The trap of wanting to be unique

[EccentricCircle]

I don't think that its necessarily a trap, so long as you have fun with whatever you pick. If you are a very competitive player then I appreciate that having fun is harder. However, for a lot of people choosing a faction is as much about the aesthetics and theme as it is the rules.

I definitely like niche armies. Two of my largest collections are Tomb Kings and Chaos Dwarves. I started collecting Tomb Kings long before they were discontinued, so I didn't pick them in order to be different, just because I liked the models, and the lore. I started collecting Chaos Dwarves shortly after they discontinued the TKs. In that case it was a case of trying to be different for the sake of it, but more as a collecting challenge than anything else. I wanted to see if it was possible to put together an affordable vintage army on the second hand market (Result: Mostly, actually). It made sense to pick a vintage army that wasn't well represented in the present, and it was only later that I expanded it to include the forgeworld models. ( I've also put together a 90's era lizardmen force, but that's less niche, since most of the units still exist in one way, shape for form).

I probably don't play my Tomb Kings or Chaos Dwarves as much as I do other factions, but I still really enjoy it when I get to. Its rare to find anyone else who uses those factions for sure, but that's not really the point. Having those armies lets me create stories and scenarios which not everyone can play, and as a narrative gamer that's what its all about!

[Ravinsild]

On 11/25/2018 at 9:16 AM, Lemon Knuckles said:

You are a JOHNNY.

When I played a bit of MtG back in the day, I was too. There’s an extra thrill that comes from being unique, and from winning in a unique way, and the Johnny in us chases that high. 

I was able to moderate my Johnnyness a bit by forcing myself to play some tier 2 decks and iterate within that structure. It allowed me to hang on to an element of Johnnyness, while also getting me to see the game a bit more as a Spike.  There was a reason that the T2 decks were almost always better than my homebrews, and there was a reason my Johnny changes to the T2 decks usually made them worse.  Starting to really learn that side of the game actually helped make me a better Johnny. 

I’m a Johnny/Timmy. 

I always try to min/max or powergame but with my own list or whatever. Basically I pick an objectively subpar idea, but then try to squeeze every single ounce of juice possible from that orange by min/maxing it as best as possible so I win with my own style but it’s still got teeth as well. 

Hence why in say 40k, I don’t min/max mixing klans, I stick to my 1 true Klan that I love (Evil Sunz), and I try to build fluff friendly (always) and models I like the look of, whilst realizing I can’t have it all and I need actual good things in the list too so it’s a careful balancing act of just enough Johnny to satisfy but power gamed and/or min/maxed to actually win sometimes. 

As for the topic at hand: 

It took me awhile to find what armies I liked and I bought a few I didn’t before I found my style, and that may be the case for you too. 

However once I found my style everything just clicked. 

I knew from visuals alone I wanted Ironjawz, even if they’re fairly popular, they do exactly what I want them to and it’s fun every time. 

Same with Khorne. Aside from that I’ve tried Death and Seraphon and didn’t enjoy them very much. Sold them off. 

I like highly aggressive melee armies that charge turn 1 and smash hard, but so far I like just Ironjawz and Khorne and it doesn’t matter to me if they’re the most popular or least popular, I find their actual game play and the way they look, their lore, their allegiance abilities and everything else works. They just “feel good”, like good controls in a video game. 

I never enjoyed the “feeling” of playing Seraphon, it felt stale, boring and flat. I didn’t enjoy Death either, it was counterintuitive (RUN FORWARD AND SMASH) to me, because they’re more like sit around and wait and grind out the enemy. Felt like an awkward controller or bad controls. Really disliked those armies. 

[Wired4War]

On 11/30/2018 at 11:22 AM, amysrevenge said:

The desire to be unique can have a secondary root in insecurity (that's where it is for me).

Here's how it starts - you think you aren't good enough to win.  If you play a top tier army and still lose (like you're afraid you will), then it's proven that you're a loser.  Only a huge loser could, say, play Tzeentch in early 2017 and not win.  But if you play something off-beat and unusual, every win is a moral victory, and every loss is to be expected anyway - who would expect even the best player in the world to win all their games playing Spiderfang Grots?

So unique can be a defense mechanism, to not have to face your own fear of inadequacy.  Fun!

That's a really interesting idea and I wonder how much that explains my desire to be unique. Although maybe if it is also a win-win for your opponent, because they got to play something unique, it's worth it even if based on insecurity? =D

[Eevika]

My "Unique" army is Moonclan Grots. For me the most fun part is finding amazing deals on sites like ebay and local variants. I love old models so I'm constantly hunting for cool old models, 5th and 6th edition Moonclan being my favourite.

[Bufkin]

If you play a lot less than everyone else it can be a valid strategy to play something a bit more obscure on purpose. That could create a game that will ensure that your opponent have to play blind and bring them out of their comfort zone.

Even if you play the “best” army it can be a real uphill struggle if your opponent know more about it then you do, especially if you know nothing about their army.

But generally speaking, we play with hand painted models, even if you have the same exact army as someone else it will not be the same army.

 

[Luke82]

46 minutes ago, Eevika said:

My "Unique" army is Moonclan Grots. For me the most fun part is finding amazing deals on sites like ebay and local variants. I love old models so I'm constantly hunting for cool old models, 5th and 6th edition Moonclan being my favourite.

My Orcs and Goblins army is nearly 100% eBay rescue jobs, it’s a real hodge podge of stuff.

[Carnith]

No one in my store likes Slaanesh, who is my favorite god, and since Slaanesh doesn't get represented much in most forums or chats, I try to be the most knowledgable Slaanesh Player around. I just like daemonettes and the look of Slaanesh, so I have a large collection of them, and its how I get to be unique, though I do have other armies that are quite popular, such as Space Marines and Ad mech for 40k, and I also own Ironjawz.

[Black_Fortress_Immortal]

I'm the same way.  You can get around this by doing some nice conversion/paintjob work to make your army stand out from the rest.

[grungolah]

My army is always built around centerpiece models.    These always take up more points than the top netlists can afford,  so I end up using  less of the good models to compensate.  The better my army looks,  the less competitive it is.   

 

Learning to play and win with those lists make me a better player faster,  in my opinion, and I win with style. 

[Aegisgrimm]

Even if I am playing a somewhat mainstream army, I like to have at least one special snowflake conversion/counts-as to make my warband unique from the others- it helps that I play very casually, so interesting and imaginitive models are always accepted, even if it's a simple proxy model.

For instance my four-armed Rune Golems from the FFG Runewars game, which I am using in a Runelord-led Duardin skirmish warband as 'counts-as' Kurnoth Hunters, because I wanted them to have a cool monster, but it also had to fit with the Dwarven aesthetic.

In all honesty, I worked backwards on this particular project, as I actually started the entire Duardin warband because I always loved the look of the Rune Golems, so I needed an excuse to paint a couple, so I came up with the warband idea to justify buying them, lol.

I have a pathological urge to play the niche things other people might not want to, and in AoS this tends to make me lean towards the Old World legacy models as they get the least love. 

[TMS]

The power of armies rise and fall, taking the flavour of the month with them. What's most important to me is that the army is my own, lovingly built with creative conversions and a evocative theme throughout.

Then again I'm a Legions of Nagash player, a dime a dozen.

[Shearl]

If you want an army that you won't see many duplicates of, give Forgeworld a go. I can almost guarantee you'd be the only person showing up with a full Tamurkhan's Horde army.

Another option is to pick a less common theme within a popular army. In 40k I have space marines, but they're Mantis Warriors and as a result somewhat unusual. Naturally creating your own lore and color scheme is one way insure your force is unique.   

[AaronWilson]

I just pick a army I like and go all on it, it being popular etc doesn't bother me

[Kyriakin]

On 12/19/2018 at 5:59 PM, Eevika said:

My "Unique" army is Moonclan Grots. For me the most fun part is finding amazing deals on sites like ebay and local variants. I love old models so I'm constantly hunting for cool old models, 5th and 6th edition Moonclan being my favourite.

Something tells me that you won't be "unique" for much longer...

[Skabnoze]

I make my armies unique to me by putting extra effort into how I convert and paint my models.

[Lucio]

Well, the one thing I'm slowly learning with AoS 2 is that the Realms are the ideal way to indulge uniqueness. A tribe of Grots dwelling in Shyish will differ from one from Ghur to one from Aqshy.

 

It means that I can build and convert to a theme, but still field viable armies

[Aegisgrimm]

I find it rewarding to play an unpopular/out of the box army, it's just the stumbling block of getting them to completion before something shiny catches my eye and now THAT is my new passion.  I am still in-progress with a Skaven skirmish warband I bought the bulk of as singles from a reseller at Gencon in 2015, with a Grey Seer I got from my wife for Christmas two years ago.  What's worse is that what I need for a fully-painted warband is sitting on the shelf right now, PRIMED, even.

So...let's talk about how tomorrow I am hitting up the local shop to start a Dispossesed skirmish warband, when the Orruk one I am currently painting isn't done, and includes models I painted 10 years ago.........

[Eevika]

11 hours ago, Kyriakin said:

Something tells me that you won't be "unique" for much longer...

I'm already building a ****** troll army to wait for hype to die down