On the Way to a FNIF, I Wrote This. News and Daemons at 11.

Caption Contest or What?

This may be the strangest article to come out of my (divided) digital mind to date.  I was trying to write a Friday Night Internet Fight, since Dethtron has a paper that's due, but I just ended up writing a long opinion piece.  I'm back to the drawing board, but you get to suffer through the scraps.

There's a lot being said online about Daemons right now.  Some of it I can understand, even if I don't necessarily agree.  Some of it's just ignorant; here's my favorite!

I'm pretty sure I'm drawing the intended conclusion.  Namely, that the Daemon Codex (or Necrons, or Orks, or...) is so poor that any success with it automatically renders that success suspect.  That the gap between Daemons and the competitive Codexes is so great that only poor event format, poorly skilled opponents, or blind luck can account for any success, even in the hands of a skilled player.

Lordy, but that's genius ego on a whole new level!  I literally laughed 'till I cried.  Still, as much as I thought some of the comments were ignorant (and written by Yes-Men), the same can be true on any major blog or forum... except my articles, of course!  Here's the original article on Yes the Truth Hurts, which is worth a quick once over:

Angree Hamma!

It references some other Daemons-related articles, and my name was even mentioned it one... nothing came of it though.  Here's the best line:

So your army is awesome, but a new army book comes out and maybe you won’t play yours? Then, it’s probably not an awesome army…

I don't buy the premise 100%, because new books always come out and shuffle the meta around... but there is a point here that jives with my thinking recently.  Namely this: am I going to play my Daemons once the Grey Knights get their collective feet under them?

Not sure.  Let me let you in on a little secret - nobody knows just yet what kind of army is actually going to hit the scene.

There are some builds in the book that will make playing Daemons very, very uncomfortable... but I have my doubts they'll see tournament play.  Quite simply, the builds I'm thinking of wouldn't do well against Mech Guard, Mech Wolves, and Xenos Hordes.

To my mind, those are the three types of armies you have to prepare against, the first two because they're the toughest builds in the current best Codexes and the last because if you can't deal with it as a part of your strategy you won't make it to the final round.

My point is Grey Knights won't be preparing to face me, they'll be knocking out builds capable of dealing with their more likely opponents.

And I think I can compete against that - but the jury is out.  We haven't yet seen what will actually hit the tournaments, so it's just speculation.

...what?  I can hear a comment from the peanut gallery:  "Brent, you're saying the Imperial Guard and Space Wolves Codexes are the best?  I thought you didn't believe that!"

Says who?  Of course they are!  Honestly, I've given serious thought to building one or both of these armies just to make my life *SELF-EDIT* easier.  That way when I win it wouldn't automatically be discounted as luck.

I've played Daemons against top competition - as defined by competing against players who attend and are successful in regional and national tournaments, 'cause how the *SELF-EDIT* else can you define it?  Saying the only two competitive events ever were the two that used the Nova format is prejudiced thinking.  

I think this calls for a dictionary definition, the laziest in lazy thinking!

Competitive:  of, pertaining to, or decided by competition.

Competition:  a contest in which a winner is selected from two or more entrants.

So I did well in a 256-person tournament, and a winner was ultimately selected.  It was governed by consistent rules and everyone played under the same conditions.  Like it or lump it, I was competing in a competition; I was engaging in the act of being competitive!

Stelek's done the same thing, playing in numerous GT's and such.  If it's his opinion that the Nova format is the most competitive around, that's a valid opinion.  Stating anything less doesn't qualify as competitive play at all is an opinion with less merit.

I respect Stelek's opinion, for the most part, despite now being associated with the enemy.  (Bell of Lost Souls, in case you're wondering.  And yea, they all suck hard.  I don't care for them, but then I don't like you either.  Your sister's hot, though.)  I was a Blogger blogging on his blog long before I was a Flylord with the T-Shirt and everything, so I have a soft spot for it.  I also respect many of the opinions of ZombYs associated with the site, now or in the past - I was one, after all.

It's just I have less respect for the Yes-Men.  Get off his *SELF-EDIT* already!  (Why don't I have Strictly-Men?)  (They're called Stalkers.)  The man can speak for himself.  Here's my favorite example:

Stelek is not saying the Daemons players only win because

Oops!  Stop the presses!

Not sure you need to see the rest of it.  Point is, I love the comments that start out, "What *name* was saying is..."

The dude doesn't have a problem speaking his mind, so if I want to know what he said I can read it, right?  If I'm reading your comment, all I'm getting is what you thought Stelek was saying.

I'm interested in reading your opinion, but I'm not interested in reading your opinion of someone else's opinion.

Here's an opinion right now.  Convenient, no?

Most people who play this game aren’t competitive players, and will never be. They don’t even desire to be competitive, and view all of us who want to improve our game as WAAC assholes with poor sportsmanship, which is obviously far from the case. This includes tournament organizers, who usually are egotistical jerks who want to enforce THEIR view of how Warhammer 40,000 should be played, and are deaf to constructive criticism. This is the reality of the game we play, and the reason why Stelek made this blog to begin with.

I don't agree with much of this, but it's certainly more worthwhile than, "God said this, and because I want to be associated with God here's what he said."

Shit.  (Escaped the Editors?)  I just insulted the Prophets, didn't I?  The good thing is I'm Catholic and good with guilt.  The bad thing is Nuns are much scarier than Sisters of Battle any day of the week.  Especially Sunday.

Most people:  Have you met most people?
They don't even desire to be competitive:  And you know how..?
Which is obviously far from the case:  Obviously!  Why?
This includes tournament organizers...:  Most of whom are top players.
...who usually are egotistical jerks:  Who have you met and where?
And are deaf to constructive criticism:  As evidenced by.... what exactly?
This is the reality:  Reality is subjective.
And the reason why Stelek...

...and you lost me.  You weren't there, you don't know, so you had to have read it - meaning you were about to launch into your interpretation of what the ZombYe Master thought when he launched the Big Blue Shark Tank onto an unsuspecting Blogosphere.  Thanks for that, but I'll pass.

Thing is, there are a ton of assumptions in there.  The writer is asking us to take at face value the suppositions he starting with.  And while we all do it, to a certain extent, because that's how human knowledge works, it does kind of get away from you when there's so many to start with.

I don't think this dude has met most players, I don't think he knows what they're thinking or feeling, I don't think he's met any of the TO's in person, I don't think he's talked to any of them in any fashion, I tend to doubt he's offered constructive criticism if he did, and lastly... I don't think his reality is my reality.

There's no real neat way to tie all this in a bow and end it elegantly.  This is yet another salvo in the long line of opinion pieces making up Ye Ol' Blogosphere - and as most of you know I tend to avoid these type of fights as being a waste of time.  I do, however, come by my opinions the hard way.

Through effort!  This blog has practically every tournament game I've played in the last few years.  There are countless examples of big wins against competitive armies and/or competitive players... and some losses, too, because I learn more from those, usually.

What I don't have is... and I wasn't aware this was a problem until yesterday... I don't have THE SECRET KNOWLEDGE!  (Saving the best for last, is he?)

He’s not saying that the Daemons players are bad people who are poor generals and make up for it with luck and cheating. He’s not going to break into their house at night and pee in their cheerios. He’s saying that their wins are on weak ground because if the people they played against knew THE SECRET KNOWLEDGE they would start to lose almost every game and Warhammer 40K would stop being fun for them.

That's
Simply
Priceless!

It's going on the Wall of Shame!