Now I'm on the Thousand Sons page on Facebook, and I notice - not just the Facebook page, but also on Dakka Dakka and a whole host of other websites including Reddit, BellofLostSouls, etc. - that whenever someone asks a question about starting a Thousand Sons army, or asks about Rubric Marines or Exalted Sorcerers, he (or she) gets jumped on by a certain group of people. This group of people would tell him about how awful Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators are, or how bad Exalted Sorcerers are, and advise him to buy bunches of Tzaangors, or take Daemon Princes over Exalted Sorcerers.
And this is less than a month before Chapter Approved drops.
Now, if the guy was asking for competition advice, or for tournament advice, I can understand that. But even so, it's still highly dangerous and irresponsible to give advice like that. Firstly, the meta changes all the time...or at least every six months, anyway. Rubric Marines might get a points cut. Tzaangors and Daemon Princes might get nerfed. A lot of things might change. According to rumors, Cultists might even go up to 5 points. Point is that you don't just advise a new player on what's competitive, and tell him how to build a list, usually in an overbearing manner by complaining how Rubric Marines suck (they don't) and almost forcing a Tzaangor/Daemon Prince build on him or telling him what models to buy. If they want an Exalted Sorcerer, then let them use an Exalted Sorcerer! Don't get all aggressive and tell him off, and force him to buy and use Daemon Princes over Exalted Sorcerers! If someone is talking about how cool his dual-sword wielding Exalted Sorcerer is, don't jump in and start telling him off for using an uncompetitive choice, force him to use a Daemon Prince, and advise him against using Seer's Bane! He's just describing how cool his model is or how his last game went!
Jeez, I know there's the competitive crowd, but honestly, can you not push your competitive ideals onto players who want to be fluffy and narrative? If I want to use Rubric Marines, I will use Rubric Marines, to hell with the tournament scene, or them being overcosted or whatever. And besides, the meta might change, and Chapter Approved is less than a month away. Can you imagine telling a new player to get nothing but Tzaangors and eschew Rubric Marines, then Chapter Approved drops next month buffing Rubric Marines and nerfing Tzaangors? Wouldn't he have wasted all that money? For the Emperor's sake, stop forcing competitive ideals on other people and let them play whatever they want! We're talking about new players who have chosen Thousand Sons for their fluff, beautiful models and other cool stuff, not a veteran player choosing a faction and building a list to win a frakking tournament!
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Ave Omnissiah!
My blog is primarily my own personal fluff in the Warhammer 40,000 universe regarding the Draconis system such as the Knight House Yato in Ryusei, their Household Militia, the Draconian Defenders, and the Forge World of Draconis IV with its Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, Cybernetica cohorts and Skitarii legions, and the Titan Legion, Legio Draconis, known as the Dark Dragons.
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I can understand your anger at these people. When I ran my TS list for the first time in 8th (It was built pre TS codex in 7th) I used Ahirman on foot {my old metal model} and exalted sorcerer on disk (Built when you could give a tzeentch guy on disk a 3++) two units or rubrics (10 man squads with bolters, sorcerers had a force stave and sword respectively, one squad had a rhino) along with a squad of cultists (10 of them without upgrades) along with a rhino, a tri las predator and a forgefiend (3 ectoplasma cannons) {We were testing out 8th and running 1200pt forces [4 players each with an army of 1200 divided into teams before the game begins to give a 2400pt game.] The game ended in a draw but against D1 weapons I would bring rubrics over any other unit (all is dust is quite awesome)
ReplyDeleteMy friend who also ran TS was less than impressed the week after as I brought some dark angels. Rubrics do not like D2 and higher weapons as they will commonly drop their save to 5++ and Ahirman on disk loses to dreadnought power fist to the face.
I have encountered Net listing once but this was with knights and it did not go well. (I had brought my Atrapos to test him out under the 8th ed rules. He decided it would be fun to eat a knight a turn dealing on average 24-30 wounds which my opponent could not make saves against as I kept charging him. When he tried to charge me with knight rolled five 1's to hit poor guy. Plus I could trigger rotate ion shields to get a 3++ on the Atrapos, this started the running knight tactic where the knight player runs away from units. He usually runs three knights (gatling gun and BC, chainsword and fist, chainsword and melta) and four armigers(2 of each type))
Yeah, I know, right? People underestimate Rubric Marines too much. And sometimes, it's not as if your meta is spamming plasma. There are a lot of casuals who bring fluffy lists, and Rubric Marines do extremely well in such an environment. It doesn't always have to be Tzaangors or Daemon Princes.
DeleteThat Knight game certainly does not sound fun at all. If anything, it sounded pretty frustrating, especially for your opponent. Wow.
We had a good laugh after with the knight game and then set up and played the same mission again. (A similar result occured after the Atrapos ate two knights before being speedbumped by four armigers charging in which he would slowly eat through as I was happy to leave him in combat and eat one a turn. It was a closer game though despite the near tabling.)
DeleteThat sounds fun, ha ha. What other units did you have to accompany your Atrapos?
DeleteAnyone with any knowledge of this hobby will tell people to buy, build and paint the models that you love. I think the Rubric Marines are awesome, and that's all that should matter. The rules change constantly anyway, but you'll never regret having models that you actually like. Conversely, buying a bunch of apparently competitive stuff only to have the rules change leaves you in an awful place. People should just make balanced armies from the start, with a good mix of units.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on that, and that's the advice I always give people. Just buy what you like. The meta changes all the time, but the models don't. There's no point chasing the meta unless you have a ton of cash to burn. I totally agree with you, good sir!
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