Being a generalist in a specialists world

I tend to find by self drawn to the jobbers in any given army. For IG I love the grunts, Ork's the boyz, Cygnar the trenchers and so on and so forth. I have noticed that many times these generalists tend to be glossed over more often than not, as they are over shadowed by a unit that specializes in one thing. Often this seems to transpire for many reasons; specialists have a clearly defined roll,some systems charge more for the ability to do many things alright as opposed to one thing well, and they tend to get taken out if they try to play someone elses game.

With so many cards stacked against them, why would anyone in their right (OK maybe this doesn't describe me) mind want to play generalists? I have personally found their flexibility to out weigh their "limitations". In Warmachine, I love me some trenchers. Are they going to crush my enemies while I listen to their women lament... probably not. However, on any given turn I can:
* have a guy pop smoke
* shoot someone
* assault to get 2 attacks on the charge
* assault to extend their ranged threat range.
* fire off AoE's in hopes of a good scatter
* dig in to help them against enemy shooting and blast damage.
* dig in to remove them as a LoS blocker
* advance dig in and make a combat action
* CRA to put some hurt on a larger target

With the exception of the 2 orders (assault and cautious advance), I will often do some random combination of all of that when I have the trencher module going. Admittedly this works better in Warmachine than in 40K, given the way that unit activations work. But for the most part, generalists in my experience can try and play the counter point to the strategy on the other side of the table, or do their own thing.

Rooting for the Underdog

How competitive is competitive? I tend to be a bit frustrated with the forums these days as there are a few very vocal members of the world who instantly and loudly let the opinion be known when someone is playing a "sub-par model" (or over priced or crappy or anything but playable). I started Warmachine in 2008, when my buddy started Skorne. We both chose army's based solely on the way they looked. At the time nothing in Hordes really called out to me, and I started poking around in the magic land of Warmachine. I was quickly drawn to teleporting gunslingers and the trenchers (come on how can you hate anyone who's nick name is the Gravediggers).

Fast forward a couple of years and some fortunate turns of events, and I started expanding into merc's to diversify the scene my LGS a bit. In all that time I continue to be drawn to playing the models I find the coolest more than the most competitive. I will be the first to admit that I may not be the "Man to beat" at the gaming store, but I seldom have trouble finding a game, and at least in my opinion I tend to give as good as I get. That being said, I have gotten millage out of models often overlooked by Cygnar players (most notably Trencher Infantry) and find it tragic that people shut things down so quickly.

To kind of riff of my earlier posts, The Book of Five rings has a couple of ideas that I think can apply to playing with some of these less desirable models.

1. Keep your foe off balance. For all the cry's that half the world has hunter and sprays, I have not met a single list designed to counter dig-in, and unless pigs and trenchers take over the world you are not going to. I also am a big fan of what I think of as the trencher shuffle. They can do so many things well that I often find myself changing gears at random and going in a different direction with them then what my opponent expects.
2. Don't deny yourself a weapon. Musashi was all about having a sword in both hands and using them both to overwhelm one's opponent. Trenchers may not be the sharpest sword for any one thing, but damn are they pretty good at most of them. Assault in and of itself means they make 2 attacks on the charge. Once you add in snipers, grenades, the ability to move dig-in and shoot their abilities (in my bizzaro land of playing under powered units) start to shine. Add it the fact that with a bit of support (from casters and other solo's), the things they used to be pretty good rapidly start becoming really good.
3. Practice with the tools you have. You are not going to get the most out of anything you don't play the hell out of. When you can do 8 different things at the same time, knowing the when and where to do them becomes critical. Trenchers are prime example of this. When I was playing them more often (have switched mainly to Highborn, which doesn't let you take them), on any given turn I might:
1. Push one grenade porter forward to fire an aoe
2. Have a couple of guys pop smoke to block Line of Sight to stuff behind them
3. Have a couple CRA (Combine Ranged Attack) to pick off a model that got to close
4. Dig one or two to clear LoS

I suppose I have rambled about Trenchers enough. The moral of the story is if you like something play with it, figure it out, and use that to put up the best fight you can. I would try to listen to more to the people who try and make the best of things when you ask for help making things work, and less to the people who say it is not worth playing out of hand, and refuse to think out of the "competitive" box.