This article is an addendum to my Bell of Lost Souls Tuesday post. If it seems incomplete, it kinda is! Go check it out and leave a comment or three. :)
A Philosophy
In order to write this article, I had to accept I'd have to share some of my army design strategies and philosophies. I don't have an issue sharing, because anything worthwhile isn't lost through spreading it around... so why haven't I done it before?
I have, here and there, but anyone who's read my articles over the last few years knows I don't generally write 'competitive' articles talking about what's 'best.' I don't have a problem with writing contentious material, my issue is there are numerous routes to enjoyment of this hobby. For some, that means playing a well-painted, fluffy army in a friendly atmosphere; for others, it's more about squeezing a list until it's trimmed of everything nice then throwing it into the deep end of tournament play.
I'm definitely with Conan on this one: there's a dude who knew what was best in life!
So I like competitive play; even so, I roll my eyes when someone says, "This army is the best," and, "that army is unplayable." While there's no arguing some armies are better than others, usually that's because they have the most options.
Any army is capable of winning if you're willing to put in the effort. The best players on the tournament scene do one thing, over and over again...
Practice. So when people say they were surprised I took Daemons to the 6th seed in the Top 16, I realize those are the folks who don't realize I've done nothing but play Daemons for the last few years, perfecting my game.
That kind of effort always rewards. Adepticon wasn't the only top result I've pulled in with my Daemons list, just the biggest!
Its too bad you had to cut this it really adds to your other article. both are well written. Great work my man.
ReplyDeleteBrent, I've been heedlessly entertained by your articles and writing style for some time now. I've also been impressed and not a little astonished at how well you've gotten your Daemons to work against some of the tougher builds on the block.
ReplyDeleteProps to you and all your hard work man, you took an army "teh internetz" said only worked with fatecrusher and plaguebearers and turned it into a seriously competitive tournament army.
As a bit of a niche player myself (Dark Eldar) I hope I can elicit some similarly befuddled looks from my opponents at some of the big name tourneys in the next year or two ;)
Hear hear! I am tired of people assuming that there is only one or two builds for every army. When I posted my counts-as Blood Angels list online(I only did this so I could take more chaplains). All I heard was how I needed Razorback squads everywhere. I hate Razorbacks so I ignored them, and thus far I am 3 and 1 with the list.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations again on your seating at Adepticon Brent
The article as a whole is great to read as always and I join the many others I applauding the time and effort you put into it both your army and the writing.
ReplyDeleteThe article itself follows the thread that makes all of your work a pleasure to follow, namely that it holds back on telling others how they are wrong (quite frankly it is how the majority of some authors tend to critique) but instead aims to inform and educate others on how you do it. Quite open and honest. Keep it up.
P.S. Well done on adepticon!
There's a guy here, online name of Warmaster, who's been playing a list very much like yours for a few years now too; not quite as devotedly but enough. Pretty early on I think people in our area realized that it's probably one of the better builds in the codex - Fiends simply outclass Crushers, Heralds are better than Greater Daemons, and Princes/Grinders should be 3/0 or 0/3, and probably Bolt Tzeentch princes. It's definitely a solid army build, or at least as solid as the codex allows, and when played by a good player it does give a lot of armies fits. So I'm not surprised you did so well!
ReplyDeleteAh, I know the Warmaster! He helped me with a Bell article sometime last year. As I recall, he used Soul Grinders so I asked him for an educated opinion.
ReplyDeleteI've used them but don't prefer them. Good article - the link is in my Bell section if you haven't seen it.
He placed high in last year's Wargames Con, if we're talking about the same person - is he going to be there again this year?
Yep, same guy. I dunno if he'll be going down, he and his wife had a baby relatively recently so he might be otherwise occupied. Haven't seen him around in a bit.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, he's played around with Grinders a bit. As I said, he doesn't stick to the same build quite as religiously as you - he has a rather nice mostly-Nurgle daemon army too, albeit with converted screamers and pseudo-fiends, and I think that's what he was mostly using the Grinders in. His tournament army has Tzeentch princes.
He's a tough opponent - our matches are always pretty hard fought, though he has a slightly better record than I at the moment.
My sisters of battle will beat the shit out of your daemons. Consider the glove thrown down. Sir.
ReplyDeleteMr. Traina, consider the glove picked up and placed oh-so-lovingly on my manhood!
ReplyDeleteLet's shake!
:)