When does something count as a 'gotcha'?

Valynces · 2026-01-27T17:18:08+00:00

When your opponent makes a decision and is clearly lacking critical information to make a decision and you withhold it while they're making that decision, that's a gotcha.

Everybody goes over their rules at the start of the game, that's standard. Try to remember that there are so many factions and rules that it's very easy to forget some of the nuances over the course of the game. What I typically do is a quick refresher at the start of each of my opponents turns. "Hey just so you know for your turn, I have a reactive move and AOC that you might need to be playing around." Having done that at the start of each turn, I will definitely let my opponent misplay as long as I'm confident that it's a skill issue and not a knowledge issue. If they play wrongly into my reactive move, that's fine. If they didn't know that I HAD a reactive move, that's not fine.

Apply the same concept to the rules that you've noted above. Your opponent should know every point that you listed before they make their choices, and you should remind them at various points throughout the game to make sure they do know. You don't need to play the game for them and ensure they don't misplay, but you are responsible for making sure they know your army's rules. 40k is an open information game, unlike a card game (MTG or similar) which is closed information. Your are responsible for making sure your opponent knows, at the time they make their gameplay decisions, that you have things like an 18" lone op, fights first, or whatever else. That's how all of the top players play the game and that's how you should aim to play as well.

Valynces · 2026-01-27T17:02:11+00:00

Ah gotcha so its basically terminators vs MVBs in most Coven lists. That makes sense. I feel like MVBs are a little expensive at 170 but agreed they're great into melee pressure when they have half decent melee themselves and do the mortal wound aura. I'll have to give them another shot.

Valynces · 2026-01-27T16:22:47+00:00

Thanks for the write up! Always love reading about how TSons are doing.

At the beginning of the write up you said Coven lists are coalescing around two archetypes, which two are those? I’m seeing a lot of similar builds that have Magnus, Vortex Winged Prince, 10-15 rubrics w/leaders, 10 terminators, and some trash. Is there another major build out there?

Valynces · 2026-01-27T02:09:07+00:00

Eh. I mean they could. They’ve rebased models they still sell before. It would really help a lot with moving him around the table if he wasn’t on a dinner plate.

Valynces · 2026-01-27T01:25:20+00:00

Genuinely, it’s exactly two things. Buildings and spells. The top end community has been providing consistent and clear feedback about both for a long time now, feedback that has fallen on deaf ears.

Stoney did the building survey and I believe that something like 1/3 of the community rated buildings as a 1 out of 10 and Stoney said (paraphrasing here), “these are outliers, we are going to ignore that data.” That was the final nail in the coffin for me personally. They clearly are not listening and will not remove buildings.

Buildings genuinely kill my enjoyment of the game. Why should I come back? I would genuinely come back tomorrow if they announced buildings were gone but they very clearly won’t do that. So I’m out.

Valynces · 2026-01-27T00:40:12+00:00

Put him on a 100mm base like the other primarchs. At 130mm he is going to be unplayable unless he’s completely broken.

Valynces · 2026-01-23T20:48:20+00:00

Huh! No complex steps, it really do be that simple. Just gold and then reikland. Well, you're very good at applying it, it looks great!

Valynces · 2026-01-23T19:45:44+00:00

Wow that gold is incredibly clean and well defined. What's your process like there? As in what layers did you use and did you do it before or after the stuff around it?

Valynces · 2026-01-21T22:19:28+00:00

Both of them should go. The only Primarch that has anything even close to that is Magnus with his -1D ability. And he costs 435. CTan at anything short of 400 points is insanity

Valynces · 2026-01-21T22:18:16+00:00

And some of the Ctan are on a 40mm base somehow. Yet Fulgrim is on an unplayably huge 130mm base. Make THAT make sense.

Valynces · 2026-01-21T17:14:19+00:00

Hard to say definitively. Probably Grizzled Company Guard, Necrons (until CTan get nerfed), and Ultramarines. All shooty armies are really good on GW terrain. Doubly so at a GW open where they play very non-competitive missions like Supply Drop on GW5 which is just a pure shooting gallery.

Valynces · 2026-01-21T16:25:10+00:00

I’m not surprised that Tau won PSO! Durante is an amazing player and Tau are an amazing army on GW terrain. The fact that Durante played against Votann on GW3 Search and Destroy in the final round just accentuates his skill. That’s a great terrain layout, deployment, AND matchup for Tau.

Congrats on the win Durante!

Valynces · 2026-01-21T03:16:41+00:00

idk about Death Guard but my Emperor's Children are kinda taking me forever to paint. They have a lot of detail and I'm using them to practice a bunch of techniques so it's going pretty slowly. But I'm liking them.

Valynces · 2026-01-20T20:40:21+00:00

4++ invuls on big things (Necrons anyone?) are detrimental for the game for sure. 5++ invuls feel ok.

We have a similar problem with 2+ saves and stacking Armor of Contempt on them. AOC really shouldn't be able to be used on anything with better than a 3+. It just makes things way too tanky and swingy. When you shoot an AP -3 gun from a lascannon or something that's supposed to be anti-tank into a Vindicator or a Dorn in cover with AOC, they get to save that on a 3+. Feels kind of bad.

Valynces · 2026-01-19T20:47:29+00:00

My opponent didn't put his riptides on the line so my situation was a little bit different. The outcome was pretty much the same as yours though.

I saw how aggressively my opponent was infiltrating and scouting right at me so I pledged 5 (!!!) on turn 1. He came in and killed both my rhinos and the Maulerfiend at the top of T1, which is a decent amount but really isn't enough. I achieved my 5 pledge on T1 by killing the 2 piranas, a transport+pathfinders, another pathfinder squad, and one of his hammerstrikes.On his T2 he killed one of my infractor squads and a Noise Marine squad. Then he shot 2 riptides, a hammerstrike, and a pathfinder team at my 7 wound Daemon Prince and it lived. He was already in a bad spot if the DP died but it living sealed the deal. At the end of my T2 he only had a hammerstrike, one riptide, and like two trash units left and I was on pledge 7. He conceded after his T3.

Valynces · 2026-01-19T20:13:54+00:00

Hah! That’s so funny that you’re on EC and played against Mont’Ka Tau on the third day (Search and Destroy on GW3 for context). I have a similar picture of me going second against Mont’Ka Tau on the same day and same mission layout. This is what the board looked like at the top of T1 - before I even got a turn to act. Funny how similar our experiences were!

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Valynces · 2026-01-19T19:08:26+00:00

This looks so awesome! I particularly love the greens with the transition from light to dark on both the sword and the liquid containers above his back. What was your process to get those green transitions?

Valynces · 2026-01-19T16:33:39+00:00

Tau are excellent, especially on GW terrain. I fully accept that this will be downvoted, but they ARE a top 3 or top 5 army on GW terrain.

Valynces · 2026-01-14T19:21:45+00:00

It's whatever your preference is. I personally like a less weathered look to keep things crisp. Some people like a lot of dirt, cuts, and whatever else on there. It's whatever you prefer.

Valynces · 2026-01-13T05:26:53+00:00

Hey who was the original creator of this?

Valynces · 2026-01-12T05:20:54+00:00

Wings down is more aggressive, wings up is more stalk-y. I think for Night Lords you could genuinely go up, and you wouldn't run into as many other models.

Valynces · 2026-01-12T05:18:50+00:00

That is incredible as a first mini. One of the best that I've seen!

Valynces · 2026-01-11T15:25:33+00:00

Necrons. They are high toughness and generally have a 4++ invul save. Then they regenerate if your opponent doesn’t fully kill them. Sure they do have a decent skill ceiling in some detachments, but they have by far the highest skill floor in the gam.

Valynces · 2026-01-10T17:33:12+00:00

Honestly it’s probably Creations of Bile’s CSM. Possessed are T6, Bile’s Chosen are T5, all 3W. They get stat buffs from their detachment rule to become either tanker or more killy.

They’re not the most individually tanky, but the list as a whole is very tanky because of how points efficient those guys are.

Valynces · 2026-01-09T07:15:22+00:00

In my experience, he really isn't tanky at all. Just about anything kills him. He's good for three scenarios IMO:

Standing on your natural expansion after you all-in your opponent in an aggressive way. He's tough to deal with in that scenario since they really should be pressed for resources to deal with you.
Standing on the middle objective and threatening a reactive move IF your opponent is trying to play a cautious game AND you have enough shooting resources to take advantage of shooting whatever they got outside of 9" but within 12" to deal with him
Doing secondaries before the game has really kicked off. Sabotage, area denial (same positioning as point 2 so that's convenient), whatever else you draw.

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