What's a Meta?

 Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another article on getting into the miniature Wargaming hobby. Today’s article is going to touch on a topic that is divisive in the community, but it’s focused on the folks who play more heavily than the other pillars of the hobby, (Reminder, the three main pillars of the hobby are the modelers, the painters, and the gamers). Today we’re going to talk about the “Meta” and what it means to the average hobbyist and what it doesn’t mean. Buckle up, it may be bumpy.  

So, in the common usage of the miniature wargamer, the Meta is quite simple. The Meta is the ecosystem that any given playgroup is made of. That means that it simply comprises the regular players you encounter in your play group. The other common usage it has is as a barometer of relative power between factions in a wargame as viewed through the lens of how they perform in tournament environments. We’ll examine both in greater detail so, if they make little sense, that’s ok.  

The first usage of a Meta comes up with gaming clubs, stores that host games regularly, and a bunch of other social institutions that revolve around Wargaming. The “Meta” in this case is a rundown of the various players of the game, and the armies they play. It’s part census, because it tells you what armies are popular and in what quantity they show up. It’s also part interest study, because you can get a sign of how (and to a lesser extent, why) people play the armies they do.

What does this look like?  

Well, let’s say that at Bob’s Super Serious Wargames ™ there’s a regular gaming group of 12 gamers. John and Ted are the old timers in the bunch and have been playing since the game started. John is the more serious of the two of them, and plays rock hard lists that win the game. He regularly plays a finesse army, like the Eldar. Ted however plays because he enjoys the hobby and plays for the narrative fun. His army lists are usually some narratively appropriate Ork army. They’ve been playing at the store for years and are regulars at club night.

The next three gamers, Kyle, Marie, and Luisa, all started frequenting the store at the same time. Kyle, despite being a relatively nice guy, plays super competitive WAAC space marine lists, and is constantly changing which army he plays (and rarely paints his space marines). Marie and Luisa share a massive collection of Astra Militarum, and spend their time tailoring their lists to their specific style of gameplay.  

Hank, Jon Jon, and Bill picked up the game in college, and have kept with it over the years. Hank started playing Chaos Space Marines and regularly keeps up with changes in their army rules. Jon Jon (so named to differentiate him from John the elder, and much to his chagrin) plays Daemon Hunters and has been a diehard Grey Knight player and watched his army’s comparative power rise and fall over the editions. Bill has never kept an army, as he keeps changing his mind on what exactly he wants to paint, and that marks him as an army of the week player who chases his hobby dreams.  

Judy and her friend Greg are the podcast couple who regularly broadcast their games from the hobby store. Greg routinely plays a Necron army that isn’t exactly the most enjoyable thing in the universe to play against, Greg is usually a good sport about it. Judy skews the opposite way, playing a T’au army that other succeeds spectacularly or explodes, but Judy takes the game seriously, and can be a rough sport to play against.  

Then you’ve got Frank and Steve. They’re both high school kids, and Frank obsessively chases the larger national meta and plays the best army he can put together with his high school wallet. Steve scrapes by with whatever units he can get ahold of, but spends a lot of time and energy painting them.  

Now, these are just the regulars at the store, and there are another two or three dozen gamers will show up and play here, but these are the week in, week out regulars. They comprise the local meta for the store, and a new player joining the store can learn a lot about the environment just by observing the meta. How might you ask?  

Well, you have a variety of players with a variety of motivations. You also have a fairly diverse army profile, (basically, there are different armies present and you can find a variety of different armies to play against). There are a lot of unique personalities to play against (and this store seems to have avoided a “that guy”). These different players all approach the game from different perspectives and rationales for playing, and that’s a sign that this store is pretty friendly in taking in new gamers and welcoming them into the fold.  

Now, compare that to a store where the primary playgroup are ultra competitive tournament focused players who are constantly amid an arms race to beat the other players at the store. Note, there is nothing wrong with this environment, but it isn’t for everyone. Knowing that ahead of time, you may find that this isn’t the playgroup you want to be in the middle of. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the meta in your local group.  

Now the other Meta is trickier, but if you are data driven, it can be absolutely fascinating. Ever since the first folks played Wargames in tournaments, people started keeping statistics about what armies they played, how they played, etc. These give data points people that are interested in they can track that, and further, it gives you a way to critique how armies play relative to each other in a meta-critical way.

What does this mean?

Not a lot to a casual player. The meta-critical analysis examines how many of what army is being played in tournaments and what rank they end up taking. Further, this analysis can also examine what units are being fielded and in what quantities. This lets people who like to create tier lists quantify the armies (and units) that are better than others compared to their own army (and to lesser extents, other armies).  

New factions and army books will change the game over time, and you can see this as the Meta responds to mechanical changes. Point costs will adjust, they add new units to the game, and the Meta will respond. Tournament players will watch these changes for a few different reasons. The tournament player will probably focus on how changes affect their personal army and the hard counters that develop for them.  

What’s a hard counter?

Basically, if my army has one aspect of the game that it’s bad at (like my terminators being slow, or my infantry being squishy), any army that takes advantage of these aspects has a hard counter to my play style and army. As a responsible player who wants to win, I have to figure out what ways I can mitigate these counters. Players who follow the Meta can be a challenge in the local playgroup.  

However, knowing that there are people in your local playgroup who follow the Meta can be useful in keeping up with the things that are happening in the game's internal mechanics. We can make the argument that 9th edition Warhammer 40,000 is a direct evolution of the game into a tournament friendly environment, and that the errata and rules changes that follow are evolutions from the tournament meta. You may or may not agree with this opinion, but 9th edition is the most tournament friendly we’ve seen since I started playing in 2001.  

You may not care about the larger Meta, but it will have an indirect impact on the game as rules change and units get their points readjusted. Understanding your local Meta is also important because it will help you find the playgroup you want to enjoy the game with.

Ultimately, you decide how you have fun with this hobby, and finding a Meta that allows you to do so will prolong your fun and make it a more joyful experience. Nobody (well, probably nobody), wants this hobby to be a chore for other players because that increases the likelihood that people will abandon the hobby for other pursuits.  

If you want a closer look, Warhammer Community has a regular feature called Meta Watch which you can find here along with articles and features about many other topics related to Warhammer and Ages of Sigmar. We took this look at Warhammer because it’s omnipresent in the gaming world, but the same methodologies apply to other Wargames. That’s it for us today, We’ll see you later with more (Possibly giant) news and ideas. Happy Gaming.