Thursday, March 18, 2010

Unit Efficiency vs Spam


Mostly what we hear of is.... "This unit can do ____", "This combo can do_____". Unit efficiency is something we hear very little about. What we end up with, is alot of spam lists.

Spam lists..... 3-6 of the same unit type. They put out good units, multiply by alot, and you have a strong army. Im not against these lists, but what they are is... easy to play. I only have to really concern myself with a few type of units and maybe an hq and my heavies. This will make strong a strong list for 80% of the players. The others 10% just suck, and the last 10% are excellent generals and will move past the spam lists eventually for something that is more efficient. Spam lists are a great learning tool. However, some players will boast how good he is, has never lost, etc while using his army. These are the spam players. And they do good until they hit someone who knows how to make a list, make it efficent, and is a good general on the table.

Efficiency. First off several important things to list building.
1. Every unit really should have a job on the battlefield. This should be 40k 101, unfortunately its not.
2. Every unit once we figure out what they are supposed to do, must work cohesively with the other units.
3. Every unit must be efficient. What does this mean?

Efficiency means in 5-7 rounds of play, what is the unit able to do? If there is a heavy weapon in that rhino, but they move 3 rounds of the game towards objectives...... not efficient. (2-3 possible shots are taken...... a lascannon will hit 2 of those 3 times.... will penetrate a vehicle 1 out of 2 times, and it takes 3 penetrates to break a non open-topped vehicle). This is simplified, but what it shows us is that unless the heavy weapon is free, ie multi-melta or missle launcher, it was a waste of the points.

So since mathhammer is only a tool we use to help us figure out what is efficient (takes 3 pens to break a tank on avg), every unit we must be determine its purpose, how it works with other units, and if its efficient. This means assault weapons are used more than just along for the ride. Assault units are in hand to hand more than just driving around, and finally that heavy weapons are firing throughout most of the game.

Watch out for those good generals with a list that isnt spam. They know how to use what they have, its cohesive, efficient and might just break your spam list and make you cry like a little baby.