Playing the Best Codex

Playing the best codex. Deal with it.

It's a transport, it's a tank, it's fast, it jinks, it's a gunboat, it's...Ohh crap I can't kill it.

So I am an Eldar player. I know already what your thinking,"Hello power gamer..." That's not why I play them. I picked them up June/July 2012. I see the smoke coming from your ears. Yes that is when the new codex dropped and yes that was part of the reason I decided to play them again. 

Settle down let me explain.... 

See I was out of the game from 95ish to 2012. I played a lot of 2nd way back in the day. I played Eldar then because the 3 guys I played against all played some sort of Space Marine. Well, that and I thought they were cool. So fast forward many years and I wanted to play 40k again. I'm checking out what armies to play and I saw Eldar were getting a new book and I thought it was perfect. I'm getting back in the old army I had has some new stuff PERFECT!!  Womp, womp, womp...

We all know what happened next.... The book was really, really, really good. I won most of my early games because of this. I had no idea what I was doing but I was winning so it was awesome. Then slowly reality sets in after I went to my first tournament. 1-2.... Wait I'm good though, I thought, aren't I?  No I wasn't, I sucked but my book was good. So all those casual games against Kyle that I won was because his Dark Eldar had a older book and mine was the best counter to theirs... But yeah I'm a super good player(read that with a sarcastic look on your face). Then I went to my next tourney 0-3... F@*# I'm awful, like really awful.

  

So I was determined to be a better player. I put a self imposed 600 points per wave serpent rule, 3 max in 1850. Yes I've broken the rule a few times but...oh shut up, let me finish. So I tried to learn how to play...after a year of playing. Define irony right? So here I was with the best codex winning a bunch of casual games and I'm handicapping myself. Why? Well I needed to get better at the game. Learn to play objectives, learn to move troops, learn to deploy, learn to use powers correctly I had to do all of that.

  

Meanwhile why all that internal dialog is going on I get the look or the snide comment every time I win. I was once accused of Dire Avenger spam, DA's without serpents. Process that. Let me know when your done. I regularly use 30-40 Dire Avengers in my lists. So anytime I win its assumed its all because the book and that's it. Its made me kinda hate Eldar truth be told. I'm the only Eldar player I know without a single damn jetbike. I don’t play them. The model is ugly, so I wont play them. Recently a buddy challenged me to play without jink (any model unit that can do so anyways). I felt OBLIGATED to do this and my last 9-10 games have been sans serpents. Its tough I wont lie. I am committed to make it work though.

  

So what am I doing here? I'm justifying playing a army. That’s not a good feeling for me, probably reason two why I am looking at Night Lords. Reason one is the fluff/30k setting. Now my friends don’t give me grief about what I play don’t get me wrong they say crap. A lot. Ok yeah they are just as guilty. So I'm done whining about how hard it is to play my super good codex... First world right here....