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So, my friend got back into the game after a long while to start playing with the play group that we formed of 4 veterans and 2 newbies, myself included. After serveral games;most of which he did not even lose, he is retiring the army he had just spent a few hundred dollars to boost for 8th edition, in favor of a new army, because his current army wasn't as good anymore.

I've since read up that his army was top tier meta for the last few editions.

Is this normal behaviour, or does this seem a bit too competitive for tabletop play?

Common. Plastic crackheads are forever chasing the dragon.

Pretty standard

Tho it's also standard for someone to keep a single army for years and basically... not play at all while their army is bottom of the barrel

Sounds like a salty Tau player.

40k is simultaneously a competitive 1v1 strategy game and a lore/design-driven miniature collecting and painting hobby. There are those who prefer one aspect of 40k, those who prefer the other aspect and there are those who enjoy both. It sounds like your friend prefers the competitive aspect. Nothing wrong with that as long as he isn't being a donkey-cave about it.

It's the people whose armies have never been bad that complain the hardest when they aren't the best anymore.

Tau, Eldar, Space Marines: If any of the three of these are hanging around the middle tier, heaven forbid near the bottom, you will HEAR about it. The Tau, yes, I know, 3rd through 5th they were a crappy faction, but most tau players started playing tau for one reason in 6th edition: The Riptide.

And can you blame them? That thing is bad ass. in terms of single models that hhave created players for their factions, its up there with the Space Marine Dreadnought. But ever since it dropped, Tau and more importantly all-giant-robot Tau has been dominantly possible. These Tau players have never had to deal with being at a disadvantage if theyve been playing for under five years.

You'll hear that if you go through the boards. The armies that the most people are complaining the loudest about being bad are the Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Tau, and Eldar. The actual worst factions right now? Probably like Necrons. We have one thread about necrons being bad, most of it is a big argument as to whether they actually are, if they aren't the worst theyre in the bottom of the middle, but Necron players are used to the ups and downs, they were terrible in the early days through fifth and then bad again late 7th.

it's just a natural extension of feeling like you're privileged to have more than everyone else, that you're entitled to an advantage because you had one before. How do you think space marine players justify getting like half of the overall releases for models put out by GW and FW?

Sadly, very common. On the plus side, it means he'll be losing a ton of money (never seen so much money pissed away on plastic than an abandoned army).

the_scotsman wrote:

Spoiler:

It's the people whose armies have never been bad that complain the hardest when they aren't the best anymore.

Tau, Eldar, Space Marines: If any of the three of these are hanging around the middle tier, heaven forbid near the bottom, you will HEAR about it. The Tau, yes, I know, 3rd through 5th they were a crappy faction, but most tau players started playing tau for one reason in 6th edition: The Riptide.

And can you blame them? That thing is bad ass. in terms of single models that hhave created players for their factions, its up there with the Space Marine Dreadnought. But ever since it dropped, Tau and more importantly all-giant-robot Tau has been dominantly possible. These Tau players have never had to deal with being at a disadvantage if theyve been playing for under five years.

You'll hear that if you go through the boards. The armies that the most people are complaining the loudest about being bad are the Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Tau, and Eldar. The actual worst factions right now? Probably like Necrons. We have one thread about necrons being bad, most of it is a big argument as to whether they actually are, if they aren't the worst theyre in the bottom of the middle, but Necron players are used to the ups and downs, they were terrible in the early days through fifth and then bad again late 7th.

it's just a natural extension of feeling like you're privileged to have more than everyone else, that you're entitled to an advantage because you had one before. How do you think space marine players justify getting like half of the overall releases for models put out by GW and FW?

Tbh I don't see any mention of complaints by this player in the OP, I think this rant is misdirected. He thinks his current army is bad so he wants to switch for competitive reasons.

Dont we all want excuses to start a new army? I just started my first 2 and already have planned for 2 more.

 vaklor4 wrote:
So, my friend got back into the game after a long while to start playing with the play group that we formed of 4 veterans and 2 newbies, myself included. After serveral games;most of which he did not even lose, he is retiring the army he had just spent a few hundred dollars to boost for 8th edition, in favor of a new army, because his current army wasn't as good anymore.

I've since read up that his army was top tier meta for the last few editions.

Is this normal behaviour, or does this seem a bit too competitive for tabletop play?

Very normal. Some people change armies 5 times a year because of perceived value, competitiveness, or even just straight boredom. I have a friend who used to own a small store out of his existing business, and between buying at cost and reselling, I think he's been through 7 or 8 armies; Tau, Genestealer Cult, Tyranids, Eldar, Harlequins, back to Tyranids, back to Eldar, Admech, Tau again, back to Tyranids...

And you know what? That's a-okay so long as they can afford it. If this guy I knew had money issue, I'd have talked with him, but as far as I knew he didn't, so more power to him. These folks are the ones that feed the secondary market. It's people like me who buy stuff and never let it go that starve the secondary market.