# Whats your Metagame?



## Putch. (Jul 13, 2010)

Howdy all- Im just curious as to see what all your local metagames are like? Seeing as how we have heretics the world over I think it will be interesting, Are a lot of people now running the big blocks? Spamming low level mages? Making the best of percentages instead of slots for massive units? Whats going on in your area? :victory:


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

We have a club with roughly a dozen players and right now:

3 Ogres - Generally 1 huge unit of bulls with like 3 chars in it, plus support.

1 Tomb kings - Hasn't changed since last edition, not competitive atm.

1 High Elf - 1 Big block of spearmen with Bolt Thrower/Mage support, plus Flanking units of Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters.

1 Lizardmen - Aggravating army to play against, uses the broken Salamanders/Razordons to just run around you sideways. Crumbles as soon as you hit combat though.

2 Vampire Counts - Neither competitive, although 1 is trying Blood Knights and the other is trying Black Knights in order to lessen reliance on ressing crap core.

3 Warriors of Chaos - Including me. The others are mono-Nurgle and mono-Khorne

2 Empire - Both Gunlines. If I get about 10 Warriors into their lines then they crumble easily, I think they need to work on their maneuvering.


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## Khorothis (May 12, 2009)

The few games I managed to observe so far were pretty much the same as before. People still need some time to adopt to the new ways, but given their highly competitive mindset (thats a life or death issue for many players in my country) I think I'll be seeing the wierdest mental contraptions conceivable. Seriously, the batshit insane (+/-) things they can come up with, new players and veterans alike, are very often beyond me.


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## Putch. (Jul 13, 2010)

I havent actually gone out into the world for a game of 8th ed as of yet, but from what I hear quite a few people are doing the mega unit deal in my area, you know the 50 Chaos warriors/saurus just backed with war machines/fast cav. Sounds a little uncomfortable/ no to fun to play against. But eh its the game right? I for one have only slightly adapted my tactics and armylists, Just more men, and less characters or at least less tooled up characters. No more 400pt Chaos/ Dwarf Lords.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

My local GW has a lot of players, I'll try and remember roughly what gets used.

2-3 HE- big blocks of 50 LSG with either damage immune archmage and world dragon or teclis... caradryan is in there regardless. Backed up by bolt throwers. Very nasty to play against but Ive beaten them a few times.

my ogres- previoulsy have played 2 big blocks with characters (1 bull, 1 irongut) but I think Im moving to a block of bulls with minimal characters and then smaller irongut units with the tyrant/BSB/slaughtermaster... of course they are backed up by gnoblars, scraplauncher and gorgers.

WoC- couple of armies. 1 is based on small blocks of warriors with festus and the stupid Lv4 of stealy dice (never remember his name- everytime you fail at anything with PD/DD he steals them) and the other relies on 1 large block of khornate warriors in a hoard with a hellcannon, block of marauders and a unit of cav to support... plus endless tzeentch disc sorcerers. First is pretty easy to beat, 2nd is a bitch.

Daemons- 2 common players, one hasn't used them lately because they are no longer stupidly powerful, the other runs mono-khonre and no tactics... so they are dangerous but you only really lose if you make a few mistakes.

WE- 2 players. Mine is a MSU army with glade guard, glade riders and wardancers plus ancient, Lv2 mage, BSB and noble with little upsets via my eagle and wawatchers. Its designed to draw you forward and blocking big units while the wardencers charge your flanks and most other things flow around you... its an annoying WE army and has been very successful. The other is more of a tree spirit army; Lv4, 2 treemen, big block of treekin, dryads and some glade guard... its an alright army but not the player rarely changes tactics.

DE- many, most rely on a supreme sorceress with dagger in warriors, a hydra and 2 RBTs... but after that it varies widely. With blocks of black guard and BSB still seen but then pretty much all the infantry units are seen, no dragons have yet dared to raise their heads in 8th after being a staple in 7th.

Beasts- 1 army, big reliance on ambush... scary but not for mobile armies like mine.

VC- 3 main, many more. Each is different. 1 is cav heavy with a stupidly expensive deathstar of bloodknights with 2 vamps and a BSB... if you beat that unit you win (but thats incredibly hard). Other 2 are more standard- ghouls, zombies and the odd skely unit... even grave guard occasionally with 1-2 black coaches. Not seen any vargulfs in 8th yet.

TK- 1 player, won't use them until they get a new book.

Bretonians- 2 big blocks of cav, I havent played them but it seems to depend on what you are. Vs hoards they are rubbish, vs elite armies they do quite well.

Empire- 2 armies, hoards of spearmen and a couple of cannons is basiclaly all they have but with knights in 2 ranks... look scary but neither have synergy: their armies try to do lots of different things and so end up doing nothing very well.

Skaven- many, everything you can imagine

O&G- 2- first has loads of units, loads of warmachines... all the units have huge numbers of ranks and has the best magic defence around, very tricky indeed to beat, but not too hard to avoid losing (lots of close games). 2nd is in formation but is based on boar boys... not a great army

Dwarves- MIA, there are a few armies around but I havent seen anyone with them lately.. mainly just luck, they've been used just not when I'm there.


think thats everything. As can be seen we have a lot of players tring a lot of different things, but really dont have any 'gunlines' as such. Saw the odd one in 7th but they arent a local favourite.


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## mynameisgrax (Sep 25, 2009)

My Ogre Kingdoms are similar to Tim/Steve's above, and have been doing well. Not top tier, but a hell of a lot better than they used to.

My Empire playing friend has a frightening amount of shooting, and is probably the best gunline player I know. He prefers the lores of beasts and death. His only problem is when he attempts to be aggressive with knights and swordmen, it usually backfires on him, except when he uses that damn steam tank. If he holds his blocks of troops back he tends to do better, since it makes most of the points in his army very difficult to get.

The Skaven players like hordes backed up with doomwheels, the various artillery teams, and at least one big unit of rat Ogres. Apart from a powerful caster and a BSB bearer, they tend not to play many Lords/Heroes though. His only weakness is that if you can break his infantry, they're unlikely to regroup.

Lizardmen are popular, but the engine lists have been ditched in favor of a more balanced approach.

The High elf player at my store uses Sethis' HE strategy listed above, and with good success. They tend to rely heavily upon the Pheonix Guard, Teclis, and lore of life to keep their army in the game, but can work very well.

The Chaos Warriors players, of which there are quite a few, rely more on giant (up to 60+!) blocks of marauders than chaos knight cavalry, but otherwise their lists haven't changed much. Hordes of Tzeentch Chaos Warriors with shields are sickeningly powerful and resilient. I'm still trying to figure out how to beat them.

The Tomb King player, like my Ogres, seems to be having more success than before, although the rule interpretations are a little murky at this point.

I haven't seen the Dwarven player play yet, but he seems to be doing well with gunlines and blocks of sturdy infantry. He's pissed about the 25% Lord/Hero restriction though, as it keeps him from playing many of his usual characters at normal point levels (one of them is 505 points, and so he can't use him in a 2000 point game).

The Vampire Count, Bretonnian, and Wood Elf players are all sulking the corner and considering other armies.

I don't know any Dark Elf, Beastmen, or Orc & Goblin players.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

Dark Elves: My army tends to be pretty balanced, while the other player is quick to exploit whatever gimped army list he can come up with. We both favor shooting and Hydras, but I have much more combat and magic potential.

High Elves: Two play them. One got in around the same time as me, and I can beat him pretty handily, the other's been playing for several editions and is a good challenge. Both are pretty similar, though the vet favors White Lions while the newbie favors Swordmasters.

Vampire Counts: Local manager, I don't get to play him often, but he generally fields big blocks, with a Black Coach and Mannfred.

Warriors of Chaos: Resident painting expert, and pretty mean for me to face. He's running large units of Warriors, usually with a Daemon Prince, but there's usually some variety in how he makes up his list.

Ogre Kingdoms: He doesn't come in very often, but generally he uses hard-hitting characters in one of several units of 3-6 ogres. Also some Leadbelchers and a large unit of Gnoblars.

Orcs And Goblins: Whole slew of people who...never show up. Big units of goblins, usually.


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