Hey all, Chandler here with the first in our new Basic Tactics series of posts for Warhammer 8th edition. The Basic Tactics series will be a group of articles covering the basics of competitive play in Warhammer 40k 8th Edition. These are basic concepts for newbies into the game or those just starting their journey into tournament 40k to help improve their experience. First up is the concept of list design.
There is this notion that list design in Warhammer 40k is basically a mini-game; a game within the game. Let me state up front that lists are important in this game. Having a well designed list can give you an edge and the best players at events are often using the best lists they can build. Too often we put a bit too much emphasis on Army Lists, however, and not enough on player skill. You can go online to a variety of sources from Reddit, to Facebook, to Best Coast Pairings and pull down lists of tournament winners. But the list will only carry you so far. Your skill as a player is what will make the list work or not. You can pull the meanest nastiest net list used by some of the top tier players in the game, but if you have a limited understanding of how it works, you will struggle to use it effectively.
Set Realistic Goals
Before approaching the list design phase of entering a competitive event, take a moment and ask yourself; what are my goals for this event? Is your goal to win the event? Is your goal to try and win Best Painted or Best Sportsman (if so then list design most likely isn't that important to you.) If your goal is to win, and you know the meta you are going into, then do you have the tools to beat those lists? As of October 2018, the best armies in the game are any of the Eldar varieties, and along the way you can expect to face Chaos and Imperial Knights, just on the whole, if your goal is to get to the top table. Can you beat those armies? And can you do so and also beat the random Tyranids, Necrons, or Tau army you may play along the way?
Use What You Know
We all have at least one army in our collection that we know extremely well. Perhaps it is because it is our favorite army lore wise, or perhaps it just fits our play style. But we can pick that army up and usually always do well with it. Generally speaking, unless you play Warhammer 40k 3-4 times a week with various armies, you're going to have maybe one or two armies in your collection that are tournament capable.
The idea of using what you know hearkens back to the earlier point of players getting net lists and not understanding how they work. There are lots of nuances and intricacies in this game and you can't simply rely on a net list to get you through without understanding those nuances. You might be a Chaos player and see that a top tier tourney player won a Major or GT using Dark Eldar, but you don't know squat about Dark Eldar. Chances are, if you just go out and buy that army to use in tournaments without understanding the army, you will not do well. Stick to what you know and more importantly what you like. The reality for most is that you won't ever win a Grand Tournament or Major event. But you can still go to these events, take a good list, and compete, which is what most of us want to do.
What is Your Army Good At Doing?
The idea of a take all comer's list in 8th edition is often a recipe for disaster. I know that sounds crazy, but you don't necessarily have to have an answer to everything you might face. For example, if you run Blood Angels, a marine army that does well in assault primarily, do you need to run 3 Devastator squads? Probably not. If you are Ultramarines, however, and you have access to Guilliman, then you might reconsider that notion.
Is your army good at assault? Or is it perhaps good at out maneuvering the enemy (Eldar)? Maybe it's incredibly powerful in the psychic phase? Key in on the aspects your army can capitalize on and use them to their fullest.
What Are the Missions?
This is probably the most important (and most often overlooked) aspect of list design. If you are attending an event, you need to review the missions carefully. Most ITC events use the ITC Champions Mission Packet. If that is the case, look at the missions and try and design around those parameters. You know, for example, in those missions you need to be able to hold more objectives than your opponent every round, kill more units than your opponent every round, and build to deny as many secondaries as you can for your opponent, or make them incredibly difficult to achieve, while having answers to scoring secondaries yourself. That sounds like a lot to soak in, I know. But these are things the top players are considering in list design and they are things you should be considering as well.
Core Concepts of Every List
There are several core concepts of every list in 8th edition that are, in my opinion, critical to success in every list, regardless of the faction:
1. Board control - Can your list control the board? Why is that important? I will go more in depth on that in a future article, but the basic concept is, can you control the neutral zone and your own deployment zone to prevent enemy units from jumping on you quickly or denying where your opponent can go in Movement/Assault? Every single successful list in the game has some measure of board control.
2. Objective Campers and Grabbers- You need units to both hold objectives, hopefully while hiding in your backfield, and go and take objectives. Every army has units that are good at these. and you need them in your list to be successful.
3. Character Protection - Characters can't be targeted in shooting as long as there are non-character units, or characters with more than 10+ starting wounds in front of them. This is often critical in your success as these characters often provide excellent counter punch, aura buffs, and other powerful abilities. Smash captains aside, as these are often just suicide units anyway, most of your characters you want to be able to get into position in the middle of the game to do their damage. In order to do that, you need to be able to protect them with either durable screens (think Ogryns) or forward deploying units that can hide (think Nurglings). Being able to protect your characters will likely be vital to your success.
4. Synergy - Every unit in your list has a purpose in the game. Be it characters buffing them as they move up and take objectives, or maybe just serving as screens to important units, or perhaps coming in to outflank the enemy in Turn 2 or 3. Your list should have synergy and each unit selection should have a role and purpose in your army list.
Wrapping it Up
Make no mistake, list design is very important to performing well at events. But when putting together your list, make sure you understand what your army can do, what missions you will be playing and how to build towards them, and understand the core concepts of successful lists in 8th edition. Hopefully you found this article helpful. Stay tuned for more basic tactics articles coming in the future.
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