The Times They Are A Changin…

by | Jun 28, 2011

Is this the new face of 40k?
Sorry for the long delay, but now we are back on track. I finally got some games in, and actually have some 40k stuff to talk about. Anyway, on to the good stuff!


Over the last couple of days, and the last few games, The Grizz may have come to a realization. There may have been a fundamental change in the game of Warhammer 40,000. Maybe its the new area, new lists, new players, or maybe its just a shift in the overall meta game, I don't know. Something, however, is different. 


Go Me
What is different, you ask? Lists that work. I played in a tournament Saturday and brought my usual Blood Angel tournament list. Out of the 8 people that participated, Yours Truly came in dead last. Thats right, dead effin last. First round I played against a 3 long fang/razor-heavy Space Wolf list. Second was a rhino heavy hestan list. Finally I played against Wiley the Nord's 5 venom flyer heavy Dark Eldar army.


In all of these games, my DoA army had shooting issues. Now, I am very aware that my Blood Angel army is not the shootiest army in existence, but I have always had just enough, and have been able to rely on my assault abilities. With all the transports, all the shooting, is it possible to play a foot based list any more? With the release of Dark Eldar and Grey Knights, can you run a list with minimal transports and still win consistently? I am starting to think you can't. Armies like Tyranids don't have a chance. If I take my Nid army to a tournament and face one, just one Grey Knight player with a half a brain, I may as well just go ahead and put a check in the L column. 


Typed Venom Spam into Google,
This was the first result.
Without transports, there is no way to hide from the poisoned shots and the S5 storm bolter shots. And with my specific DoA list, if 1 or 2 shots miss, then I have serious issues, as then I am having to pop transports in assault, leaving me open to my opponents' shooting phase. I don't know what they are makin rhinos out of these days, but they aren't as easy to bust as they used to be, and there is a whole lot more of them. The weirdest thing is, is that for me at least, it happened overnight. I feel like my competitive list went from good to uncompetitive in less than a month.


Like I said before, maybe its due to the change in the meta game from where I used to play to where I play now, though it feels like something more fundamental, something deeper. Now I am not saying this is a bad thing, and maybe everyone else is already aware of this and I am just behind the ball on this deal, I dunno. I do know, however, that in order to compete, My lists, my game, my style will have to change.


So, is The Grizz  off base? Is he late to the party? Or has there been a shift recently in the overall way that the game was played?