Is spam bad?
No. It's particularly nice when cut into thin slices and fried in really hot oil so that it gets nice and crispy on the outside.
Either that or as a Spam Fritter. Does nothing for your arteries, but it's damn good.
Ok, enough of the culinary nonsense and back to the matter in hand. Spam in 40k army lists.
Well, as with most things in life, there are different ways of looking at a list that spams a particular unit, whether it's Space Marines and Razorbacks, or an Eldar list that's spamming Wave Serpents.
The first way of looking at it, and one that is always leveled at people who play this type of list, is that it's unimaginative. Well, I suppose that there is a certain lack of imagination in this type of build, it's one that has multiple of the same unit and probably the hardest thing about putting forward a list that spams is counting the points to make sure that you're not over.
But if we cut through the bullshit the real reason that people hate these armies is because they're hard to break down. If I put six twin-linked lascannon Razorbacks with a five man Tac squad inside each of them on the table, that's 870 points before I add any special or heavy weapons.
That's twelve units, six of them scoring. It doesn't matter if you take out my Razorback, there's still a good chance that the unit inside will survive. They might not, but if they do, then that's another unit shooting into them to destroy them, or another round of shooting.
It's also only 58% of the points in a 1500 point list. Take the cheapest HQ choice in the SM codex, a Librarian, and that puts you to just over 62%, leaving a lot of points for you to beef your list up. I don't know the Eldar points or percentages, but the reasoning behind Wave Serpent spam has to similar.
So is spam bad?
No. It makes complete and utter sense. Multiple, cheap, effective units will boost your army's ability to survive. Add in some decent firepower, and you're raising your chances of taking out high points value targets in your opponent's army. It doesn't really matter if you lose one or two, or even three of your spammed units, there's still more there for your opponent to think about.
Here's Durham Red, just in case you were wondering why I've been putting hot, scantily clad vampire babes in my posts.
4 comments:
I like Spam in sandwiches, with brown sauce.
Hi Jim, just found your blog through HOP. Very interesting topic!
Spamming points efficient and effective units can be an advantage, but I don't think this should be at the expense of creating a competitive list that has all the tools you need to take on all comers (if that's what you're after).
I've been running razor spam since I stated playing again in mid-5th ed, and I've found that cheap mech is still useful in 6th. Mobile troops is a big thing with the number of multiple objective missions in 6th, and I like to achieve this through MSU razors.
I've written a post on Spam on my blog too. If you're interested please feel free to check it out!
http://totalimmersionwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/p/concepts.html
@ Hendie, hmmmmm, brown sauce, got to be HP, or at a push Branstons.
@ Sentinel. Thanks. I'll definitely check out your blog and post. I think that running 6 razorbacks in anything under 2000 points would definitely be to your detriment, but I think 4, whilst not really that spammy, in a list up to 1750 can cause your opponent a lot of trouble.
Thanks. Hope you find something you like!
I initially ran 8 razors at 1850pts and played with lasplas and the twin linked assault canons (SW with GK allies). I found out pretty quickly that with the changes to vehicles in 6th that 75pts for a temporary gun took away too many points from the rest of my list for what I wanted, but I know a clubmate who loves the twin-linked las variety and takes 4-6!
I tried sticking with the basic twin-linked heavy bolter and haven't looked back since. 40pts is great for what you get, so I now run 6 at 1650pts with 5 man grey hunter squads. Ally in some IG for cheap backfield scoring, some guns and a flyer and it's worked out well so far!
I guess it's up to everyone to choose what they think works best in their lists. The big thing for me is choosing what to spam efficiently whilst covering all your bases for battlefield roles. It can be a tricky balance!
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