Pre Game Army Re-arangement

[wolfkin]

Personally I prefer not to know what my opponent is using.

Not only troop types, but we often dont even reveal what army we'll be playing.

A decent force should be designed to deal with all threats, not specific ones :rolleyes:

Wolfkin

[TheWamp]

I put that I don't do it (except in games where it's agreed upon), but I don't mind if others do it. Part of that may be that the only people who do it, who I play regularly, are people who I can beat hands down anyway.

[Hadrian]

Since I only own one army, my opponent always knows he's taking on the Dark Angels. Granted, he may butt heads with the Ravenwing or the Deathwing (someday).
Regardless, my opponents are going to optimize their army to take out Space Marines, so I try to optimize (NOT min/max) my list for his army.

Since almost every army (especially since 4th ed.) allows plenty of variabillity in tactics and composition, I don't think this skews the fairness of the game at all.

OT: To avoid being part of the calculator squad, I keep my lists. Sometimes I make changes or little notes about what worked and what didn't. Now I have a broad selection of pre-made lists that cover a nice range of points and tactical optimizations.

Now...about all this comparison to real-world military planning...you've got to keep in mind one thing:

This type of argument can justify both sides of the discussion.

Given enough time and resources, in the Strategic and Operational levels of warfare, opponents can adapt to each other. You might say that the one who adapts fastest has the strongest advantage.

But at the tactial level, small units, and small spans of time, are far more limiting in their ability to adapt. Squads, platoons, and companies, have specific training on very specific equipment. One could argue, at this level of warfare, that successful commanders can apply what they already have to maximum effect.

So knowing this, rather than coming down solidly on one side of the discussion or the other, you can vary your playing style (Especially in campaign games) to simulate these kinds of developments.

[Corianis]

I sometimes do this, but only with permission. Usually I only do it if they also want to do the same.
One thing which I usually do (got what a horrible phrase, any synonym suggestions?) is alter the way my army is organised. For example; the army I currently play is a marine force which uses Cleanse and Purify, but I feel that I do not need to ask permission if I want to spread the special weapons around a bit by taking one from a squad with two (eg 10 man tactical squad with 2 plasma guns) and putting it in a squad with only 1 heavy weapon (eg that 5 man tactical squad with a missile launcher now has a 6th man with a plasma gun).

EDIT: Thanks Novelizer, I was having a middle-aged moment (I am not middle aged but most of us get the reference, I hope).

[Novelizer]

Originally Posted by Corianis

One thing which I do do (got what a horrible phrase, any synonym suggestions?) is alter the way my army is organised.

Acually do, sometimes do, a few off the top of my head.

[Neferata]

I put "no, and i consider anyone who does so a cheater". Personally I dont think them to be cheaters, just unsportsman. I build my armies for Grand Tournament play, and I feel that if you're army is not built in such a way to handle a variety of situations, that you should suffer for your army's unbalances.

If both players pre-arrange a battle, on the other hand, then perhaps it would be more "fluffy" to tailor your army to counter theirs (no doubt they will do the same). But if you're just going to your local hobby store for friday night 40k, and you're stuck with a random opponent, I dont like playing against (nor do i like having to wait for) someone who makes up their army list at the last minute in order to build up a "hate-list" for my army.

[Toastee]

I do sometimes but it depends on the type of game....if I know I'm playing a certain army before hand, I'll take the best list with me in order to beat it.

I mean, I know its a game, but I do like to win you know. I don't spend lots of money on this hobby just to always lose, because thats not fun.
(NOTE: That does not mean I'm the type of gamer that always plays by the rules and will spend ages finding and abusing loop holes.)

If I just turn up somewhere and get a game against some random person, well, I only have the one list, and so I'll only use the one list.

At the end of the day, I'm a tourney player more than anything else, therefore it doesn't really effect the games I need to win, because everyone has one list, so thats what people have to put up with.

[Silver Wings]

I change my Army but only slightly and only if my opponent has taken an army far from the norm, e.g an Armoured Company or an army completely without Vehicles at all.

Would SM commanders knowing that they were about to face horde orks take Lascannon or Heavy Bolters from thier armoury?

However as I said I only ever change about 250pts out of 1500pts other than that the list remains constant. Changes are usualy things like swopping a Multi-melta attack bike for a Whirlwind when there are no tanks on the field and vice versa.

I do consider tailoring an entire list to beat a specific opponent the lowest of the low. This happened in UKWD300 Battle Report Orks v's Ultrasmurf's wheere in the army list section the UM player was purposefully tailoring his army to beat a tournament army in a tailored scenario. It was also boring as hell (wow Smurfs can shoot Orks!) but thats a rant for annother time.

[Midwinter's Kiss]

There's different degrees of specializing kitting a Tau army out to kill Marines makes perfect sense if you know your gonna fight Marines. But if you know your opponent doesn't use many vehicles and start to shun anti tank for more anti infantry then Barbie your pulling an Adam West Batman!

Put down the Shark Repellent Spray and play fair! Nobody puts up flash cards saying “bang� “thwack� and “zzaap� when you hit people! You don’t have a boy sidekick who wears tights (at least I hope not)

[H0urg1ass]

Put down the Shark Repellent Spray and play fair! Nobody puts up flash cards saying “bang� “thwack� and “zzaap� when you hit people! You don’t have a boy sidekick who wears tights (at least I hope not)

Speak for yourself. Some of us have devoted our lives to wearing masks and having comedic relief sidekicks..... of course, what we do in our bedrooms should probably stay there. :rolleyes:

In the end, though, I don't mind if my opponent does it to me as long as I can reciprocate the favor in kind.