List Building Process/Plan for 6th Edition



These guys are probably making a repeat appearance soon...

Warning:  This is my own personal plan for 6th Edition and may or may not have anything useful for everyone else.

Now that 6th Edition is out, it is time for me to start tweaking my lists.  As I have mentioned before, I am a very middle of the road player.  I really don't focus on or excel at any one aspect of the game.  I spend more time playing than painting and have been making an effort to field fully-painted armies for all of my games.  Because I try to take a balanced approach to 40K, this really affects how I build my lists and design my armies.

I lean more towards the playing/competitive side of 40K, but really don't get the chance to really pursue that too much due to my location.  I haven't been to GTs yet and I really don't even get to go to that many local Tournaments.  That may change after I move this fall, but I doubt it will change how I do approach the game.  Right now, I have no desire to build rock-hard or spammy lists.  I am not bashing anyone who does, because I think that min-maxing is a very valid skill and builds effective lists.  However, those are overkill in the small, local metas I play in, so I have been able to get by with more offbeat lists.  I personally like big, splashy models like LRs/Stormravens and melee beatsticks.  I also like building lists that get their redundancy by mixing slightly different units with overlapping abilitys.  I also get bored painting the same thing again and again.  Different strokes for different folks.  With that in mind, this is how I plan on approaching 6th Edition:


1. I am NOT buying new allies. I think the meta is going to shift back and forth multiple times and I do not plan to do any impulse buying of new stuff.  However, I am drooling at the prospect of mixing in Guard as Ultramar PDF, and there are definately some cool options with allying in Counts As Blood Angels.  I think that combining the two armies can really make an effective demi-company list.  But I still have a massive backlog of stuff to finish building before chasing after the next new thing.

2. I plan on updating both of my lists as standalone lists and also as allies with each other. My Second Company will probably get updated first with my Honorguard getting tweaked afterwards.  I think trying to figure out allies before I get a handle on the basics of each army is just asking for trouble, so I will worry about ally lists after everything else is done. After those are done, then the Crons will hopefully get built before a new codex invalidates them. 

3. I have enough spare models/pieces that I can add just about any 1-2 units to either army that I want. I can't and won't go spam crazy, because that really bumps up the cost without giving me that many more options for lists.  Also, I think that the changes make a lot more units from both Codexes viable, so I want to try out different units for variety.  I am actually tempted to break out my real Honorguard and TFC again and I am kinda sad I sold off most of my bikes.

4. I plan on sticking to 1999 or less. I have no intention of dealing with the 2-4 FOC arms race/shenanigans at 2K+. That might change later, but for now, most of my lists feel pretty good within one Force Org Chart and I don't want to feel forced to buy a lot of new stuff to fill out new Force Orgs.

5. I do not plan to spam Flyers (even with the Crons) or anti-Flyer stuff. I think that taking twin-linked shots will help against Flyers and ground units. Necrons are the only army that I think will spam Flyers, and they are only AV11, so Pysbacks and Pysflemen will be able to strip hull points, while MMs and Lascannons should hopefully cripple them outright. I also may try to add in Quad guns to try and alphastrike Flyers as they come in from reserves.  If I find that isn't enough, then I can always adjust.

6. I plan on making minor tweaks based on theorycraft and playtesting over time. My time and monetary budgets are not up to complete redesigns, especially with a fluid meta.  I may start with minor tweaks such as changing up heavy/special weapons and upgrades before switching out units and mixing in Allies.  I think minor tweaks such as Plasma vs Melta and MMs vs MLs might have a big impact.  Even changing Sarg loadouts could potentially be huge given the new challenge dynamics. 

TLDR Version... Slow and Steady and Balanced FTW.  I will post tweaked lists over the next couple of days along with how I arrived at them.