THE HAMMERS OF DORN! & 40k Meta Crunching
Welcome Brothers and Sisters, I’m James, an average closet Warhammer Nerd who has been drawn back into the Warhammer Universe by a Slaaneshi Fiend (friend) I thought I had left the Grim Dark Future behind me in the late 90’s….but it looks like I am back. Join me on my journey back to social and tournament 40K gaming.
META!! Is there any word we hear more when talking 40K? Meta munching is the number one past time and the staple diet of the competitive 40 player and as I have already mentioned, I don’t intend to be a faction hopper and chase the best Meta armies to play (yes we get it, you’ve said that like 4 times in 6 blogs, Let It Go Elsa)
However cogitating the Meta in terms of what armies are being played more heavily is worth doing, so that you can adapt to your likely opponents at a tournament.
Its is clear already in just a couple of weeks that Death Guard are super strong, as are Imperial Knights. Players having started flipping out already, throwing more shade than Nosferatu and getting saltier than Captain Ahab!!
For sure have your say, its good to glare at the Meta chaser who’s strutted up like the James Brown of 40K, with his new Death Guard plague marines rocking lethal hits, crits on 5’s, full hit and wound re-rolls, 69 attacks and the smug face…..but don’t let it make you boil Brother. Last month it was Ynnari, Yeeting themselves everywhere and the Calgar Guillygooly Bro’s, before that it was DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA and on and on. As my main man Joe from Wargames Live says, “YOU’VE GOTTA LEARN TO RIDE THE WAVE” Words from the wise Rune Priest indeed. You’ve got to let these things wash over you, there will always be a strongest army and best detachment.
So what am I going to do in my attempt to deal with these, “CRACKED” or “OP” armies……well I think the most fun thing is to collect a faction with a good variety of miniatures so that you can adapt and Ride the Wave. I think Space Marines probably allow this better than most other factions because we have such a huge roster of varied units we can call upon in the name of The Emperor!!!
SPOILED FOR CHOICE
We Space Marine Players have a lot of units to call from, allowing us to ride out the Meta storms easier than most other factions. Praise the Emperor for that at least!
I don’t actually mind the faction hoppers, do your thing baby but for me I want that feeling of representing my team!! For me it will be more fun if I immerse myself as a loyalist serving the Emperor……knowing that the lure of Slaanesh will always be testing me, BE GONE FILTH!!!
I also can’t afford to be collecting multiple factions, so being known as a mono faction player works for me on a few different levels. You can build melee space marines, balanced armies, shooting armies, fast armies with ATV’s and Storm speeders or tank and dreadnought heavy. The detachment system also makes this easy as you can also get an army rule which will benefit the style you are going for.
At the moment it certainly looks like big stuff is the problem, KNIGHTS, GREATER DAEMONS and the proliferation of T9 tanks….small knights (being taken a lot as allies) pesky Bloat Drones and Blight Haulers and all the other usual T9 suspects.
So what would be a fun army to build to counter this with a head on no nonsense style…THE HAMMERS OF DORN!!
THE HAMMERS OF DORN
Dorn would be proud. (not a whisper of my previous dalliance with Slaannesh please)
I’m thinking to try and work with the units I already have but add a bit more prime Imperial Fists beef! I already have 2 tanks and 3 Dreadnoughts in my army, so I’m leaning to the heavy hitters. I could bolster this with a Redemptor Dreadnought and maybe some fast moving support like 2 ATV’s and a Hammerstrike. The reason I’d think about favouring some melta power is partly they move fast and can hit hard deleting a prime enemy target early in the battle. But also with IRONSTORM SPEARHEAD detachment, you get the re-roll per unit. So having a repulsor executioner is nice but with all their different guns, you only get one re-roll. But each Multi melta on an ATV gets that re-roll and the hammersrtike and so on.
Nothing niggles more than your opponent repeating an army rule especially re-rolls or feel no pains!! Oh yeah the Ballistus gets a re-roll for Ironstorm, yep re-roll for Ironstorm again, yeah i’ll just re-roll that wound…..it’s Ironstorm LOL.
But there is something else, something I’m not sure you’re going to want to hear a filthy idea which is lurking in the back of my mind almost to twisted to reveal. I could replace the Brutalis and Redemptor with one big KNIGHT!!!!! “THE CODEX ASTARTES DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS ACTION……BUT I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO IT”
SURPRISE
Oh this? Yeah It’s a knight in my Imperial Fist army.
I know I know, HERESEY!! But wouldn’t it be fun turning up with your Imperial Fist army and you see your opponent catch sight of a big mother freeblade appearing from your miniature box. I know they lose out on the faction rule and their own faction rules but I still think it could really mess with players heads.
We will have to see where the Emperor guides me!
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