Warhammer 40,000 – To Play or Not To Play

So last fall a friend and local gamer passed away.  He had no wife or children and his family had no idea what to do with his stuff.  They ended up bringing it all into the FLGS and just offering it to the owner.  Instead of taking it he decided to hold a charity raffle for everything and ended up raising about $3,000 USD for a charity that the family chose.  This is very much the only reason I would’ve ever gotten back into 40k and was.  I ended up winning a small Space Marine army that he had painted up as Alpha Legion.  After sorting through it and getting some bits from people I ended up with:

Captain in Cataphract Armor

Captain

Primaris Captain

Librarian

Lieutenant

10 Scouts

2 10 Man Tactical Squads with Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Vet. Sgt. with Power sword/Bolt Pistol

8 Man Devastator Squad with 2 Lascannon, Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher

5 Terminators with Assault Cannon, Vet. Sgt. with Power Sword, Storm Bolter

5 Bike Squad with Plasma Gun

1 Predator with Autocannon, 2 Heavy Bolter

2 Razorbacks with Twin-link Heavy Bolters

3 Dreadnought

• 1 Twin-link Autocannon x2
• 1 Heavy Flame, Twin-link Heavy Flamer
• 1 Twin-link Lascannon, Close   Combat Weapon

I didn’t really want Alpha Legion and what was painted was only about ½ way done so I began repainting the army to generic Ultra Marines as the nice deep blue would easily cover what paint was already on the models.  I have what looks to be a rounded list honestly.  However, in the handful of games I’ve had since then I’ve been shown that well rounded doesn’t mean much in the current meta of 40k.  Mine I’ve only played probably ten games but I think I’ve only won maybe two at best.  Most of the time I get tabled, or nearly so.  I’m no tactical genius by any stretch but it does leave me to wonder if the Marines are just weak against the current field.  My friend Dave who plays mixed Demons has played three games with me recently.  The first game was a free go and so he tabled me pretty quickly while I only managed to kill maybe one of his units.

After that I asked him to tone his list down so I could play the game.  This didn’t stop him nearly tabling me and me hardly providing a challenge.  Again, he toned down his list and still beat me, handily.  The games were sad to say the least.  Last year when I first got the army I took them to FlatCon in October and played three games losing two of three only beating the list that had three Imperial Knights and only then because I was basically able to Lascannon off two of them and had an amazing round of combat with the Close Combat Dread knocking the third over.  He just didn’t have the guys to stop me claiming objectives after that.  I lost to Adeptus Mechanicus and Orks.

Other experiences include fighting a Primaris Space Marine army and a couple other Ork games, all of which continued to result in losses.  When I listen to Podcasts (not something you should do if you already suspect your army is in the weaker spectrum) I hear repeatedly that regular Marines are dragging around the bottom of competitive outside of two or maybe three very specific builds, none of which I can put together with what I have without spending another $150-200.  I really like the command system for 40K.  It was a very cool and interesting idea, but I’m not certain its worth playing between now and whenever the next edition comes out and a new Marine Codex.  Assuming of course that at the end of this edition the Primaris don’t take over entirely and the old Marines get knocked off.  A scary thought on its own.  So, should I play?  Well, for now I’m painting.  I guess, if I play will remain to be seen.  I know this post was more a ramble then something informative or interesting.  Thanks for forcing through it.