Being Like Water: Adaptive Playstyle (Part 1?)

Hey everyone, as promised here is my article for playing 40k "like water" aka an article on adaptive playstyle. Let me first get out of the way; to learn to play with an adaptive playstyle you need to to have a list with some utility. If you do not have all the tools than successfully changing how you play the list can be very difficult. Playing a list with nine wave serpents for example; you are going to play the same way each game and if you have a terrible matchup......sucks to be you.

For those of you who missed my neat video snippet in my "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" post:


The best way to describe how to go about learning to be an adaptive player is to start by giving yourself goals on the tabletop and giving yourself multiple ways to both achieve that goal, and GTFO if the shit hits the fan. The reason why I say this is a starting point is because it forces you to starting thinking of some unconventional methods of both achieving your goals and saving your ass.

Get out of that frame of mind of; I need to kill this unit so I'll move my unit into rapid fire range because that is how they do the most damage. Instead keep yourself at a safe distance and enlist multiple units to taking down the enemy, not only that but put a counter assault unit in position near them. Doing this keeps your units safer, gives you multiple opportunities to wipe the unit out and if they do make that stupid long charge they will get counter assault and pay for rolling so well. This is called forcing the wrong decision.

Forcing the wrong decision is the easiest way to identify a great player. These are those moments where you are trying to make a decision and each scenario is bad. If you can't play a fast army that always keeps you safe than play an army that forces bad decision. My Eldar and my Tyranids are polar opposites in this regard. My Eldar forces decisions because I leave very little of them while my Tyranids leave many decisions that can be made but they are all the wrong decisions.


Next we move into list construction. When setting yourself up to be an adaptive player you want to make sure that your list construction is allowing you to be as flexible as you want to be. Here is a quick punch list of key items your list should be able to do.

• Give your independent characters multiple homes. Your characters should be able to provide benefits and have uses from almost any unit in your army, depending on the opponent your ICs should be able to give you advantages to that type of army.

• Provide your units options for deployment. Try to pick units that have multiple ways of deploying when facing various opponents. One of the things I love about the Stormraven list I have is I can combat squad, infilitrate, scout, start in a raven, start in a landspeeder storm with any unit in the army. This is a hidden benefit that most people underestimate. People will expect me to start 40 scouts on the table than when I offer to go first and all my Ravens are in reserve and all my scouts are infiltrating I get to go first, and see how my opponent sets up. Consider this when building a list.

• Set yourself up for success. The one is simple; give yourself tools to do every job. It is tempting to spam because it provides some breathing room to let you make mistakes. Having a limited number of tools to complete a task will make you think smarted and play more efficient to keep those limited tools safe. This is like having a toolbox of hammer, you will abuse them, break them, throw them away, and lose them. If you have only one you will treat it like gold. Having one also gives you more room for different tools instead of a box of hammers.

I can go one with this forever and it is already too wall of text for my liking so I will stop there. I will continue on with a part II if I get enough positive feedback, as always hoped you enjoyed the article. I am also considering setting up a tactics "seminar" with BG as an event if you guys are interested. Let me know your thoughts.

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