Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Well NOW I Feel LIke a Jerk...



Ghostin over at Midlife Gaming Crisis put up a post recently that made me kind of sad.

"Purgatus' comment about not reading much on this blog is pretty much spot on.  I don't have the play pedigree that Purg does - this is a blog about discovery, and not the viewpoint of a tourney vet... What I'm getting at is my maunderings probably shouldn't be taken as gospel in a head-to-head against a tourney vet; but by all means - discuss, question, flame, what-have-you away - we're all better for it in the end."

I already left a long comment on his blog, but I just wanted to make a few things clear.

I am a pretty sharp dude, and a decent writer. I think those things in combination are why people listen to me.

But I'm not a "tourney vet." I mean, sure compared to some maybe, I've been to my share of RTTs over the last few years and done well. But I've only ever attended ONE Grand Tournament.

One.


So yes maybe compared to some I have some decent experience but compared to, for example, Hulksmash I know for a fact that he plays and attends tourneys much more than I do.

So don't take what I say as correct because of any perceptions as to my "experience" or "pedigree" (I'm sure some people think that because I wrote some articles on a big name blog that I must know what I'm talking about. I assure you many people write articles on big name blogs and are fucking clueless).

Now that doesn't mean I'm full of shit, either. It just means you shouldn't listen to me for THOSE reasons. Listen to me if I make SENSE. Listen to me if I can defend my positions, make coherent and logical arguments, and in general sound like I know what the fuck I'm talking about.

And when I don't (as I sometimes don't!) feel free to call me on it. I make mistakes, which I will freely admit, unlike some.

Here's a dirty little secret... I don't actually own a copy of the 5th Edition rules.

Yeah. Don't have it. Owned it once. Had it stolen. Never bothered to get another.

So I pull up the PDF when I need to find a particular rule reference, but I can't sit here reading through the rules at my leisure. Now, I would venture to say that my grasp of this game is pretty strong, regardless, but I do find that I more often make mistakes about the core rules than I do about codices because, well, I own the codices and read through them.

A lot.

Anyways, like I said I'm not a dummy. I understand how this game works, and can hang with the big boys. But don't just nod and do like I do. Think for yourself.

And Sin - don't get frustrated because I'm taking my own damned advice (about thinking for myself).

I'm not going to just accept that Tyrants are terrible for some mysterious reasons that are unquantifiable but "just true."

I see lists out there with two units of 3 Warriors and a Prime each with a Barbed Strangler and Lashwhips/Boneswords all around. But only put up by idiots who don't know how to play this game, right?

Oh, guess not.

So I ask myself, if that works to provide a solid melee unit, how is it better than the Tyrant?

Well, it's not.

Against Bolter Fire,  the Tyrant star is much more resilient.

Against Missile Fire, the Tyrant star is about the same or much better with FNP.

Against Str 8 AP 2 the Tyrant star is about the same.

They put out the same numbers of Power weapon wounds.

The Tyrant can be given an anti-tank weapon.

The Tyrant can provide buffs to the army.

The Tyrant has access to Paroxysm support.

The Tyrant can kill vehicles in CC if given an opportunity.

Now I've heard a lot of people tell me to make them Dakkarants with Devourers. I listen, I understand their arguments, I disagree.

I hear Sin telling me they are terrible, but not giving me reasons why other than telling me that it's bad practice in a Space Marine army to do something like this (literally in the same post as telling me that I can't approach building a Nids army like a Marine army).

So I'm not telling you you're wrong and I'm right and F-off I'm not listening.

I AM listening.

But give me actual, specific arguments. Not "that's bad, because I said." Nobody should listen to that, from me, from you, from anyone.