4.19.2011

Daemons Adepticon, Addendum

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!

9 comments:

Drkmorals said...

Its too bad you had to cut this it really adds to your other article. both are well written. Great work my man.

Ahrimaneus said...

Brent, 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.

Props 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 ;)

Sean said...

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.

Congratulations again on your seating at Adepticon Brent

KnightsofOblivion said...

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.
The 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!

tzeentchling said...

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!

Brent said...

Ah, 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.

I'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?

tzeentchling said...

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.

And 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.

Wyatt said...

My sisters of battle will beat the shit out of your daemons. Consider the glove thrown down. Sir.

Brent said...

Mr. Traina, consider the glove picked up and placed oh-so-lovingly on my manhood!

Let's shake!

:)

(A new favorite!) Anon: I haven’t even bothered playing a game of 6th yet, cause I have read the rules, and actually understand how they interact with units. I know my armies no longer function how they should, and so I need to change them.

Strictly Average: 'cause 6-inches is all you get.

Stalking Jawaballs since 2009.

Jawaballs: "My butt just tightened up."

Brent, preferred 2-to-1 over Not Brent in a recent, scientific poll.

Brent: emptied the Kool Aid and DRINKING YOUR MILKSHAKE with an extra-long straw.

Unicorns don't exist.

Home of the Stormbuster, the Dyson Pattern Storm Raven.

I'm a comment whore and this whore is getting no play.

Not Brent hurts Brent's feelings.

I think, therefore I blog.

"You should stop writing for everyone else and worry about your crappy blog." - Anon.

Not Brent has been spotted lurking around with a green marker.

He's not like a bad guy from a cartoon, all devious but never quite evil, Not Brent is bad beans, man, bad beans.

Dethtron: "Again I feel obliged to remind you that trying to sound smart only works if you are."

MVB: "I am not one to join the unwashed masses of self-titled 40k experts out there distributing advice from their blogs about exactly how your list should be built..."

Shiner Bock on tap: that's how I choose hotels.

Strictly Average: The Home of Hugs and Gropings.

Don't feed the trolls!

MoD: "Welcome to Brent's head."

Competitive is Consistent.

Dethtron: "...you could use that extra time to figure out a way to get your panties unbunched and perform a sandectomy on your vagina."

Dethtron: “When calling someone an idiot, it's generally best to avoid making grammatical mistakes.”

Warboss Stalin: "You know, if it actually WAS funny, maybe I wouldn't mind."

Mike Brandt: "It's not a successful bachelor party if you don't misplace someone".

"The Master Manipulator (every store needs one): "...now, enough stroking."

Kirby: "I don't know about gropings. Seriously, Brent, keep it in the pants, please."

Loquacious: "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Hugs & Gropings or Stalks Jawaballs into Brent's little tribute."

Captain Kellen: "I rate this article a Brent on the Faith Hill to Nancy Pelosi scale!"

Drathmere: "Come for the balls, stay for the Brent? Kind of disturbing, man."

Go no further, lest thee see something thine eyes would fain look past!

Isabelle: "So, thank you for supporting your local and not so local unicorns. A noble gesture like that can show some scared kids out there that they don't have to hide from everyone and it's ok to be who they really are."

There is nothing more interesting than We The People... in all our beautiful, ugly glory!

On Internet Advice: You see, I have an almost religious belief that's it's a huge, colossal waste of time.

...I think I'll call it the Gun Shy Pattern Stormbuster, because after the Internet destroyed my first humble effort, I find I'm a bit worried about the reaction to this one.

Lauby: "Is it left over from that time you thought that you could just complete step one 12 times to meet the mandates of that court order?"

Not Brent: "I guess we'll have to read on and find out. Signed, Not Brent. Especially today."

Cynthia Davis: "I think the scrolling text is from Glen Beck's new book."

Grimaldi: "Spamming certain units creates interesting possibilities but also fatal weaknesses."

Purgatus: "Math can inform decisions. It cannot make decisions."

Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?

You'd be that much quicker to figure out what I mean when I refer to a Unicorn if I covered it in a rainbow flag.

SinSynn: (To Brent) "Curse you and your insidious influence on the internets..."

Dave G (N++): "You know you're an internet celebrity when your following is more akin to tabloids."

I prefer the term Internet Personality (or IP) myself, seeing as how I coined it.

Lauby: "Your attempt to humanize him as failed. I feel nothing but scorn for his beard - it's like a warcrime or something."

BBF: "I've always thought you are a good player but I finally figured out that you are a great player. It's hard to see sometimes because your personality is engaging, sincere and quite charming - to me that is kind of a rare combination."

'Clearly cheating?' I didn't misspeak: you jumped to conclusions. If you'd like to apologize I'll be happy to send you an autographed picture of my ass.

Ass.

I thought I was doing alright before I realized I was losing.

Age and treachery beats youth and vigor every time.

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