Writing Lists

I enjoy most aspects of war gaming, including collecting, assembling, painting, playing and chatting about tactics. However my least favourite gaming associated activity is list writing. The reasons for this fall into 3 broad categories:

1. OVERWHELMENT: When writing a list, particularly an ork list, there are a lot of options. Decisions range from large (‘what heavy support choices should I include?’), medium (‘what unit size works best?’) to relatively small (‘what armour should I equip my character with?’). Generally these choices are obvious, but often there is conflict. I always find choosing my HQ hard. I also find myself being torn between writing a list based on fluff, competency, models I like and price both points and money wise very difficult.

For instance I love Killa kans, both the models and fluff. However the models cost a lot to buy, occupy a heavy support slot AND are (arguably) less effective than a battlewagon with a deff rolla. Killa kans also work best with a Big Mek+Kustom force field, which gobbles up (at least) one HQ choice, but I really like the thought of a Warboss and a Big Mek with a shokk attack gun. So what do I do? Go with what I ‘like the thought of’ or what will synergise most? And what if I have already bought a Wazdakka Gutsmek model off ebay for a bargain price? = Overwhelming.

2. DISAPOINTMENT: That horribly disappointing feeling you get when a list you thought would be really fun/kick ass/evenly matched against army ‘x’ (delete as appropriate), just isn’t. The tankbusta’s really are rubbish compared to lootas’, those nobz you gave heavy armour got smashed by Grey Knights and you regret the lack of cybork armour and in retrospect that massive unit of meganobz on foot are WAY too slow. Although this feeling is generally short lived and the right ‘wow that list was hilariously bad’ attitude/tweaking to your list can remedy it, for me at least, disappointment is still an issue.

3. Finally, JUDGEMENT: This is what generally gets to me the most. I know I shouldn’t care what people think, but the ‘what kind of idiot would include unit ‘x’ in a ‘y’ list?!’ really gets to me. I’m not sure if this results from being female, and feeling the need to prove myself as a capable gamer, or if it’s a widespread feeling, but either way it bugs me. If I want to have 20 gretchin and fork out for 2 Runtherders, I want to do that for a reason (probably one associated with modelling opportunity or fluff). I certainly don’t want people thinking I’m stupid for not taking 19 and saving myself the cost of the extra herder. When I played Space wolves regularly, I would run 2 rune priests only one with living lightning. This wasn’t because I was unaware that living lightning was awesome, but rather I preferred a bit of variety. If I lose a game I have no problem admitting my list might not have helped but I’d don’t want people assuming because I took that list I can’t play 40k and THAT’s why I lost. Judgement narks me.

So, am I the only one out there that feels like this? What aspect of war gaming is your least favourite aspect? I would be really interested in hearing about other people’s opinions on this :)

Also, this is the first ‘opinion’ blog post I’ve done, feedback on if you’ve enjoyed/hated it would also be appreciated.

More soon.