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What do you normally agree upon before playing a game with someone? I have a friend who insists he doesn't need to tell opponents which army he plans on playing because it doesn't say in the rules that you have to. They also use this logic to bring super heavies into games under 2000 pts. I explain to him that just because you can doesn't mean you should, and the least you should agree upon is what army you are choosing so I have an idea of how to build a list. I'm also in the camp of super heavies only being brought in apoc style games over 2500+ points, or at the very least letting your opponent know you plan to bring a super heavy.

I've only played for 2 years at this point starting in 7th edition, but I always agreed on knowing which army I was facing and letting my opponent know which one they would be playing against as well.

What are the normal requirements of a game that you usually agree upon?

You should agree upon what what you (don't) want to play against.

Power levels vs. points is the most infuriating one.

Back in 7th, I needed to discuss Flyers, FW (for some reason), superheavies, what interpretations of rules failures we would use, ask whether the game was "casual" or "competitive"...

We usually agree to let the other know if something more extreme is taking the table - flyer spam, superheavies, that sort of thing - as a courtesy to make sure the other person is aware.

 Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:
What do you normally agree upon before playing a game with someone? I have a friend who insists he doesn't need to tell opponents which army he plans on playing because it doesn't say in the rules that you have to. They also use this logic to bring super heavies into games under 2000 pts. I explain to him that just because you can doesn't mean you should, and the least you should agree upon is what army you are choosing so I have an idea of how to build a list. I'm also in the camp of super heavies only being brought in apoc style games over 2500+ points, or at the very least letting your opponent know you plan to bring a super heavy.

I've only played for 2 years at this point starting in 7th edition, but I always agreed on knowing which army I was facing and letting my opponent know which one they would be playing against as well.

What are the normal requirements of a game that you usually agree upon?

I would agree to not play with that person until and unless he grows reasonable.

It strikes me as pretty TFGish to build an army knowing what army your opponent is bringing. I mean, they didn't do that. You should build a TAC army that's ready to take on either Space Marines or Imperial Guard or Orks. I think it's generally better form not to ask what army someone else is going to bring until it's clearly too late for you to attempt any tailoring.

But of course you always have the right to just walk away if your opponent pulls out something really stupid. I don't think it makes sense to have a hard rule about superheavies or whatever. But if they're clearly being abusive -- if they dump a million Brimstone Horrors and Daemon Princes on the table -- you should just leave. If they bring a list that you think is not going to be at all fun to play against you can say that you don't want to play unless either they change something or you're allowed to swap in some counters. But of course you want to be careful with this because it's very easy to be TFG here and insist that whatever your opponent brings is overpowered and you should be allowed to tailor against it.

Before we meet? Points only.

I hugely prefer not to know the army I'm playing against. If you go to your LGS knowing you're facing Grey Knights or Orks it makes a huge difference... I think almost everyone would look at what they were thinking of bringing and find it really hard not to list tailor a bit! Even though I tend to play TAC lists, bringing multimeltas to a horde scrap feels like you're deliberately handicapping yourself.

If I rock up and discover what I'm up against, it feels more fun. Oh crap, 200 orks!


I would never bring a superheavy to a fight of 1999 points or below, I don't think. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but it seems like 2000 is the new threshhold for that sort of unit.

I think you would also agree "Maelstrom?" or "Narrative - I'll be defender?" or similar.


Before we start playing - Terrain. Does standing ON that weird hill thing give the -1? Are those walls actually barricades? is that thingy a wood? And so on.

In previous editions it was a rule that you had to tell your opponent what army you were bringing before lists were made. I guess with the keyword system that's not possible to do "officially" anymore.

Personally, I would do the following in order:

Declare Matched Play Rules (duh)
Declare a Points Limit
Confirm Detachment Limit
Declare what Faction Keyword you are going to pick to be your Keyword. Alternatively, both agree to be super sekret about it to force a TAC list.
Build/Produce lists without knowledge of the exact makeup of your opponents list but with the knowledge of what keyword it is if agreed upon.
Decide what all the terrain does.
Fight

Basically, them saying "The rules don't say I have to waaa" makes them seem like total cockgoblins in my eyes. As long as both players know the others faction I think it's fair. "I'm Bringing Orks", "I'm Bringing Dark Elfdar", ok, lets build our lists in anticipation of what might commonly be brought by each others army. Ofc you might be sneaky and bring a very unconventional army. If he tools for Hoard Orks and you bring all Deff Dreds and DiggaNobz then he's in a bit of a pickle.

I personally make it clear before a game I don't want to play with or against flyers.

Glad to see some other opinions on that matter as I never really saw it as list tailoring if both players know what they are playing against. Obviously you would build a list differently if you are playing against tyranids as opposed to an army like necrons, and vice versa.

I always saw list tailoring more as oh I see you've brought lots of tanks and high toughness stuff, let me squeeze in all these melta guns and lascannons I didn't originally intend to bring.

Don't want to be TFG..

Points level only.

I don't tell my opponents what army I'm bringing nor do I ask what they're bringing because I want both them and myself to bring what they want and write balanced lists rather than tailor their list to what they're opposing (or expect to oppose). Me and my friends played this way for years. We all had multiple armies and we'd not tell each other what we were playing until we were in a room together and setting up.

 Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:
... the least you should agree upon is what army you are choosing so I have an idea of how to build a list. I'm also in the camp of super heavies only being brought in apoc style games over 2500+ points, or at the very least letting your opponent know you plan to bring a super heavy.

I've only played for 2 years at this point starting in 7th edition, but I always agreed on knowing which army I was facing and letting my opponent know which one they would be playing against as well.

I agree with agreeing to superheavies but as I said, I disagree with knowing what your opponent is bringing. None of us own a super-heavy so it's never come up. I USED to own a hierophant biotitan but...well, I don't like to talk about it.

My group just agrees to a points level. Any other warnings or discussion is purely voluntary. 3 of us have more than one army, and I really hope the 4th starts a second one at some point, as I prefer to NOT know what I'm going to play against, so I'm building a list on its own merits instead of "Oh this'll be good against what my opponent is bringing."

I did warn my group I'd start bringing a superheavy soon, though, and I don't plan to use it under 2000 points. I'll probably let them know when I plan to use it, as well, just to give them a heads up - but that will only happen for a bit. Once they're used to it being there sometimes, I won't be informing them it'll be used because they should know it might be showing up.

Points or power levels

What we don't want to play against

Time and place so it can be worked around both people

Well, I've seen it both ways. Where I play, a conversation about what you're after in the game is a norm (as most games are arranged online up to a week in advance) and pretty often people decide on mission, points/power level, narrative/matched, and usually people know what armies they're up against because people go "I have 100 Power Levels of Orks! Who wants to play?"

However, I have had experience with players who, if you tell them what army you're playing, will show up with a list designed to beat that army. All flamers and heavy bolters if you say orks or nids. All plasma if you say marines. Etc. So I can see where they're coming from. It's also sometimes fun to go "out of the box" and bring in a blind challenge as part of the fun. I've been loving the new Open Play missions, and have played a couple totally blind games where players brought between 100 and 150 power, where we used the Ruse and Sudden Death cards to balance if the forces seemed lopsided - it actually worked pretty well, with the Underdog pulling it out in 2/4 of the games I've played with it.

I would say that it matters very little what is agreed upon before the game, and matters more on the attitude of the person playing me.

Example A:
"We're playing 1500, how about we don't discuss armies and just have at it?" ---- Cool, you bet.

Example B:
"The rulebook doesn't say I have to tell you anything about my army!" --- feth off.

If there is any animosity or arguing before a game begins (for any reason) I'm not even going to bother playing. That's just a sign that the whole 2-3 hours will be nitpicking, rules loop-holing, whining about results, etc. It's just a red flag. The person is either an amenable adult who wants to play a game and roll some dice and have fun, or they're not.

There is 1 reason to know what army you are facing - so you don't have a mirror match.

Conversation looks like this. "I want to play tau or eldar" - "I want to play space marine or eldar" - "how about we do Tau vs Eldar? Xenos vs Xenos?" Sounds cool.

Sorry, but I like to know what army I am playing against. Specific lists? No.

But when a friend and I play (I dont do randoms) we decide what army, and points. I see no reason not discuss that.

For normal play, we usually discuss how competitive our armies overall and which we might want to play. Mostly a holdover from last edition, where the power gap kinda required an informal tier list to make sure people had fun.

Yeah, I pretty much always let my opponent know what army I'm playing, and if I'm gonna be using any really odd units (especially if they're considered severely OP or UP).

For myself personally, I ask people that I'm planning a match against whether or not they want to face one of my various Lords of War. Guilliman, my one Imperial Knight or my Baneblade/Stormlord, then take one of my planned lists depending on the answer.

Points.

However, I almost never play strangers.

In terms of agreement, usually just points (though we might occasionally arrange for specific matchups - like if we're doing a 2v2 we might try to make it Imperium vs chaos or such).

However, we might casually discuss armies and such prior to the game.

Also, I'll sometimes ask people if they mind which faction I use.

 Resin Glazed Guardsman wrote:
What do you normally agree upon before playing a game with someone? I have a friend who insists he doesn't need to tell opponents which army he plans on playing because it doesn't say in the rules that you have to. They also use this logic to bring super heavies into games under 2000 pts. I explain to him that just because you can doesn't mean you should, and the least you should agree upon is what army you are choosing so I have an idea of how to build a list. I'm also in the camp of super heavies only being brought in apoc style games over 2500+ points, or at the very least letting your opponent know you plan to bring a super heavy.

I've only played for 2 years at this point starting in 7th edition, but I always agreed on knowing which army I was facing and letting my opponent know which one they would be playing against as well.

What are the normal requirements of a game that you usually agree upon?

Tell your friend to grow up. Sneaking mini-titans and whatnot into the game are the true trademarks of a spike. If he doesn´t see reason avoid this guy like the plague. He is TFG and not you. Your most precious commodity is your time. DON´T waste it with jerks.
I have played in 3rd & 4th against my buddy and we both knew our opposing factions in advance. The matches were never dull and list-tailoring didn´t happen.

I usually only care about the number of points/PL and, if I'm not sure, some indication of how competitive.

40K isn't balanced well enough to competitively make army lists. Instead, it should be a collaborative process. You and your opponent should endeavor to bring lists that are well matched against each other so that the game result isn't determined before the game starts.

40K might get to that competitive standard some day, but until then army building is collaborative.

I always play a take all comers list, so i typically only ask the following:

1. Points level.
2. How they handle cocked dice -- i don't reroll them unless they are really hard to tell the result, but I'll let my opponent be the judge if it's close, whereas other people like to reroll all cocked dice no matter what. I like to establish this up front to avoid it coming up as an issue.

There's a lot of discussion that goes on before games apparently.

We do points. I sometimes will talk about what I'm thinking about running. Sometimes other people will too.

There's no superheavy or forgeworld discussions. Those are assumed to be present. Cocked dice COULD be a thing, I guess, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it weird or try to abuse it.

Footprints of ruins, rules for the bastions in no mans land, I usually ask that all dice that land in the curved gutters be counted as cocked

We always discuss point level.

The only other rule we "HAD" was in 7th, I wouldn't play against more than one Super Heavy at 1500 points without warning, nor more than 2 Super Heavies at 1850 pts without warning. My most frequent opponent really likes Super Heavies, and if I knew ahead of time, I didn't mind facing 4 Knights, or 3 Wraith Knights... but I wanted to know ahead of time to list tailor so the game had a purpose. After about 2 games, we both agreed that more than 2 SH in a game was not much fun to play for either of us, anyhow. Either I knew what he had, and tailored to beat him, or didn't know what he had, and got roflstomped. No real counter play for either of us, so we didn't do that.

We might ask each other what the other is playing, though we all had a gentleman's agreement that if you didn't want to tell, you wouldn't ask. We each have at least 2 factions, so that could let us try a "surprise" list, if we were in the mood.

We've all played together for years, so we tend to just "know" what's what with terrain, though at an LGS I'd have a quick chat with my opponent to make sure we both agree how they work.

I generally ask if a person wants a cut-throat game, or a relaxed game, so that I don't crush a newb, or underplay my first turn to a competitive player.

I usually play with well known friends and we know our collections inside-out, so there is a lot of collaborative cross-tailoring to ensure desired matchups and rotational use of all models we have (we collect armies of great looking/in-game feeling models, not narrow lists of most point-effective ones). Other than that we also often discuss particular scenarios, terrain layout and special one-off rules.

When playing with new people, the most important thing we have to agree on, is that we both don't want a typical tournament attitude. So in result I rarely play with new people

Mostly just waht points level (or, these days, powerlevel if the person is too lazy to do points).