Thursday, June 10, 2010

Yes The Truth Hates

Some may have heard of this "gem" of gaming advice and tactica, the aptly named 'Yes the Truth Hurts'. For those of you who don't know, its a website that focus' on one aspect of the hobby; competitive play. Overall its not a bad place, however it is full of pretty closed minded people if you ask me.

Now I'm not hating on them for saying my recently submitted 'Ard Boyz lists sucked, as I knew it had obvious flaws that I am not willing to change. I'm hating on them for expecting me to change it into something more commonly accepted such as Razerback spam. Can you say ewwwww?

I understand that the general consensus out there is that DC lists suck, Stormravens aren't worth the points (however my store claims they're broken), and Dread Spam belongs only in Dread lists. To have the three come together is absolute unfocused rubbish! Yet I fail to see how running 3 Storm Ravens, 2 DC and 5 Dreads is an unfocused mash-up of ideas. It's rather obvious that they come together as a fast moving brick to the face.

Now such a "tactic" is flawed. It's very flawed. My list lacks scoring power as it only has 2 scoring units... 3 if I combat squad the larger Assault Squad. Also, if I don't go first or some how get shot down early game, a large wrench is thrown into my gears. I actually like this. That's the beauty of playing a heavy aggro style. If things work out you absolutely wreck, if not then it's a hard time with much wrecking still taking place.

Away from OT ranting in defense of my bashed list and back to YTTH.... The people there tend to be very closed minded and of conformist nature. They assume to know what can and can't work in all possible builds, and if you're ideas fall outside the box it's passed aside as "improper" or "too flawed". These are folks who don't like risks, don't like taking chances, and will never take a leap of fate.

Basically, while I too know where the boundaries of what works and doesn't lay, I find it boring to run with the flock and stay with in the fence. I like to break free, stand out and do something different. I like ingenuity and originality. YTTH lacks these things, and for that I'm disappointed.

For any Zomby's reading this, don't hate. Take a chance, do something different. Break away from the mold and enjoy something new. You might not win with a different list, its a risky venture, but if you do it will feel great! Taking something that is 100% you're own creation, uninfluenced by any of the 'Nets input, and winning is one of the best feeling you can have wargaming. Try it.

11 comments:

  1. YTTH has a very bad reputation for being... a shrill, divisive dramafest. The few times I've bothered looking at it, I've been unimpressed by the tone of the site.

    Also, I thought this was hilarious.

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  2. well if you are competitive you want to reduce the risk of losing and increase the odds of winning. This of course leads to boring lists and boring games.

    My biggest gripe with YTTH is that they claim that being competitive is fun but almost every single bat rep Steltek gives he complains about how boring it is to club baby seals.

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  3. Hear, hear!

    I've never really been that bothered with cheesemongery, either doing it or having it done to me. It is as you said, a much greater feeling when you beat the cheesemongers by doing it your way, rather than bowing to the norm.

    I never did find those khorne dreads with the freehand you mentioned, could you give some directions?

    Cheers
    E

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  4. Gave the a read the other day Rush, very interesting bit. I gotta give the original post a look as well.
    Btw, you coming down to GPW anymore? My last day there's coming up soon.

    Player's can be competitive and flavorful at the same time. You can build different lists and over time tweak and balance them out to a point where the odds are in their favor.

    Funny thing is, Raz spam mech lines aren't really that reliable... Yes it may have good chances of being a force on the table, but for any MEQ vs MEQ game; its gonna be a grind fest.

    I see that Stelek has a Stormraven now. :O
    Coulda sworn Stormravens suck. Oh wells... Maybe in time I'll see a list like mine on his page, but getting praise instead. :/

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  5. @ E: Khorne Dreads with free hand? Hmmm.... Can't recall mentioning such a thing. Could you be mistaking me for another blogger?

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  6. Stelek loves Stormravens. And Death Company too.

    http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2010/04/stormraven-use.html

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  7. I'm pretty sure he never said Stormravens suck, just that a lot of people use them badly. And it's true- 200+ pts for an AV12 vehicle is a major investment that, done wrong, goes down to a single Lascannon shot. A Land Raider it ain't.

    I'm pretty sure that most people would agree that Stelek's tone could use a lot of work. Even at the best of times, he's smug and condescending. However, when he manages to come down from his high horse, he often does have very good advice; you might take a look at some of his other list-building articles that he's done on BA where he goes into more detail on the whys and hows of putting together a strong army.

    But if you can't get past the jerk persona... well, I can't really blame you for that. Dude grates like mozzarella.

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  8. I wouldn't say that Stormravens suck *per se* - but that Ard Boyz, with the attendant increase in S8+ ranged fire, pretty much neutralises them as a serious offensive weapon.

    I apologise if my feedback to your list wasn't detailed enough to explain the 'whys' rather than the 'whats' I feel wrong with it. I always assume, in such situations, that the OP will read similar lists posted on the site, in order to understand where others commenting are coming from - I have expressed my opinions on SR and DC a fair few times.

    If it helps, I plan to finish my BA Codex Review in the last week of the month, so I can have the whole thing posted before mid-July.

    Too far away to help with this round of Ard Boyz, sure - but it'll be a nice concise set of my opinions for reference.

    In fairness, as well, Stelek practically INVENTED 5e Razorspam. So, it kinda WAS out of the box.

    Mozzarella is my favourite cheese - but that has nothing to do with Puppy's analogy.

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  9. Elesar, I didn't have any problem with you're criticism. I recognized you're name first. ;)
    What bothered me was the "this should be Razerback spam" or "are you blind to the flaws" sort of responses. Its obvious I'm trying to break from the fold and do my own thing, and most likely I was already aware of the flaws of my list. It's a glass tank, I know this and am hoping that good generalship and dice rolling can make up for its faults.
    Originally I had no intent on ever using Psykers in my list as I wanted to keep it "semi-fluffy" for a Khorne theme, however I've swapped my Furioso Dreads in Pods to Furioso Librarians (still in pods).
    So far in play testing against guys who I know ARE better than me, the list has fared decently. Outcomes have been mostly because of poor decisions in the game on my part... And tonight's was from my opponent moving a Death Dread illegally while I was on smoke break. :/
    Still, worse I've done testing is tie. I've got high hopes.
    At worst, I'm gonna rock the boat enough to stop some one who should place from placing. At best, I get some easy pairing and top 3 the event.
    Honestly though, I don't care. More important things on my mind at the moment. Trying to get life set up to move over seas and such.

    Thanks for all the feed back.

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  10. Overseas? That's a biggie.

    You don't work for BP do you? :p

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  11. Overseas, yup. Used to work at the US Embassy in Wien, Austria while I was on Marine Corps Embassy Security Duty, however as I am ending my contract with the Corps in August I decided to apply (and got accepted) to a college in Wien for the next four years.

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