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Hey folks!

Coming from 5th Edition into 8th, and I'm overwhelmed. 5th Edition had your army and codex (data sheets for stats), the enemy army and codex (data sheets), and the rulebook. You learned your army, you learned the stat lines on other armies (MEQ vs IG vs Tyranid, etc), and you learned the rulebook game mechanics.

I've re-read the Drukhari codex twice now, and there are so many modifiers, special rules, stratagems, traits that I can't fathom keeping up with my own army, let alone trying to learn all the other ones. There was always a brief period at the start of a tournament game where you and your opponent would highlight unusual things or do a Q&A about the list you're about to face, but I can't get past the idea that I'd plop my army down against another army now and simply have no idea what the other army is capable of.

Not to mention that its not just codex and rulebook now, its supplementals, chapter approved documents, errata, FAQs, and Gork knows what else.

How do you tournament players out there deal with all of this? It seems like too much complexity.

1d4chan tactics

As far as tournaments go, just read the top lists, and try to find discussions on them.

You have a lot of experience in 5th. Which you can use to your advantage. While small things have changed over the years, in general a lot of the knowledge you learned from 5th still holds true. The Lapdogs of the Emperor still have easy access to 3++ Storm Shields on all of their characters. Las Cannons are still good at dealing with monsters and vehicles, and Plasma and its equivalents torch MEQ bodies, getting hit with Marker Lights makes tau shooting more dangerous. Also most of the USRs are the same in the armies. Typically the Captain Equivalent (your Chaos Lord, Autarch, etc) give a re-roll ones to hit bubble.

Since you already have the basics, the big things to be on the look out are for Army Traits and Strategems. As you play more you will quickly learn what Strategems people like, and how they use them, and you will develop a feel for which of your own Strategems you like. For instance Chaos Players frequently combo Veterans of the Long War with Endless Cacophony to boost a units damage output and shoot twice with it (often throwing in passive bubbles and psychic power to further bolster that units damage output). As a Dark Eldar player you can counter one of those Strategems with Agents of Vect (typically you'll shut down Endless Cacophony so they can't shoot twice).

As you play against more armies you'll develop a feel for the tips and tricks that they use. Your main issue is that you are wading into 8th edition totally fresh. Which means you still need to wrap your head around the changes to BS+, WS+, and Wounds on Vehicles, and all of the d6s in the shooting phase. Once you have your head around that and generally how units were updated from 7th to 8th, you won't need to have baseline questions anymore and can focus your efforts on learning nuances and combos in the Codex.

40K still isn't a very complicated game, and most of the combo's aren't very subtle. You'll quickly see what is being used against you and what works / doesn't work. What I'm saying is, as you are reentering the game, don't be ashamed to go in a bit blind and get blindsided a few times. You'll quickly learn what the different armies are capable of.

Information overload is generally like trying to juggle. If you try to juggle 10 things at once when you start you'll drop all of them every time and won't get anywhere but in a mess.

So break it down to just one thing, start there and build up.

Because you've prior experience you're trying to use that to bolster your starting position now, which is sensible; but its clear its biting off too much. So treat it like learning a totally new rules set. Take it all back to the very basics and perhaps play a few games at 500 points with very few units; simple if no synergies and reliances.

You're not aiming to win, what you are aiming to do is practice with different units and gain experience and functional understanding and awareness. Adding in new units, synergies etc.. as you go. Just treat it like new and you'll find it easier.




Another option is to write your own A4 cheat-sheet. A4 or smaller is best so that you keep things concise. It's not there to list out all the rules of the game, just there to remind you of synergies, abilities etc... You might even include a flow chart/diagram/list for battle to remind you of specific moments when you need to do things in certain phases. Get into practice consulting it each time the phase changes and you'll fast stat to remember things.

A good army list also helps, not just writing out the name and points, but the equipment, load out, stats and also any equipment/spell/ability choices you've made.

Again 1 side of A4 at most - so that would be 2 A4 sheets on the table (at most) that lists out all you need to quick reference and be aware of. If you go more than that then you run the risk that you're trying to list too much and just copy-pasting the rulebook/codex.



Simpler smaller baby steps coupled with repetition, practice and some hint sheets and you should be fine. Don't force it and don't rush.

I feel you, i quit in 5th, got back at the end of 7th (learned what changed) and then 8th dropped, rinse and repeat. I practiced and theoryhammered my army a lot, thus memorizing the rules well. I rarely need my codex these days and filter new faqs for what's relevant. Then again i insist playibg minobuild Eldar, so no allies and mixed detachments. Not the most competitive choice, sadly.