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For me. When I play 40k I ussually always go with the same general list. Filled with the units I like and a play style that matches mine and it always stays that way no matter who the opponent or mission is. Today I have a game at the FLGS with a guy I had never seen around. He ask for a game I say sure. He asked what i played and i tol dhim orks. We set up to play and as I am looking at his army. I notice were ever possible there is a flamer. Be it Tac squad dreadnaught or the Flame raider.(Redeemer?) I then got the slight feeling he had tailored his list to fight orks. Which bothered me a bit as I didnt really see it far nor sportsman like. I won the game my orks are pretty shootieso I out ranged hime most of the time. but still...

Does it ever bother anyone else when something like this happens to you? and is it common practice?

It doesn't happen much at my FLGS, if at all. Not to me, at least. If it did though, I'd honestly be mighty pissed.
When someone tailors their list against yours, you move into a couple levels of unsportsmanship and unfairness.
I know some people think it's fine, because it's a way to win, but if the same happened to them, they'd go off on you.

If someone's list tailoring then I'm happy to take something that'll catch them out. A battlewagon rush list will crush someone tailoring for a horde list, for example.

I only play 40k with a fairly small group of friends. So simply by the fact that we know what models everyone has, there is a certain amount of list tailoring that always happens. That said, it makes for a fun meta-game of trying to tailor and counter-tailor our lists each week.

I have a regular opponent who always uses my minis because he is not in a financial position that makes it feasible for him to start his own army yet. For a while our games went back and forth, as the dice gods would allow it, and then he started 'tailoring' to my tyranids. Now he always fields a thunderfire cannon, 7-10 thunderhammer terminators, and vulkan he'stan with flamers and meltas to suit his tastes. He went on a killing streak against my bugs for about a month's worth of games (read: 4 or 5) before i started counter-tailoring and running large broods of hormaguants for the thunderhammers to take a big punch out of his army. Now we're back at about 50/50 in our games, unless we roll for a kill point mission.

tyranids hate kill points, every list is tailored against ours when that one comes up, haha.

well, i suppose what you should have done is asked to see his list at the same time as you show him yours; i personally consider it unsportsmanlike to change your list knowing the other person's list.

That being said, since i play with a small group we all know each other's list as and when it's changed; we tend not to tailor our list specifically against each other, since we're teaming for the school/college league in a couple weeks, but we do tend to change our lists very slightly to see what works well against other armies; i guess that really depends on wether you're an experienced player or beginners like us

There's a significant difference, at least in my mind, between what's described here and 'list tailoring'.

Looking at your opponents list before the game and specifically tailoring your list against that particular one is one thing, swapping in a few flamers before lists are exchanged because you know your opponent is likely to be GEQ heavy is another.
This isn't a tournament where you're forced to stick to a singular all comers list with no variations or anything, it's a single friendly game and you readily volunteered the (extremely basic) information beforehand. It even makes perfect sense fluff-wise.

That's my personal approach to the issue, I'm sure others will have their own.

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Kolath wrote:I only play 40k with a fairly small group of friends. So simply by the fact that we know what models everyone has, there is a certain amount of list tailoring that always happens. That said, it makes for a fun meta-game of trying to tailor and counter-tailor our lists each week.

This is my situation too, and it makes for some great games. (Then again, I'm at the top of the food chain so maybe I'm biased.)

Otherwise I basically agree with Gorkamorka. In a one-off game, and especially in a friendly narative game, its acceptable to make changes. I'm going against my buddy's sneaky 'Nids? Yeah, I don't think I'll bring my Plague Marines with Meltaguns, and take Flamers instead. I might swap out my Predator for a Defiler. As a general rule of life: don't do stupid things. If you know whats coming, prepare for it. Now, if you make changers after you exchange lists, that's a party-foul. Its one thing to know that Tyranids are coming, and another thing entirely to know that I'll definately need my Predator and Meltaguns back, because he's got a Tervigon.

Interesting how the more competative you get, the more general your army has to be, yet the more friendly the game the more you can tailor it. Friendly gamers are WAAC!

There is a way to prevent someone from tailoring......Lie like a grot. I have had people ask me before what I am playing and I might say marines, but what I don't say is I am using drop pod space wolves. All joking aside, I like most have a standard list that only changes when I increase or decrease points, and I have no problem if someone "tailors" a list to me, because one of 2 things happen. First, I smash the snot out of them, because I am that much better and don't need to tailor. Second, I have a challenging game and loose. I look at 40k differently then some, because I feel like if you never loose then you aren't playing the right people.

List tailoring isn't fair or unfair in and of itself, the issue is for both players to be on an even playing field. If a guy has turned up with a general list made no room for alteration, then it's not cool to tailor your list based on his army type. On the other hand, if both players know what the other guy is fielding and both players are free and willing to tailor their lists based on what they're expecting, then it's all fair. It can actually make for a more interesting game, as a lot of neglected units suddenly become viable when you know you're facing a certain army type.

That said, there's also another issue of fairness related to how diverse each player's model count is. A lot of players can only make so many changes in mid to high points games, while other guys can field wildly differing army lists - common sense and a sense of fairness has to apply.

I never tell my opponent what army I play.....ever.
Unless asked to play a specific army, my answer if asked is always; "you'll see when I deploy".

I play in a small (6) man group and currently have nine active armies. My army lists are made in advance of me even knowing who of the guys I am going to play with.

In my playgroup we always consider "friendly" games as preparations for tournaments so people generally use "take all comers" type of lists.

The only instances where tailoring is activelly encouraged is when we are playing in our anual league.

I dislike overkill army lists so I stay away from things that upset my opponents, (to a point).

When I play I am playing to have a good time and I take partial responsibility for my opponent having fun. Its my job to enjoy the game and have fun, I also think its my job to help my opponent to have fun.

Now tournaments are different and not everyone shares my view, but that's ok - while they are trying to pound me and rip my heart out, I am trying to make sure we both have fun.... :-)

This is my situation too, and it makes for some great games. (Then again, I'm at the top of the food chain so maybe I'm biased.)

And very modest too!

I get around the tailoring issue by playing multiple armies, and not telling them which army I am playing until they have selected their army list.

I usually play in tourneys or against people I know, so this isn't a big issue for me. In fact, I have to work against doing it myself most times, as one of my main players has really structured lists that he plays every time, so it's sometimes hard not to know beforehand what he's going to play (more or less). I often carry a couple lists with me for pick-up games and often switch things around to playtest different unit setups. If one set-up will be absolutely hosed by one person's army, I don't think it's a big deal to alter. You're both looking for a good game, ideally, so making sure it's not a massacre just by the nature of the lists is fine by me.

I think the only guy I tailor my list to for friendly games at the FLGS is the guy who believes you can never have too many tanks, so I have to tank a bunch of tank busting stuff if I want to have a chance. Otherwise on the friendly games most everyone plays rather balanced lists so I don't worry too much about it. People have a hard time tailoring to me because I have so much stuff you never know what I'm going to bring.

Tailoring is bad, but I don’t know if that’s what the guy did.

The flamer in the tac squads are free making them an all around good idea.
The flamer on dreads is cheap and useful making them an all around good idea.
And the redeemer kills the living crap out of MEQs making it an all around good idea.