Armylist Building

Just thought I would give a few thoughts on what makes up an armylist, or more appropriately what will be making up armylist son this blog. Armylists are ten a penny on the internet, with everybody stating what they think is the best armylist to take, one that will guarantee them victory. Whilst it is good to win, it is just as important to realise that every victory also means that your opponent(s) has lost. Having played since the early days of 1st edition W40K I have managed many a win in both single and multiple payer, with as many draws as defeats suffered so I would expect if I counted them up I would be scoring an 8-1-1 ratio.


So am I laying my cards on the table, claiming to be a great player and showing you the secrets of victory? Far from it, I came to realise many years ago that the art to winning came in list building. Obviously there is an element of tactical nous and luck via dice rolling, but you can reduce both elements if you have an effective list. And in the many years of gaming I succeeded by building better lists than many of my opponents.

Winning is certainly fun, but is that enough? I can remember playing Tau teaming up with an Imperial Guard player against Space Wolves and Space Marines, wiping out 90% of the opposition and losing just 1 Fire Warrior in the last turn – I did callously sacrifice the Imperial Guard players army; for the greater good. Back in 3rd edition I played a 1.5k Space Marines versus Dark Eldar and killed them to a man in by turn 4 without losing even a single scout. Sure the games may have been fun for me, but what of my opponent?

Whilst putting together 1K forces for the various armies that I hope to finally build and paint I will be keeping one eye on ensuring that the lists are not fun-sucking, fear inducing, smite thine foes with holy flame lists that we read about on the internet. You may be thinking, wait a moment isn’t that what you said you played previously? In my defence I put together better lists than my opponents, however they were very rarely equal to what you read doing the rounds in tournament play, if only because those lists do not meet with my gaming style.

Finally at the meat of this blog, the 1K lists will contain a HW, Elite, 2 Troop, Fast and Heavy. There may for some of the less expensive (in points) armies have more units, or for the sake of fluff switch a Heavy for a Fast, etc.

I have had a few battles already taking this design concept forwards and have found it difficult having only two scoring units, I may decide to try and squeeze a third one into the lists, but mostly playing a 3+ army makes this expensive, in points. In a basic list taking six units gives me 166 points a squad which seems like plenty until you try to build a Troop, ten Space Marines will set you back 170 points before upgrades or transport options. With this in mind I normally give the Troops an extra bite, dividing the points by seven and boosting Troops with the surplus. This gives units 142 points to platy with and the two Troops 216 points each. If I was to ignore taking transport then I could easily fit a third Troop into the lists, but in the 5th edition environment and certainly my gaming tables transport is king.