third Quad-Lascannon Predator could easily be swapped out for Missile Launcher Devastators who can deal with both Tanks AND Infantry, giving you a unit that can deal damage in any match up. There's always upsides and downsides to doing things like this through. (for example, without that third predator you can't use the Killshot strategem for example)
Not Enough Boys, Too Many Toys
When list building, people often get caught in the trap of taking too much wargear or too few bodies on the table. A common example of this is found when minimising troops in favour of extra firepower. This is especially true for elite armies and a common trap in list building. 5/6th of the time you will be playing an objective based game, where table and objective control win you the game, and the units people have selected to do this task, are woefully under strength, too big of a threat and draw firepower to them or there simply just aren't enough of them in the list.
A great counter to this is to always have a purpose in mind with each piece of wargear you take. For example, taking that Power Sword on your Intercessor Sargent might only cost 4 points, but how often will you be wanting to charge with your 5 man Intercessor squad that's sitting back holding an objective? That Missile Launcher on your Scout Squad certainly looks cool, but is it really better than another sniper rifle that can put weight of dice on enemy characters? Taking that Landraider is great as an army centrepiece, But if you only have 9 custodian guard bodies in the rest of the list, was it really worth it?
Mono building is what most players out there like to do, even if it's done "in spirit". A well designed list is always going to be more powerful than a poorly designed list, no matter the number of books uses to produce it.
Today's Chapter Tactics was a very interesting subject, revolving around the concept of playing mono-codex based lists.
Honestly it's 1000% worth the listen for the general tactics section, as summing it up really doesn't do this episode justice, but I'll give it a shot.
TL:DR Version:
Mono Builds don't often win big major tournaments, but you can always build around a single book without gimping yourself in everything but ultra-high-level competition, in fact many mono-builds often make it as far as 4-2 at major events while running up against the top-tier meta breaking lists.
Keys to Mono List Building
Take Units with a Purpose
I see this quite often, where people avoid taking a unit that would actually be quite good for their list, just because "They read somewhere that it was bad". You need to decide for yourself if a unit works for your list. The only way to truly know if a unit works in your list, is to play it! Synergy is important, even some of the "worst" units in the game can be devastating. And even the worst unit in your book can win you the game in the right situation on the table.
Redundancy Through Roles, Not Unit Spam.
I see this quite often when people build a list. They see Unit X and go "that unit is great at this job I need done, so I'll take 3 of them". Which sometimes works, but more often then not, you've given yourself a good match up and a bad matchup. Three Predators with Quad-Lascannons is great when you run into Knights but then when you run into 250 Ork Boyz or 160 Chaos Cultists running across the table at you with a ton of characters in behind, there is just no hope.
To counter things like this, you need to think about roles a unit can perform on the table, and try not to rely on unit-overspecialisation (Units that are only good at 1 specific thing). This doesn't mean your list should be made entirely of swiss-army-knives, but it also doesn't mean your list should be all single-role units either. For example, that third Quad-Lascannon Predator could easily be swapped out for Missile Launcher Devastators who can deal with both Tanks AND Infantry, giving you a unit that can deal damage in any match up. There's always upsides and downsides to doing things like this through. (for example, without that third predator you can't use the Killshot strategem for example)
Not Enough Boys, Too Many Toys
When list building, people often get caught in the trap of taking too much wargear or too few bodies on the table. A common example of this is found when minimising troops in favour of extra firepower. This is especially true for elite armies and a common trap in list building. 5/6th of the time you will be playing an objective based game, where table and objective control win you the game, and the units people have selected to do this task, are woefully under strength, too big of a threat and draw firepower to them or there simply just aren't enough of them in the list.
A great counter to this is to always have a purpose in mind with each piece of wargear you take. For example, taking that Power Sword on your Intercessor Sargent might only cost 4 points, but how often will you be wanting to charge with your 5 man Intercessor squad that's sitting back holding an objective? That Missile Launcher on your Scout Squad certainly looks cool, but is it really better than another sniper rifle that can put weight of dice on enemy characters? Taking that Landraider is great as an army centrepiece, But if you only have 9 custodian guard bodies in the rest of the list, was it really worth it?
Mono building is what most players out there like to do, even if it's done "in spirit". A well designed list is always going to be more powerful than a poorly designed list, no matter the number of books uses to produce it.