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Since no 2 armies seem to be exactly alike (barring net-lists), nor do 2 players play the exact same, what would it be like to play against yourself?

I have 2 main armies, Eldar and Daemons and have always wondered how well they would do against each other. Each army seems to do quite well against other armies, but I have never seen anyone play the exact lists I have played, nor are similar lists played by someone who uses the exact same tactics as I do.
In 6th, I had gotten bored enough to set up both armies and start rolling dice on my home table. It almost always ended in Daemons massacring the Eldar. Before the 7th ed codex dropped, the Eldar I used just did not have the firepower to kill enough before getting charged by my multi-wound rush Daemons. I imagine things might be different now, but I have much less time now to play it out on my own.

Has anyone else wondered how a game would go if you were able to play in this sort of mirror match? Either against the same list, or a list of yours form a different army?

Sometimes. Mostly in the context of whether or not I could run a fun and easy to follow demo game with them. Like Tau v. Space Marines.

Probably pretty good as my list is all fluff not competitive at all

1850 of ravenwing Deathwing so I have like 33 models on the field with a total of 34 wounds all around, granted they all are getting 2+, rerollable for the ravenwing so.

I would just want to know if I'm enjoyable to play against...

I haven't lost to another BA player since 5th.

It depends on the match up, definitely not with marines.

I do know the ins and outs though, so I would be better at facing my own than most others.

I have from time to time wondered about it. In the end, since you are talking about how you have yourself. It will come down to how the dice fall per each side's favor. Unless one army is clearly designed to wipe out the other army.

I've not even gotten to play against another Eldar player, so I do wonder what it would be like just to face other Craftworlders (or even DE or Corsairs) aside from the potential curbstomping that I would get from competitive lists.

Other than that, I do sometimes toy with the idea of giving interested friends some of my stronger wraith lists so I can try to run one of my aspect lists against them and see how well either list would fair. It would probably go a lot better than trying to teach someone with the Blood Angels army I have no experience using.

I feel like my Orks would get crushed against my KDK. It would be fun though.

I have played teaching games with one of my local kids, and he has chosen knights exclusively. I HATE THOSE THINGS! Especially when one of them has IWND.

I don’t have standard lists, so the powerscale of my armies tends to be all over the place. I suspect the even though the Eldar are a more powerful codex, the fact that I’ve only got a smattering of units (some not particuarly optimal) and the fact thay they are less then a quarter the size of my fairly extensive and deep shelf of Ultramarines would mean a conflict between them would be short and brutal for the tricksy xenos.

I only have my Tau and if I had to beat my most common list (only a single Riptide and plenty of troops and Kroot) I think i could take it with just about any faction.

If I ever played againt myself, it would end up like battle of Kursk. Huge amount of armoured vehicles grinding through each other. It might be interesting.

I have 2 step sons, so I might get more experience with this soon enough. They are 12 & 10, but the 12yr old can hardly be torn away from his precious video games to learn 40k.
He isn't doing well in school, so he may be getting those video games taken away until some A's start rolling in.
That might be my chance to get him to play more 40k, after he studies, of course.

Since I only have the Daemons & Eldar (with some GK & DE allies), I may get some 7th ed experience of my armies against each other, although it would be simplified rules until they get the hang of the basics.

Daemons and Eldar are not what come to mind when I think of "simplified play".

 DarkBlack wrote:
Daemons and Eldar are not what come to mind when I think of "simplified play".

Right. Daemons especially. Basically we are not dealing with Psychic powers at all. So that alone skews the results for both armies.
Daemons will have nothing random; no rewards, no warp storm and Instability is treated as Fearless.
For Eldar, we are ignoring the special rules that the Aspect warriors come with. Battle focus is it. On the Bright side, it gives my Wraithlords a time to shine

My hope is that they will get a quick grasp of the basic rules so we can start layering on more rules. I want to see how they so in a 2 vs me battle.

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I have thought about getting games against myself but have yet to be that bored. I have thought about it though.

I think the question is a good one. In every edition some codexes are better than others and some players will always try to optimise their lists, while others play for fluff. Winning with your army doesn't make you a better player.

I want to start an event at my club where everyone plays twice. First with their own army and then swapping to play with their opponents force with the same lists (during the first match you should get a good sense of how the other list can be used.)
To win it is necessary to win both matches, otherwise you score a draw and one list is just stronger than the other.

In this way we can get two scoreboards. One for best player and the other for strongest list.

I play Freakshow Eldar, which would slaughter other Freakshow Eldar. Someone would probably be tabled by T2 or 3.

I only have one army so I don't really know how to answer this, but I feel like we'd just go for the silliest gak possible. Grot blobs charging each other (because I've always wanted to see grot on grot assaults), Battlewagons ramming each other, just hordes of boyz slugging it out. Honestly it'd be a tossup.

I mostly play tzeentch daemons, so if i played my tzeentch daemons against myself... It would be up to first turn roll, tactical objective cards, and luck with psychic dice. If the lists were different but still tzeentch daemons, it would be really interesting... I might have to do that when i buy and paint more models. If it was my typical tzeentch list vs lists with my other daemon models... I think my tzeentch list would win quite handedly.

Can't really say vs another person though, as the skills and decisions made wouldn't be the same and the game does have a large element of skill and player agency regardless of its imbalance.

Martel732 wrote:
I haven't lost to another BA player since 5th.

I'm the best ork player around here. Cause i'm the only one.

Has anyone else wondered how a game would go if you were able to play in this sort of mirror match? Either against the same list, or a list of yours form a different army?

2 Tervigon Spawning Lists fighting each other? Send In The Next Wave Of Expendable Minions.

With Imperialis Militia it'd be even worse. Both sides having 300+ essentially unarmoured infantry models and a battery of heavy ordnance carriages? You've seen documentaries of the Somme, right?

Most likely whichever one of me lucks out and gets first turn will stomp the other me into the ground.

My orks would have no chance vs my inquisitors.

I play Chaos space marines as my main army.

I'm pretty sure my Necrons, Chaos Demons and my mechanicus would roll over them.

deathmagiks wrote:
I would just want to know if I'm enjoyable to play against...

+1, also exalted.

Pretty well, usually. I've done army swaps a few times, generally with people who have complained that something like my Harlequins are super powerful and unfair, and I haven't lost yet.

That doesn't say much about me as a player, though, my lists just tend to have big weaknesses that I know about and exploit that aren't immediately obvious. Usually this is "blow up the transports", which so few people seem to do.

I have several armies and I often think about how they would fare against each other. Who would shoot who? Who would win in assault? How would they counter each other's tactics? IMO it does two things: First, it gives me an idea of the power rankings of my forces and which army to play for fun and which army to play for blood. Second, it helps set benchmarks for list construction. I.E. these guys are good at this and cost this many points. These guys aren't quite as good and cost more. Let's dump them and find something else that's a better use of points.

IandI wrote:
I have several armies and I often think about how they would fare against each other. Who would shoot who? Who would win in assault? How would they counter each other's tactics? IMO it does two things: First, it gives me an idea of the power rankings of my forces and which army to play for fun and which army to play for blood. Second, it helps set benchmarks for list construction. I.E. these guys are good at this and cost this many points. These guys aren't quite as good and cost more. Let's dump them and find something else that's a better use of points.

I do this too. it is the primary reason why I cannot get myself to play Harlequins. Despite being Eldar, and I love me some Eldar, I cannot help but compare Harlies to Daemonettes.
They may not function the same within their respective armies, but both are very similar, yet cost very different. Both are fast T3 Infantry with a 5++, good WS and attacks. Both also rely on 6's for the most part to do their damage. Yet 1 Harlie costs as much as 2 Daemonettes, making any additional attacks/str in favor of the Harlie irrelevant. It also makes the Daemonettes seem twice as durable.
Side note, back when Eldar could summon Daemons, I would summon 10 Daemonettes as 'counts as' Harlquins coming out of a WWP. It was fun, if a bit Heretical

Overall I do think that owning 2 or more different armies makes anyone a better player, especially if those armies are varied in their play-style and tactics.
In a weird way, I am a better Daemon player because I also play Eldar and vice-versa.
Just like playing yourself, knowing the armies tactics lets you "get into the head" of the other player.

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