Army List Forum Rules -- General Army List Guidelines

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Mtucache
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Army List Forum Rules -- General Army List Guidelines

Post by Mtucache »

I thought it may be helpful to put together a couple of guidelines (notice, I didn't say rules) for posting your army lists for review...these are just a few general ideas that save everyone a few headaches. It seems that far too many recent posts have generic topic names with the same army over and over that we've all seen....being guilty of this myself, I'm not going to point any fingers here, but I would like to alleviate some of the overwhelming redundancy on this forum. Many of these have already been posted here from time to time, but I thought it would be good to get one cohesive list.
(Mods: Feel free to sticky this to the forum if we get some good reaction here)

Posting guidelines:
1.) Create a name for your army...post it as the topic title. No one wants to go searching for "Dark Elf 2000pt Army" and find 700 topics.

2.) Divide the army into easily readable units and heroes. Formatting is a must here, as it really helps to show what the army is comprised of, not just a list of mundane equipment that will be included. Whether it's Characters/Core/Special/Rare or another format...it still needs to be logical.

3.) Stay away from listing out every tiny detail that is already assumed....we know how many attacks and what equipment goes with which units....we have the book too.

4.) Include a sentance for each unit (or a paragraph at the end of the list) about what tactics you plan to use each unit for. This gives an idea to the reader about why you have 4 units of 10 RXB Warriors....

5.) Ask for specific advice, not just general opinions. If you really want to field your large unit of Witch Elves, and everyone's advice is to drop them, then you're not getting the advice you were looking for. Rather than "What do you think?" ask "How well will the Witch Elves work?" or "What could I include to help out my Witch Elf unit?"

6.) If you're asking for a larger scope of ideas, and are expecting people to post advice about which units to include or to drop, make sure you put a small statement about what you're willing to change and what you're not. It doesn't do any good to have someone tell you to trade your WitchElf unit for a Cold One Knights unit when you already have a large unit of WitchElves already painted up, and you don't own any Knights....Include a list of which models you own or are going to buy if.

7.) Realize that there isn't going to be a flurry of activity and responses to your topic....so don't immediately post a complaint that you haven't gotten any feedback. If it's an emergency, you're probably out of luck, just play your list as you have it and learn from your mistakes....

8.) Give some reason for why you're looking for advice. Have you been losing to really magic heavy armies? Do you have trouble against a specific opponent or army? Is the army for tournament or fun? Who are you usually playing against? These are all much more important than the specific number of warriors in a unit.....it will give much more information to the reviewer than just numbers.

9.) Start off the topic by giving some examples of things you'd like to see change ("Should I trade this for that?" or "I haven't found this to be worth XXX points....should I get rid of it?") Again, if we get a feel for what's working and what's not, we can give better advice.

10.) If you've already accepted that you're not going to focus on one part of the game, that's also important. If you post a 2500pt list with no sorcerress' in it, you're going to get some questions. Give a reason for why there's no magic ("My opponent usually doesnt' have a mage" or "I've decided to forfiet the magic phase in the hopes of getting more units of infantry", etc.) This is especially important if you're shaping your army to fight a specific opponent. A 2000 point army with 10 dispel dice may look pretty funny against a Dwarf army, but it seems pretty logical against a Tzeentch army.

11.) Understand that there isn't really a whole lot of changes that will ensure a better result in your army. 90% of the result of a battle has to do with tactics and deployment, not your army composition. Games Workshop has expended a lot of effort to get a good balance in this game, so in general, all 2000 point armies will be fairly balanced. There is no one good solution or one good army list....you're going to get personal opinions on your list, most of it won't be good advice. The only real valuable information you're likely to get will be things like: "You can't put that magic item on that hero" or "You don't have enough core units" or "Dark Riders don't work well in units of 15" or "Don't put full command groups in units of 10", etc....nothing earth shaking....just gentle nudges towards the norm. A 12 year old with a calculator can come up with the same list as a tournament champion, it's all in the way you play it.

12.) Lastly, don't paste straight from Army Builder. Please remove any unnecessary details, e.g. that a knight has a horse.

I'm sure there's more that I could say here, but I'll let everyone else critique the list so far...some of these points may be redundant.
Last edited by Mtucache on Wed Dec 03, 2003 10:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Shadowlord
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Post by Shadowlord »

Good post, I was considering starting to stay away from the army list forum, but if enough new members read this, hopefully my headache will go away.

Another thing that really erks me is players that post army lists, or even just army outlines and do not even own the dark elf army book!

It is one thing to build an army around looks, but you still need to know the point costs! Also, Army Builder has its flaws, dont rely on it.

Finally, dont post every single list you can think of. Especially if it is pretty standard (ie. 20 spearmen, 2x10 crossbowmen, 2x5 dark riders, a unit of cold one knights, 2 repeater bolt throwers and some characters). There is nothing special and unique about an army like this, and it is becoming redundant. If your army resembles this: Try looking through other army lists, your thread is likely to get the exact same responses they did. Standard responses seem to come with all these army lists (ie. 20 crossbowmen? Split it in 2. Or drop the standard from the dark riders. Or there is no need for your scroll caddy to be level 2... etc.)

I think that if posters would consider the above than we would get a lot less army lists posted. And if they would follow your guidelines, than the ones that are posted would be of a higher quality.
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Ailoth
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Post by Ailoth »

It might be helpful for the people posting the lists to say what type of list they are aiming for.........A.K.A

1-magic heavy force
2-offensive force
3-story line force
4-defensive force and so on

That way we might be better off helping you in what your aiming for.

Personally I'd like to see more story line forces(It adds color to your army) and your like playing it more.

And lets not forget even though alot of people will say differnt things almost al list's will look the same. You can only change these list's around so many times.
(We are not Chaos here)

And not everyone will agree with you or disagree with you on your list. Thats why I agree with telling us what you want to change and explain why you want to change it, other players might not see what you see.

I must say Im quity of doing some of these things. :oops:

P.S. This should be a sticky. good work MTUCache. :D
Ailoth

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Drakken
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Post by Drakken »

Couple of things I would suggest adding to your list:

Don't Cut and Paste from Army Builder. A lot of people hate reader through all the crap that spits out.

Understand that you will get varied ideas about changing lists, since most people have favorite units, or units they find more effective, and everyone plays a little different (even with the same list), meaning things will work a little different for everyone.
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Nagathi
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Post by Nagathi »

Drakken wrote:Don't Cut and Paste from Army Builder. A lot of people hate reader through all the crap that spits out.


This is what really annoys me. If they don't have enough time to write the list down, they shouldn't post it at all. It makes it harder for us to read and comment. To all of you who copy, please stop...
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Mtucache
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Post by Mtucache »

Hmm...maybe I should have included another guideline about posting things that are entirely off topic in a thread has nothing to do with your question...... :?

Anyway, Cy'lunis you may get a better response if this was a seperate topic in the Tactic or General Discussion forums. Although, I think you'll find the answers to your first question are a bit more varied than you expect. You're likely to find answers ranging from Witch Elves, to Executioners, to Cold One Knights, to Hydras.
Regarding your second question, I'm fairly sure that you'll see that depends mostly on the composition of the rest of your army.
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Nagathi
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Re: General Army List Guidelines

Post by Nagathi »

MTUCache wrote:4.) Include a sentance for each unit (or a paragraph at the end of the list) about what tactics you plan to use each unit for.
That can be quite hard to actually do. The tactics depends so much on how the deployment went and what army you're up against. When fighting Chaos your Corsairs might stand back and get charged while holding for your support to help, but if you're fighting a Dwarf army they might not want to stand back :D.
I agree that you should write a tactical note if possible. But I know it can be hard to do if you're planning for example a tournament army (which most of the lists in here are).

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