Control: Enough!

I, Dalton Lewis, have had it. I’m done. I’m mad as anyone can be. I spent $300+ towards a new tau Warhammer 40k army. I spent a lot of my money on that army and painted about fifty models, some of them large and complex. Now I learn that my faction gets two commanders per detachment. That’s in the new rules that I wanted to learn so badly.

I have three commanders. To play at an optimal level I would need to buy three more commanders. I don’t want to. That’s 180$ or more. Then I would need to buy cyclic ion blasters as well, and that’s expensive, too. I already have 5 boxes of drones that I ordered earlier. That’s a fortune, folks. My family and I have worked too hard to give that much more money to Games Workshop. The hobby has gotten too expensive.

Chasing the meta is the problem, I think. When I play a fluff list that is fun and silly I lose in two to three turns. Everyone says that they don’t want to be competitive — but it doesn’t look like that when I look at their lists. Every list seems tailored to kill anything in two turns. I see everyone’s lists and no one wants to play casual games for fun. It’s mostly marines and chaos and brutal lists with broken units doing ridiculous turn one damage.

I want to play because I want to get smarter and because I enjoy the game. I just don’t want the game to turn into all this whiny bullshit in which certain units are too powerful and nothing will balance the game. I remember when I played in a big tournament I had three knights, which were supposed to be unkillable huge war machines, and I would lose two in one turn, and I would be like, okay, that’s fine, when’s lunch — because I would die inside when someone tabled me in two turns.

My friends and I are getting better. Sal beat an ultramarines list with his chaos list yesterday. People are figuring out how to beat the unbeatable lists. I still don’t understand how things are fundamentally unfair in life. I look around at the world and I think that some people naturally succeed, but it’s tougher for the rest of us. It’s tougher for me to compete and compete at a high level.

I worry about me and my loved ones. We’re in the middle, and that’s a shame. What do I have to do to elevate beyond the basics? My veteran friend Terry has played for years, is smart, hardworking, and a good person who stands up to all manner of bullshit in the hobby and his own life. Why doesn’t he win these grand tournaments? It’s always the same people. It’s just frustrating. Ah, well. Life just seems broken.

Thanks, and take care, friends.