Anyone ever use GW sample lists?

[junkmonkey]

Just wondering if anyone ever tries playing the GW site sample lists to see if they work at all (I'm guessing the don't as they seem to revolve around showcasing every model they make with little focus).

Plus I do a lot of forum lurking and little posting (see my stats :} ) and have notice that things like the Venomthrope for example are just not used by many players.

Here's a link to the Tyranid list (random choice)

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=&pIndex=1&aId=12800013a&multiPageMode=true&start=2

[HsojVvad]

I didn't even know there was sample armies. Thanks for letting us or at least me know. :)

Hey you are a neighbour. Only about an hour away.

[junkmonkey]

Hi neighbour. There are only the three lists up currently, but here and there they usually have some sort of online article with a list.

My question could easily pertain to lists in WD magazine as well (I stopped buying it about 2-3 years ago when it ceased to be a magazine and changed into a monthly 75 page catalogue for GW minis)

[HsojVvad]

I stopped collecting WD about 4 years ago. I called it paying for GW advertisement. We should be getting the mag for free. But I will check out the list and compare it to mine, since I suck at 40K.

[junkmonkey]

Exactly on the mag thing.

Back in 'the good old days' when there were more actual articles in the mag I remember that you would see at least a couple of sample lists every time there was a change to an army list as well they used ta have fairly frequent battle reports where you might find and try a different list.

[eagleboy7259]

A GW sample army was what brought me into the hobby several years ago. It was when the 'new' tyranids were comming out in 3rd ed (The tyranid book 2 revisions prior to our current book). There was battle report in the back of that month's White Dwarf called Assault on Bunker 482, or something like that. It was a 1500pt bunker assault mission (if anyone remembers what those are) where Pete (the slightly larger one's) Space Marines were the defenders and the Tyranids under Andy Chambers were the attackers. That Crimson Fist army & list was the best looking army I can even imagine. It was something like:

Space Marine Captain in Terminator Armor w/ Power Sword & Storm Bolter
5 Space Marine Terminators w/ Cycolne Missile Launcher, Assault Cannon, and Chainfist
Dreadnought w/ Lascannon, Missile Launcher, Smoke Launchers, Extra Armor
5 Marines w/ Plasma gun & Missile Launcher
5 Marines w/ Plasma gun & Heavy Bolter
6 Marines in a Heavy Bolter Razorback w/ Flamer
5 Scouts w/ 3 Snipers & a Heavy Bolter
3 Land Speeders (in a squad w/ Heavy Bolters)
Predator Destructor w/ Autcannon, Heavy Bolters, and Smoke Launchers
Devastator Squad in a Rhino w/ 2 Lascannons & a Heavy Bolter

Probably the only GW list I've ever liked. It was back before the forums and list-fu had a big impact on my play and I had no idea you could get that many marines and 7 vehicles in a single list before

[junkmonkey]

Nice. I'll have to take a look back through my old issues (I think I remember that batrep).

I used to occasionally just grab a list out of the mag when a spontaneous game would erupt.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has ever used such a list successfully in say, a tournament or on a long term basis with fairly consistent wins.

[DrBored]

Short answer is no.

Long answer is that GW makes a lot of those things to cater to noobs who think it's best to buy from GW direct instead of getting 10-20% off at other retailers. That in mind, most of their lists will revolve around including one of everything instead of any sort of coherency. They'll also throw in a lot of upgrades and other things to try and 'prove' how useful something is, when truthfully it's a waste of points in any other scene.

You can always try a GW list that you find if you like, but typically they won't give you hard tactica, hard mathhammer, or hard strategy to use on the table, just generalized ideas of what things should do. All of that is what fan forums are for. Gods willing, GW won't sue us for making lists that don't match theirs.

[fuzzbuket]

I think they might be a wee bit useful for getting ideas and new ways of thinking. e.g.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat440130a&pageMode=multi&categoryId=600002&section=&pIndex=1&aId=9600027&start=2

looks rather like a new way of looking at marine alpha strike?

and WD sometimes has fantastic content other times its a wee bit of a catalog ^_^

[MaltonNecromancer]

Back in 'the good old days' when there were more actual articles in the mag

This is the biggest gaming myth ever. I started buying White Dwarf back at issue 119 many, many moons ago, and I stopped when I decided that it had become nothing but an advert for GW... back around issue 156. In my FLGS I was mocked for staying with it for so long as


"It was only good back in 'the good old days', when there were more actual articles in the mag about D&D and other non GW games. Now there's nothing in it but ads for whatever GW is shilling this month..."

This year, I was given a stack of White Dwarfs from issue 88 to issue 143, and you know what? Those D&D articles were rubbish too! They were just adverts for whatever D&D miniatures GW were selling. Gamers complaining about White Dwarf having "once" been good is like the way we English complain about the weather - it's something to say that everyone can agree on, even though in the case of WD, no-one can exactly agree when "the good old days" were (usually that person's first couple of years of getting into the hobby).

White Dwarf has always been nothing more than an advert for GW's products, whether they were manufactured by GW or imported by them, and this is how I get this mild rant back on topic and explain why I have never fielded a GW army list; it's articles have the depth of a puddle and do nothing but state the obvious ("Zoanthropes are good at tank-busting" was a recent tactical gem - really? The unit designed as the Tyranid's ranged tank buster is good at busting tanks? What a surpise! :( However, no discussion of the psychic test downside, so how can you trust what they have to say as tactically valid.) They do, I will concede, have the occasional good bit; I quite liked Spearhead, and some of the painting articles aren't completely awful.

However, since the advent of coolminiornot, I genuinely have no reason to buy it.

[eagleboy7259]

They used to showcase some really cool armies back in the day, and battle reps didn't always feature the studio army. Mind you I think the studio army looks fantastic, but if you own any GW product you know exactly what the studio army looks like and games played with it just don't intrest me - after all bat reps are 70% visual and 30% commentary.

Does anyone know of a site where you could buy back issues of WD? not just like last year but I'm talking 3rd or 4th ed, and specific ones?

[Gaz Taylor]

I've never tried a GW sample list but I can honestly say that I don't think that they are as bad as everybody makes out. What a lot of people forget is that we are spolit with the Internet as we can quickly share information and work out which is the best option in a list. This tends to mean that somebody new using the web can very quickly pick up what's hot and what's not after checking out a few forums.

The GW lists aren't designed to give you a tournament winning army, but rather a core army to build up which you can tweak later or as a way of getting a flavour about how the army works.

[Xas]

GW lists are made to look good.

And that, I have to say they acchieve.

Just remember that battle report not long ago where our IG-boy got a facebeating by NECRONS. The tactics and list was awfull from a powergameing POV but the pictures and the roleplay behind the deployment was very nice to look at.

[addamsfamily36]

I pick up White dwarf when its relevant to me. It will always be tailored to the release of the month etc, at the end of the day all magazines are for advertising.

Very few have no advertising, i mean even my local sailing club produces a monthly panflet with news of the club, races, etc etc and at the back of that are some adverts.

But often the articles can be good, there will be a painting guide, or something that makes me go, hmm i'll buy that.

One of the best(from recent white dwarfs), was a white dwarf that had a "how to" guide to beastmen. It gave two sample army lists and gave in depth tactics to using the ambush technique.

I often theme my army lists, but i will look at white dwarf or the internet lists, to see how units that i like are being equipped or deployed etc, even if its just a starting point that i later adjust to fit to my own personal tastes.

[addamsfamily36]

Also i think lists in white dwarf and the internet are perfect for beginners or people stating new armies, as they are tailored to what people will buy to start off with, which is often a starter set or a battalion etc.

[Inquisitor Megasquig]

I enjoy going back to the WD every so often for the old articles and pix for inspiring conversions. To use a list that someone else created even WD staffers seems to have been the trend for years. But some folk like dinner out of a box, I like to create my own.

[lattd]

The dark eldar lists have been pretty solid from what ive seen.