Meta your Maker Part 2

I got a lot of great feedback from my article last week about playing this weird game with miniatures, so I’m at it again, with some closing thoughts on the same subject.  You should read it now, I’llwait here until you’re done.

Alright, so first thing first, I forgot to mention who won.  And this will play to my advantage because it’s what I want to delve on today.  

Quick recap: Our 2 contestants were both banking on a different strategy to win the tournament, Eric played the same army he’s been playing over the last year-ish and knew every scenario and matchup, whereas Kevin tried to break the game Kim K style with an army designed to take advantage of the scenarios and the armies he though would be there.

Slow and steady won the race.  This is funny because it’s referencing to both Eric AND his army ( Astra Milita-BURN! )

As I’ve mentioned countless times, I don’t play much.  When I do, I find a list I like on the internet, build it and play it without giving it much thought.  So I can’t really comment on what I like or how I would’ve played it.  As such, I asked great player Nick Nanavati of being super drunk  back to back adepticon winning fame fior his thoughts on the subject.

Here is Nick’s approach to list building, and explains quite well the whowhatwhyandhow of this list building theory: 

As far as the philosophy I'm definitely a play it safe kind of guy.

As an example when I played FMCs in 6th I changed the list once over a period of 9 months to match a meta shift rather than a GT shift (although either could warrant a change) and my Da Boyz list will be almost exactly the same as my LVO list (4 months later in a totally different format)

As long as the list I've been playing has a reasonable answer for everything I'll keep playing it. Don't fix what isn't broke.  Filthy frenchie.  

Quick recap of the game: Kevin misplayed hard early in the game and got smashed with no hopes of coming back in the game from turn 3 onwards.  He played ‘till the end hoping to catch some sort of lucky break or for a misplay on Eric’s part.

And that recap is essentially why most top-tier players go for the safe option.  One simple misplay or not knowing the outcome of a certain situation (in this case:  would Eric charge a WK with the blob) can, and probably will, lead to a loss at the hands of another great player.  Despite having a great matchup (4 Venoms and a Spinner versus a blob)  Kevin took the wrong approach in dealing with the blob and everything spiralled downwards pretty quickly.

If you are serious about gaming and top tables and stuff, you have to consider that at some point you will face a player that’s as skilled as you are or straight up better than you and playing the Warhammerz.  They might will argue this next sentence to the grave, but Eric and Kevin have roughly the same skill level.  At that point, the game is pretty much who makes a mistake first and who can take advantage of said mistake.  You don’t need Vegas to know what are the odds of the player unfamiliar with his army making the biggest mistake in this case.

So, what’s your plan?