What is YOUR Meta?

[Beer & Pretzels Gamer]

There have been a lot of threads lately debating issues of balance, negative player experience, “broken” shooting or magic.  These discussions often see tournament data used on both sides.  As @Neil Arthur Hotep frequently acknowledges tournament data isn’t ideal but often is what we have to use since casual games aren’t clearly and cleanly recorded anywhere.  But it did make me very curious to see if we could get a little more info on what casual metas actually look like.  

So... what does your personal gaming meta look like?  What factions are you playing and what factions are most frequently across the table?  And how do you feel about your own personal meta?

Currently in Zoom League we are playing a lot of Mawtribes (both BCR and Gutbusters), Warclans (all three options have shown up)and FEC (Blisterskin primarily but some Gristelgore too).  Fyreslayers have entered the fray.  Nurgle (mortals & daemons) is about to make a return.  Khorne (daemons) got a recent look in.  Beasts of Chaos have made appearances.  Even Tzeentch (mortals) & Stormcast Eternals showed up for a tournament.  Troggoths are debuting as an automata component but may see some play in future.  The Sons of Behemat are expected to arrive in Zoom League this Summer. 

Prior to COVID but since retired we had Legion of Azgorh, Sylvaneth and the Moonclan/Spiderfang Gloomspite Gitz.

When in person games start back up I would expect my meta to expand to include a few games a year against IDK, Seraphon and Cities and I’d expect to finally put my Tzeentch daemons on the table.

Overall my meta has proven very enjoyable.  There are factions that struggle a little more for wins than others but nothing has proven futile.  Similarly some factions have done better than average but nothing dominates for too long.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Beer & Pretzels Gamer

[AnarchMage]

I’m lucky to have a pretty diverse meta. I main Legions of Nagash. I have (but have not played) OBR and Lumineth. I’m planning to take my LRL into a local escalation league starting soon.

My meta is...hard to pin down. I’ve only played 5 games, but have gone up against Fyreslayers, Daughters of Khaine, Legions of Nagash, Nighthaunt, and Slaves to Darkness. So far, it feels fine even if I flounder a bit and have no wins. Part of that is that I think people look at my inexperience as a chance to field less than optimized lists so I get a feel for the game while they get to have some fun fielding units they don’t usually get to.

A couple of guys do play tournaments and have far more optimized lists for Kharadon Overlords and Lumineth, but they don’t bring those lists unless someone asks for them. 

[Doko]

We only have one little boardgames\magic store to play where i live and our aos group are around 15 people(but so far in the year that we created it only around 8 of us play)

The most popular armys are stormcast(everyone have them due to aos cheap starter box or due to mortal realm serie) but even if all us have them only one or two have played them in games.

Then due to mortal realm nigthaunts are the most popular also,and again almost no games played.

In actual games,the most played are city of sigmar(almost all us are 30+ years old old lovers of fantasy),seraphon and bonereaper.

Then some legion of nagash,idoneth,ogors,slanesh and new giants. Or and one fyreslayer(myself)

Our group is new so usually people are buying battleforces and start collectings and dont try run the meta lists

 

[Skreech Verminking]

Currently it is non existence.

With the corona gone, this might change (hopefully)

[amysrevenge]

27 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Currently it is non existence.

With the corona gone, this might change (hopefully)

Same. 

 

Before (and hopefully after) the local group is basically 25% AoS-first players, and 75% 40k players dabbling in AoS.  The AoS-first players play a nice variety of armies; nobody is particularly chasing any transient power curves, and it's generally a level of casual that meets my personal desires.  The 40k players are playing whatever they like, and don't play AoS enough to really be competitive with whatever they play, whether it's S-Tier or whatever you call the garbage tier that Beastmen are in.

[Beer & Pretzels Gamer]

58 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Currently it is non existence.

With the corona gone, this might change (hopefully)

NO!!!!!
 

Those hordes of hundreds of clan rats must rise from the depths.  Those Doomwheels must roll!
 

Before Clans Pestilens got one over which factions were facing your overwhelming  vermintide?

[Ahriman]

I think my position will be the same as most, and is that there is no meta - people just play the armies they think are cool, and there is a ton of variety.

Its not mentioned as often as the tournament meta, so I think the general assumption is that these powerful armies are everywhere, but that definitely isn't my experience.

[Skreech Verminking]

59 minutes ago, Beer & Pretzels Gamer said:

NO!!!!!
 

Those hordes of hundreds of clan rats must rise from the depths.  Those Doomwheels must roll!
 

Before Clans Pestilens got one over which factions were facing your overwhelming  vermintide?

My current list for the next 100-or more players event currently consists of 200clanrats 3Warlock Bombardiers and 4Doomwheels

 

you might like it very much 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Skreech Verminking

[Landohammer]

I am fortunate to have a very diverse meta and a safe means of playing games throughout quarantine. Pretty much every faction is represented to some degree. And outside of events my guys usually stick to fun and strange lists.  This past weekend I played vs Hallowheart and Anvil guard, and the prior week I played vs Fyreslayers, Lumineth, and Legion of Blood. I am playing vs a 4 Stardrake list this thursday. Looking forward to that!

Something I pride myself on is never allowing an opponent to grow tired of an army. I have quite a few armies so I like to rotate through them. It keeps the experience fresh for my opponents (and myself). I know a lot of guys with limited access to players end up playing the same guy/army over and over, and that can burn you out. 

[Sleboda]

5 hours ago, Ahriman said:

I think my position will be the same as most, and is that there is no meta - people just play the armies they think are cool, and there is a ton of variety.

Agreed. There is no ... um ... what's this prefix we're bandying about ... "meta" is it? ... here, just the armies we see on the table. 

To answer, though, it's pretty much just Bonereapers and Gitz in our play environment. We've got Overlords, Sylvaneth, Daughters, Blades, and Warclans painted up for use (with several others playable on squares, as an option), but those two are the current hotties.

 

 

[Painbringer]

I usually play with my three friends. All of us are playing/collecting armies that we love the most, so there is no “true” metagame. I have Sylvaneth, Idoneth Deepkin, Everchosen and (soon) Tzeentch. My friends play the following armies:

- Stormcast eternals
- Flesh-eater courts
- Cities of Sigmar
- Ossiarch Bonereapers
- Ogor Mawtribes
- Orruk warclans
- Beasts of Chaos
- Blades of Khorne

This means that every one of us has 3-4 armies of various sizes, so there’s a lot of variation.

[Beer & Pretzels Gamer]

5 hours ago, Ahriman said:

I think my position will be the same as most, and is that there is no meta - people just play the armies they think are cool, and there is a ton of variety.

Its not mentioned as often as the tournament meta, so I think the general assumption is that these powerful armies are everywhere, but that definitely isn't my experience.

 

18 minutes ago, Sleboda said:

Agreed. There is no ... um ... what's this prefix we're bandying about ... "meta" is it? ... here, just the armies we see on the table. 

To answer, though, it's pretty much just Bonereapers and Gitz in our play environment. We've got Overlords, Sylvaneth, Daughters, Blades, and Warclans painted up for use (with several others playable on squares, as an option), but those two are the current hotties.

 

 

To be clear I think we’re actually on the same page here.  By your meta I simply mean what factions are you playing regularly?  I love these threads but so many devolve into abstract discussions of “the meta” which, as far as I can tell, is at best only experienced by the top tournament players.  For the rest of us... like @Sleboda is saying there is just the armies we see on the tables.

I’m trying to see how many players out there really are getting burnt to the ground by Changehost or shot off the tables by Sentinals in their regularly game play? Or are most of us having a pretty good time in our regulars and just worried about what we might face at the occasional tournament or that someone in our group might chase the new hotness?

Edited March 17, 2021 by Beer & Pretzels Gamer

[LuminethMage]

I have the feeling that some of this is definitely blown out of proportions. I'm playing Lumineth obviously, and last time another player (COS, Tempest Eye) specifically asked to play against Teclis because he knows I have the model painted and he wanted to play against Teclis to see how it is. 

So, I had a list with Teclis and 3 x 10 Sentinels. On purpose I didn't go full tournament meta-elite list (no spell portal,  and Zaitrec instead of Syar), but otherwise didn't really hold back. He had two Sorceresses who didn't get a spell off between him rolling bad and the auto-unbind from Teclis. I also used Total Eclipse (double CP spell) and Searing White Light. It was still a fun game, and he was leading when we had to finish end of R3 because of time limit. Yes, the Sentinels killed two of his heroes, but his firing squat had finished 80% of my Wardens in R2 and done some other damage in return. It was a pretty good back and forth. He had no complaints at all, no NPE.  I think though, I'd tabled him if we continued the game, but he probably would have still won by points.

Now I'm not saying that under no circumstances anyone ever could have a bad experiences playing against Lumineth, but locally you should be able to work things out most of the time. If someone doesn't like me to play Teclis, I don't (I wouldn't want to bring him every time in the first place, that's boring anyway). Same with Sentinels (which aren't a huge problem if you don't bring a ton anyway). Lumineth can definitely dish out a lot of MW if you roll well, and that's probably not everyone's cup of tea. 

I haven't had much experience besides against CoS yet with my LRL (because of Covid restrictions), but the local club has many different armies. CoS seems to be one of the most played. 

[Eldarain]

Here it's almost always bleeding edge competitive. Tournament focused. Not for me.

Only thing that's brought me back is a friend's decision to start a collaborative list building and narrative focused batrep channel.

[Predien]

Great topic! I'm a collector of armies so I've got quite a few (Sylvaneth, FEC, Skaven, IJ, IDK, Seraphon and Khorne). Don't ask me how many are painted because the answer is not enough. Like @Landohammersaid above, I like to have multiple armies to rotate through so when we're practicing for tournaments I can provide a variety of armies to play against. Our local meta has a heavy chaos player (S2D, LOCA, Tzeentch, and Nurgle), we've got SCE, Ogors, NH and Slaanesh. A buddy who normally plays all Death just started to KO. I feel like we've got a great range of the high "meta" armies within our local group which makes our small tournaments a lot of fun.

I'd love to focus more on narrative and "fun" games instead of try hard tournament scrimmages and such. I really hope with AoS 3.0 we get a nice revamp of Path to Glory because I'm really into the campaign style of things.

[AaronWilson]

Local to me there is a mix of very casual players, I tend to not take any real hard lists locally as I know people don't anything hard. I keep my hard lists for the events I attend, sadly often attend without any club members as they're very casual. 

[Backbreaker]

I feel like I'm really lucky. Players in my area are really chill and all about having a good time while playing. I play Ironjawz and I win a lot. I think that Ironjawz is one of the best "average army" and even if my opponent play an army considered as the monster of the moment, they will play these armies without spamming the broken combo of the month. That's why I tend to win. 

I try to bring unit from Underworlds to tone down my army some times, just so that these amazing models can see the table from time to time.

To conclude with, we are not narrative players (I certainly would like so') and try everything we can to win while playing, but we just tend to leave the list building aspect of the game outside.

[Ahriman]

12 hours ago, Beer & Pretzels Gamer said:

 

To be clear I think we’re actually on the same page here.  By your meta I simply mean what factions are you playing regularly?  I love these threads but so many devolve into abstract discussions of “the meta” which, as far as I can tell, is at best only experienced by the top tournament players.  For the rest of us... like @Sleboda is saying there is just the armies we see on the tables.

I’m trying to see how many players out there really are getting burnt to the ground by Changehost or shot off the tables by Sentinals in their regularly game play? Or are most of us having a pretty good time in our regulars and just worried about what we might face at the occasional tournament or that someone in our group might chase the new hotness?

Oh we're 100% on the same page, I just wanted to add my voice to the crowd in saying that I never really see an abundance of tournament style lists or armies - and I think this side of the hobby is most common, but is the least expressed online.

 

My understanding of 'meta' is its more than just the list of armies seen most regularly (which is my case is all of the armies that exist, I think the only one I haven't seen physically is Idoneth Deepkin), its also about the style of play that you see. A 'shooting meta', or a 'alpha strike' meta, for example.

 

But to your main point, my scene is as varied as possible really, and even more than that the lists people are running are varied too. We have a few Ossiarch Players for example, and their lists are all different. Ditto with Lumineth as well, some are cavalry heavy, others leaned into the Alarith units.

 

So diverse in armies and unit selection.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Ahriman

[Beer & Pretzels Gamer]

1 hour ago, Backbreaker said:

I play Ironjawz and I win a lot. I think that Ironjawz is one of the best "average army"

Having faced it multiple times in Zoom League I’m with you there.  Proof that a limited number of different units doesn’t mean a limited play style nonetheless a weak one.

Happy to hear about another fun & friendly local gaming group too!

[willange]

We've been doing in-person games with masks and distancing for most of the pandemic (though we did take a few months off).  KO has been pretty powerful locally, but I won a minor local tournament with Khorne and we've seen SCE do well too.  Seems more like the "pilots" matter more than the armies in general.  I've seen people suck with OBR and I've seen others dominate.  I guess that's just how it is in a more casual scene.

[Neverchosen]

My little group ground to a halt as COVID ramped up and prior we were all building to 2000 points so I cannot answer this question in earnest. However, we are mostly just a group of friends that do not play ultra competitively. We have a mix of Chaos, Death and a little bit of Destruction and a hilarious dearth of Order in my group. The armies range in terms of meta tiers but none of my community have built absurd power lists although some of us have more competitive builds as back ups. Not me though I fly without a safety net aka I don't run Marauders 😜

So to add to my post in terms of my friend's group, it has grown since COVID and therefore I have not played against all these armies. We also have another possible player who just bought Soul Wars so maybe add SCE and Nighthuant but he is more interested in the hobby. 

In my group we have the following armies split across 5 players:

Slaves to Darkness*,
Ogre Mawtribes (Beastclaw Raiders)*,
Legions of Nagash x2,
Ossiarch Bonereapers x2,
Cities Of Sigmar (Dispossessed),
Disciples of Tzeentch, 
Gloomspite Gitz.

*My armies

Edited March 19, 2021 by Neverchosen

[TheCovenLord]

Diverse meta before COVID. Everything from the most casual to the tournament preppers near me - most players pack several armies at this point so it can change drastically week to week.

 

It can lead to a wide range of experiences and you can usually find an opponent to suit your mood for the style of game you want. The only issue that arises is the weeks leading up to a major tournament will be flooded by bleeding edge tryhard lists as people try to put in the practice making games significantly tougher. Around those times the more casual players (like our sad Beasts representative and sylvaneth diehards) will be around less frequently and more competitive list building is required. Luckily it is not very often in my neck of the woods so its only a few weeks of the year where I basically shelve my casual dark elf double dragon elf list and focus on hobby time instead.

[Cronotekk]

So my meta is just what me and my friends play really

We have

-Nighthaunt/Dark Elves

-Seraphon/Skaven

-Slaanesh/Beastclaw

-Slaves to Darkness

My Nighthaunt tend to do well because of their teleportation and ignore rend can be very troublesome. Next would be the Seraphon guy who mostly plays coalesced because he thinks that's the coolest. Then the slaanesh guy who can summons loads of troops.