In this article we’ll be taking a look at series of online courses provided by Vanguard Tactics!
Let me begin this article with a controversial statement: learning new things is pretty darn easy. Want to learn how to play music? A couple of hours following a YouTube tutorial will help you learn a few chords on a guitar. Interested in learning how to bake a cake? There are a million different websites that will give you a step-by-step instruction guide on how to do so.
Granted, the information you learn is pretty surface level and you may not remember everything from the first hours of your learning, but whenever you learn something new – whatever it is- the pace of learning is pretty quick.
In educational circles (my day job is teaching Maths and English), we sometimes refer to this as a learner’s honeymoon period: a time in which all the skills an individual learns are pretty basic and require little in the way of deeper understanding.
The problem, however, is that this period is temporary. Learning gradually requires more effort once a person encounters concepts and skills that require or combine the various ideas that came before. It’s usually at these points that learners can become frustrated and plateau (make no progress in their learning) or simply give up.
The question is, why on earth am I talking about this instead of getting stuck into the main topic of this article?
If the title of this article has piqued your interest, you’re probably either interested in or already actively engaged with the process of improving your playing ability in Warhammer 40k tabletop.
You may be motivated because you want to be competent at the game for enjoyment’s sake; you could be interested because your friends keep beating you over and over again; or you might be thinking about taking part in some tournaments and don’t want to be totally out of your depth.
While there are many reasons why you would be interested in learning how to improve your play for Warhammer 40k, there are equally varied ways to learn (tutorials on YouTube or written online guides for example).
In this article, I want to do a deep dive into a type of online resource that many may turn their nose up at: a paid online course. A course run by Vanguard Tactics.
Who are Vanguard Tactics?
Vanguard Tactics is a well-known, UK-based team within the Warhammer 40k community, who have a pretty decent record when it comes to competitive play. The group was founded in 2019 by Stephen Box, an accomplished tournament player and top-ranked Blood Angels commander. Embedded in the team’s philosophy is “winning with respect” – an ethos that encourages a high level of player skill without compromising on the enjoyment of all participants involved.
I think it’s worth noting the “winning with respect” idea that the group is keen on fostering. Higher levels of play can be a major turn-off for a lot of players due to the fact that there are a lot of emotions and negativity that can manifest throughout a single game or a series of battles. I like that Vanguard Tactics seem to be a team that avoids toxicity, and it certainly shows on their social media accounts and YouTube channel.
What is covered in the Vanguard Tactic’s Academy?
The Academy covers a wide spread of topics that will be interesting for new and experienced players alike. These topics are split into various courses and masterclasses. Here is a quick breakdown of what to expect.
- Start Playing 40k 10th Edition: With a staggering 65 lessons (covering each phase and explaining special rules/weapon special rules, etc.), this course explains absolutely everything necessary to get a new player tabletop ready.
- VT 10th Edition Academy: Described as their “flagship course”, it begins by covering core concepts and balance updates (think like the previous course but priming you for the more detailed modules that you will look at later), then moving onto the main modules of the course. There’s a lot to unpack in these modules, and we will go into detail with them later.
- Faction Masterclasses: The Masterclass series is basically a deep dive into a specific army of your choice, with modules set around the army/detachment rules, army lists and advanced strategies.
- Live Lesson Vault: The live lesson vault is a useful archive of all the online lessons that take place on the discord server that you will have access to as part of joining the academy. These lessons cover analysing army lists, Q&As with coaches, and a few other useful topics.
Why would anyone want to pay for an online course on Warhammer 40k?
This is the first question a few of my friends asked when I told them I was writing this article, and it is a very fair question. Indeed, why bother when there is a whole host of free stuff online? While there are literal libraries worth of books explaining what makes a course good from the perspective of a learner, let me break it down into 4 simple standards:
Quality:
From the information presented, to the resources, videos and handouts – quality is instantly noticeable in many cases and is foundational for a good course. Without a high standard when it comes to presenting and delivering course material, little learning can take place.
Direction:
You can have the best quality learning resources, but are they sending you in the right direction? If you were trying to learn how to play Tyranids to a high standard but were given an amazingly produced Tau video, would you feel the learning material was sending you in the right direction?
Navigation:
Navigation is especially challenging for online courses, as students don’t have a human present to direct them to the next lesson/resource. You could have 100 amazing videos that will get you to the high level of skill that you wish, but if you can’t watch them in the correct order, will they have the educational impact you wanted?
Feedback:
While learning, you’re bound to make mistakes. Feedback is what most educators use to help correct any bad habits or misunderstandings that a student has. Good feedback can drastically increase the rate a learner improves at a skill but is traditionally hard to provide on an online course (like navigation, there is an issue with a lack of human presence).
With these four standards in mind, lets have a look at some of the modules and courses on offer from the Vanguard Tactic’s Academy.
Start Playing 40K 10th Edition
As mentioned above, this course is designed to get players to a standard of understanding where they are able to play tabletop Warhammer confidently.
It’s broken down into a series of modules, where every part of the game (the various phases, and non-faction specific special rules, setting up a mission, etc.) is explained in detail.
What is good about this course?
From the perspective of a new player, the order and pacing of this course are fantastic. Each lesson is no more than 20 minutes long, with most being 10 minutes or less. They are straight to the point, give some relevant examples, and in the Phase lessons specifically, give great visual examples to help illustrate what is being discussed.
I think one of the stand-out feature of this course is the mini-games that follow each Phase lesson. Even if you don’t play the mini-games yourself, watching the coaches go through a game themselves highlights some of the nuances that are difficult to explain in an abstract conversation.
The Academy has also thought ahead when it comes to reference material. For example, remembering 9 core stratagems is pretty difficult – even for an experienced player. To help with this, the first lesson provides an aesthetically pleasing PDF that you can download and use.
What could be better?
While only a minor issue, there is one main improvement I would love to see for this course.
The lessons on Unit Special Rules and Weapon Special Rules are great because they are brief, detailed, and provide tips to further our understanding of the rules. What I would love to have seen in these videos is some visual representation of what they are talking about.
For example, in Lesson 14: Heavy, coaches Stephen and Mike talk about Special Rule Heavy for weapons. An example they bring up includes the Astra Militarum Heavy Weapons team’s weapons in comparison to the regular weapons used by the rank and file.
Now, I know this without the need for anything visual, as I’m very familiar with the rule and the units these two are talking about. But I worry that someone who is using these videos as a way to learn from scratch may struggle without some sort of data card or something equivalent on screen. That being said, the homework task for this lesson does state that the learner should find a unit in their army with this ability which will provide them that visual reference.
So that solves that issue a little, but speaking from experience, the more you expect your learners to find information for themselves, the more likely it is that they will become confused.
VT 10th Edition Academy
At the time of writing, this course has 4 out of the 15 planned modules currently available. Once the full course is out, it will cover each Phase of the game, tournament preparation and many other useful topics for players who are seeking to get more out of their tabletop experience.
Due to the large amount of content in this course, I thought it would be best to focus on one module in particular to help structure my thoughts on this course.
I also thought it would be fun to complete the module on the one thing I struggle with the most: army list writing.
What is good about this course?
As a self-proclaimed terrible army list writer, I can honestly say that the module I looked at definitely taught me a whole bunch of new things that I can’t wait to use in the future.
I very much appreciated that before teaching the “how to”, they spent a good amount of time explaining why army list writing is an important skill. It puts the course material into context, showing you why the information they will present is relevant (which in my experience is one of the best things you can do to help motivate someone to learn anything).
Secondly, the coaches explain that the module isn’t about going out and buying new models, but about making the most out of the models you already have. Seeing how army rules and detachment rules interact and inform your choice of units; looking into how characters and enhancements can help you squeeze more juice out of your faction; and looking at how concepts such as decision tree points, and the Academy’s SWOT analysis can help you make informed decisions.
Much like the beginner’s course, the pacing of these lessons feels natural, with no lessons overstaying their welcome and with a natural flow from one topic to the next. Each video starts broad before going for a deep dive into a topic and then ends with a nice summary of what was discussed.
These summaries are also helped by high-quality handouts and homework that encourage learners to take what they’ve learned and make use of it straight away.
What could be better?
Before making my next point, I do want to highlight that the use of visuals in this course is a lot better than some parts of the beginner’s course. During this module, if a specific detachment or rule is mentioned, a little text box will pop up to help remind you of what the coaches are talking about – which is such a useful visual addition.
As Stephen and Mike discuss the topics in each video, they have a Space Marine army in front of them, which they use to help contextualise what is being said, which is another major plus!
Sometimes however, the pair discuss units that are not present in the video. I appreciate that this is not a huge problem, as if you’re taking this course, you’re probably familiar with the rosters of each faction, and these guys do explain these units in enough so that even if you had never heard of the unit, you’d still be able to understand what they are talking about.
However, I do think it would give this module just that little extra if any unit discussed was visually represented in some way just to help provide that crucial context for those watching.
Faction Masterclasses
I understand that the VT 10th Edition Academy course is what gets a lot of people interested in the Academy as a whole, but the Masterclasses were what piqued my interest the most.
I was given access to the Space Marine masterclass, in which I was presented with modules on the Army Rule, how to muster an army and (the most exciting part of this course) a deep dive into every detachment and sub-faction that the Space Marines have to offer.
What was good about this course?
I suppose this is probably a good point to say that as part of my role here at Age of Miniatures, I was given access to these courses for free. I just wanted to make that clear since I’m about to speak very positively about this course in particular, and I don’t want any accusations of “you’re saying nice things because Vanguard Tactics are paying you money.”
I am paid to write my honest opinion, and as seen above, I will say positive and critical things as and when I need to.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I just want to express how absolutely impressed I am with these masterclasses! Each detachment has a consistent format for how the module is structured; discussing game theory about detachment rules and advanced strategies; example lists and visual examples of deployments/first turns – it is amazingly good quality.
I took the full module on the Anvil Siege Force (the Imperial Fists style detachment) as I know many of my friends don’t like it very much and I was interested in what the Academy had to say about it.
I can honestly say it was one of the most informative evenings learning about Warhammer 40k tabletop that I’ve had in quite some time. It had all the excellent pacing and detailed discussion present like the courses we discussed above, but all the visual elements and examples were fantastic. Based on this module, I’m planning out an army list (which I can now do much better thanks to the army list writing module I took earlier!) for an Anvil Siege Force for my next army.
While I can’t comment about the quality of the masterclasses for other faction in the Academy, I’m sure that if all of them are at the same standard as the Space Marines, you’ll certainly learn a heap of useful info about your current and future armies.
What could be better?
The only thing I think that is missing from these masterclasses is an example game for each of the detachments/sub-factions. I know it’s a big ask as games take a long time to play, record and edit, but it would have been fantastic to see a coach go through a game to help add further context to the army list, strategies and Detachment Rules.
Watching a battle from start to finish would also be incredibly useful to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a detachment while giving the coaches the chance to talk about some of the more situational aspects of an army due to the choice of mission or terrain layout.
Live Lesson Vault
The Academy offers a lot of support on their Discord server, that you can access after signing up on the course. It’s a pretty useful resource that allows you to discuss topics and ask questions with coaches and other students on the course.
On this Discord the Academy hosts group sessions where people can talk in a live chat about whatever topic a coach is discussing that day.
For full transparency, I want to make it clear that I did not engage with the discord side of the Academy much as I wanted to focus more on what was available on the Vanguard Tactics website itself (also I’m very shy and talking to strangers on the internet has never been my forte).
However, if you’re like me and want to avoid all forms of social interaction, there is a vault in which all these sessions are recorded and then uploaded.
I’m not going to review these video as harshly as those in the other courses because they are a different type of video. Unlike the smooth and structured videos of the main courses, these are a little more relaxed and homemade (I can’t think of a proper term for this. Like a zoom meeting? A vlog recorded in the style of a YouTube video from the early 2010s?).
As such, the videos are longer than they probably need to be, but I would highly recommend the List Analysis series as they feature students presenting their army lists to be reviewed by coaches, which is an incredible way to get into the mindset of these more experienced players.
Is it worth your time and money?
Before answering this final section’s burning question, let’s look at the pricing.
The beginner’s course is $46, and the masterclass is normally $30 a month (though the first month is $15) if you want access to all the masterclasses or $46 for each individual faction which, again, the first you purchase is half price.
For the 10th Edition Academy, however, their website doesn’t go into detail about costing, and there is also a waiting list to even get in on the course. While I’m not sure why this is the case (I do feel a little uneasy at the lack of advertising for the price), I’ll run off the assumption that this course is priced either similarly to the beginners course, or the masterclass (having a choice between purchasing individual modules or paying monthly as a subscription).
Taking part in a hobby that sells small amounts of plastic for high sums of money, these prices don’t seem too bad at first. In Vanguard Tactics own marketing, they state that their courses are cheaper than a box of Warhammer after all!
But ultimately, the feeling of value from the above prices will be determined by the individual and their motivations going in.
After all, someone who plays once every few months exclusively with friends for fun may not find that the asking price is suitable for what’s on offer.
For me, however, I’m pretty happy with what you get vs what you pay. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, quality, direction, navigation and feedback are all important parts of a learning experience, and I think Vanguard Tactics covers all those sections to a high standard in multiple ways.
I got a lot out of my time because I’m heavily invested in Warhammer 40k and can make use of what I have learned regularly as I play with my friends and through my writing here on Age of Miniatures. I see how each lesson and handout can help me get to grips with the game better and it does make me more excited to play tabletop.
So, if you’re of a similar mindset to me, then yes, these courses are certainly worth your time and money!
If this article has grabbed your interested and you fancy giving the Academy a try, go have a look at the starter course here or the accelerator course here! Use the code AGEOFMINIS for 10% off!