Why I "Powergame", The Most Important Questions Part 1

To follow up yesterday's foray into why I do' the way I do', I first propose that everyone reading this blog pull out their girly pocketbook mirrors and ask themselves a simple question:

Question 1: For what reasons am I playing 40K?

This is one (of two) questions that I consider to be the "most important" when considering things such as what army to play, what strategies to use, what kind of lists to write, and most importantly if you should even play at all.

Of course I will use myself for all bases of discussion as I have not yet mastered the art of beating 40K players to a inch of their lives to tell me about their inner-most feelings.

Personally, I play 40K for the competition. The thrill of two well built armies along with two cool-headed generals playing for keeps is everything to me, I don't really dig on playing storybook time adventure all too often (only very occasionally when the mood strikes). I don't like tying one hand around my back so to speak, and the thought of having to take it easy on someone, well, just kills the fun for me. Tournaments were where I belonged in Magic, and continue to be my residence in 40K (as soon as I get to one lol).

If I didn't make it obvious before, I don't believe in "cheese". Hate the game, not the playa. If someone chooses to build the meanest list possible and you lose because you thought it would be cool to take fluffy unit X instead of moar awesome, well thats on you.

There is one caveat to this however. As "powergamer" as I am, I usually dislike playing what is normally seen as the "best" or most used in any game. Ad-Naseum Tendrils in Magic, Akuma in Street Fighter, Kilik in Soul Calibur, the more people who play it the less meaningful it would be to me. Yes I would of been that one Dark Eldar player everyone knows had I started earlier, and yes I enjoy being a beautiful special snowflake when it comes to army selection.

That means for me, Imperial Guard is out. They are, for most intents and purposes, THE "powergamer" army. They are the most min-max friendly, one of the most flexible, and to be honest, even "bad" builds are usually still pretty competitive in their own right.

This also means that almost all Space Marine chapters are out as well, which doesn't matter to me one bit because I didn't want to play them anyway lol.

I like armies with finesse, I don't care about having a ton of builds available (I've been playing the same Magic decks for 6+ years now) and rarity is an issue. The army being known as the "skill army" is also a huge bonus to me, as winning with it causes me to feel that even though dice were involved, it was more about me winning than it was about you losing (I'm just an ego stroker like that).

So Necrons it is right? Oh wait they suck too much. On to Dark Eldar! Oh wait, their codex is finally around the corner and most of the old models (minus Warriors) look like dook.

Time for some Eldar up in this muh!

With an army finally in mind, I emailed a bunch of people such as Kirby, Stelek, Fritz, and read many blogs such as The King Elessar's entire backlog, soaking up as much information as I could. This is how I am most comfortable learning things.


Ok, so check one question, now comes the other....

Oh wait, this post is already long as is, guess you peoples will have to wait for another time. Don't worry though, the other question that is most important concerns something near and dear to everyone everywhere, Pink Floyd even wrote a song about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_anbEJsr6s&feature=related

Contemplate what I've said, ask yourself the hard questions, and I'll resume at a later date about what $$$ has to do with the hobby, how it influences my army selection, and how in my opinion powergamers have it easy when it comes to building armies both for and not for competitive play.