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Short version: Myself and the two guys I play with, decided to have a three-way game. We decided beforehand: no named characters, and no vehicles/walkers, and no MC's. It was a 1000 Pt game, and after a few rounds, I realized The Grey Knight player went and made himself a 410pt unit of Paladins.With an Apothecary.
Anyone else see this as a cheeseball move? I ran a number of units, no more than 250pts each, and the Chaos player did the same. I dunno what my point is. I'm just upset that a seemingly friendly game, turned into something so competitive. Y'all see this often? I'm considering getting into the local scene (bored playing the same 2 armies) and I'd hate to get upset at crap like this. Thanks for opinions/stories/for reading my rant.

What's the problem? He took some paladins with an apothecary... You probably out number him 5 to one. Drown him in saves.

If you're getting upset over 6 or 7 paladins, you probably won't want to play competitively at events.

I don't think that a large number of points in one unit means it is competitive.

I think you're getting your terms confused. Taking paladins isn't unfriendly, and neither is building an army that can't handle terminator armor a sign of a friendly player.

If you want to play games with certain restrictions, then go ahead, but you can't blame your opponent for bringing stuff that wasn't banned.

Furthermore, paladins in specific are far from un-counterable, especially all the way up at 1,000 points. You should easily have enough guns that are S8 or better with Ap2 or better, or something that has mass volume of fire. If you don't, then you don't have the ability to handle hordes or vehicles either. Which means you're the one that's going to come across as rather a jerk for complaining, as you're the one who is bringing a crappy list and then calling everyone else unfriendly because your list can't compete.

He's running grey knights. were you expecting a horde?

Frankly, with those kinds of restrictions, he went hella easy on you.

He could have brought 20 strikes for those points. Sure, you could hurt them more easily, but you wouldn't have gotten close enough to.

My ideal list in this case would be about 40 strikes and a inquisitor or two for psyker buffing. Not many lists with your self-imposed restrictions could stand up to that.

Paladins are one of those units that seem absolutely terrifying at first, but on closer inspection aren't all that much to worry about. Yeah, unless you've got Vindicators, mass melta, or some other S8+ AP2 in high numbers, you're not going to kill them easily. However, if more than half his army is invested in just a few small units, there are many, many other ways to win the fight. Those 4-5 guys probably aren't going to take any objectives, or they're going to leave the home objective pretty poorly defended. They're also on foot, so you can outmaneuver them or just kite them for a while. They seem like they'd be boring to play as/against, but hardly overpowered or unsportsmanlike. They're just a bit alarming for people who aren't familiar with them.

What your opponent did was fine.

Yes, cheese lists are pretty rough, and I know sometimes overly competitive lists can be annoying. And in a friendly game they are usually not cool.

But, unless you make a clear point about it you can't really blame them, think of it like this: since it really is just a friendly game maybe you shouldn't care about winning.

Finally, I'm also pretty sure a large paladin squad isn't actually that competetive. While that squad will be scary, the rest of his force will be left under manned.

I am not sure what you expected him to bring from the GK codex? That is one of the 3 most popular lists in that codex and should sort of be expected in normal games.

As in all things you need to communicate to ensure everyone has fun. Let your friend know you do not know how to handle paladins or find them boring to play against. Then perhaps you guys can arrange to either improve your strategies or play a scenario or something more fun.

I would also take a hard look at myself. Don't get so frustrated with the game and take what enjoyment you can. Additionally facing a list you were not expecting is actually a good experience as it forces you to think and adapt. One of my best games was a CWE 19 warlock coven at 1000 pts where my opponent brought 2 vendettas, 2 vultures, 2 punisher cannon LR, and a manticore. I have never seen fortune councils die so fast yet I still managed to win the game by pushing him into his deployment zone with horrific sacrifices of my councils.

Pkakes101 wrote:
Short version: Myself and the two guys I play with, decided to have a three-way game. We decided beforehand: no named characters, and no vehicles/walkers, and no MC's. It was a 1000 Pt game, and after a few rounds, I realized The Grey Knight player went and made himself a 410pt unit of Paladins.With an Apothecary.
Anyone else see this as a cheeseball move? I ran a number of units, no more than 250pts each, and the Chaos player did the same. I dunno what my point is. I'm just upset that a seemingly friendly game, turned into something so competitive. Y'all see this often? I'm considering getting into the local scene (bored playing the same 2 armies) and I'd hate to get upset at crap like this. Thanks for opinions/stories/for reading my rant.

He could have taken a "cheese" list that would have killed you easy in a 1k game, this was not a cheese list. In a 1k game as BA, I can run a unit of TH/SS terminators with a librarian with a force weapon and SS, along with tac squads and a devastator squad. I still tend to have a hard time with a terminator list against certain armies. Terminators, including Paladins, are perfectly viable and normally acceptable in a 1k. I'd suggest A) bringing things to take out 2+ saves, and/or B) setting force restrictions such as a single unit can only cost x. If you go with B, realize you're going to be trying to alienate your friend who plays GK, instead of figuring out how to counter GK. Take some plasma cannon equivalents, and call it good.

You should have added a few more rules, no strong guys, no beating each other. There comes a point where games become over regulated, in the name of "friendly game"

Pkakes101 wrote:
I ran a number of units, no more than 250pts each, and the Chaos player did the same. I dunno what my point is. I'm just upset that a seemingly friendly game, turned into something so competitive.

Quite the opposite. The more asymmetrical the armies are, the less competitive and the more friendly puzzle-solving/rock-scissor-paper/lucky-dice it would be.

More symmetrical armies (up to, in the extreme, everyone taking identical army lists from the same Codex) would probably the be way to make it (more) competitive.

meh my 1000 pts Tau army is:

commander, 9 crisis suits with plasma/fusion mix, 3x 6man FW squads, 1x missile broadside + whatever drones are thrown in there.

FnP wouldn't be an issue half the time and there would be 7 fusion blasters, 8 plasma rifles + all the missile pods.

^^^ That army would've destroyed the draigowing you mentioned without the support of vehicles/MCs.

Alternatively, there are many builds that would overwhelm the suit heavy army I would've used. If it is in the codex, expect it to be used - bring a balanced list with a good variety of weapons and you won't be caught off guard.

Yeah, I could've handled it. I'm done complaining. Thanks guys!