Aesthetics of Sampler Box armies vs. Spam armies

[sketchesofpayne]

Now I'll be the first to admit that from a balance, fun, gameplay aspect "spamming" units (which seems to be defined as 'more than two') is a negative thing. However, from an aesthetic point of view I dislike the chocolate 'sampler box' style army lists. The ones where no two units are alike.

To me these lists are like an army consisting of 1 blackhawk, 1 apache, 1 abrahms tank, 1 infanty squad in a hummer, 1 infantry squad on foot, 1 infantry squad in an APC, 1 howitzer, 1 mortar team. You'd never see a force like this in the field. Units tend to use the same equipment and vehicles for repair and resupply purposes if nothing else.

Now I field armies some would call 'spam-tatstic' but for me they have an [URL="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aesthetic"]aesthetically[/URL] balanced feel. A kind of [URL="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feng shui"]feng-shui[/URL] that may be unique only to me. For example:

3 tactical squads in rhinos
3 dreadnoughts in drop pods
3 landspeeder typhoons
1 terminator squad with terminator librarian

or

3 tactical squads in rhinos
2 land raider redeemers
2 assault terminator squads with terminator chaplain

or

Pedro Kantor and Librarian
3 sternguard squads (two 9-man and one 10-man) in drop pods
2 sniper scout squads
2 devastator squads in drop pods

or

1 commisar lord
4 veteran guard squads
3 armored sentinels with plasma cannons
3 scout sentinels with autocannons
2 standard leman russ tanks
1 leman russ executioner

Even if you don't agree with me, can you see what I'm saying?

[Tuatara]

I can see what you're saying. "Spamming" units is a bit of a odd thing to call it really. You put forward the most suited force to win your battle. Equally, going for an army that looks great aesthetically, but is not effective is also a little odd.

An army that looks aesthetically pleasing is always nice, but it is secondary to effectiveness.

[Commissar Lewis]

I can see what you are saying, man. A "spam list" does look more cohesive.

But then again, a rag-tag, sampler-box army has that underdog vibe going for it. In that army, you just put on Eye of the Tiger and face impossible odds, Rocky-style.

[lobster-overlord]

I personally think that "spamming" is more of when you ahve the same army of cheese over and over and over again. A tweaked out IG with lots of melta, and then the next table has it as well.... I would consider one army of over used units as cheese, and two armies or more of the same in teh same tourney would then be spam.

[Lerra]

I think it depends a bit on the army. With some armies, it makes sense to have a hodge-podge of units ("These are the only survivors of the planetary defense force").

[Sharp]

For certain types of units duplicating is too overpowered to be fun to play against for some people.

It's fairly simple.

[Warptiger]

Nothing wrong with spam, it makes more tactical sense.

It increases your odds of achieving whatever plan you have for the battle. One off units are fun, but it sucks when you roll badly and miss/fail/etc and have nothing else left to achieve your goals. It'd be like fielding an army where you have a single lascannon in the whole army, and if you miss, whoops, that's that. Try blowing up that tank next turn. Multiple copies of the same unit give you extra chances.


But nothing says you have to make every unit look identical. You could model two units with identical codex descriptions to look completely different, even though they'd play exactly the same. I play chaos mostly, so I'm absolutely spoiled: I can customize and convert them however I feel. But, you can do the same thing in other armies as well. Imperial guard armies could have squads drawn from totally different worlds, who have totally different gear (kind of like 2nd and 3rd edition guard armies you saw in white dwarf, where you'd see tallarn raider and mordian guard in the same army). Orks used to have multiple clans, and you'd frequently see 3-4 clans in the same army... each clan fulfilling different roles.

If you plan it out, you can have a spam army where every unit looks unique... even though on paper those unique looking squads are identical.

[Melissia]

Why should I try and make every single infantry squad unique?

Or, for that matter, every single one of my 120 Boyz?

Hell, for that matter four different Sisters squads use the exact same models anyway, with only Seraphim and Repentia using unique models-- and the latter are both ugly AND useless tactically.

[mysterex]

The problem I have with a lot of ork lists is that they are supposed to be "mobs" but the list often contains identically sized units like it's some sort of regular army.

It would take very little to make them more fluffy simply by randomising the unit sizes.

[Melissia]

The problem I have with THAT is that it messes up one's army list by making it obnoxious to deal with points ...

Also, I LIKE 30-Ork units... and if you're going mech, 12 is the largest you can get anyway...