Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I would love a place to read high-level articles concerning the game, but most the blogs I can find out there, like FLG or elite40k, seem to just be more people with a passion for both the game and writing about it, but not necessarily significantly more skilled or knowledgeable then any above average player. I'm wondering if there is any actual proven tournament monsters out there with a blog, or at least, any blogs that you think are REALLY on point? I'd really love to see this, It doesn't have to be pure high level play discussion of course, but please don't point to sites like the ones I already mentioned, and even worse stuff like natfka and similar.

I think the problem you're going to run into is how horrifyingly unbalanced 40k is, combined with the real-life cost.

Unlike Starcraft, Dota, LoL, CS:GO, Magic, or any other number of competitive games.. 40k has cost as a serious inhibition. Switching to the new power-army could cost thousands of dollars in and of itself.

So a 'beastly' player can suddenly become 'bad' because they played IG before Maelstrom was implemented, and now that the name of the game is fast MSU they don't want to shell out the thousands needed for a new army and instead finds himself unable to compete effectively with the new power-lists and power codex released through no fault of their own.

 SHUPPET wrote:
I would love a place to read high-level articles concerning the game, but most the blogs I can find out there, like FLG or elite40k, seem to just be more people with a passion for both the game and writing about it, but not necessarily significantly more skilled or knowledgeable then any above average player. I'm wondering if there is any actual proven tournament monsters out there with a blog, or at least, any blogs that you think are REALLY on point? I'd really love to see this, It doesn't have to be pure high level play discussion of course, but please don't point to sites like the ones I already mentioned, and even worse stuff like natfka and similar.

Not really, and what is out there is mostly list building, because that's what constitutes the majority of success in 40k. Everything else is so highly variable that beyond attempting basic target priority and explaining how as specific list is intended to play, there's not much else to distill. The game's rules are incredibly overcomplex, but the actual tactics generally are incredibly simple, much more so than most other wargames out there.

Front line gaming and torrent of fire is as high level a gaming blog I can think of. 11th company's podcast might also be up your alley.

 morganfreeman wrote:
I think the problem you're going to run into is how horrifyingly unbalanced 40k is, combined with the real-life cost.
a
Unlike Starcraft, Dota, LoL, CS:GO, Magic, or any other number of competitive games.. 40k has cost as a serious inhibition. Switching to the new power-army could cost thousands of dollars in and of itself.

So a 'beastly' player can suddenly become 'bad' because they played IG before Maelstrom was implemented, and now that the name of the game is fast MSU they don't want to shell out the thousands needed for a new army and instead finds himself unable to compete effectively with the new power-lists and power codex released through no fault of their own.

that's true, so let me clarify, they don't need to play a top tier army to be a top tier player and have high level understanding.




The opposite of this is what I commonly see, mid-level players with a blog following, who use high level armies to compete and get their bread and butter, but who don't understand the game well enough and are often downplaying their own high level army simply because it may or may not be as crazy OP as it once, or for whatever other reason, it's borderline army propaganda


Other than that it's just the fairly casual guy's discussing their own army and general 40k stuff (e.g. Natfka) and this stuff is absolutely fine and I'm very glad it exists as it can only help the scene, however it's not what I am personally interested in from a blog at this stage.


The best I've seen is FLG but while they are great guys, great writers, and above average players for sure, they aren't exactly at the highest level of gameskill, and that's what I'm interested in reading about.



You are right, it might be the size of the scene being so much smaller than most competitive games that is holding back the quality of the blogs, but I really thought there might be SOMETHING out there. They don't have to be a proven tourney champ, that obviously helps, but just as long as they truly and fundamentally understand the game I don't really care what their history is, I'd be very interested in reading. So if anyone has any suggestions here, even if it's only an individual writer from a list of writers at a certain site or something who you feel really grasps 40k, I haven't properly slogged through all the blogs so I'm unsure whats really out there (hence this thread).

There's lots of blogs out there, but most of them just come back to list building or order of operations. In a tactical sense, 40k just isn't that deep. For instance, if you want to prevent an opponent from controlling an objective, you really have two options, you can send in a unit to contest/claim by proximity (whether it be by assault or simply standing next to it), or shoot the opponent's scoring unit to death, and alternatively if you want to *hold* an objective, it pretty much just comes down to hoping an opponent cannot bring sufficient firepower to bear to kill your unit and keeping the opponent from being within 3" with a scoring unit. That's pretty much it. 40K just doesn't have all *that* much depth to get super high level about outside of list building, especially these days when it's possible to build armies to the extremes of firepower or resiliency that the game is often effectively non-interactive.

I think it's less the size of the scene and more the way in which the rules function.

Vaktathi really hit the nail on the head: Most of the tactics / strategy in 40k is what you show up at the table with. There are little bits and bobs outside of that (LoS charging with one model positioned to eat all overwatch, rhino-scoping, slingshot charges) but those are mostly loopholes and small things.

The sad truth is that the reason for there being very little in the way of competitive blogs about 40k.. Is probably because 40k isn't very competitive. The system is the absolute worst combination of terrible balance but simplistic (if massive) rules that it drowns such things out.

While I think there is much more to the game then list building, but yeah its a the majority of it and even for that there is no-one even showing high level list building reasoning from what I've seen, I see some really silly stuff being pushed as competitive, which is fine we are all at our own levels of skill, I'm just looking for something else. But even high level meta analysis and legitimate discussion seems rare as well.

 morganfreeman wrote:
I think the problem you're going to run into is how horrifyingly unbalanced 40k is, combined with the real-life cost.

Unlike Starcraft, Dota, LoL, CS:GO, Magic, or any other number of competitive games.. 40k has cost as a serious inhibition. Switching to the new power-army could cost thousands of dollars in and of itself.

So a 'beastly' player can suddenly become 'bad' because they played IG before Maelstrom was implemented, and now that the name of the game is fast MSU they don't want to shell out the thousands needed for a new army and instead finds himself unable to compete effectively with the new power-lists and power codex released through no fault of their own.

What this guy said, there is no highlevel, because the balance is so awful.

If it consisted it would currently contain two forums

"Wraithknight or warp spider lists"
and
"Lol this guy brought something other then eldar to a tournament."

Warhammer 40k cant do competitive tournaments, thats why games workshop no longer does them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also you cant really say this is a skill game, when results are determined by dice, a large majority is a game of chance.

I guess there is a big pretty big balance outlier at the moment with Eldar, but thats a relatively new dex and there has NEVER been high level writers as far as I can tell. It doesn't matter if your army is the weakest in the game, just high level discussion on how to build it to its best would be nice. Also, just because there is dice does NOT mean there is no skill involved lol obviously the skill cap isnt as high as Starcraft or some gak, but thats just how it go

for the OP, there were some excellent articles on Kirby's blog about tactics, but yes most of the other posters are generally correct. try here:
http://www.3plusplus.net/2015/03/lessons-for-competitive-players/

I dunno if this would really count as what you're looking for, but Fritz40k is who I watched for awhile while I was thinking about getting back into the hobby. He played Eldar back in the day before they got their new codex and as far as I could tell he did well.

https://www.youtube.com/user/WayOfSaimHann

Not sure if he has an actual blog. I don't really have the bandwidth to look right now.

When 80 percent of winning is list building, its impossible to have a high end discussion about anything but that.

40k tactics are really simple. Assault the shooty stuff and shoot the assaulty stuff. While keeping your guys on objectives and the other off. If you do that. You win. Now now to go about assaulting and how to camp and the various ways to do that can be learned, its not exactly deep. And also strongly depends on what the list can and can't do, but that goes back to list building.

Included in all this is the problem that allies brings. How does one write a high level blog about space wolves when the most winning and competitive space wolf lists brings a third to half of their points in white scars or imperial Knights.

It all comes back to list building winning the game and practice on how all the units come together.

 morganfreeman wrote:
I think the problem you're going to run into is how horrifyingly unbalanced 40k is, combined with the real-life cost.

Unlike Starcraft, Dota, LoL, CS:GO, Magic, or any other number of competitive games.. 40k has cost as a serious inhibition. Switching to the new power-army could cost thousands of dollars in and of itself.

So a 'beastly' player can suddenly become 'bad' because they played IG before Maelstrom was implemented, and now that the name of the game is fast MSU they don't want to shell out the thousands needed for a new army and instead finds himself unable to compete effectively with the new power-lists and power codex released through no fault of their own.

I know a few players with shelves full of trophies from national and international tournaments. These guys all had multiple armies and would build a new army or significantly update an existing one a couple of times a year. Thats just part of competing at that level.

I'm not aware of anyone at that level with a blog but it would certainly be interesting.

I'd especially like to follow their process of testing and refining (or rejecting) new lists.

 Scott-S6 wrote:

 morganfreeman wrote:
I think the problem you're going to run into is how horrifyingly unbalanced 40k is, combined with the real-life cost.

Unlike Starcraft, Dota, LoL, CS:GO, Magic, or any other number of competitive games.. 40k has cost as a serious inhibition. Switching to the new power-army could cost thousands of dollars in and of itself.

So a 'beastly' player can suddenly become 'bad' because they played IG before Maelstrom was implemented, and now that the name of the game is fast MSU they don't want to shell out the thousands needed for a new army and instead finds himself unable to compete effectively with the new power-lists and power codex released through no fault of their own.

I know a few players with shelves full of trophies from national and international tournaments. These guys all had multiple armies and would build a new army or significantly update an existing one a couple of times a year. Thats just part of competing at that level.

I'm not aware of anyone at that level with a blog but it would certainly be interesting.

I'd especially liked follow their process of testing and refining (or rejecting) new lists.

Same and this is exactly the sort of people I'm interested in reading from. Glad someone else gets it.




Also, to some of the other posters, I understand that Eldar get the results, that does not mean we can't have high level discussion about other armies, even if they can't compete they can be made as strong as possible, and there is countless of subject matter to discuss on this topic

Shuppet- if you build it they will come.

I think you may have to start something yourself. If there are other interested parties you can build from there.

Ask the tourney players on dakka for some input or an interview maybe. It could be that there really isn't any high level discussion to be had so be prepared for that and to develop your own theories for readers to digest.

I'd certainly be interested in following that, I've spent twenty years as a competitive M:TG player (one pro tour and multiple nationals attendances) and would love to address 40K strategy at the same level.

Magic is very very expensive to keep up with, chase cards are £20 and you need playsets of four, a decent *standard* deck will set you back hundreds of pounds new, let alone an older format like modern where you are looking in the £500+ range... plus the sets rotate every 3-4 months!

Once you've bought basic units, they very rarely change, so 40K seems like more of a one-off payment. Yes, my guardians and devilfish and hormagaunts are gathering dust, but they may shine again in the future. Yes, I have spent a lot of money (hundreds if not a thousand pounds plus) on this hobby, but over four years. It probably works out to £20-30 a month. Not exactly bank-breaking.

I have c.2500 points of: Imperial Fists, Eldar, Tau, Necrons, Tyranids. I bought most of the minis on ebay and stripped them, or from one independent retailer who offers a decent discount. I scratch build or proxy as necessary. All of my armies have some variations in supporting units so I can switch stuff out to test or if rules change. I'm lucky enough to have a housemate who plays (occasionally... his enthusiasm dipped after he splurged on a massive DE army then discovered the codex was gak) and a couple of friends who'll be up for narrative games to start with then tournament level with time.

Most "Top Level" players I've talked to have no interest in writing a blog.
The 11th company was a podcast that discussed tournament games, but they retired last year.

 SHUPPET wrote:
I would love a place to read high-level articles concerning the game, but most the blogs I can find out there, like FLG or elite40k, seem to just be more people with a passion for both the game and writing about it, but not necessarily significantly more skilled or knowledgeable then any above average player. I'm wondering if there is any actual proven tournament monsters out there with a blog, or at least, any blogs that you think are REALLY on point? I'd really love to see this, It doesn't have to be pure high level play discussion of course, but please don't point to sites like the ones I already mentioned, and even worse stuff like natfka and similar.

Front Line Gaming. Join their mailing list. Lots of articles from tournament players, organizers, in depth discussion of rules and units. These guys work hard at putting out stuff that isn't gak.

http://www.frontlinegaming.org/