Print

[Wargamer]

Since the old one is lost, I thought I'd produce a new one.

I need to make it clear, however, this test is only intended for standard 40K; it will not work in Planetstrike (where the rules of army composition are different) or Apocalypse (which is a sea of idiocy anyway).

A lot of the army-specific bits are missing, but I hope to add them in time. Ideally, with the help of some of the people on this site.


Army Composition:

• Did you write your list to defeat a specific opponent (ie: Space Marines, Eldar)?
• Have you re-written your list to deliberately score lower on this test?
• Are you using more points in your army than your opponent has allowed?

Army Specific Questions:

Chaos Space Marines:

• Do you have two models with Lash of Submission?
• Do you have a model with Lash of Submission and no other Slaneesh units?
• Do you have Plague Marines as the core (majority Troop) of your army, but no Nurgle HQ?
• Do you have more than three Obliterators?

Imperial Guard:

• Do you have one or more Vendettas?
• Do you have more than one Vanquisher or Executioner?
• Have you used, or would you use, the words 'Plasma Spam' to describe your List / Heavy Support section?
• Counting all vehicles, bar Sentinels & Chimeras, as one "slot"; do you have more than three Fast Attack / Heavy Support?

Orks:

• Are you fielding a Nob Warbike army?
• Are you fielding an army that primarily works by means of charging units of Nobs, with Warbikes, across the board whilst something else distracts / gives cover?
• Do you spam Lootas and other 'shooty' units with virtually no assault force in the list?

Space Marines:

• Does your army include Vulcan He'stan?
• Does your army include two Special Characters from different Chapters?
• >Did you try and wriggle out of this by claiming they are members of your Chapter and just use the rules of characters from the Codex?
• Does your army include Shrike joined with anything but Assault Marines / Vanguard Veterans?
• Does your army include one Dreadnought in a Drop Pod, and no other Drop Pods?
• Do you put more than 10 models in a Drop Pod or Land Raider?
• Have you ever claimed that your Storm Shields are not broken?

Space Wolves:

• Have you used, or do you ever intend to use, Jaws of The World Wolf to 'ping' ICs, Monstrous Creatures and other powerful troop types?

Tau:

• Do any of your units employ 'sucidial' tactics (ie: deep-striking alone behind enemy lines with absolutely no hope of support whatsoever)?
• >Is it the Shas'El?
• >Is it the Shas'O?
• >>Is it both your HQ choices?

RESULTS:

If you answered 'yes' to any of these, you are almost certainly a Powergamer. If you answered 'yes, but...' then I'd say your fate is pretty much sealed; Powergamers always have an excuse for why they have He'stan, Lysander and twenty Thunder-Hammer armed Terminators in their list and yet it's not beardy, so we don't care.

Most of these options boil down to either doing things that should not be done, are seriously questionable in terms of background, debatable due to discrepancies in how near-identical, or completely identical units work in other rulesets, or are just plain insulting to your opponent.

This test does not go for a 'scoring' system; the idea it is somehow acceptable to be a 'little bit' of a Powergamer because others are a lot worse defeats the whole damn point. It is not a case of being an irritation as opposed to a douchebag; it's being a douchebag as opposed to an even bigger douchebag.


Finally, there are situations, as always, where these rules can be broken without being a Powergamer. However, these are usually situations that lie outside of the normal 'turn up and play' situation, such as both players agreeing to certain lists, certain scenarios, etc. If you both want to play a scenario where an Eldar taskforce has to assassinate Vulcan He'stan, then it's not exactly broken to include him! However, as I said, this is the exception, not the rule.

[Yaifrog]

Well, yes, but...

I jest, I passed

[Brandubh]

Whatever.

[Yaifrog]

If you are fielding Yriel and have no units of Wraithguard or Wriathlords add X points.

Fixed. Wraithguard are $25 a model

[Wargamer]

Midhir, there are no "points"; it is yes or no.

Furthermore, I debate the "non scoring to scoring" one, as some armies are impossible to field otherwise; Deathwing, Ravenwing, Ravensquig, etc. are not inherantly Powergaming, but require a reshuffling HQ character to play.

Also, Yriel is not an Iyanden Autarch, he's a Pirate Prince. As such, he's exempt from normal Iyanden rules - the Eldritch Raiders don't make much use of Ghost Warriors!

[Zenai]

Using Sly Marbo is not Powergaming 

[Tim.]

Meh, still don't particularly see how using JotWW to kill an MC is powergaming, it's fair game, and many MC's have the initiative to get past it. (Also, it's pretty short range, if I use it once on your MC and you were unaware of it then shame on me. If you then place your MC in easy range of it in the next game then shame on you (this is pretty much how my last game went down)) Now picking off IC's within units? That is power gaming and I've never done that nor shall I ever I shouldn't think.

[doctor_wu]

Wow my chaos actually passed although I do use only 2 obliterators but I take no lash.

[Brandubh]

This isn't a powergaming test, this is a "what annoys Wargamer" test. 

[Wargamer]

What annoys me is Powergaming.

[LordDemon]

Needs functional scaling.

Games at 500 pts, 1000 pts , 3000 pts and 5000 pts would have pretty different setups.

[Brandubh]

What annoys me is Powergaming.

Yes and no questions can hardly determine if a list constitutes powergaming.  3 Obliterators at 2000 points in an Iron Warriors list is perfectly acceptable, for instance.  That's why the sliding scale is needed and why the old powergaming test was so good, IMO.  It addressed that fact that a little bit of cheese is acceptable but clearly sets out boundaries.  If a player crosses too many boundaries, they risk moving from a competitive list to a powergaming list.

Besides there are obvious flaws with your system:

Have you re-written your list to deliberately score lower on this test?

Scored what?  You said their are no points. 

Have you used, or would you use, the words 'Plasma Spam' to describe your List / Heavy Support section?

So if I haven't used the words, it's okay to run the unit?

Do you have two models with Lash of Submission?

 

Two winged DP with Lash =/= two infantry sorcerers with Lash.

Counting all vehicles, bar Sentinels & Chimeras, as one "slot"; do you have more than three Fast Attack / Heavy Support?

Suddenly Armored Company lists are powergaming?  And running 9 Flanking sentinals is less powergamey than 4 Griffons?

Are you fielding a Nob Warbike army?

What is a Nob Warbike army?  Is it 3 Nob Warbikes.  One unit of 10 Nob Warbikes?  All Nob Warbikes. 

Are you fielding an army that primarily works by means of charging units of Nobs, with Warbikes, across the board whilst something else distracts / gives cover?

So it's okay to do this with Battlewagons but not with Warbikes?

Do you spam Lootas and other 'shooty' units with virtually no assault force in the list?

Bad Moon or Deffskull lists are now powergamey.

Does your army include Vulcan He'stan?

Wow.  Do we even need to touch this?  So a dedicated Salamander player who tries to run a balanced list is automatically a powergamer because he likes a special character?  Nice.


But, hey, whatever, it's your thread.  But again, this isn't a powergaming test, this is a things that annoy Wargamer test.

[Unholy Harbinger]

My guard passed nicely.

However there seem to be a few armies missing.. *cough*

And i agree this is a what annoys waramer. the other one was far more balanced and took more into consideration. This is more a 10minute post.

I like how 50 conscripts and send in the next wave was handily emitted. And should I mention the point of mechanised guard?

[tarik_torgeddon]

I think everyone, including Wargamer, realises this needs work.

[Icer]

Look!

I'm exempt, I play Black Templar! And Witch Hunters!

And I don't have the models for the IG one!