Wednesday, June 26, 2019

List Building: The Rule of Cool


When I'm preparing for an event, there are a number of things I take into consideration. What army I want to take, how effective it will be, are there any cool new things I want to try out, and how does the force look when laid out as an army?


A big part of the game for me is the visual appeal. I love looking at two cool looking armies fighting it out over a beautifully set up table. That's why when I'm picking my army list I put a lot of weight behind how it looks collectively. I still definitely pick my army to be effective, I don't want to purposefully lose every game after all, but I will definitely take less optimal units if it looks cool.


If it's an army I have a large collection of already, mainly my Nighthaunt or Tomb Kings, I will design a list, then grab all the units from that list and lay them out on a display board. If they're all already painted then that's even better, but even if they're unpainted I'll put the model out there to see how it gels with everything else. I've been toying around with a Nighthaunt list for an upcoming event and have bounced between a few. The one I *think* I've finally settled on isn't as optimal or have as cool of combos as some of the other ones, but I definitely think it looks the best. It won't be half bad on the table either.


When I'm starting a new army I take all of this into consideration when buying the units. With my Daughters of Khaine for instance I knew I wanted it to be a real cross section of the army and show off all of the cool models. So, I made sure to get one of everything more or less. While this is a bit harder to plan out since you don't have all of the models there in front of you, it's not impossible. You just have to visualize it a bit more using the box art or pictures from the internet.


Let's not forget the dreaded new model syndrome. Whenever you finish painting a new model or unit it's almost inevitable that you'll want to use it and show it off. That's pretty much the main reason I'm including Kurdoss in my Nighthaunt army for the event. I'm sure he'll suffer the same fate as all new models and fail to perform then die, as is their destiny. Again, this may lead to the use of something that's sub-optimal, but I think it just looks plain cool.


The visuals of my army are probably weighted about the same as how well it will perform. I know everyone takes different approaches to how you collect and game with your collection, but what's your favorite method. Do you lay out your choices and admire your horde before taking them to battle in all of the paraphernalia, or do you just take the most beat face thing you can; or do you do the best of both worlds. Which side are you willing to compromise more on?

Until next time,

Tyler M.

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