Comments/suggestions on my 1k Kabal list

Greetings fellow Commorrites.

Recently I played a 1k pt game against a friend's CSM list. I don't remember exactly what he had, but it was something along the lines of:

-5 1000 sons
-5 chaos space marines
-2 squads of 3 terminators
-aspiring champion
-aspiring sorcerer
-a demon prince
-some big demon that he had to sack his champion to bring out
-a dreadnought.

Forgive my memory lapse on the enemy units/quantities as I am still fairly new to the game. The major point I'd like to make with his list is that it was all infantry with some big demons and a dreadnought. No tanks or defilers in sight.

Now onto my list (again forgive my imperfect memory if I miss something as I'm writing this on my break at school so I don't have my list in front of me):

-Archon w/Blaster, Venom Blade and I think Ghostplate Armor
-3 Squads of 5 Kabbalite Warriors in a Venom with Splinter Cannons; Night Shields on all Venoms
-4 Trueborn with Blasters in a Venom with Splinter Cannons (Archon went here)
-3 Ravagers w/Flickerfield

I designed the list to take out infantry with the warriors, but also be able to handle vehicles since poison shots can't even damage vehicles. Our game went extremely well for me since he didn't bring any vehicles other than the Dreadnought. My lances tore up the Dreadnought by turn 2, leaving only infantry left to mop up with my tank busting lances and blasters. I brought multiple Ravagers because I assumed that below average AV, open-topped vehicles wouldn't be that hard to put down. It also helped that his demon prince, the demon he had to sack his champion for, and both terminator squads were in reserve, leaving me time to take out most of his force before they arrived. As I told him, it was pretty much a best case scenario for me.

My question to the forum is: Was my list power gaming, as it was later called by some of the other local CSM players, or was it just a best case/worse case scenario match up?

I'm honestly not sure at this point, and I don't want my friend to feel like I'm cheesing him. I designed the list so that I'd be able to handle a little bit of everything (though I'm screwed if anyone gets in to assault me >_<), but is it too much? Should I revise my list, or should he revise his? Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm never quite sure how to answer these for people, let's consider a few things.

1. When I first looked at your list I saw a couple of ways to make it far superior.

2. When I first saw his list I thought 'man, what a wussy list'.

Do i think your list is super-hyper competitive? No, not at all, your list has a couple of gaping holes and I could easily make it better. But his list was way less competitive than yours. So now we get to the core of the issue;

Cheesy is what is said when Player A's list is more competitive than Player B's list - no list is cheesy in a vacuum, it is only cheesy compared to other lists.

So, understanding that I see a couple of thoughts that immediately spring to mind;

Is his list considered 'competitive' where you play? If the answer is yes then - yes, your list is cheesy insomuch as it is waaay beyond the competitive level of his list and, consequently, all the lists at that shop. If the answer is no then - why did he bring such a wimpy list? If you guys agreed to play a super friendly game there was probably some miscommunication between the two of you as to what is/isn't fun gaming.

You have a few solutions;

1. Bring a less competitive list so his list will be more viable versus it.

2. Discuss with him the holes in his list, and help him build it towards the same level of competitiveness your list is.

3. Become a better communicator. When the two of you are going to get together to game ask him how competitive he wants it. If the two of you always disagree on what types of games to play then you probably need to find some new opponents or learn to work out a equitable middle ground.

My thoughts,
Thor.

+1 to what thor said, but let me add on.

You have to take the opponent into consideration when you choose what type of list to bring. In my gaming eviroment, most of my opponents are either A: Old tourny players, B: Current tourny players, or C: People that play both A and B constantly. Surfice to say we all have very fine tuned lists to compete in such a heavy competitve eviroment. Bu there are a few that either A: Dont have the cash to drop on 10 transports, or B: Dont really care and just come in for fun. When you play those types of people, bringing your netlist or as like to call them "Finely tuned by a billion people" list will just recieve jives of the "cheese" variety.

As such I find the best way is to help them learn from their mistakes, as even a new player can teach an older dog new tricks. If they arent interested in building a better list, then I personally would find a new place to play. Playing the way you want to play is part of the fun in this game, and if you are stuck having to force yourself to play another style all the time, its just not fun.

I'm going to try and help him improve his list. Thank you both for the advice!