List building - General Ramblings #7

So what is the best way to make a list ?
 
To be honest, hell if I know. My guess is you can build a list about five different ways:

1. Hyper Uber Competitive

2. Net-listing

3. Flat 1850pts

4. Escalation

5. Fluffy McFluffykins

So what does all of this mean? I'll explain:

1. Hyper Uber Competitive

This is all about wrecking face and 'feel badsies'. Scat packs, Wraithknight spam, Hive Tyrant Flying Circus, Wolf/Cent/Seer/Screamer Stars, etc. Personally I detest this type of list, but it does serve it's purpose on the competitive scene.
Lucky, I am not into tournaments and the highly competitive scene. But if that's what floats your boat, look at the who is leading the ITC or NOVA and what they  are running. You won't make many friends, if you play this way, but you'll win.
 

2. Net-listing

The quickest way to put together a list, and probably the most effective. Spend 10-20 minutes doing a Google search. Search for something like "best XX army list 7E" will get you 5 or more hits instantly. It is up to you to work out if you want to be a sportsman and be true to the fluff, or you want to take option B, or in our case Option 1.
 

3. Flat 1850pts

Pay a visit to your friendly local gamin store (FLGS) and purchase the relevant Codex. Read through it and put together a vanilla list. Choose one HQ and two troops choices. With those basics, work from there. Pay attention to the "synergies" and the "local-meta", or whatever that means. Actually, it means pay attention to whether your local gaming group plays with fast moving objective secured troops that can hold objectives or if they are more laid back and focus on creating a narrative game; tell a story, regardless of the outcome. Tailor your list to fit your scene and have fun.
 

4. Escalation

Sometimes you don't know what to model and/or buy. So some gaming groups put together "Escalation Leagues". In an escalation league you start off with a small group/force as small as 150-500pts. Over the course of a week/month, whatever the league interval is, you grow your force in increments, of up to 500pts until you end up with around a 1500 or 2000pts force. Best of all, you play with the force as you grow and you get to figure out what works. Depending on your group, it is likely you'll have a fully painted force as well!
 

5. Fluffy McFluffykins

Now, I like escalation. It is effective and gets you playing. But playing fluffy is near and dear to my heart. I came from a Rogue Trader - 1st Ed. background, which was more likened to a Tabletop RPG. Building a narrative with semi-ambiguous rules. Warhammer 40k 2nd Ed. and the subsequent editions moved away from this, and narrative only really came back into play when Inquisitor and Necromunda were released. Interestingly, both specialist games got shelved. 

Moving to the current time frame, with 6th Ed. the hobby moved away from the narrative, focusing on the combative side, preferring to leave the narrative aspects to the Horus Heresy and related Forgeworld editions. 7th Ed. began to re-open the narrative again with it's campaign packs, Shield of Baal,  Sanctus Reach and now with the latest, War Zone Damocles.

The move back to a narrative suits me greatly. Given my time constraints and the length of time I have been in this hobby, focusing on the narrative, making it a fully immersive experience, well it's what I live for. The unfortunate downside of this approach is that it takes the longest to complete. But it is, by far, the most rewarding. You read all the stories, the history, the "fluff". You get to imagine what each character looks like. And then you model and build these characters you see in your mind. Once you build the models, then you start building a list, based on narrative scenarios that you inevitably will create.

Anyways, you can guess which approach I am taking to build my list.

Next up, a sneak peek at what I am thinking my list might look like.