Special Unique Snowflakes

This was prompted by me reading the 10th Anniversary special No Quarter that I was able to pick up on the PP digital ap. I am so glad I finally have that thing.

There is an unbound battle report in there that I won't spoil expect for a little bit of one players list builds. This player said: "there are players that believe models like the squire or Black 13th belong in every army list but I don't fall into that "must have" mentality." I agree. A lot of my lists have Sylys instead, some have no warcaster attachment. Everyone likes an extra focus and an extended control area and a few warcasters also like the reroll on missed spells but you don't have unlimited points in your lists and often there are things you want more. However there are also lists where that two points is enormously powerful and not taking it because you don't want to subscribe to the standard mentality is dumb. There is a difference between genuine list innovation and deliberately handicapping yourself in order to take some imagined high road and think you're better than everyone else. Real list innovation isn't about being unique for the sake of being unique, it's about trying different stuff and seeing what works. It still has to work though and it still has to have an advantage over the other options available. You have to be able to explain to me why the three Trencher grenadiers got the shot ahead of the squires, why there are the points available to max the mechanics (that is for two more goblin bodgers) but none of the casters have the points for a squire, why those options are better. I very highly doubt that the player in question could do this particularly for the casters chosen.

I do take and champion a lot of models that other people do not like but I don't do it to be special. I think the Seraph is really good if you can get work out of it (Vayl1, Lylyth1), I think precursor knights and sword knights are decent infantry that can take advantage of in faction buffs (Stryker1, Stryker2). Idrian Skirmishers and Blood Pack can abuse the hell out of Assault and Battery with a caster who can turn them on. Bog Trogs are a great option if they do something for your list. I recently helped write a Cassius list with Advance deploy skew including Druids, Gallows Groves and Double shifting stones with Bog Trogs and Cassius has Hellmouth. The list has so many angles it can come at you with the Bog Trogs amplify that.

There are good models in this game, there are combinations and ideas that aren't widely known or that fill specific roles that not everyone has a use for. They aren't necessarily better than the obvious options and you aren't smarter than everyone else for using them. I suppose that's what annoys me the most, this idea that if you play something different you are better than people who play something good that is widely known to be good. It doesn't work like that. You are as good a player as you are a good player, it doesn't matter whether you wrote the list yourself using only models you had never seen at a tournament or you wholesale copied a tournament winning list. You should be trying to make and play the best lists that you can and I mean that in every sense, if you aren't trying to write a competitive list, if you want a fluffy list to match a story from skull islands go for it, if you want to play the models you like the look of go for that, make the best list you can using whatever criteria you have for best and if that means playing Jake Van Meters list exactly then do that. If you can't see a way to make it better for you then don't. That will happen, I spend a lot of time writing and testing my own lists but there are a few that I have that are exact copies of other peoples lists. They may change with new releases, they may not, I will keep reviewing them but for now they are the best lists I can make. The important thing is that when I put down a list I think it's the best list I can put down and I play it to the best of my ability and I try to be the best opponent I can be. That's what I want from an opponent as well.

Addendum - Since we are talking about a PP staff member I believe they picked lesser seen but iconic Cygnar units on purpose. I don't think they were trying to be a special unique snowflake as much as showcase models which while not terrible are not particularly great and rarely used.