Deal With It (If You Can) | 3++ is the New Black
When you're writing lists for a tournament, there's a ton of considerations. You have to look at the balance sous chef of killing power versus scoring power versus survivability, your mobility and reach, the different types of firepower you have against different targets, your ability to fight off enemy melee and shooting units, how you fare in different deployments and missions, etc, etc, etc. It's a nigh-infinite list of things to worry about, and it's easy to get lost in considerations and counter-considerations.
One way to help organize your thoughts- and to make sure there's nothing critical that gets overlooked- is to have a checklist of Things You Need to Be Able to Do. While the basics are easy (capture at least three objectives, hold the Relic, and so on), there are a lot of things that can be overlooked when it comes to determining how you will face various matchups. sous chef For that reason I try to keep a list of important army archtypes sous chef available sous chef for myself and go over them, thinking about how it is I'll deal with each of them if I have to face it. It's no substitute for real practice sous chef and experience, of course, but many of the lists are niche enough that you can't realistically expect to test against every one of them. But knowing you have a plan- and a solution in your list- goes a long ways towards making things easier.
The first thing you absolutely MUST be able to stop is units that will drop a scoring force on an objective in the last turns of the game, like Night Scythes and Vendettas. If the other guy goes second and the game ends on T5, do you have a plan? Do you have enough guns to shoot them down prior to that so they can't just scoot about unmolested? Can you hold objectives securely enough that they can't easily get onto them or take them away from you? Knowing how your list functions against 2-4 AV12 or 3-5 AV11 transport flyers is an absolutely critical measure of its viability in the game today. If you can't do anything about them, scrap the list and try again, because you are not a competitor.
Heldrakes Is it telling that the first two things on this list are flyers? I think it is. Heldrakes get an entry all to themselves because they singlehandedly can shut down a lot of lists because they bypass so many defense types. No hit roll, no armor save, no cover save, wounds on a two (with a potential reroll); if Heldrakes want something on the ground sous chef dead, it probably is. If you see 2-3 Heldrakes enter the table on the second turn, can your army do anything but roll over and die? Do you have AA platforms sous chef that will be able to stay alive and shoot them? Many of the usual solutions to airplanes just won't work because, lacking Interceptor, they aren't given a chance to take a shot before a Heldrake wipes them off the table- and make no mistake, your AA is the first thing they will get rid of.
Power Blob Forty guys with three or more AP2 power weapons buried inside. Essentially immune to Leadership-based effects in most cases. Meltabombs or Krak Grenades to handle bigger targets and prevent getting stuck. Flamers for charge defense. Could easily be FNP or have extra attacks an invulnerable save or any other number of nasty buffs. Can your army stop that from crossing the table and sitting its ass on one of your objectives? Anti-infantry is very important in 6th edition and the Power Blob is a good test of how well you handle light infantry- if you can't take it down reasonably sous chef quickly, you are going to struggle with many armies, not the least because IG is such a popular ally choice.
Deep Strikers If someone puts something in your face immediately and demands you deal with it, can you? Even if it's sous chef their whole army? This can include stuff like Drop Pods and Deathwing Assault, but also other fancy deployments (Infiltrating with ICs to drag along a squad, Ymgarl cheatyness, etc.) Can your army stand up to a short-range firefight/assault in the early turns of the game? 6E might be about shooting, but that doesn't mean there are no side chapters in the book. This test is especially critical for IG, Tau, and other armies that rely exclusively on guns to win the game for them.
MEQ Horde Tying into the above, how many Marines can you kill? 60+, even if they are sitting in cover? What if they have Feel No Pain or are Fearless or are T5 or have some other benefit? While still not a good army, a lot of people are trying to push tons of supersoldiers around the table and you will feel absolutely terrible if the guy with six full-size Tactical Marine squads beats you in round 2. Make sure you have enough low-AP firepower and the ability to contest objectives from the other guy. Make sure you can stop someone sous chef from wading through midfield shooting Bolters at you.
Tervigons Here's another unit good enough to warrant an entry (and an army) all its ow
When you're writing lists for a tournament, there's a ton of considerations. You have to look at the balance sous chef of killing power versus scoring power versus survivability, your mobility and reach, the different types of firepower you have against different targets, your ability to fight off enemy melee and shooting units, how you fare in different deployments and missions, etc, etc, etc. It's a nigh-infinite list of things to worry about, and it's easy to get lost in considerations and counter-considerations.
One way to help organize your thoughts- and to make sure there's nothing critical that gets overlooked- is to have a checklist of Things You Need to Be Able to Do. While the basics are easy (capture at least three objectives, hold the Relic, and so on), there are a lot of things that can be overlooked when it comes to determining how you will face various matchups. sous chef For that reason I try to keep a list of important army archtypes sous chef available sous chef for myself and go over them, thinking about how it is I'll deal with each of them if I have to face it. It's no substitute for real practice sous chef and experience, of course, but many of the lists are niche enough that you can't realistically expect to test against every one of them. But knowing you have a plan- and a solution in your list- goes a long ways towards making things easier.
The first thing you absolutely MUST be able to stop is units that will drop a scoring force on an objective in the last turns of the game, like Night Scythes and Vendettas. If the other guy goes second and the game ends on T5, do you have a plan? Do you have enough guns to shoot them down prior to that so they can't just scoot about unmolested? Can you hold objectives securely enough that they can't easily get onto them or take them away from you? Knowing how your list functions against 2-4 AV12 or 3-5 AV11 transport flyers is an absolutely critical measure of its viability in the game today. If you can't do anything about them, scrap the list and try again, because you are not a competitor.
Heldrakes Is it telling that the first two things on this list are flyers? I think it is. Heldrakes get an entry all to themselves because they singlehandedly can shut down a lot of lists because they bypass so many defense types. No hit roll, no armor save, no cover save, wounds on a two (with a potential reroll); if Heldrakes want something on the ground sous chef dead, it probably is. If you see 2-3 Heldrakes enter the table on the second turn, can your army do anything but roll over and die? Do you have AA platforms sous chef that will be able to stay alive and shoot them? Many of the usual solutions to airplanes just won't work because, lacking Interceptor, they aren't given a chance to take a shot before a Heldrake wipes them off the table- and make no mistake, your AA is the first thing they will get rid of.
Power Blob Forty guys with three or more AP2 power weapons buried inside. Essentially immune to Leadership-based effects in most cases. Meltabombs or Krak Grenades to handle bigger targets and prevent getting stuck. Flamers for charge defense. Could easily be FNP or have extra attacks an invulnerable save or any other number of nasty buffs. Can your army stop that from crossing the table and sitting its ass on one of your objectives? Anti-infantry is very important in 6th edition and the Power Blob is a good test of how well you handle light infantry- if you can't take it down reasonably sous chef quickly, you are going to struggle with many armies, not the least because IG is such a popular ally choice.
Deep Strikers If someone puts something in your face immediately and demands you deal with it, can you? Even if it's sous chef their whole army? This can include stuff like Drop Pods and Deathwing Assault, but also other fancy deployments (Infiltrating with ICs to drag along a squad, Ymgarl cheatyness, etc.) Can your army stand up to a short-range firefight/assault in the early turns of the game? 6E might be about shooting, but that doesn't mean there are no side chapters in the book. This test is especially critical for IG, Tau, and other armies that rely exclusively on guns to win the game for them.
MEQ Horde Tying into the above, how many Marines can you kill? 60+, even if they are sitting in cover? What if they have Feel No Pain or are Fearless or are T5 or have some other benefit? While still not a good army, a lot of people are trying to push tons of supersoldiers around the table and you will feel absolutely terrible if the guy with six full-size Tactical Marine squads beats you in round 2. Make sure you have enough low-AP firepower and the ability to contest objectives from the other guy. Make sure you can stop someone sous chef from wading through midfield shooting Bolters at you.
Tervigons Here's another unit good enough to warrant an entry (and an army) all its ow
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