So, with
40k, it's no question that this game has an absolutely bonkers level of variety in lists and units, something over 400 if I remember hearing it right. This has had an affect on tournament play where trying to make a true take all comers list is all but impossible, enforcing a "rock paper scissors" type of meta where gimmick lists can flourish. Here was just a random idea I had the other day as I sat in the store and listened to a magic tournament going on. I know some (lets be honest, most
) probably won't care for this kind of idea but hey, like I said it's a random idea. It isn't perfect and I'm sure some of the more talented among the community could polish this up far better than I. You can skip to the bottom for a
TL;DR
Step 1: Sideboards
Implementing a "side board" for a player's army, with say a 1/4 of the main points allotment in it. So for say a 1000pt tournament, you're fielding a 1000pt "main" body and have a 250pt sideboard off to the side. At the start of the game, before you roll missions or anything like that, you get a quick glance at your opponent's main army and sideboard, then determine what you're going to bring. You both then set up your armies, go with the mission, etc. At deployment, you will have a 1000pt army on the table, either your 1000pt main force, a 1000pt list with 250pts subbed out for the sideboard, or a mix inbetween.
Why on earth would one want to do this?
Well, think about trying to build a true take all comers list. What do you have that will beat the all of the following in a single list
1. Knight spam
2. Hordes
3. Flyer spam
4. Deathstars
5. Pysker spam
6. Turn 1 assaulting armies
7. Gunlines
8. Deepstriking alpha strikes (stormtroopers)
9. Superheavies
etc. etc. we all know the drill here. Now, most codexes have tools to beat these things, indeed most have tools made to hard counter these kind of things. And yet, if you bring some of these tools, you will be punished if their specific target doesn't show up. For example, taking AAA when the opponent brings 0 flyers, or bringing a mass of anti armor weapons when the opponent fields hordes. As a result, players are often discouraged from taking these kinds of specialized units as they risk actively hurting their army. This in turn leaves the army vulnerable to that specific type should they encounter it, encouraging other players to go all in with a certain type. Having a sideboard would allow you to throw in a few tools to deal with things that your main list has an natural weakness to. This cuts down on games that are over before they even begin, ensuring you actually play the game and have a chance. For example, take the conscript spam everyone is scared of. A natural counter is to bring snipers to take out the commissars and officers. However, said snipers aren't near as useful in most other situations, so you throw them in your sideboard for the odd horde player that pops up.
Now, I know the next question coming up.
"Matched play is already finicky enough with points as is, you really expect us to swap units out with matched points in a timed format when many units end in odd numbers and individual wargear pts are all over the place?"
And to that I say nope, because I'd recommend just using power points for it. Which leads us to point 2
Step 2: There might actually be a point to Power Points
Think about it, we've all seen the matched points system, it's not like it's any more balanced or unbalanced than power points right now. However, unlike the matched points system where we're seeing 1500-2000pts with units often tallying up to totals like 257 or 161pts, power points would be in the 75-100 area, making math far simpler and less granular. Not only does the units base cost become much easier to calculate, individual wargear no longer needs to be factored for, this allows for rapid math on the spot to determine what needs to be swapped out. It will be far faster to just swap out 25 powerpoints worth of units than it will say 500pts of units. This makes what could be a very agonizing math equation of doing your sideboard down to something far more simple that should take all of a minute or two.
There is a final ability that power points would allow in tournament play, specifically with the idea of sideboards. I'm not as particularly married to this idea as it favors some armies more than others possibly, but I think it could have merit.
Step: 3 Power Points allow each unit to essentially have a sideboard of its own
This is hard to explain without posting some basic lists, so I'm going to spoil a couple and show what I mean. These are incredibly basic lists to just get my point across, bear with me
As it sits right now, units must buy individual wargear which they are then stuck with throughout the tournament. So take this list for example, it would be stuck with it's meltas and lascannons through the whole tournament, regardless of whether or not they actually help the list. This list is heavily specialized against tanks, but lacks anti horde weaponry. This means that should you encounter a horde player, you're at a disadvantage
With power points, your equipment doesn't matter for costs, so you can essentially do the following and determine what your list actually is before the game. For example, your sheet you hand to the
TO at the start would be this
Then, once you are matched with your opponent, you fill in some dots showing what they're taking and sub in the models as appropriate. Which would look like this
"But Mr.Moustaffa! That amount of precision would be insane in a 2000pt tournament! Do you have any idea how long it would take me to X all my Y?"
Yes, yes I do helpful poster, which brings me to the final point
Step 4: This allows for much smaller tournaments
Think about it, why do we see tournaments that require such large armies? Simply put thats about the area most of the more elite armies can actually afford their
TAC equipment. Any lower and armies like space marines would struggle to deal with many of the threats we see on the average tournament table.
But what if you had the ability to swap out a 1/4 of your army at the start of the game to help deal with a force that has some sort of gimmick? Would you really need as big of a list for your tournament? After all, if you know of a certain weakness or list you would struggle against that only shows up once in a while, you can simply throw an answer to that in your sideboard. By cutting down the size of the lists necessary for a proper tournament, you can cut down the amount of models on the table, the amount of abilities that need to be rolled for, the amount of shots that need to be made, etc. etc. This allows for more games, which allows for a fairer tournament, as the more games you get in the, the more cuts you can get in, leading to a far more competitive event.
Now, I'm no
TO or anything like that, so of course the exact values I put down may not be the perfect fit, but you get the idea. I honestly believe that if an idea like this were properly implemented, you could cut a serious chunk out of the points people need to play an event while still allowing a lot of tactical and strategic choices as well as forcing players to bring more varied lists.
I'll wrap it up here, I'm honestly going to be surprised if many read through that wall of text, so if you did congrats, you earned 1 standard militarum grade cookie shaped nutrient bar. All the looks of a cookie with none of that pesky flavor
TL;DR
1.Sideboards allow for a variety in lists that allows for flexibility in dealing with the massive variety of units possible in this game
2.Power Points would allow sideboards to be quickly added up and units quickly replaced with units of similar price
3.(potential) Power Points can allow every unit a degree of flexibility per game, giving a reason to bring things like tactical squads, as they can bring anti tank weapons one game and anti horde the next, giving alternatives to hyper specialized units that tourneys tend to favor
4.Sideboards allow the size of the average tournament game to be decreased as you no longer have to cram all the tools into the main list, some can simply sit in the sideboard for when they are needed in that 1 out of 6 games. This could potentially allow for something as drastic as dropping the standard from 2000pts (100PL) to say 1500pts (75PL)
Obviously the exact math is probably a bit off, I'm just spitballing here, thanks for reading.
