HULK SMASH!!! "Cheesy" Characters and why I love them.

As somebody who primarily plays Space Wolves I have found that the biggest draw of them is their focus on characters. The rune priest, wolf lords, and of course Special Characters are what make Space Wolves such a fun army to play. However this does get me some...less than kind...glances and comments from my fellow players. Nobody wants to face 2 200+ point Wolf Lords on Thunder Wolves...which is the basis for my 2000 point list. That being said you have to take a lot of trade-offs when you make list choices like mine. For reference in this article here is a common 2k list for me:

Wolf Lord (Morkai) - 255
- Thunder Wolf
- TH+SS
- Saga of the Bear
- WTT + WTN

Wolf Lord Harald Deathwolf
- Frostblade
- Belt of Russ
-Thunderwolf
- Saga of the Beastslayer
- WTT + WTN + MB

Rune Priest - 115
- Living Lightning + Tempests Wrath
- WTT + Chooser

Troops

(3x) 10x Grey Hunters - 615
- 2x Meltaguns
- 1x MotW
-Rhino

Fast Attack
4x Thunder wolf cav - 260
- 1x SS
- 1x Powerfist
- 1x MB
- 1x Normal

4x Thunder wolf cav - 255
- 1x SS
- 1x Wolf Claw
- 1x MB
- 1x Normal

Heavy Support

(2x) 5x Long Fangs - 250
- 3x Missile Launchers
- 1x Multi-Melta

Imagine this...but 3 times the size...with armor. Would you really like to have to fight two of those?

The trade offs are simple:

1. I have to build my army around my Characters. If I am investing a fourth of my points into ICs than I better damn well be using the rest of my list to support them. If I have Thunder Wolf lords...I HAVE to have Thunder Wolf Cavalry. One could make the argument for having fenris wolves...but really what would you rather have hurtling at your opponent. Similarly if I have Logan Grimnar it only makes sense to support him with Wolfguard...which is the unit he most aids in a game. The same is true for other armies. If I am playing Orks with Ghaz than a Fast moving Truck army benefits less from his rules than a Green Tide or battlewagon list.

2. They take up a lot of points. Well no duh. These are points that could easily be spent diversifying your army. Instead of 2 lords I could have 2 more grey hunter squads and a group of Wolf Guard. However I don't have my two hulking lords that I love so much. Taking 500+ points in the HQ slot automatically means the rest of your army is going to be smaller. That means your opponent will have less targets and you lose the advantage of target saturation.

3. They are targets. One of my lords can easily wipe out an entire squad and one can kill most any tank. This makes a powerful, threatening combo. That means that my opponent is going to be using massive amounts of their power to bring them down. Normally this is not too big of a deal, the lords and the units they are with are made to take fire. However against some armies (Guard) there is simply too much fire being pushed down range. If they can eliminate a 500 point unit before it does anything than what was that units point?

4. They are a morale boost...and when they die you take a morale hit. I am not speaking about the morale rule mechanic in 40k. I am talking about my personal fighting spirit. In my mind if my lords are doing well then the game is going well. However if my lords die without doing anything....than I am screwed. This is not always the case but it is a morale hit to see the lords go down.

Good Night, Good Hunting, and a HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Moral Luck and 40k. John Rawls you are a beautiful mind.

We have all experienced luck in our games of 40k. Obviously as this is a game that uses dice and therefore has semi-random outcomes in terms of any individual roll. However one notices that some players are 'Luckier' than others. They may seize the initiative more often than anybody has right too, or they may wound far better than average. We have such a few players at some of my local game stores. Normally this doesn't bother me. Luck is what it is and sometimes it is with your opponent. You as a player must use your skills as a general to beat out a player that is luckier.

However there is one player at a local store who is luckier than the average. For some reason this individual has always gotten to me. I never had a concrete reason until I started reading John Rawls and his idea of "Moral Luck." As stated everybody has luck, good or bad, it is what you do with that luck that matters. If somebody finds a wallet with 10,000 dollars in it and ID what is the moral thing to do? Obviously it would be to return it to the owner. However it is still a choice one must make. 10,000 dollars is a lot of Ork Boyz after all. Anyways getting back on track this player doesn't always demonstrate good "Moral Luck" he complains when something may not be perfect. IE Complaining he failed 1 out of 10 5+ saves instead of making all 10. The idea is that you shouldn't try to to belittle your own rolls and point out to your opponent that he/she did not do much at all to your unit in one go. It is not good sportsmanship and it is not good morals. 

Player A "Why couldn't I have rolled 6 rends. :( :(" Player B "... You only had 5 attacks"

To be a "Morally Lucky" player there are a few simple things you need to do in my opinion (your going to be hearing that phrase a lot):

1. Recognize your own luck. If you roll well above average and EVERYBODY notices it, realize you roll better than most.

2. Don't get cocky. The rolls will not always save you, a better player is still a better player and will find a way around your dice.

3. Don't be proud of yourself. They rolled well, you had nothing to do with that. Realize that luck is good for you but don't brag or be an asshat about it.

4. Be happy with good luck when it happens. If you are the lucky player realize that most people see themselves as unlucky. Be happy with your luck and don't degrade your opponent when your rolls are better than his. Actually never degrade your opponent under any circumstances...that just makes you a jerk. 

So remember students in your next game demonstrate "Moral Luck". 

Good Night and Good Luck!

Philosophical 40k and me, my biography and what the Hell this blog is going to be about.

This is Zeev, some of you may know me as the Eater of Chat, and this is my blog.

So after listening to a certain podcast (Independent Characters episode #6) I have decided to start a blog. I have been playing 40k for about 2 years now and decided I have enough experience that I do not feel like a complete idiot for trying to share my newbie ideas. While I doubt anybody will get many game changing ideas from me you never know what might happen.

So what is The Philosophical 40k?

Well you see while I am a 40k player by night by day I am a philosophy student. So I have decided to merge these two things into a (hopefully) interesting blog. While I will still have the standard posts about tactics, lists, painting, tourneys, and other such wonderful things I plan on also have articles dealing with the philosophical ideas I have learned in classes and on my own and applying them to 40k. Whether this be the game itself, the community, individual players, or the fluff that I philosophize about I hope it will let me stand out from the crowd a little bit and give a nice little twist to the usual blogging experience.

A little more about me. I am 20 years old. I have been playing 40k for about 2 years now as I previously said. I play Space Wolves, Tau, and Orks. I have also recently acquired a bike army that will become Pre-heresy White Scars and am starting a Pre-Heresy Thousand Suns army. I have read a large number of Black Library Novels so am decently knowledgeable about fluff. I am an ok player, admittedly one who likes very  nasty lists. I hope you all enjoy my Blog!