HERO's Gaming Blog

More squeeky rat stuff

2012-02-02T00:25:00.000-08:00

So after my friend kindly gifted me 4 Skaven IoB sets, I decided to place the order for the rest of the stuff. Looks like I'll be quiet for the next couple of weeks or so since I'll be busy building all my rats. I figured I'll do rats first and then Ogres.

Anyways, here's the army now. I dropped the Stormvermin and took Plague Monks instead. I like Clan Pestilens stuff more anyways. The Doomwheels because I think they're funny and double Warp Lightning Cannons because I can. I have no idea why I took the Bell other than it looks really cool, but I have no idea how they're going to preform on the battlefield.

Anyone know where to get cheap rats for Giant Rat bases? There's no way I'm going to buy those ridiculous GW ones. Here's the list:

2498
12 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Grey Seer (Condenser) = 260
Lore of Ruin
+Screaming Bell = 200

HEROES:
Chieftain (BSB, Shield) = 72
Warlock Engineer (Brass Orb) = 65
Warlock Engineer (Doomrocket) = 45
Lv.1 Plague Priest (Flail, Scroll) = 129
+Plague Furnace = 150

CORE:
40x Clanrats (FC) = 200
+Poison Wind Mortar = 65
36x Clanrats (FC) = 182
+Poison Wind Mortar = 65
50x Skavenslaves (Musician) = 102
50x Skavenslaves (Musician) = 102
6x Giant Rats (Handler) = 23
6x Giant Rats (Handler) = 23

SPECIAL:
40x Plague Monks (FC, Plague Banner) = 335

RARE:
Doomwheel = 150
Doomwheel = 150
Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
Warp Lightning Cannon = 90

What the hell! Skaven!

2012-01-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

This must be some crazy shit, but I just involved in Skaven too!

My friend gave me a whole bunch of unassembled Skaven stuff and that's enough for me to really get started on the army. A few bucks here and there and I should have a huge army. That's pretty good considering I didn't spend anything on the Ogres. My only problem is.. I have limited amounts of experience with and against the rats. I've been developing a list lately and it looks something like this.

Keep in mind that I have rules!

The first rule is that I wanna take Queek Headtaker because I like his fluff and his rules.
I will not be using the Hell Pit Abomination. I hate the model, hate the rules and I don't want to hear people bitch.
Out of all the clans, I think I like Clan Pestilens the most. Hence why I have some of the Poison Wind stuff.

Here's the list:

2500
14 drops

LORDS:
Queek Headtaker = 215
Lv.4 Grey Seer (Scroll) = 265
Lore of Ruin

HEROES:
Chieftain (BSB, Shield) = 72
Warlock Engineer (Brass Orb) = 65
Warlock Engineer (Doomrocket) = 45
Lv.1 Warlock Engineer (Condenser) = 85
Lore of Ruin

CORE:
35x Super Stormvermin (FC, Razor Standard) = 455
35x Clanrats (FC) = 242.5
+Poison Wind Mortar
35x Clanrats (FC) = 242.5
+Poison Wind Mortar
40x Skavenslaves (Musician) = 82
40x Skavenslaves (Musician) = 82
6x Giant Rats (Handler) = 23
6x Giant Rats (Handler) = 23
6x Giant Rats (Handler) = 23

RARE:
Doomwheel = 150
Doomwheel = 150
Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
Warp Lightning Cannon = 90
Plagueclaw Catapult = 100

My biggest problem is that I don't know what's acceptable as core and what formation the units will be in. I know how to do elite and expensive armies, but an entire made of random fodder is new to me. I mean, look at how many models this is! It's insane..

The Super Stormvermin is upgraded with Queek's benefits. WS5, S5 with Halberds and Razor Standard is pretty insane for damage. Right now, I'm thinking about putting them in 7x5 formation. Does this work? Or should I spend the points to get a bigger unit in general and put them in Horde formation?

What about the rest of the core? Clanrats should be 5x7 deep and Skavenslaves is 5x8. How does that look? The Rat Darts are there for deployment reasons and the rare slot is filled with all kinds of crazy contraptions. Doomwheels do good amounts of damage once they start blasting into combat and I've seen Warp Lightning Cannons do crazy stuff. The Plagueclaw is there to drop Large Templates (great vs. Warriors of Chaos!) with no armor saves and the rest of stuff is pretty self-explanatory.

Thoughts? It looks pretty solid to me but I'd like to know your opinions.

PS - I must be crazy to take this army with so many projects already.. but the price was just too good to pass up on.

Are we playing the same game?

2012-01-28T23:50:00.000-08:00

ETC in a nutshell.

It's been a while since I've played Warhammer Fantasy and I've recently kicked it up a notch. I've had High Elves since 7th and have played loads of games since then. When 8th came out, I played loads of games in the beginning, but ended up playing more of 40K because of the armies, time and enjoyment factor.

However, there's just one little thing that's been bothering me. Alright, it's not very little and it actually raises a huge eyebrow for me and that's ETC. First, the whole concept of ETC is to promote balanced play (in some people's opinion). Taking a closer look at the rules and restrictions, I can't help but ask myself: Isn't this just houserules? I see the same kind of shit in my local league here. The fact is: I'm willing to bet that 95% of the world that plays Warhammer doesn't play with these rules. The tournaments in my area consists of two conditions: No special characters, or no restrictions at all. Many places I've played in the past had the same conditions. I asked about ETC to a couple of older veterans of the game in my LGS and no one cared for it at all (some didn't even know what it was). I mean, for fuck sakes, the thing is called EUROPEAN Team Championship. Why the fuck should I even care?

I can't help but wonder: Are we playing the same Warhammer? This is probably one of the biggest problems I have with sites like Ulthuan.net. It's like Book of Hoeth doesn't even exist. It's probably the reason why threads like this turn into this in a couple of weeks. Nice Euro advice dude. Run more Silver Helm buses.

PS - I realize I lit the fire, and that's perfectly fine with me.

You are what you play?

2012-01-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not really running any experiments, but I'm just really curious what everyone thinks about this. Do your personality resemble the personality of your army? If so, what facet?

I'm just curious because I've noticed the following things on the following forums... and please don't kill me if you take this personally because it's just a surface observation. It should be taken very generally.

On the Lizardman forums (Pyramid Vault and Lustria Online), I've noticed that the discussions that people have are of higher-leveling thinking.. always mathhammering in nature and methodical in arguments.

The Ogre forum.. Ogre Stronghold, has a strong hint of Might is Right, a Just do it! attitude. I get an overall sense that players just want to push models forward and bash things, and encourage others to do the same.

Dark Elves from Druchii on the other hand, are not as emo as the High Elves on Ulthuan.net. I thought this to be the other way around but the High Elf players tend to be a lot softer in comp and outright hate their tools of power (Book of Hoeth). The Dark Elves, on the other hand, have no problem preaching about the Hydra, Stubborn Lord, Sac Dagger, the Cauldron or Wych hordes. Personally, I'd say I fit under the black sheep, dark secret of High Elf players. I favor power and I despise the weak.

The Wood Elves on Asari.org and the Bretonnians on Roundtable has seen better times. However, this doesn't stop them from trying.. and that't always a good sight to see. Despite the whine threads every now and then and the endless wishlisting (rightly deserved!), both these forums work hard to deliver wins as notably weaker armies. I think this is an inspiration.

Lastly, we have Carpe Noctem, the last racial forum that I frequent. As VC players, they're a tenacious bunch. They realize that playing with the same GGstar + Drakenhoff has given them a bad name over the years and they're working hard on digging themselves out of the grave. I think it's great to see the community working together and providing feedback on optimal playstyles and lists. I would say that there's an increased number of Heavy Metal and goth-loving people on that server (just looking at avatars and various band iconography).

What do you think guys? Isn't this an interesting observation? And yes lol, I have been to all these forums and interacted with the community.

PS - Would you guys like it if I did podcasts for army book reviews instead of actually writing it out?

BR: 2500pts HE vs. VC

2012-01-25T00:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, this is my first game vs. the new Vampire Counts with my High Elves so I'm really excited to report the game. I literally just finished playing and I'm pretty tired, but I had to get this BR down before I forget too much stuff. Throughout the game, I managed to snag a few pictures, but nothing too crazy because we were just having a great time. I played against my friend Lucas and he's always a good sport.

Before the game began, I gave my opponent a choice between a competitive list and a casual list. He went with the casual and I took the following:

Lv.4 Archmage, Silver Wand, Robe, Talisman of Saphery, Lore of Shadow
Noble, BSB, GW, AoC, Dawnstone
Lv.1 Mage, Sigil, High Magic
40x Spears in FC w/ Lion Standard
2x 10x Archers
20x Phoenix Guard, FC with Banner of Sorcery
24x White Lions, FC with Banner of Eternal Flame
12x Sword Masters
5x Dragon Princes
2x Great Eagles

I guess I also owe it to some folks over at Ulthuan.net for wanting to see some BRs that feature non-book lists, so here you have it. I literally took out my case, and decided to take a little bit of everything. Overall, I was pretty happy about the list.

I didn't get the full list from my opponent, but here's what he had:

Lv.4 Vampire Lord, caster stuff
Lv.1 Beast Vampire
Wight King BSB w/ Black Knights
A unit of Black Knights
A unit of Vargheists
A big block of Crypt Horrors
A big block of Skeletons (Bunker)
A smaller unit of Ghouls
A larger unit of Ghouls
A Corpse Cart

We played on a map that's pretty straight forward. I had 10 drops total and I managed to outdeploy him in some critical spots. The biggest one is probably the White Lions vs. his Crypt Horrors and the Dragon Princes on his far flank while the rest of his army stayed together.

I'll post some pictures and talk at the same time.. hopefully it all makes sense. Keep in mind some pictures are missing because we were having a ball!

The game starts off with him going first. He pushes models up and the Crypt Horrors are really aggressive. The Mortis Engine gives them 4+ Regen so he's relying on them to really put some damage down. Things move up but not too aggressively because he doesn't want to face the full might of the Elves! Just kidding, his Vargheists gets really aggressive and he flies them hard at my Archers. He throws big on an army-wide Van Hels and I Sigil it, failing to remove it.
My first turn looked something like this:

The Eagles do what they do best and redirect. Red Eagle flies up and shows his flank to the Crypt Ghouls, taunting them to charge and clip the Eagle for a triple front, flank and rear charge from my DP, PG, WL and he knows he doesn't want that. Blue Eagle flies and chills by the Vargheists so they Frenzy test for the Eagle, which then I'll naturally flee and they'll happily go into Sword Masters with a bad roll. Doesn't matter, my units move and angle and doesn't do too much but anticipate his next moves. Magic sees a few spells thrown around but nothing goes through. Shooting sees the Archers down 1 Varighest and put 2 wounds on another. Nice.
My pictures keep turning upside because Blogger's ass so I'll pass on this next picture. Either way, it doesn't matter. Last turn during shooting, he pulls the Vargheist that can see the Eagle because he doesn't want to be redirected. Unfortunately, he fails to restrain and the Varhgiests go into the Sword Masters anyway. They chop them up to bits and reforms to face the Crypt Ghouls. The Black Knights charge the Red Eagle and from a horrible display of martial skill, fails to kill the Eagle. Instead, he does 2 wounds to it and I fly away. He restrains because he's afraid of getting trapped and die. I let Curse of Years through on my White Lions because he rolls high on his winds. This turn gets a little ridiculous because he IFs Winds of Undeath on my Spearmen unit and I'm sweating beads, but he fails horribly at rolling, misfires with the template and places it on his own unit of Skeletons. To make matters worse, he rolls a 11 on the chart (2 miscast rolls, I make him pick this) which sees him lose 3 whole wizard levels and every spell except for IoN. He loses a whole bunch of Skeletons and we laugh like huge nerds.
Next turn looks something like this:

The White Lions go into the Crypt Horrors, the Dragon Princes and Phoenix Guard go into the Black Knights and the Eagle rallies. The Blue Eagle flies towards the Ghouls to be annoying, showing his flank and forcing him to redirect for my Sword Masters. Magic sees the winds heavily go in my favor and I'm liking what I see. Cool, I thought, time to cast a lot of spells! He dispels Withering on the Knights and watches me IF Enfeeble on his Crypt Horrors, making them S2 for the round. I put a small template on myself and lose 3 dice, and kill 8 White Lions. We laugh again like huge nerds. It's pretty sad, I'm pretty sad because I really needed them to be there later. Anyways, I use the rest of my dice to dispel Curse of Years and we enter combat since shooting did squat. The Dragon Princes swing with a crap ton of attacks, hits with a lot and wound with few. The Phoenix Guard had the same exact problem.. so this combined charge didn't go as well as I hoped. He still loses combat narrowly and pulls a few knights in response. Undead is Unbreakable so I'm forced to hang out. The White Lions, however, go buck shit crazy on the Crypt Horrors and I challenge with my Archmage. His Champ accepts, does no damage to me and I stop some of his damage. I did an insane amount of wounds and force a crap ton of additional wounds, but he hangs in there with his Champ that has 1 wound left. Just a little more and I would of overran into his Mortis Engine.
The next couple of turns turn pretty funny. I don't have pictures because it's really funny, but what happened here was his Black Knights started to res up because of good magic winds rolls and the Peripat his Lord carried. I didn't want his Knights to get to full, so I let the Signature Beast spell go off on the Black Knights. I try to dispel IoN and fails horribly so he gets a few models back. Charges see the Mortis Engine enter combat and impact hits kills a few more Lions. Now that the Corpse Cart is nearby and IoN went through, all the units within 6" of it gains ASF. Well, that kinda sucks because it takes away from my White Lion's killing ability, and it proves to be the case when the Mortis Engine single-handily ties combat with the White Lion's BSB unit as I roll poorly to wound it (only 2 wounds). The Black Knight unit, now with +1S +1T beings to kill the Phoenix Guard and I'm not liking where this combat is going. I swing back, kill just a couple and we tie combat again. His turn also sees the Blue Eagle charged and ran off the board, but in doing so left his rear opened for my Sword Masters to enter.
I don't have pictures of the next couple of turns, but it basically stays all up in the middle. I charge my Sword Masters in from behind and shit gets real. A couple of Sword Masters die (I think 3), but he loses combat by something like 12. Yeah.. time to pull models. If my Archers would of made it into combat (both failed charge), I would have wiped the unit out in 1 round I think. Magic goes poorly again as he manages to scroll my Mindrazor on the Dragon Princes and throws everything else at my Withering. God damnit, those Black Knights are killing me. My Red Eagle charges the Mortis Engine and combat sees a ton of hits in my favor and S6 was enough to drop the Mortis Engine. It blows up and kills a bunch of units all around the center. I think in total it drops 2x Phoenix Guard, 1x Lion and 3x Spears on my side. It also drops a bunch of weenies on his side but he doesn't care. Anyways, the Eagle overruns an amazing 2 inches (which is kinda good because it helps block his Lord's unit from charging my White Lions), and I restrain with my White Lions. Combat with the Black Knights turn south and my Dragon Princes are cut down to 1 guy (who flees like a coward) and the Phoenix Guard flee as well. He reforms to face the flank of my White Lions.
I have a good picture of the last turn:

You see that large template centered over his Lord? That's what happens when you miscast on 5-dice of IoN and roll Dimensional Cascade. To make matters worse, his Lord gets sucked into the void and 17 Skeletons eat massive shit. The Eagle also eats shit but it's hysterical to see that go off in this crazy game. The Black Knights charge the flank of my White Lions and I make way with the Archmage and the BSB. I know he's looking for KB on my BSB, but I swing into the unit and kill 2 of them. The AM challenges and the Wight King accepts (oops, bad choice) and I save a good amount of wounds. I get lucky and there was no KBs to be had, but I managed to take a wound on the BSB. Regardless, the crumble kicks into effect and the Black Knights gets hit hard with boxcars, the Corpse Cart dies horribly and the rest of the units start dying off slowly. His remaining unit of Ghouls suicide charge into my 40x Spear unit in hopes of snagging the Lv.1 for points. My White Lions lose combat but they're Stubborn and don't care. The Spear unit also wins combat and that's pretty much it.
Next turn just sees the Spear unit and Sword Master unit combo charge the remaining Skeleton bunker. The White Lions, augmented by magic and the Black Knights hexed to death dies horribly. Victory goes the the Asur!

We talk about the game after about some of the tactical mistakes he made during the game. The Eagles were certainly a huge pain to deal with, but I think he could of played his Vargheists better. I'm not entirely convinced on a caster lord, but he was doing it to save points so he can put more in the rest of his army. Crypt Horrors just get dominated by White Lions w/ some magic support and he's definitely more aware of the Challenging Archmage now. The Mortis Engine gave him a pretty strong magic phase with the +2 to cast, but miscasts can still happen and they're a lot more brutal with the engine around. At the end of the night, we were just having a great time. Thanks for the game Lucas!

Some observations on VC gameplay

2012-01-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

So after a few games of playing with the new VC, I have some notes to share with you guys:

A Lv.4 is really important in the army because of magic dominance. You really need a strong magic phase to keep your units in good number. Grave Guard are still amazing with GWs, it's just they're a lot more fragile than last edition.
Supporting casters are a must have too. The 6" bubble for rank 1 IoN is a great way to raise bunkers and keep units alive when they're next to you. 2 dice is a good chuck for a Lv.1 caster.
Ethereal re-directors are decent, not the best. The reason why is because of the 12" bubble and clunky bases giving you a harder time.
Speaking of the 12" bubble, this is my biggest observation. It keeps your entire army bunched up and close together and leaves very little choices on army composition. A large core block of Skeletons is the right way to go (I've tried 60 and 2x 30) and the larger block allows you to anchor on one side of your flank entirely. The 12" march bubble is very important in 2 respects:

It makes cavalry-based armies a little less attractive. You want movement, you desire movement, but leaving your army behind you while you seek glory is just troublesome. Foot Lords are probably better because you want to be in the center of your army. Cavalry Lords are bad unless your entire army can keep up with you (an entire cav army or flying Vargheists).
Overruns and pursues can be bad for your Lord's unit. Say you win combat by a lot and roll really high to pursue or overrun. Unless your units are in position to charge or counter-charge next turn, their movement gets hampered a lot. You can't march unless you're within 12" and you can't rely 100% on Van Hels to get your shit where it needs to be.
If you plan on taking Black Knights, they should probably hang out behind your main forces or something so you can VHD them around the side so they can supporting charge next turn.

Big blocks of Skeletons are pretty win. My Ghouls have done pretty well in games, but I found Skeletons to be the core unit for price vs. effectiveness. You just lock something down hard and that's always good.
The biggest winners I've seen on various forums, battle reports and personal experience is the Mortis Engine, Crypt Horrors and Vargheists. The Mortis Engine just lets you cast with +2 to all things and it's just ridiculous. When a Lv.1 casts like a Lv.3, there's a good chance you'll get a lot more spells off. With IoN needed to sustain your army's model count by the time you move across the battlefield, I would definitely recommend the Mortis Engine. The funny thing is that Crypt Horrors are also really amazing. T5 with 4+ Regen because of the Mortis Engine really holds the line when you need them too. And Vargheists, flying Frenzy Monstrous Infantry is just really good. Good WS, high S, good I, flying, a lot of attacks, it's all good. T4 with no armor saves might seem like liability, but it's mother fing ridiculous vs. armies that don't have a lot of shooting or magic missiles. They just fly over most re-directors and hit things on the flank. Bam, dead units everywhere.
So in summary, let's recap what I think is good:

Big units of core to hold flanks (Skellies!)
Ethereal misdirectors are clunky with the 12" bubble
The 12" bubble really hinders movement and keeps your army tight
Mortis Engine, Crypt Horrors, Vargheists and GG w/ Great Weapons (yes, they're still amazing) are the way to go.

PS - And this is probably pretty random.. but I managed to get my hands on a Ogres army for really cheap. Guess I'll have Ogres on top of VC soon!

PPS - Hellheart vs. Vampires when they have a Mortis Engine just ruins their undead lives. Roll twice on the Miscast chart and you pick the result. Terrible.

PPPS - I have a game as High Elves vs. the new VC tonight! BR will come soon :)

More VC army construction

2012-01-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

UPDATED: 1-19-12

I'm still working on the finer points of designing a solid VC army and I'd like to take you guys on a guided tour on how I reach certain decisions. Hopefully, this short article will help you guys in your army building stages as well.

First, I'll talk about my lord choices:

Vampire Lord = 433
Lore of Vampires
Red Fury, Quickblood
Knight, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, 4+ Ward, PoFool

Lv.3 Master Necro (Book of Arkhan) = 190
Lore of Vampires

This here is what I had at first. I wanted to do this for the following reasons: Keeping the VL at Lv.1 makes him a mere support caster. It gives him focus, as he's now a primary melee attacker. Bigger spells are not really used by him, thus limiting the amount of PD thrown (which in turn lowers the chance to miscast). This also allows me to fill in a Master Necro at Lv.3 and Book of Arkhan. It gives him a dedicated role and allows him to cast elsewhere (2 casters vs. 1) while maintaining a good magic item.

However, my list progressed to something like this:

Viktor Draconis (Lv.4 Vampire Lord) = 538
Lore of Vampires
Red Fury, Quickblood
Knight, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, 4+ Ward, PoFool

Lv.1 Necro (Book of Arkhan) = 90

Going over the points again, I took a look at my Lv.3 Master Necro and the Vampire Lord and stared at them for a very long time. I understand the pros and cons of having both a Vampire Lord and Master Necro, but I wanted more than that. More knowledge, more options, more understanding. One of the first things a competitive player does when he min-maxes his list is to trim the fat. He maximizes on the amount of points he has allotted himself and he goes to no end to find a work around one simple concept: How to get the best bang for your buck? Then it hit me.. the Master Necro Lv.4 is 200 points on the dot. To upgrade my Vampire Lord to a Lv.4 takes 105 points. That's half of the points to unlock the VL to his full potential and gives you a larger array of spells. The reason why this change is appropriate is because of points: I can't possibly take a Red Fury Lord and a Lv.4 in the same army list at 2500 points. The only way I can is to take one person who can do it all: A Lv.4 Wizard with the speed, power and protection of a fully-armored Vampire Lord.

I decided that the good outweighs the bad: The good is that you have a Lv.4 in your army and a combat Lord at the same time. The bad is that you are now the biggest target on the battlefield: 3 wounds, one body, one location, the General and the highest level caster. Sounds like a bad deal right? Not for the 100 points saved and the big middle finger saying I'm coming for you anyway (reasoning need not apply).

As for the Hero slots, I'm still a little undecided. When I show you my army list later, you'll see that I still have ~100 or so points left over. Here's the combo I have running right now:

Edward Cullen (Vampire) = 202
Lore of Vampires
Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incarnate
Shield, Glittering Scales, Scroll

60x Skeletons (FC, Screaming Banner, Spears) = 355

I used to have the Vampire mounted on a horse in a unit of Black Knights and the Vampire Lord, but I decided against that. One of the reasons why is because it paints a giant target on my head, and since I changed my Vampire Lord to a Lv.4, I don't want an even bigger target placed over my head. This falls into the "too many eggs in 1 basket" approach. The combo might be ridiculous on paper, but when you total up the points to see it work, you begin to wonder if it's worth it or not. I decided that it was not worth it, but instead focus on something that'll improve the overall strength of my entire army: Adding additional threat!

What's scarier than a giant horde of Skeletons flanked by a giant unit of Grave Guard w/ Banner of Barrows? When the giant unit of Skeletons you're in combat with is never going to let you go until you're all destroyed. With the Scary Vampire placed in the giant unit of Skellies, you have an assload of Unbreakable wounds to chew through w/ Fear tests going off every turn that'll make you hate life. Skeletons suck in combat compared to most things, but they are actually pretty decent when you put them in a horde formation with Spears and give them the ability to make someone WS1. Hit on 3s with an assload of attacks is going to cause issues to anyone in the game. Not just that, but they hit you less, you kill them more and it balances out their Undead rule to maybe even... beating units in combat. Maybe you don't have to pull more Skellies out of every combat. Maybe, just maybe, I think Skeletons should be scary on the battlefield.

This, completes the goal that I wanted to do: Expand on the number of threats on the battlefield while reducing the bullet magnet size of the Black Knights. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone as far as I'm concerned.

Now, we look at another the other obvious combos:

35x Grave Guard (FC, GW, Banner of Barrows) = 500
11x Black Knights (FC, Banner of Swiftness) = 331

7x5 Grave Guard with Great Weapons and Banner of Barrows. Deploy them next to the Fear-bombing Skeletons and your opponents will most likely sweat. Think about it: Grave Guard hits most things in the game on 3s and wound on 2s with Great Weapons. Vs. a giant Skeleton bunker that's afflicting fear to targets 10-wide, you're looking at hitting things in the game on 2s. In turn, this also ups the amount of damage you receive because WS1 hits WS3 on 5s. All of a sudden, being in combat with Grave Guard + Fearbomb gives you the same amount of protection as the now missing Drakenhof Banner. In fact, vs. higher WS units w/ Flaming Banner, recurring Fear gives you infinitely more protection.

The other unit here is the Black Knights. I took the Screaming Banner off them so I can spread the threat somewhere else, so I decided to up their count to 11 and give them Banner of Swiftness. One of the problems with Knights these games is their size, their price, their ability to NOT deny Steadfast and their speed. I wanted to amend as many of these as possible by upping their unit count to 11 first. This gives me more bodies to pull, more units to put back because of my new Lv.4 (D6+1 is a lot!), and less models that needs to be there for when Disruption might come into effect. Being a 6x2 formation also provides a larger number of attacks at the cost of almost no maneuverability. The Banner of Swiftness gives me additional threat range, and allows me to get in combat quicker. Honestly, I need to get in combat ASAP with the Lord and his unit to minimize on the amount of shooting I have to face.

So with that in mind, here's my current list as of today:

2500
9 drops

LORDS:
Viktor Draconis (Lv.4 Vampire Lord) = 538
Lore of Vampires
Red Fury, Quickblood
Knight, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, 4+ Ward, PoFool

HEROES:
Edward Cullen (Vampire) = 202
Lore of Vampires
Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incarnate
Shield, Glittering Scales, Scroll

Lv.1 Necro (Book of Arkhan) = 90
Cairn Wraith = 60

CORE:
60x Skeletons (FC, Screaming Banner) = 355
27x Ghouls = 270

SPECIAL:
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
2x Fell Bats = 32
2x Fell Bats = 32
35x Grave Guard (FC, GW, Banner of Barrows) = 500
11x Black Knights (FC, Banner of Swiftness) = 331

Now I'm looking at a total of 9 drops with heroes. That's a pretty decent amount of drops and the Fell Bats mean absolutely nothing to me. If they re-direct some things out of the way, great. If they don't, it doesn't matter because I still have 9 drops total. I added the Cairn Wraith in there for another Ethereal re-director and Terror. Having a Terror-causer in the scary Skeleton unit can give me Fear over Fear-causers, so I think that's great.

Thanks for reading.

2500pt VC army brainstorm

2012-01-15T23:03:00.000-08:00

Alright guys, gloves off. I have enough models to make it happen, so now it's time to proxy a few games and see how I do. However, there's some stuff I want to go over first.

2246

LORDS:
Vampire Lord = 433
Lore of Vampires
Red Fury, Quickblood
Knight, Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, 4+ Ward, PoFool

Lv.3 Master Necro (Book of Arkhan) = 190
Lore of Vampires

HEROES:
Vampire = 210
Lore of Shadow
Aura of Dark Majesty, Fear Incarnate
Knight, Enchanted Shield, Scroll

CORE:
60x Skeletons (FC, Spears) = 330
29x Ghouls (Ghast) = 300

SPECIAL:
40x Grave Guard (FC, Banner of Barrows) = 520
8x Black Knights (FC, Screaming Banner) = 263

The first thing you'll note is that I have 250 points left to play with. After careful, careful consideration, I decided to take out my Blood Knight bus for a smaller Black Knight filler group. They cost almost half the points of the Blood Knights and they get to carry the Screaming Banner into critical battles. Not to mention I can also res a whole bunch of them at once. I firmly believe that the Vampire Lord and the Vampire themselves will be able to put out enough damage by themselves.

The Lord's shortbus now carries the Fear-bomb combo: -1 Ld, no BSB re-rolls on Fear tests (or re-roll successful ones), 3D6 discard the lowest Fear test.

For a perspective, it looks something like this:

I've run the numbers for the screaming banner/fear incarnate combo (add aura of -1Ld if you will) and these are the odds of failing the fear tests for different. First number is without the rerolls (the enemy is close to his BSB) and the second is with the rerolls:

Ld10: 0.2 - 0.36
Ld9: 0.36 - 0.59
Ld8: 0.52 - 0.77
Ld7: 0.68 - 0.9
Ld6: 0.8 - 0.96
Ld5: 0.89 - 0.99
Ld4: 0.95 - 0.999..
Ld3: 0.98 - 0.999..
Ld2: 0.99 - 0.99999....

I'm also running 40x Grave Guard with HW/S for durability and killing power, and I feel confident with their ability to stay in battle and do damage with Van Hels, Book and hopefully more castings of it from my Lv.3.

Now, I have 250 points left over and I'm not entirely sure what to take. There's so SO many good options! That's why I need your help and your logic to why. Here are my options:

1. Terrorgheist (+1 extra deploy)
Giant T6 6W creature with Death Shriek. Threat value, pretty damn high.

2. Spirit Host, Spirit Host, Spirit Host, and a Cairn Wraith (+3 deploy)
3x solo Spirit Hosts act as great Ethereal road blocks that can hold up Great Eagles, Light Cav, even bigger Cav units in general indefinitely. Cairn Wraith actually does damage and has Terror.

3. 2x Cairn Wraiths, Necro w/ Staff of Damn (0 deploy)
More magic, can also carry a scroll to give the Vampire a Dawnstone for 1+ re-rollable. 2x Cairn Wraiths for road blocks that actually do damage.

4. Black Coach, Cairn Wraith (+1 deploy)
Black Coach, T6 3+ armor save, 4+ Ward, Terror-causing chariot that can get really big if you roll silly. Cairn Wraith as a filler.

5. 5x Cairn Wraiths as rare (+1 deploy)
250 points of standard face roll Ethereal Great Weapon dudes.

6. 5x Hexwraiths, Spirit Host, Spirit Host (+3 deploy)
Hexwraiths to do damage, 2x Spirit Hosts to mess with deployment.

7. 2x Bat Swarms, 2x Cairn Wraiths, 1x Spirit Hosts (+3 deploy)
Bat Swarms flying behind your units to provide ASL once your units get into combat. Cairn Wraiths for added damage and roadblocks and Spirit Hosts for a speed bump.

8. Add a Wight King BSB somewhere, take Spirit Hosts and Bats. (+2 deploy)

These are just the combos I can think of right now, but I'm really curious what you guys think. Keep in mind you can mix and match any of these that costs low enough. Also keep in mind that this 250 points left is the most important part of the list. Lots of options.. but the most important goal of these last few points is to provide flexibility in an all-comers list. This means a balance between roadblocks, re-directors, power-hitters, stronger magic, or any of those mixed together. The ultimate question is: What's the best?

What say you guys?

8th Ed. Vampire Counts Army Book Review

2012-01-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

Possibly the worst cover art I've ever seen.

To start things off, I'd like to say that I'm very happy with the new Vampire Counts book. It's a solid army book with lots of different options and has tons of versatility. One of the things I enjoy the most when reading new army books is judging its internal balance: The book must be interesting enough that there's multiple viable builds possible. What can I say? Phil Kelly wrote the book and the man is capable of delivering awesome material.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for... the book review. To start things off, let's talk about the spcial rules and work our way down to special characters, lords and heroes...etc.

The Vampire special rules come off pretty strong: For one, Vampires gain something called Hunger which allows those with the Vampric rule to gain a wound back on a "6" provided they kill something. This happens at the end of every combat phase. The Undead army itself can't march unless within 12" of the army general or has the Vampire rule, so VC certainly move a bit faster than Tomb Kings. Another thing that might sadden the TK players is that once the VC general dies, instead of crumbling into the ground turn after turn, after the first turn of crumbling, another wizard with the Vampire Lore can seize control of the army and stop crumbling all together. Pretty cool huh?

Vlad makes an appearance in the book and he's better than he was last time. He still has the Carstein Ring which gives him a 4+ Ward and the 2+ "We'll Be Back", but he comes back with Heavy Armor and is a Lv.3 wizard. If he and Isabella is in the same unit, both of them gain ASF and can really maul things in combat. He comes with Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile and Supernatural Horror, and he carries the Bloodrinker. Don't worry, the Blood Drinker has been nerfed quite a bit and now it grants Vlad +1S and a wound back on 4+ since it procs off of Hunger. Isabella deserves a little mention because she's almost double the price but comes with normal Vampire stats so she doesn't suck in combat. She also has Beguile. Just like Vlad, if any of this duo dies in combat, the other one gains Hatred and Frenzy for the rest of the game.

Both Mannfreds are still in the game and they didn't really change much. I personally think Mannfred's Lord form is too expensive to take, but that's because I'm comparing him to the other caster lord, Heinrich Kemmler. Even though some people think Loremaster Vamps and Ethereal or Flying Lv.4 is good, I still think he's overpriced (even if he has +1 to dispel!). The reason why is because you can take a Lv.4 Master Necromancer for a lot cheaper and you can take Vamp or Death lore. For the amount these guys cost, I think they're an essential buy in terms of magic potentinal because the Vampires will see more frontline action.

Vampire Lords are in the game and some say for the worse. That's because they're more expensive, comes with 1 more attack but is only a Lv.1 Wizard at the start. You can buy him up to 4, but he can become super expensive after all the levels. I'd like to mention that all Vampires can now take mundane weapons, armor, shields and barded horses. This gives them good protection without effecting their 100 points in Vampric Powers and 100 points if Magic items. Believe me, there will be so many builds of different Vampire Lords that'll make everyone happy, even if Bloodlines are no longer in the game. I'll get to the different magic items and vamp powers later.

Another lord-level character is the Ghoul King. He has a lower WS of 6, but has I8, 5+ Regen, Poisoned attacks and Infinite Hatred (Hatred in every round of combat). He's also a Lv.1 wizard and costs slightly more than a Vampire Lord and cannot carry magical armors. However, this doesn't stop him from taking other things that can make him dangerous, as well as Vampric Powers. Imagine this for a sec: Ghoul King, Red Fury, Bloodshed Sword (+3 attacks), Potion of Strength. 8 attacks at S8, re-roll to hit WS6 and each wound becomes another attack. Have fun with that one.

Krell makes an appearance, and I'm not too impressed. He still comes with his Black Axe of Krell, the S6 ASL Great Weapon that inflicts D3 wounds. The magical armor that he wears saves on 4+ and nullifies magic weapons ONLY if he saves with it. That's pretty balls. On top of that, Krell is relatively expensive for what he can do and he must always issue and accept challenges. The good thing with him is that if you take Kemmler in the same unit, Krell gains Heroic Killing Blow on all his attacks during the challenge.

Moving on, we still see Konrad von Carstein in the game and he got a tad bit more expensive for another attack. Yay for that, nay for the fact he lost Infinite Hatred. He still has great stats, inflicts Multiple Wounds(2) on his attacks and Red Fury. Still worth the points I think. Necromancers are also in the book and they're great buys for a cheap Lv.1 or Lv.2 Wizard. One Master Necro or normal Necro can take Master of the Dead for some points and gain the ability to raise Skeletons past their starting size.

Vampires are obviously in the game and they can be BSBs while carrying Vampric Powers, but I think the real winners of the hero-class goes to Wight Kings. They are still T5 with 3 wounds, come with Heavy Armor, Shield and the ability to take barded steeds, lances and what not. The great thing is that they're dirt cheap and are incredibly cost-effective with Killing Blow, durability and armor saves. Just great and great.

Last but not least, we have the Cairn Wraiths and Banshees in the hero slot. They haven't changed since they put them in a few months back and their uses are still the same. Good, cheap, terror-causing guys that can kill things in combat and are Ethereal road blockers.

Phew, now that's done, let's move onto the other units in the book:

Starting with the core choices, I'll first note that Dire Wolves are back in the core slot. They are 5-20 and gain Slavering Charge, which gives them +1S on the turn they charge. Pretty cool to have an old rule back and I'm glad Phil Kelly decided to give VC some mobile core. The true argument here is if they'll be better to take over the "improved" Zombies, Skeleton Warriors or Ghouls. Let's look for a second.

Zombies are still ASL and WS1, which makes them awful in combat, but they are now S3 T3. This makes them one of the best tarpit units in the game once you factor in their points. However, for just 2 points more, you have a Skeleton Warrior unit which can take Full Command, has Light Armor/Shield and can upgrade to Spears. On top of this, they can take a 25pt Magic Banner and call the unit complete. How does this look compared to the Ghoul which is double the price of the Skeleton? I'd say if I had to choose, Skeletons are my go-to unit in terms of raw balance. Zombies die in the droves and kill absolutely nothing. Skellies have armor saves, can take Parry saves and have Full Command. Champions are incredibly important when challenging uber lords and keeping your necros out of combat, and that's something Zombies cannot offer (even though they can join the unit). On top of this, Ghouls at the same stats but more expensive makes Skeletons more appealing. Honestly, I don't think VC need punchy core units, that's what the Special and Rare choices are for.

So going off that, let's look at one of the most hated units in all of Warhammer: The dreaded Grave Guard. They're 1 point more than a Ghoul and come with excellent, excellent stats for the price. S4, T4, built-in Killing Blow (although they lose magical weapons), Heavy Armor and Shield. If this isn't amazing, I don't know what is. With Drakenhoff Banner gone (Thank the Lord!), I think the ideal configuration is a big block of Grave Guard with HW/Shield. The defensive buff is just too great to justify spending points on Great Weapons and no protection. Not to mention the fact that you can protect your casters while still maintaining high kill ratios with your battle spells. I'll get more on the spells later, but I still think Grave Guard are some of the best specials in the game.

The Corpse Cart has been moved to the Specials section and they gained a litle extra. Just a little bit more expensive, but they gain +1W and Vigour Mortis. VM states that when you cast an augment spell on the CC itself, all units within 6" gain the ASF rule. On top of this, Zombies lose their ASL rule and gain the ASF rule specifically so they can strike first! I think that's pretty cool. They can still take Balefire and Unholy Lodestone and have Regen so what's not to like.

Black Knights are back and better than ever I think. They went down a lot in points because you can choose to buy lances and barding for their steeds. If you want them to run cheap, they can do that and still sport a good armor save while maintaining Killing Blow. Blood Knights are also in the game with pretty much the same features except for +1I and cheaper. Martial Honour is still in the unit so I don't see myself ever taking the unit champion upgrade, ever. In addition, Blood Knights now can take their own fabled Flag of Blood Keep as a unit upgrade rather than take up space in the magic items section.

One of the biggest winners of the special section is the Spirit Host. It's a lot cheaper and can be taken in units of 1. This gives you great little speed bunps etherealing across the battlefield and that's always good. I don't know if they're in the same category as Sabretusks, but they're definitely pretty good at what they cost. Bat Swarms are also pretty good because any unit in BtB with one has the ASL rule (yes, any unit). Going back to Ethereal, let's touch upon everyone's most talked about unit: The Hexwraiths. Unlike the rest of the internets, I'm telling you right now: These guys are not as overpowered as what people say. Sure, they are Ehtereal Fast Cav that can move through a target and force them to take S5 Magical, Flaming Attacks with No Armor saves, but they're pretty expensive for the damage they put out. Not to mention they don't have Vampric and thus cannot march if not in range of the General. This suddenly rates their Fast Cav status a little lower and makes people rethink their viability. Also consider the fact that they die to a soft breeze of a magic missile and will cost a lot if your opponent takes them in numbers. Personally, I think they're overrated.

Next, we look at Vargheists and Crypt Horrors. I'll start with Vargheists first because I think they're the first flying Monstrous Infantry units in the game. What's not to like about a bunch of flying, Frenzy S5, 3 attacks base, T4 dudes with 3W? The Crypt Horrors are also pretty badass with T5, 5+ Regen and 3 Poisoned Attacks. Factor in the fact that the Mortis Engine can turn that Regen into a 4+ and you've got yourself one heck of a durable unit. In a VC army, anything that's not in full armor but contains this much durability is something to be respected.

The Black Coach is still in the game and it's slightly cheaper than it was last book. That's great because these things can still cause a lot of trouble for anyone fighting against it. Too bad they can't siphon your opponent's PD anymore. Cairn Wraiths are still in the game with the same price under Rare (different from the hero versions) and so are Terrorgheists.

I guess I'll take this time to go over the Mortis Engine and Coven Throne. The Mortis Engine is a rare that you can take that hands out Regen on your own units (it also has Regen itself). Each turn, you roll a 2D6 and add the current turn number. That's the range of the Mortis Engine's Aura. All enemy units take D6 hits equal to the strength of the current turn and friendly units gain +1 to their Regen save up to 4+. If you roll a double, you take a wound with no saves of any kind. You can also upgrade the Mortis Engine so that all wizards within 12" gain +2 to casting for Lore of the Vampires. However, if you miscast, you roll the miscast result twice and your opponent picks which one to apply.

The Coven Throne is a mount that you can buy for your Lord. It comes with some hot vampire chicks that swing with ASF and comes with a 4+ Ward. The biggest thing to note with the Coven Throne is that it forces units in contact with it to do a Mind War. You roll D6 + Ld. and your opponent does the same. However the amount of points you beat him by, you apply to a chart that reads as the following: 0 does nothing, 1-2 is -1 WS and BS, 3-5 is re-roll all successful hits and 6+, the unit attacks itself. Yes, the unit directs all the attacks it can put out onto itself. To make matters worse for them, the Coven Throne comes with a Bound Spell 3 called Scrying Pool that if successfully casts, makes everything on the Coven Throne re-roll hit and wounds for the remainder of the turn. Personally, as Blood Dragon, I would rather take a Zombie Dragon since it's cheaper than the last book, has +1T and +1W (but is now WS4), and still has Cloud of Flies and Pestilient Breath.

Alright, let's talk about the Lore of the Vampires, the vampiric powers and the items now:

The main attribute of the lore is called Curse of Undeath, and it heals the wizard or any friendly model within 12" for 1 wound. That's a pretty good attribute if you ask me.

Invocation is the signature spell and it effects all units within 6/12/18" on the same, scaling casting levels. Each time Invocation goes off, the unit is healed D6 + the wizard level of the person casting it. Vampires, Ethreal or large models only ever get healed for 1 wound.

Vanhels is the next spell and it grants 8" movement if not engaged and re-roll hits to a unit. It can be boosted to all units within 12" with the same effect. Hellish Vigour is the next spell and it grants the unit re-roll wounds. This can be boosted to effect all units within 12" with the same effect. Next in the list is Gaze of Nagash and it wasn't really changed at all. 2D6 S4 missiles and can be boosted to go 48". Raise Dead is still in the and it can be used to spawn Zombies or Skeletons (boosted) at 2D6+3 models. Curse of Years is back and works exactly the same way as 7th and the big spell Winds of Undeath is decent.

Winds of Undeath is a magical vortex that when you cast it, you nominate a direction and roll the artillery dice x 3. It moves that many inches and each unit beneath takes a D6 S3 hit (or S4 if boosted) for each rank of models in the unit w/ no armor save. If you misfire, you center it on your unit and do the same thing. Good, but nothing in terms of Mindrazor, Dwellers or Purple Sun (and a good thing at that!).

As for Vampire Powers, here's what I see:

Master of the Black Arts - Expensive. Re-roll one of the dice when determining Winds of Magic. This can turn your otherwise crappy roll of 6 and 1 into 5 and 6. A lot more dice to break open opponent defenses.

Curse of the Revenant - +1W is nothing to write home about with this price tag.

Red Fury - Great ability, allows you to build combat monsters capable of tearing through entire formations at a time. I like to build my Vampire Lord with the Ogre Blade and just have him go to town with S7. With 5A, each wound you put out generates another attack. Too bad this freshly generated attacks cannot proc the next set.

Flying Horror - You fly. Deal with it.

Quick Blood - The Vampire gains ASF and this is fantastic. I7 Vampire Lords and I6 Vampires put out a decent amount of re-rolls with ASF. Must take on any Vampire involved in close combat, and goes great with Red Fury because it's better than Infinite Hatred vs. equal or lower I targets.

Aura of Dark Majesty - Great price, great effect. The -1 Ld. modifier might not seem like much now, but just you wait..

Dark Acolyte - +D3 to casting total for IoN.

Forbidden Lore - Loses Loremaster and you can take any lore from the BRB except for Life. Still not bad.

Supernatural Horror - Terror. Because Fear isn't good enough apparently.

Fear Incarnate - Absolutely amazing for the price. Your opponents re-roll successful Fear tests. If the BSB is nearby, the re-rolls cancel and your left with 1 fear test. Combine this with Aura of Dark Majesty and things get ridiculous. But wait, there's more....

Beguile - Cheap, -3 Leadership to model in BtB or you re-roll hits.

Master Strike - Trade all attacks for 1 with HKB. Trash. It should of been like the TK book where you nominate one attack to be HKB.

Dreadknight - +2WS, must always issue and accept challenges. Trash, you're already WS7 and if you take this on your general, you're just waiting to get KB'd or killed by a better fighter. This is also counter-intuitive with Red Fury and other combat heavy abilities. I guess I would only take this on a Vamp Lord w/ Glittering Scales on a Zombie Dragon and I'm out to troll things. WS9 with -2 to hit makes anything under WS5 hit you on 7s and lord-class people on 6s.

Summon Creatures of the Night - Cheap, can increase Dire Wolves, Bat Swarms and Fell Bats past their staring size. No one will ever take this because of the price of Fell Bats.

Now that that's done, let's get to the Magic Items:

Skabscratch - Expensive. Gives Frenzy, Devastating Charge, Flaming Attacks and have the Death Shriek rules. If you can't kill a model by the time the game is over, you auto die.

Nightshroud - Necros can wear this too. Can be combined with mundane armor because this is magical, so you can take this on a Vamp Lord on a Zombie Dragon. +1 to AS, enemy models in BtB lose S bonus from things (e.g. Great Weapons), and ASL.

Banner of Barrows - +1 to hit for Wight models in close combat. Same as last time, same price even. But this can get better with a few tweaks.

Screaming Banner - Enemy Fear tests in combat with the unit rolls 3D6 (extra die) and discard the lowest. OK, surprise is over. Let's sum it up: Aura of Dark Majesty gives -1 Ld., Fear Incarnate stops the BSB re-roll or forces him to re-roll successful Fear tests, Screaming Banner forces Fear tests on 3D6 discard the lowest. WS1 unit vs. a Grave Guard unit with Banner of Barrows anyone? Hit on 2s again while they hit on 5s? Imagine the same combo on a unit of Blood Knights too. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new Fear-bomb combo.

Black Periphat - Saves 2 dice in PD or DD so you can use them as PD or DD next turn.

Staff of Damnation - Bound 4, augment, all friendly units within 6" gains Extra Attacks. Pretty boss.

Cursed Book - Sac D3 PD for a random spell that goes off automatically on a D6 chart (non-boosted): Mystifying Miasma, Enfeebling, Withering, Soulblight, Doom and Darkness, Curse of the Midnight Wind.

Book of Arkhan - Cheaper and has a Bound 3 Vanhels. Does not burn out.

Rod of Flaming Death - Bound 3 Fire Cage from the Fire Lore essentially.

Well guys, I think that's pretty much it. This is the entire book pretty much and I'm very happy with what I see. Gone are the days of GGstars with Drakenhoff. There's a lot of stuff in here that can spark a lot of interesting builds: Blood Dragon builds with Fear-bombing Blood Knights and/or Grave Guard, Striogi builds with Terrorgheists, Mortis Engine, Ghoul King, Ghouls and Crypt Horrors, the list goes on. I'm just happy that VC players everywhere can look across the table with a straight face instead of the same flavorless list. I mean, look at the options man.. so many things to choose form.

I can't wait to see VC evolve as an army.

New VC and High Elves Tactica

2012-01-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, I'm getting my hands on the book today and I'm gonna get on a review ASAP.

As for what I've been doing lately, I've been arguing with fellow High Elves players on Ulthuan.net. One of the most raging topics is: Do High Elves need the Book of Hoeth to be competitive? Think of uncomped areas.

What do you guys think? Personally, I think you don't NEED it to be competitive, but it certainly helps a lot!

Check out this massive tactica I wrote on Ulthuan.net. It's basically all the HE info on this site transferred over plus a few more things.

My 2500pt Ogre army!

2012-01-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

Looks something like this..

2471

LORDS:
Lv.4 Slaughtermaster (IF, Hellheart, AoD) = 388
Gut Magic

HEROES:
Bruiser (BSB, GW, 2+, Ironcurse) = 191
Lv.1 Firebelly (GW, Scroll) = 154

CORE:
9x Ogres (FC, IF) = 323
6x Ironguts (FC, Discipline) = 308

SPECIAL:
4x Mournfang (FC, HA/IF, Dragonhide) = 360
4x Leadbelchers = 172
4x Leadbelchers = 172
Sabretusk = 21
Sabretusk = 21
Sabretusk = 21

RARE:
Ironblaster = 170
Ironblaster = 170

The Lv.4 SM has 4+ armor, 6+ parry and 4+ ward. He also carries the Hellheart to mess with enemy wizards. I guess it goes without saying that he's been officially approved to carry armor because the designers failed to catch it. That's perfectly fine with me! I just wish all Ogres could parry with Ironfists regardless of what weapon they're carrying. Visually, that would make more sense to me because of the way Ironfists look. Anywho, the rest of the heroes look pretty standard. BSB enjoys a 2+ save and carries a Great Weapon, the Firebelly carries a scroll and Great Weapon himself. All 3 of those heroes will sit comfortably in the 6 Irongut unit for a total of 2x 3x3 blocks to make up the main belly force.

The Special slots are also pretty standard: 3x Sabretuks as better Eagles, 4x Mournfangs with all the bells and whistles, and 2 units of 4x Leadbelchers so I can shoot things to death. I was thinking maybe cutting the squad down to 6x Leadbelchers and then buffing up either the Ironguts or Bulls, what do you guys think?

Lastly, I'm taking 2x Ironblasters because I think shooting big ass S10 cannons is ridiculous. Plus, they're not bad in combat and they're really tough to kill!

Other things I might do is as follows:
SM takes Glittering Scales and Fencer Blades to make him almost unhittable in combat.
I find room for another Bruiser with 4+ ward for another beatstick.
I drop some Leadbelchers and maybe a Ironblaster for more Core units.

Is it me or is this army really small? I normally deploy 100+ elf models to the table and this is looking quite sad! I guess I should be counting wounds and not actual models? It just looks really funny to me lol.

BR: 2500pts HE vs. DoC

2012-01-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

I had this game about a week ago but people on Ulthuan.net is complaining about my lack of battle reports. So... I'll write this one up even though it was a pretty unimpressive game.

My list:
Lv.4 Archmage with Book, Shadow Lore
Noble BSB with GW, AoC, GP
Lv.1 Mage w/ Sigil, High Lore
32x Spears w/ FC, Lion Standard
30x Spears w/ FC
20x Phoenix Guard w/ FC, Banner of Sorcery
30x White Lions w/ FC, Banner of Eternal Flame
12x Sword Masters w/ Musician
2x Great Eagles

His list:
Lv.4 Chicken Lord w/ re-roll and Loremaster Life
Khorne BSB w/ AoK and Great Standard of Sundering
Changeling in a unit of Lv.3 Wizard Horrors
Slaanesh Herald w/ Siren Song in a big unit of 30x Daemonettes w/ FC,
Big unit of 30x Bloodletters w/ Khorne Herald
Small MSU unit of Flesh Hounds
6x Flamers of Tz
3x Fiends of Slaanesh
5x Seekers w/ FC

I think that's it off the top of my head, but I won the roll to go first. We played Battleline. I get Mindrazor, Withering, Pit and Miasma for spells.
Deployment looked something like.. WL, Lion Spears, Spears, PG, SM, with Eagle1 behind the Lion Spears and Eagle2 behind the Sword Masters. The way I deployed was so my Spear units faced his Khorne and Daemonettes, Sword Masters facing towards the Seekers and Phoenix Guard across from the Bloodletters too.
First turn sees me push models forward but not greedily. Eagle1 flies near a building and my White Lions angle behind a medium sized building so I can assist the Lion Spears. PG Mage bunker moves up 5" and casts Miasma on his Daemonettes. He makes me re-roll but I still IF and everything is reduced by 1. Eagle2 flies forward on an angle towards his Seekers forcing a bait so my Sword Masters can get some.
His turn sees the Seekers charge the Eagle and I promptly flee. He fails to catch but moves up some but not as long as I hoped. The rest of his units semi-march and they move a bit long but they're far from charge range. His magic gets thrown around for Dwellers but I dispel with ease because poor rolling.
My turn sees the Siren Song triggered on my Lion Spears and I take the charge. I roll insanely well and I get in combat from 16" away. My White Lions are confused where the Spears they were supposed to guard went. Seeing that happen, I move up my White Lions, move up my other Spear regiment to cover the other Lion Spear's flank and re-position Eagle1 to block his Flesh Hounds from flank-charging my Spears. My Sword Masters on the far right also rolls high for charges (a 10) and gets in combat with the Seekers from 15" away. We both didn't see this coming and it was quite unexpected. The right most Eagle flies back towards the army center.
Magic sees Miasma and Mindrazor go off IF on the Spear unit that hit combat and I promptly maul the Herald with ease. Due to WS and I being nerfed by 3 and Spearmen attacking in 3 ranks on the charge, hitting on 3s and wounding on 2s, I inflict a good amount of kills on the unit. He attacks back, lose by 3 and takes his Unstable tests. My Sword Masters, chew through his Seekers and surge forward an almighty 6 inches to get shot to shit by the Flamers.
His next phase sees the Flesh Hounds charge the middle Eagle who takes it to the face. Since his Fiends couldn't get around the building his big block of Daemonettes and my Spears were fighting by, he had to take the long route around. They sure can move though, so he positions by the rear of my Spears. His Khorne Daemons also charge my PG mage bunker and fails the charge, even with Icon of Endless War. He ends just a little bit short and sad times are to be had. Magic sees him successfully cast +2T on his Bloodletters after I fail to dispel. Of course, his Flamers murders all but 5 of my Sword Masters but they hold on double 1s. Combat sees Eagle1 perish horribly and him re-positioning his Flesh Hounds to the flank of my Lion Spears again.
Next turn, I block his Fiends with my Eagle and re-direct them into nothingness. I charge my White Lions into the side of his Flesh Hounds and my Spears run into his Bloodletters. My Sword Masters charge his Flamers because I'm 8" away and I get in there with ease. Magic sees Mindrazor IF on the Spears (on Bloodletters) and he makes me re-roll my doubles. I roll another doubles and things are sad. On top of this, I also get off Miasma on the Bloodletters and nerf them by 2. Since the Slaneesh Herald is gone, my other Spears maul his Daemonettes but they strike back with titanic fury, killing a bunch of Spears. Combat is closer than I thought and the daemongirls continue to hold. My Sword Masters chop down a good amount of the Flamers and they swung back, killing none in return, only to be killed by Unstable. They reform into the rear of the Bloodletters. The Razorspears ASF into the Herald with 6 attacks and he lives through bad rolls and good ward saves. The rest of the Bloodletters are not so lucky and many are fell, but not before they swung back and kill a good amount of Spears. He loses combat but rolls well to hold. The White Lions kill off the rest of the Flesh Hounds and then overrun into the Horrors who did practically nothing all game.
On his turn, he has no choice but to charge my Eagles and I re-direct him into no where. The last Eagle dies but his death was justified because his Fiends did nothing and his Seekers got lucked by the SMs. In magic, I let Throne of Vines through, dispel Regen on the Bloodletters, let Flesh to Stone go on the Daemonettes so I can Sigil his Dwellers on my Phoenix Guard and remove it from the game. Combat from the White Lions sacs the Horrors even with the Champion switched by the Changeling, the Lion Spears lose combat to the T5 Daemonettes but holds firmly, and the Bloodletters continue to get mauled by my MR Spears. The Eagle's death sees his Fiends turn towards my Phoenix Guard, who just looks at them with confusion.
On my turn, I clean up the majority of his army with IF MR on the Spears vs. Bloodletters (who are now rear-charged by the Sword Masters) and Withering on the Daemonettes. The winds of magic have been in my favor all game and every doubles that he forced me to re-roll has turned into another. Seeing the seemingly unstoppable Elves trounce through the majority of his army with little to no opposition, we call the game here.

Post-game thoughts:

Pretty lucky overall this game. Book went off IF every time with no miscasts. The winds were also plentiful, giving me ~8 dice every phase and he couldn't stop my magic no matter what.
This just shows how powerful a Book list is because it literally overrides any weakness the High Elves have in combat and deliver decisive results where you want it, when you want it. It also allows you to make bolder plays because you can take on enemies you otherwise wouldn't. If you think about it, it also makes the herald buffs quite useless for the Daemons.
ASF and re-rolls really, really hurt Daemons. The biggest worry was the Daemonette Herald but once she was done, the rest of the unit just took a beating every turn.
I played the Eagles nicely, and they do wonders in every game I play with them.

Tactica: High Elves vs. Daemons of Chaos

2012-01-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

I will most likely do one of these a month depending on what the monthly poll turns into here. It will be more competitive focused and will be a LIVING Tactica encompass the current meta. This will continue as long as High Elves are using the same army book.

I've also gathered all the articles I have here and re-posted most of them on Ulthuan.net. You can find the thread here: HERO's Guide to High Elf Glory [8th Edition]

Without further ado, let's get into the nitty gritty. The format of these tacticas will also be more straight forward and gets to the point quicker. My reasoning is that people just want to know 2 things: What the hell does that unit do and how do I kill it?

So with that in mind, I'll list out a bunch of units, characters or something and then provide an answer.

High Elves vs. Daemons of Chaos
Match-up Analysis

Daemon Special Rules
The first thing you have to know is that the entire army causes Fear, has a 5+ ward and have magical attacks. They are also Immune to Psychology so they do not care if they get owned, they just take Unstable tests and move on with life.

Deal with it.

Greater Daemons
There are 4 Greater Daemons of Chaos and they're all equally ridiculous one way or another. I'll note what they commonly do here:

Bloodthirster - WS10, 7 attacks, I9, Immortal Fury gives re-rolls to hit, Obsidian Armor (3+ save) makes it so magical weapons count as mundane and Firestorm Blade makes him S7 with flaming attacks. He can also take a scroll if he just takes Armor of Khorne (3+ save).

Keeper of Secrets - WS9, 6 Armor Piercing attacks with ASF I10, moves 10 and can take Siren Song. Can cast spells and murder things in close combat for a pretty affordable price.

Great Unclean One - T6 with 10 wounds, WS4 but carries a Flail, Balesword and Noxious Vapours. S8 on the charge and he wounds automatically. Each wound translates to D6 wounds and Noxious Vapours robs you of ASF and makes you ASL. He might also carry a S4 breath that he can do in combat to generate combat res.

Lords of Change - Flying bird with T6 and 5 wounds. I6 so you can't really sink him with PoS or anything. Capable of Lore Master + Tzeentch's Will which allows him to re-roll 1 die during each player phase. This can be used to cause an IF, turn a crappy roll into a great roll, so on and so forth.

There's no real answer to Greater Daemons because they're just really powerful. Mindrazor something and hope you roll a good number of hits. Reducing their toughness, WS and I can also help even the playing field, but no mere mortal can hope to triumph against a Greater Daemon with positive results. The BT and KoS especially murder units in combat. If the BT take a Firestorm Blade, you can answer it with Dragon Armor. As for the KoS, you're pretty much shit out of luck. The GUO just stays around forever and can't be challenged unless you want to die horribly. I haven't seen GUO in a while, but I have seen the rest of the 3 a lot of the time. Keep in mind that if they take a Greater Daemon, that's a lot of points they're directing into one character. Use this to your advantage.

SC: Kairos Fateweaver
This guy is the most flexible spellcaster in all of Warhammer. He basically has 2 heads that knows any 8 spells of his choosing from the BRB. Kairos also knows the entire Lore of Tzeentch, which gives him 14 spells total. He can also cast with +2 to any casting roll and re-roll any die per player phase. Daemonic Robes also means he can never be wounded on a 2+ and he sports a 3+ ward save.

What I would do personally is Pit of Shades the bastard. He if goes Kairos, you bring Teclis and you PoS IF on top of his face. He has I1 so anything short of bad luck will end him flat out. At 625 points, if he dies, you basically roll over the rest of his army.

SC: Skulltaker
WS9, I9, 4 attacks with S6 Hatreds towards everybody. All his attacks count as flaming and he can get a 1+ AS when mounted on a Juggernaught and have MR2. The best part of it is that he HKBs everything in the game on 5+.

Dragon Armor all day long. He has to issue and accept challenges so you can tank him all day with a random Dragon Helm on a unit champ.

SC: Changeling
He swaps the target's WS, S, T, I, and A values and uses them against him! A built-in Arch-lector that works in base to base, nice.

Not much you can do about it but kill him because he doesn't have ASF like you do. He's actually pretty mediocre if you do not have amazing fighty characters.

SC: The Masque
Basically a Herald that can't join units and has a 3+ ward save. The worst part of this stupid daemon is that she chooses a target within 12" and reduces its leadership by D3. She can also reduce its movement values by D3 and neither of those require LoS.

Try to snipe her if you can. She's only T3 with 2W so you can use your Magic Missiles to end her obnoxious life. Since she can't join units and the game is TLoS now, she can be neutralized with a well-placed 2d6 S4.

Heralds
Each herald is capable of doing awesome things once they join a unit matching its Chaos God. The Herald of Khorne gives Bloodletters Hatred to all enemies, Tzeentch gives the Horror unit 4+ ward, Nurgle Heralds give regen, and Slaanesh gives the entire unit ASF. The most painful ones for us is Bloodletters and Daemoenttes because one hits like a ton of bricks with ASF and the other just denies us of our key benefits. All of these heralds can be found in horde-sized units of the above mentioned daemons. The most common ones I see these days is the Daemonette horde with Siren Song and Siren Standard and Bloodletters with Icon of Endless War. Tz Heralds are kind of different because they can take Loremaster of any Lore and Spell Breakers (scroll). Sometimes they fly around and sometimes they baby sit a Horror unit. This gives them flexibility in what they want to do.

A lot of these Heralds can be sniped out by stuff like Dwellers or any ability that hits the entire unit. Death Lore is great at picking out characters and Shadow offsets their benefits by reducing their stats to garbage. Who cares about ASF or Hatred if you're WS1 or striking with shit strength. Just use your magic to counterbalance the bonuses the Heralds offer.

Daemon Magic
There are 3 key lores from the Daemon book and all of them are dirt cheap to cast. The reason being is that it's a 7th Ed. book going into 8th so the prices of spells haven't changed. Damnit.. the spells are really good too.

Daemon Lore of Tzeentch
The big ones here is Flickering Fire, Glean Magic, Bolt of Change and Tzeentch's Firestorm. Flickering Fire is a 18" D6+1 SD6+1 missile that's cheap as hell to cast. Bolt of Change does it even better with 2D6 SD6+4 hits for a mere 12+! Glean Magic allows the daemon to cast an enemy Wizard's spell as if it was one of their own and Tzeentch's Firestorm is just downright dirty funny. It's a magical missile with 24" that does 2D6 S5 hits. For every 3 wounds, it creatures a Pink Horror within 3" of the new target unit. The new unit can now re-direct and hamper charges next turn because they're cool like that.

Daemon Lore of Nurgle
Nurgle is just really frustrating to play against for High Elves. All of the spells are really useful and they're dirt cheap to cast. Miasma reduces WS, S, T, I and A to 1 to all enemy models in base contact and it casts on a 3+. Stream of Corruption is a 6+ breath weapon (cannot be used in combat) that causes a toughness test or take a wound with no armor save. Pit of Slime forces a S-test or it can't move or shoot from 24". Rancid Visitation cases D6 S5 hits to a unit and then it must pass a T-test or it continues on and on until the unit is destroyed or passes the T test. Shrivelling Pox is a character sniper that forces a T-test or suffer D6 wounds with no armor saves. Plague Wind forces an entire unit to take a T-test or suffer a wound with no armor saves. For every 3 unsaved wounds, place Nurglings near the unit so you can use it to re-direct and block charge lanes as well.

Daemon Lore of Slaanesh
Acquiescence is weak because Stupidity is no longer an issue with BSB. Cacophonic Caress is still a problem because it effects all units within 2D6" of the caster to take D6 S3 no armor saves. Succor of Chaos is amazing at 7+ because all the models in the unit gains ASF and re-rolls to hit. Slicing Shards and Pavane of Slaanesh are both useful once Phantasmagoria hits the battlefield. All enemy units on the table must roll an extra D6 hen taking Leadership tests and discard the lowest. Can you imagine all the Fear and Terror tests in addition to all the crazy leadership nerfs Slaanesh can put on the table? Not to mention it casts on a 10+!

Personally, I would try to counter with Shadow, Life and Death, in that order. Shadow's hexes counters a lot of Herald buffs and makes your units deadlier in combat. Life offers Dwellers and increased Toughness so your Elves and survive combat with the enemy and out attrition them. Death gives you the ability to snipe enemy Heralds and allows you to debuff the entire army with Soulblight.

Nasty Combos
Daemonette Horde + Herald, Full Command, Siren Standard, Siren Song/Soporific Musk on Herald
A ton of ASF S3 Armor Piercing attacks at I5 WS5 and 2 attacks a piece. Siren Song makes it so you have to charge them or flee, and Siren Standard makes it so you have no choice but to hold if they charge you. If you lose combat to them and run, you roll an extra dice when fleeing and then discard the highest result.

Take the charge with your Spears and nerf the crap out of the unit with hexes. You should be able to out attrition them as long as you kill the herald first. Once she dies, the unit no longer has ASF so you'll be able to drastically thin the horde's ranks. Know what Siren Song and Siren Standard can do and use your Eagles to re-direct and prevent forced charges.

Bloodletter Horde + Herald, Full Command, Icon of Endless War, Armor of Khorne/Firestorm Blade on Herald
A ton of WS5 S5 Killing Blow attacks with Hatred. On the turn they charge, they add D6" to their charge distance because of Icon and the Herald has a 3+ armor save with S7 flaming attacks. Not much to say here man.. they hit like a truck.

This unit might hit like a truck, but it's easily re-directed with Eagles and doesn't fare too well in combat with your buffed-up Elves. If you take Shadow, you can nerf this unit into the ground and then kill them in combat with your ASF and higher I. S5 doesn't mean much when its nerfed and WS means less if they're not hitting all the time. If you can kill his herald with one of your champions you can eliminate their Hatred all together. You can even buy a Standard of Balance if you so wish.

Great Icon of Despair + Masque + Daemon Lore of Slaanesh
The Great Icon makes all enemy units within 12" suffer -2 to their leadership. Masque makes a unit lose D3 leadership. This in turn makes the Daemon Lore of Slaanesh stronger and Phantasmagoria ridiculous. Fear Tests and Terror all over the place will just make you hate life.

Try to kill Masque and the wielder of the Great Icon of Despair. Once these units are neutralized, you should be in a good place. The sad part is that Masque will almost always be hiding somewhere in the back, but the Great Icon of Despair will be somewhere in the front lines. Since it's a 75-point banner, you know that only a BSB can wield it. This paints a nice little target over their head. What's really annoying is when they put it on a Slaanesh Herald on a Seeker and have it join a decent unit of Seekers. Lion Standard and Standard of Balance is a nice way to nullify fear tests, the same applies to having Caradryan in a unit or having a Champion carry the Mask of Eee!

**Things to watch out for!**

Flesh Hounds - M8, Hatred, WS5 S5 2 attacks a piece with MR3
Seekers of Slaanesh - M10 Fast Cav with Siren Standard. WS5 S3 AP and can harbor a herald for ASF.
Bloodcrushers - A crapton of WS5 S6, 5 attacks with KB and 2W each. Sports a nice +3 to the rider's armor save too.
Flamers of Tzeentch - One of the most hated units in the game. D6 S4 flaming shots each with no multiple shot penalty and for very good points. Also Skirmishing.
Fiends of Slaanesh - M10 S4 AP with 4 attacks a piece, 3 wounds T4 with Soporific Musk.

Sword Master the Flesh Hounds because they'll run into a flurry of blades and die horribly. Normal Spears should take care of them just fine. Seekers are fast and will wait until you're vulnerable before they hit. Once they do, that's a lot of attacks and at ASF with herald that you might not like. Bloodcrushers get mauled once they get nerfed in combat and you force enough wounds. Mindrazor gives you good results against them. The same applies to Fiends of Slaanesh because they don't have ASF. Flamers are murderous against everything in your army because of your T3 and 5+ save. However, I would charge a unit of Dragon Princes right up their ally any day of the week.

Siren Song - One use, nominate a enemy unit within 20" and you must charge or flee. One of the dirtiest items in the game because you can literally force a unit to fail charge, get into charge range of your own unit, or expose its flank for your units to rampage through them. That, or you force it to flee. Basically the best trapping item in the entire game.

Great Standard of Sundering - Choose a Lore of Magic. All Wizards suffer a -2 penalty to cast from that Lore. If you're using Lore of Light, you miscast on any doubles of 1, 2 and 3. The only reason why I didn't recommend Lore of Light is because of this item. Good thing it's either this or Great Icon of Despair, so once you know he has one he can't have the other.

The best defense with Siren Song is to analyze the position of his KoS and Heralds. Position your units so you don't fall into any traps and use your Eagles to block possible flankers/chargers. Re-direct the best you can and really think about your movement and positioning. Standard of Balance also works for Siren Song because it makes the unit ITP. As for the Great Standard of Sundering, you just gotta kill that thing. Lore of Light would be great against Daemons if not for that banner and even so, it's -2 to your casting value is brutal. Death Lore is a powerful sniping tool but I'd still take Shadow for the most part.

In a pickle: Vamps or Ogres

2012-01-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

Right now, I'm still pretty undecided. Both armies are 8th Ed. books which means balanced, fun and well-designed. I currently own High Elves and I used to have Dwarfs.. but I sold them off because I didn't "feel" them. I always ended up going back to High Elves..

Right now, the only thing I have built for Vampires right now is my 10x Dragon Princes to be used as (well, Dragon Princes) Blood Knights. I have nothing for Ogres but a whole bunch of stuff for my Vampires. This totals up to 80x Mantic Ghouls, 30x Mantic Zombies and 40x GW Grave Guard still sitting in boxes. Let's list a bunch of pros and cons and see what happens:

First, I need an army that's radically different than High Elves. Let's go over what High Elves are known for:

Elite troops, everywhere, nothing is expendable and everything costs an assload of points.
This also means they ASF, re-rolls to hit with high WS and Initiative
Masters of magic, know all the lores, wields High Magic
Dragons are big and powerful, have Griffon friends and Eagle allies
Fairy little girly Elves connotation
Aesthetically beautiful pleasing to look at; a beautiful army made of silver and azure
Everything is on infantry bases or cavalry bases for the most part
Requires expert generalship to win out these days. I'd rate HE as one of the hardest armies to play right now if you avoid the book and Teclis due to the nature of the army.
Probably somewhere in the middle for popularity
Assloads of models to assemble, but this is my first army and I have everything already

So what about Ogres?

Big and fat; monstrous troops, cavalry and monsters all over
Still elite because of the points that goes into everything gives you..
High toughness, low armor, but a lot of wounds per model. Low WS and low Initiative.
Not masters of magic, but have interesting hungry Gut magic
No Dragons, but Giants, Cannons pulled by Rhinox, Mourfangs (bearcats), freaking Mammoths!
The exact opposite of little girly Elves with big, burly, fat, questionably manly, full-retard Ogres
Aesthetically hysterical to look at.. not beautiful in the slightest but.. interesting..
Bases are mostly monster bases with lots of chariot and monster bases too
Requires solid generalship since your Ogres are few, your charges must be well-calculated and you have to know which models you can break with combat and which ones you can't. Primarily melee-orientated army.
Not a really popular army, a plus for me
Very few models to assemble because everything is big and burly

OK.. now Vampire Counts..

The core of the army is expendable troops with elite supporting elements
Crappy WS expendable troops with powerful fighter lords, cavalry, killing blow elite infantry and cav
A mix of points spread around.. dirt cheap fodder and expensive elites
Very solid magic with a good mix of movement, augments and power
Big Undead Dragons, Terrorgheists, spectral ethereal stuff, Coven Throne, and flying Vargheists
Not really girly per se, but Vampires have that emo connotation about them (e.g. Twilight)
Aesthetically a mix of zombies, skeletons, Vampire Knights (HUGE!), ghosts and a mix of the above
Bases are very diverse too; core is mostly infantry with powerful knights to giant monsters
Pretty low generalship I'd say. In 7th Ed, it was all Innvo-spamming GGdeathstar and Blood Knight bus of doom. In 8th, almost nothing changed. Regen Banner in a GGstar with +1 to hit or BK bus in almost all games.
Probably the biggest bandwagon of Fantasy to date (think GK to 40K)
A fucking million models to assemble because of all the cannon fodder

The biggest problem I have right now is that I simply cannot decide on what army I want. In a nut shell, VC really appeal to me because of Blood Knights and fighty Vampire Lords. I'm not a huge fan of undead, I don't care much for the whole zombie-revive undead mechanic. Aeshetically, I just want to see fully armored vampiric knights riding into battle, smashing against anything in the game and winning. It's a pretty linear way of thinking when it comes to Vampires I think. I really hate the emo connotation and the caster lord in a bunker playstyle what might be effective. It's really all about the Blood Knights for me, Blood Dragons or mauling the opponents in vicious hand-to-hand combat. I want superiority in WS, skill and martial prowess. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I was attracted to High Elves but also Khorne Daemons.

Ogres also appeal to me because they're funny. I think if you want playstyles, Ogres are pretty much the exact opposite of High Elves. They're slow, low WS but fast to get into combat and just smash things aside. They're vulnerable to I-test spells or anything that can dispatch them before they can do serious damage. The low WS doesn't help either, showing me that the army is pretty much made out of brawlers and lowly-trained fat people who use their guts as protection. However, they do have BEARCATS! in the form of Mourfang Cavalry. My wife calls me bear because she thinks I'm big and burly (maybe I'm getting heavier?) and this is something that I'm willing to accept. They also have awesome cannons, radically eccentric fluff and powerful warbeasts. I also think they're pretty characterful simply because the Ogres themselves are funny, almost a parody of wargaming. I can't really picture an army made of Shreks.. can you? Definitely something different from the seriousness that is High Elves (and me for that matter).

Well, there you have it folks. Everyone knows me as the guy that plays High Elves but now I'm looking for a second army to offset that. I just don't know! Help! (more below)

For me, I usually choose an army based on the following in order of importance:

The "coolness" factor
Army design, skill factor and playstyle
Popularity
Lore

The "coolness" factor

Vampire Knights are REALLY cool to me, as is the Grave Guard/Black Knights and spectral riders. I'm a fan of the Zombie Dragon and the Terrorgheist, but everything else is meh. I don't see myself ever buying the Mortis Engine/Coven Throne. I don't like the undead.. but I like Blood Knights and Vampires. Interesting..

I like how Gut magic works and I think that's outrageous. A Slaughtermaster eats something loudly and belches it out and something magical happens is just.. ridiculous. Freaking Ice Mammoths, Bearcats and Ogres totting cannons. Super cool.

Even though I like the idea of Blood Knights, I won't be using the models. The Dragon Princes are just perfect for me because I love the look of them. Besides, aren't Blood Dragons supposed to have Dragon iconography? I'll probably convert a Vamp Lord to ride a steed, but I actually like the Ogre models more. There's just more diversity in there instead of ranks and ranks of cannon fodder that all looks the same backed by a few specials.

Vampires have a "cooler" feel to them, especially to a player who plans on using a lot of vampires who focuses on martial skill, but Ogres have better models imo. Fuck me, this looks to be a tie.

Winner: Tie

The playstyle of the army

Vampire playstyle is basically this in a nutshell: Cannon fodder holds things in place, they're Unbreakable so who cares. The cannon fodder sucks ass in combat anyway, but no matter how many your opponent kills, you'll just res them up and wait for your heavy hitting Knights or Grave Guard to get in there. Once that happens, two scenarios arise: You hit the enemy like a ton of bricks and force enough wounds to either break them, or don't break and your opponent swings back at the fodder, thus killing your expensive units as well because of the undead rules. Anyone with a brain will swing into the fodder instead of Blood Knights imo.

The army requires wizards and casters to constantly bring the dead back to life.. or unlife I don't know. They can't march without being near Vampires and once the general of the army dies, the entire army begins to crumble into the dust. The plus side is that despite all the cannon fodder in the army, you get to be a WS9 Vampire Lord or have really elite Blood Knights fighting for you. I like the idea of high WS because that's supposed to resemble you on the battlefield.. and high WS makes my ego higher.

Ogres playstyle is this: Push models forward, calculate which models needs to go where to inflict the largest amount of casualties to force a break. Not as straight forward as 7th Ed. Khorne Daemons, but the idea is to get into close combat and use your fat to break the enemy lines. Magic has a lot of augments that can be cheaply cast to buff your Ogres in combat and in toughness. Your WS is bleh but your strength and toughness is above average. In short, Might is Right.

However, when you look at how VC players win their games, they do so with 4+ Regen Banner, +1 hit to hit, Great Weapon Grave Guard OR... Blood Knight bus with all the right tools. This is a very linear way of playing. For Ogres, I have cannons, Mourfang, Ironguts, Bulls, Leadbelchers.. just a lot more units who all have very different roles on the battlefield. This is a more combined arms approach and offers a lot more win conditions and replay value than what VC offers.

Winner: Tie

Army popularity

There are 7 VC players at my nearest GW and a couple more are bound to start up. I know zero Ogre in the area.

Winner: Ogres

The background and lore

Undead, don't really care for that much. Vampire invades lands, gets triple-teamed by Empire/Bretonnia/Dwarves and gets owned. Tries again in a few decades. They're dead, so you can't really kill them and they constantly get brought back. Not much for background and lore there. The only thing I like is the Blood Dragon lore, and Walach and the knights of Blood Keep.

Ogres, just outrageous lore and background. I like the story more.

Winner: Ogres

Still not sure.... since I'm a gamer first so I really care about the playstyle and rules. I also really care about the coolness factor but both these things are tied! HELPPPPPPP

Do you feel it?

2012-01-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

The simplest question in the world can sometimes be the hardest..

How did you get into the armies you play? I have many armies and tried many more, but there's always some that sticks to my heart. You know, the armies that you constantly go back to and prefer over the ones you bought on a whim. You gotta FEEL the army to really get into it.

So the question once again is.. did you feel your army before getting it?

I'm asking because I'm in sort of a pickle. I didn't invest a lot into VC yet, but I'm not feeling them the same way I felt about High Elves.

New Year's Resolution

2012-01-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, hope everybody had a nice New Year. I look forward to 2012 for a number of reasons, some of which are personal and I'll share them with you now. Don't worry, this is all minis related and I promise you you won't be disappointed.

First, a sad realization: I have plateaued as a minis gamer and in a bad way. To categorize myself in a nut shell: I love list building, playing the game and putting models together. I hate painting, thinking about fluff or anything else really.

Now it's time for me to tell a story:

Something like 4 years ago, I played my first game of 40K at the gaming company I work at now. I played a slightly older chap who used to work at GW and he had the most beautifully painted army I'd ever seen. I was almost embarrassed to pull out my completely unpainted miniatures that I just put together. This was back when 5th Ed. was still young and I just got my hands on some new Space Marines. Long story short: I tabled him by turn 2. He turns, looks at me and says: "Larry, I give up. I'm not having any fun." This is probably the saddest thing I have ever heard. To me, everything was going perfectly: Shrike Infiltrated and charged where he needed to, my Drop Pods came down and unloaded their Dreadnoughts precisely where I wanted them, my Sternguard arrived the next turn and annihilated their intended target... everything was perfect - from a strategic and tactical point of view. However, one thing was not perfect: My opponent was not having fun. I was having fun because I view myself as a great general with a ton of experience. That's what happens when you play the hobby and focus on its gaming aspects for the last 11 years. Sure, I have painted armies before and had my shares of fluff discussions, but gaming is my specialty and what I do best. I remember this story perfectly and vividly because it is the hallmark of where I failed as a minis player.

Another story: A month or two ago, I played a friend of mine who is also considered a casual player. He likes to paint a lot and I swear to God he builds the worst lists I've ever seen. He's one of those one-a-list players but his models blows mine out of the water in terms of presentation. Now, I'm playing with Dark Eldar, another completely unpainted army because I spend all my time building and playing these armies instead of anything else. The gist of this story is that I've already "calmed" down as a competitive player. I purposely took no Venoms, no special characters, no min-maxed Dark Lances (even though I still had 3 Ravagers), Wyches without FNP Haemonculi and no Wracks or Beasts. Basically, I played what I viewed as "optimal but fair". Sadly, I greatly outplayed my opponent and a day later an email goes out to my gaming group labeling me as a power gamer. This is what prompted that post about FW model because my friend actually wants to take a Achilles vs. me just so he has a chance. Sadness again.

Just recently: I played a Warhammer Fantasy game, High Elves vs. Daemons. I saw my opponent playing Kairos a previous game before and I asked him before we played if he was taking Kairos. The reason why I asked is because if he was, I was going to take Teclis to combat him. I have never done this, ever, in 11 years of wargaming. I used to take whatever I want, whoever I want, whenever I want and never gave my opponents any ands, ifs or buts. But hey, times are changing and I'm getting older. Moving on: After hearing what Teclis could do, my new friend says he'll take a normal chicken lord instead and then I asked him if I can take the Book of Hoeth. Not even a special character, but now I'm asking if he's OK with an item. I never thought this day would happen, never. Anyways, we play the game I max out on my tactical acumen. My Eagles redirected accordingly, I played superb and I'm basically way ahead of him. Out of sheer sympathy, I let him rear charge my Spears after I opted to flee with my Eagle instead of just letting my Eagle redirect. The reason is because I want him to kill something.. anything.

For one, this is not a spiritual funk that I'm in. It's true, I've been inactive from minis and this might be one of the reasons. Years of dedicated gaming has made me a great general, but for what? I hardly make mistakes, I know the ins and out of my army and my list is battle-hardened and optimized. There is no competition, I don't attend any tournies anymore because people are assholes but in turn, I'm viewed as one because of my gaming apparatus. At the same time, I still feel the need for competition and I'm an elitist regardless of what I do. When I see unimaginative and poorly-tuned lists, I think to myself why. When I see poorly executed maneuvers without any consideration for the future, I think why. When I see 5 marines charge a full squad of Wyches and Archon instead of getting back in their Rhino and running away, I think why. "Why" is the definition of self-proclaimed superiority and the personal view of an elitist when you constantly question other people.

I think for this new year, I want to break the mold of asking why but rather ask: Why not? I spoke to a friend today and asked him what I should do. He's an older gentlemen and has tons of experience with minis gaming and I know he can tell me something. Maybe the reason the guy charged 5 marines into a full squad of Wyches is because he wanted to see something epic. However tactically-flawed or outrageous, he just wanted a story in the lines of: The Space Marine Sergeant punched the Archon through the face with his Power Fist. Maybe the poorly designed lists I see are people who don't care winning (at all) and all they care about is physically portraying the different spices of life, sprinkled in the form of toy miniatures. Maybe people misplay and make tactical errors because they are not as experienced as I am, someone who has tread thousands of battlefields in the fantasy-past and space-driven future.

I've offered for other people to build my lists, I've sacrificed units just so I can say I lost something and I've asked for my opponent's permission to play things. My new year's resolution is to simply: Play the beer and pretzels game the game was intend to be played. I'm still going to blog about the competitive aspects of gaming and share all my knowledge about becoming a better general, but I want to do it with one important message: Make sure you and your opponents are having fun.

Some VC brainstorming

2011-12-31T01:01:00.000-08:00

Needless to say, I'm really excited about Vampire Counts in January. I have boxes and boxes of stuff stored away waiting for this day (Jan 14th). As if I don't have enough stuff already, the new stuff looks amazing. I think it's time I start brainstorming on what kind of things I'll be taking in my 8th Ed. Vampires army.

First thing's first: I will be taking a fighty killy lord over a spellcasting one. There is nothing more boring than a bunker lord sitting behind his units spamming spells. I want some 6th Ed. Killing Blow, +1S on the charge killer or some 7th Ed. Infinite Hatred + Red Fury. From the latest rumor mill, it appears that Vamp Lords will be able to hit WS9 by taking the Dreadknight upgrade. Since we have no idea what else is available, I'm hoping it'll be similar to what 7th Ed has now. Sadly, I don't think Bloodlines will be back from what I've read so far.

I have no idea how I'm gonna deliver this bad boy yet, but it's either going to be Zombie Dragon, Blood Knights, Black Knights or Grave Guard. At this moment, I'm leaning towards the Zombie Dragon and Blood Knights. From the White Dwarf BR, it appears that Blood Knights went down in points, costing ~250 points for 5 of them with Full Command. Also confirmed is the Banner of Blood Keep, so that's always a good thing to give your dudes ranged insurance.

My supporting heroes will definitely be a BSB and some supporting Necromancer casters. Depending on how the Vampire Lords are priced with gear, I may or may not take a Master Necro. Hopefully the magic items stay decent and not overpriced so I can take a bound item or two.

The core of my army will probably be made out of Skeletons and Ghouls. Even though the Ghouls went up to 10ppm, I'm still going to take them. A part of me hopes they added some benefits to warrant the price increase, but I can see myself taking a block of 40 in horde formation and a 30-strong skeleton bunker as my necro cage. If the rumored 5ppm for Skeletons is right, we're looking at 180 points for 30 in Full Command. Also, Screaming Banner is back so maybe add a War Banner for those Skeletons and call it a day.

What gets interesting is the rest of the army. Say I want to spend big on the lord, big on the heroes and min core, we're looking at ~1250 spent so far (and that's really way maxed out). That gives us roughly the same amount of points to play with for the various other things in the army. What are those things? You can basically pick 2-3 of these below..

Big block of Grave Guard + Banner of Barrows?
Big block of Blood Knights w/ Banner of Blood Keep?
Big block of Black Knights + Banner of Barrows?
2x Terrorgheists + Lord on Zombie Dragon?
A bunch of Corpse Carts to refresh ASF everywhere?

A supporting unit of Hexwraiths is a must I would think..
For some reason, the Coven Throne and the other thing don't appeal to me...

Depending on what they change about the Grave Guard and Banner of Barrows, I'm leaning towards 2x Terrorgheist + Lord on Zombie Dragon. Either that, or I'll run the Lord in a large unit of Blood Knights w/ Banner of Blood Keep. Points willing, I think I'll have enough for a small unit of Hexwraiths just to flank and harass.

Some VC rumors

2011-12-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

UPDATED: 1:36pm 12-29-11

Completely true. Local newsagent had the white dwarf, and I've been having a good read. Invocation of Nehek affects all friendly units in its radius of 6"/12"/18", depending on the power level.

The Corpse Cart gives all units within 6" ASF until your next magic phase if it is the target of a Vampire spell - including the AoE of Invocation. This is specifically stated. Imaging say, 3 units of Skeletons or even Grave Guard, with 2 Corpse Carts between them, and a Necromancer or two in there throwing out Invocation every turn. Skeletons/Grave Guard with permanent ASF.

Raise Dead can raise either Zombies or Skeletons.

A few other tidbits.

Necromancers can take an upgrade called Master of the Dead. The only way to add models to a Skeleton unit raised with Raise Dead is with a Necromancer with Master of the Dead.

Ghouls are 10 points. A unit of 40 with a Ghast in one of the sample lists was 410 points.

Banner of the Blood Keep is one of the returning banners, and grants a 4+ ward save to shooting attacks.

There appear to be 3 different vampire types. Vampire lord, Vampire, Strigoi Ghoul King. This is mentioned in the new rules for Vampire Counts pacts for Storm of magic, they specifically name the lord choices you can take, and it is those 3 and Master Necromancer. They don't mention at all what makes a Strigoi Ghoul King different, though it might have something to do with Hatred and Poison, as Phil Kelly pointed out in the GW website Terrorgeist designers notes.

I also may be reading too much into it, but there's some hints towards Ghouls not being able to be reinforced through Invocation of Nehek. Don't quote me on this, it's not outright stated, just whenever they talk about raising models, Ghouls are the only unit not mentioned, as well as in the Lahmian sample list they say 'with 40 models, it ensures there will be enough left when they reach the enemy' or sometihng to that effect.

A Vampire Lord with death knight is WS 9. Looks like Vampire Lords are getting ridiculous stats again.

Master Necromancers can be the general. They specifically state this. It's possible to make an army completely lacking vampires.

They make a subtle mention about 'when the general dies, the army starts to crumble until another powerful character can regain control.' Seems like you can replace the general with a powerful Necromancer or other Vampire caster somehow if the general dies.

----------

Another batch of input... (from reading through the WD at the store today)

Where should we start ?

Lore of the Vampires

Signature Spell is definitely Invocation of Nehek - on the most fundamental level it can restore "D6 + caster's Wizard level" of Wounds to friendly Undead unit within 6". Boosted version has 12" range, as well as 18" ones.

Other spells includes Raise Dead, Vanhel's Danse Macabre, Curse of Years, Gaze of Nagash, and Wind of Death

Lore attribute: When the spell from the Lore of the Vampires is succefully casted, the wizard or any undead models within 12" restores 1 wound.
Rules tidbits:

All Vampire has rule called "Hunger" - You get to roll a D6 when the vampire kills one or more models in combat, on a 6 you recovers one wound. (Vlad with Blood Drinker pass the roll on 4+)

Also Vampire, including vampiric creatures "such as" Varghulf and Vargheist, can march. So Vargheist will be able to move 20" per turn almost all the time. (not sure if Varghulf can also fly)

Vampiric Powers: (not all of them, just those mentioned in WD)
Flying Horror - give the vampire ability to fly (unsure)
Dread Knight - ability to boost WS (don't know how - but a Vampire Llord with Dread Knight has WS of 9)
Quickblood - gains ASF
Master of the Black Arts - get to re-roll one D6 for the Winds of Magic.
Dark Acolyte - add D3 to the total number of models raised by Nehek.
Red Fury - should be about the same. (unsure)

New units:

Coven Throne
- Basically a chariot mount for your Lord.
- Is a Large target with S5 T5 5W and 5+ save.
- has Spectral Steed rules (can move 8"), Undead, Vampiric, ASF (only for Handmaiden who has 2 S5 Attacks)
- has Random Attacks (2D6) at S3 from the spirit horde.
- Has Ward Save of 4+
- Battle of Wills (before the first enemy rolls to hit against the character or the Throne, both player roll a D6 and add their LD value. Has effects based on the difference of the score)
* no effect (0 or less)
* suffer -1WS/BS
* the enemy must re-roll successful To Hits
* each model in the enemy unit strike each other (only 1 attack per model)
- Has Bound Spell (lvl3) allowing the Throne (and all of its crew) to re-roll either To Hit or To Wound rolls.

Mortis Engine
- Is a Rare Choice
- Same stats as for the Throne (S5 T5 W5 Sv5+)
- has 2D6 attacks at S3 from the spirit horde
- Undead, Terror, Spectral Steed, and Regeneration
- can make Ghostly Howl attack.
- can take upgrade, allowing any wizards casting spell from the Lore of the Vampires to get +2 to their casting attempt. (ANY) miscast wizards rolls twice on the table and have the opponent choose the result)
- The Reliquary (at the start of your turn, roll 2D6 and add the current turn number - until the start of its next turn, all friendly Undead units within this number of range gains +1 bonus to their Regeneration, 6+ if they don't have any, to a maximum of 4+. Also, all enemy units within this range suffers D6 hits at the strength equal to the turn number.

- Also has some penalties if removed from play - by damaging every units within a random range at the strength equal to the current turn number)

Master Necromancer
- New Lord choice (ie. better Necromancer)

- Banshees and Cairn Wraith are now Hero

Hexwraiths (special)
- Fast Cavalry with Ethereal (yes!) that can inflict automatic S5 hits on unit that it moved through.

Vargheist (special)
- Flying Monstrous Infantry that has Fly, Frenzy, and 3A.

Crypt Horrors (special)
- Monstrous Infantry unit with M6 S4 T5 I2 W3 A3, has Poisoned Attacks, Regeneration 5+, and Undead.

I think that's all I've seen in the WD...

BTW, Heinrich Kemmler is back in finecast (and in the book) for sure. But on the original sculpt, no new miniature for him. (at least for now)

Seeing lots of people wondering if the Bloodline is back in the book.
Honestly, I'm not sure as it's not specifically mentioned rule-wise.

Cheers,
ZAlpha

Hmm... let's see...

Skeletons....should be A LOT cheaper.
(40 Skellies with Full Command for less than 240 points. )

Crypt Ghouls... definitely a bit more expensive.

Zombies... even cheaper than the current one.

Fell Bats... cheaper.

Corpse Cart.... almost the same (but goes Special)

Black Knights.... cheaper.

Spirit Host... cheaper as well.

Varghulf... remains the same.

Dire Wolf....should be exactly the same.

The rule is not clear whether the Vampire can give the unit he/she joined march move. However, the article clearly says that only "the General of the army, usually a Vampire of incredible age and power, is mighty enough to pass on this ability to other Undead units within 12" of him"

For the corpse cart... hmm I'm not sure I understand it correctly - but I think when you target a Lore of Vampire spells at the Corpse Cart (or if it is within area of effect of spells such as Invocation of Nehek <-- this is what's written in WD) all freindly undead within 6" of the Corpse Cart affected by the spell will benefit from Always Strike First until the start of your next Magic Phase.

You don't expect Ethereal Fast Cavalry to be that cheap, don't you?

Based on the demo list posted in WD, I think they may be almost as expensive as Dragon Princes of Caledor.

@LotusCorgi

I see only Musician and Standard for Zombies.
No rules for recasting spells mentioned in WD.

Merry Christmas Vampire Counts!

2011-12-25T11:35:00.000-08:00

Got a whole bunch of pics from the latest White Dwarf.

Check out all the Vampire Count goodness!

Merry Christmas everybody :)

Research: War of the Ring

2011-12-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

I guess this can be inspired because of the new Hobbit trailer, but this is more for personal research.

My friends tell me War of the Ring is herohammer 40K + simplified Warhammer Fantasy. Since I have no experience with the LotR or WotR, I was wondering if you guys can explain the game to me. I have the rulebook and I've been reading it over.. but I kinda ran into a problem area.

I've read this maybe 30 times and I'm either tired, illiterate or a mix of both, but I can't make any sense out of this:

Take a look at the To Hit mechanism for shooting in this game.

The example they gave was that a few companies of Galadrim Archers shot at some orcs. They generated 22 shots.

then they lost me...

So a Galadrim Archer has a Fight value of 5/3+. The 2nd value represents their skill with a bow. So using that aiming bonus chart they provided, it means that each company does that number of attacks (8 attacks per company), plus 2 more attacks because it's 5(5 is base number for everything apparently)-3 = +2 bonus die (so 10 total). So 2 companies of Galadrim Archers with direct LoS generates 20 shots and if there's 2 more companies behind them, they generate 2 more (1 die for each "supporting" company). That's 22 dice total.

OK, so looking at the 3+ value of their ranged skill, then looked at their example of "to hit chart", it seems to me they skipped "to hit" all together and just moved onto wounding? (strength is strength and defense would be toughness).

I'm pretty confused. I guess hits only add attack dice and you only roll to see if it wounds or not?

Anywho, the rest of the game looks pretty straight forward:

1k battles looks like a 1500 point game from the size of stuff
FOC looks really streamlined and easy to figure out with common and rare choices
Charges have a smaller degree of random because it's just D6 + 2,4,6,8 depending on what kind of model you are
LoS like WHFB but there's less emphasis on pivots and turning (even more so than 8th)
Magic is not like 8th ed. WHFB but more like 6-7th ed., which I like, a lot
Herohammer elements with epic heroes doing epic and heroic abilities
From the looks of it, it looks like this game should be very scenario based or else people are just going to push models forward and crash into things

Did I miss anything? Now to figure out this combat system...

40K vs. Fantasy by region

2011-12-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

I'll lead this off with a link to my favorite site of all, Warseer. (I'm banned from there btw)

Then I'll post something that loveless said somewhere on the first page:

On the subject of why 40K is played more in the USA than Fantasy.. it's because..

loveless
We Americans like our automatic weapons, missiles, and tanks. Fantasy is lacking a bit in that department.

That said, I think the biggest issue with Fantasy around here is still the rank-and-file nature of it.

"I need to buy how many boxes to make one unit?" compared to smaller box counts in 40K and Warmachine. Honestly, I'm not sure why GW packages WHFB the way they do - they throw out 10-man boxes for WHFB when a standard unit size is going to be 20+ in most cases.

40K has its own packaging problems, but they're less apparent, IMO. A 5-man Terminator squad is perfectly usable, even if the max size is 10. The 5-man Troop/Elite boxes are questionable, but are often bulkier than equivalents in WHFB. It's odd to say, but I feel like I'm getting more bang for my buck when I'm working on $60 of 40K vs. $60 of Fantasy (notable exception: plastic Zombie Dragon - worth every penny).

The other thing that springs to mind is the widespread knowledge of the Dawn of War and Space Marine games. GW has struggled to license out a good, positively memorable WHFB-based game. W:AR was (is?) quaint at best and a useless exercise in PvP at worst. The RTS version of Fantasy (Mark of Chaos?) never seemed to catch on.

Personally, I like WHFB (especially 8th), but I have trouble painting (let alone buying) 200+ plastic rats or 100+ plastic undead when a square piece of cardboard does the same thing - 50%+ of those models are just glorified wound counters.

With 40K, if I buy 10 Necron Immortals, all 10 have a definite chance to contribute to my army's rate of fire and damage output. 10 Terminators means 10 bruisers who have a damn good chance of getting stuck into a combat and individually wrecking face.

I think you get more of a personal connection with 40K models - you can really go to town with posing and conversions and single Troop models. Your opponents can learn to fear Brother Nero, the tactical marine firing a bolter in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other because he managed to pick the last wounds off the Ork Warboss after the rest of his squad died. Hell, back at the beginning of 4th, I had one particular Arco-flagellant that had accomplished such ridiculous feats of murder that he quickly became the go-to target for my regular opponents.

With Fantasy, the most "locally renown" models were Lord and Hero choices - the troops and such were just meaningless placeholders while Wizards blew them away and heroes cut through them with the Enchanted Sword of Truthiness. Skeleton #27 isn't very likely to stand out from his fellows, nor is High Elf Spearman Ellisyr or Ork Boy Grum Toothcracka.

Fantasy often feels like you're just moving blocks around while 40K can feel like an interactive war movie (and there are games that do it a lot better than 40K, as well!).

What do you guys think about this?

1500 points - A different animal

2011-12-03T08:01:00.001-08:00

Lately, I've been doing a good amount of 1500 pt games.

For me, this is a complete change to how the game plays at 2K. Let me riddle you guys something: Does the number of units you have under your control changes from 1500 to 2K? Yes, most of the time. It could be a lot more units in transports, a more aggressive MSU approach, 2 huge squads of something or a boss character. Does this change how you play the game? Most definitely. Your strategy, tactics and game sense will change depending on what you add into your army. This is certain. What isn't certain for me is your level of generalship and play style. For me, it's difficult to judge whether or not I play more conservative at lower point levels than I do at higher point levels. The thought and need of unit preservation stays the same no matter what level I play at. I always want to get the best bang for my buck.

So what is point level for me? At 1500 pts, the scale of the game is different. There are less units on the battlefield, you feel like you're playing a skirmish rather than a battle and you see a lot of different archetypes. Is scale the only thing to change at this level? I feel that at this level, one needs to make certain cuts to his army in order to preserve what is effective. Let me flesh out an example with my own Dark Eldar army: At 2K points, I take Vect and 3 Blasterborn Venoms. At 1500 points, I drop Vect for an Archon and I remove the Blasterborns completely. Crazy right? Vect adds a lot to my army because he can get away with things a normal Archon can't: One of which is a game-changing ability to Seize Initiative. Aside from his beastly stats as a melee monster, taking away the Blasterborn takes the number of lances I employ by 9, and the number of 36" Splinter Cannon shots down by 36. This is a huge change to the army! Not only has the scale of the game changed, the number of options I have have been drastically reduced. Tactically, it also means I have less units to contest and less kill points to give to my enemy.

But wait, does this mean all armies are effected in the same way? If you look at my Space Wolf army, going from 2K to 1500 requires me to drop Ragnar and his retinue of Terminators. My CC killing potential goes down by a lot, but the core of my army stays the same: 3 full squads of Grey Hunters, a Rune Priest and enough anti-tank for my meta. The same could be said about my Blood Angels: Mephiston goes down to a Libby, 1 Baal and 1 AC/LC Pred gets dropped (roughly). How big of a change is that? Is it any bigger than the changes I made to my Space Wolves and Dark Eldar? Ah.. so maybe there is a point to this post after all. Let me ask you folks a riddling question:

Does the scale of the game (in terms of point level) change the playstyle and dynamics of all armies or just some armies? If you look at the example I provided above with Dark Eldar and Space Wolves, which army do you think is effected more? Some guys in my club think Tyranids isn't even viable at 1500 points. If this is true, then it brings us back to the age-old question of GW game design: If the design team does intend on balancing the game, what point level do they balance it on?

I leave you guys to your thoughts.. but get back to me quickly because this is good.

Designing a new miniatures game!

2011-12-01T12:23:00.001-08:00

I've had this on the backburner for the longest time, but I think it's time to start a open blog about it.

I can't share too much info right now, but I want to touch upon two settings I'm interested in hosting the game in. Which one of these appeals to you more?

Alternative History
It's 1947 and the war is still going
Weapons technology is advancing at a unheard of rate
Japan is still racing through rapid expansion
Germany wins the Battle of Britian and has now established Fortress Europe
America tries to invade Europe via Italy and is pushed back
Fights still rage in the Pacific as Pearl Harbor still happens
Hitler is now just invading Russia since Europe is under his grasp
Russia and China unite to form a superfaction to fight Japan and Germany
Think Wolfenstein, Red Alert and Dust Tactics in terms of sci-fi and paranormal coolness

Near future 2239
China and Russia merge as a superfaction
USA is still the world police, the Peacekeepers
NATO is formed into the European Defense Force
Japan sinks under the water from a natural disaster but is actually building a new Atlantis, with Mecha Gundams
There will be future weapons, mechs and a lot of cool technology and weapons
China and Russia invade Europe for the last remaining resources in the middle-east
Europe has no chance but to unite and form a defense force
America is brought into the fight to restore peace and initiate justice
Japan takes this opportunity to strike back after its humiliating defeat in WWII and all hell breaks loose.
Think a mix between Mech Warrior, Earth 2150 and CNC

FW models allowed in normal games?

2011-11-30T20:41:00.001-08:00

Cock locked and ready to rock.

So I played a friend of mine yesterday and I decisively defeated his Blood Angels with my Dark Eldar at 1500 pts. He tells me today he's going to take a LR Achilles in our next engagement and I said no way. I was under the impression that FW models are unofficial and permission only (being mainly used in Apoc games) but he shows me his book and it reads:

This is the opening statement in the new IA books:

This unit is intended to be used in 'standard' games of Warhammer 40,000, within the usual limitations of Codex selection and force organisation charts.As with all our models these should be considered 'official', but owing to the fact they may be unknown to your opponent, it's best to make sure they are happy to play a game using Forge World models before you start.

So I guess it's official now that you can use FW models in games of 40K?

I personally hate FW models. Well, not the actual models themselves but the rules that come with them. If you think GW rules are bad, I think FW rules are just outlandish. The reason why is because they WANT to put something out that GW does not put out. D-weapons, great. Immune to melta/lance, great. A drop pod that allows a Furioso to charge on the turn it lands, awesome. In order to sell models that are 3x as expensive, the rules must own as much right. I mean after all, how much are people willing to pay for proxies of a normal Land Raider? They want something that can wreak havoc and make that 100 dollars well spent. Thus, the rules are developed to go with them.

Anyone else feel this way?

Time for some Firestorm

2011-11-23T12:55:00.001-08:00

How did he get the purple to look like this?

I'll be playing Firestorm next week hopefully. Pretty damn excited. My fishmans (Aquan Prime) haven't seen the light of day in forever. Maybe they were hibernating? Or maybe they're just waiting for SG to get out more ships and MARs! Did you guys see some of the new Dreadnoughts and Destroyers Spartan put out for Firestorm? They look quite bad ass. I'm a huge sucker for space combat and I'm about to indulge myself in some casual, exploding dice fire frenzy. I'll try my best not to rage quit and throw my models across the table if they blow up.

Here's what I plan on bringing at 1k points:

Poseidon BB (3x AP) = 215

Manta BC (9x AP) = 275

4x Storm CL = 240

2x Pirahna FF = 40

+3x Interceptor Wings = 15

Also thinking about possibly dropping the Manta's AP for max Pirahna squads.. but realistically, they're probably just going to have to swim somewhere and hopefully not die. Might also drop a CL for max FF, what do you guys think?

Oh, and here's some Wings rules I want to try. I saw this on the Spartan Games forums and there's quite a bit of good feedback. It's user-created so I have my doubts, but I think it can be for the betterment of the game.

These rules make three major changes:
1.) Wings from Carriers activate as part of their Carrier's activation.
2.) Carriers may Link Fire with their Wings.
3.) Wings receive specialization bonuses partially based on a suggestion by one of the Spartan Games team members in another thread (I forgot the link, so if someone has it lemme see so I can properly give credit).

The following is the second revision of the suggested Variant Wing Rules. The rules really aren't that long, I just write for maximum clarity. Some of it may be repetitive.

Wings:

Interceptors deal 2 hits to enemy wings on a roll of 5 (destroying them, but still only get a bonus d6 on a result of 6). See Clarifications for a reminder on standard Wing combat.
Fighters that receive a destroyed result may roll a d6, and on a roll of 6 are instead Driven Off. Fighters may make this roll for each destroyed result they receive. This ability must be resolved immediately upon receiving the destroyed result. This allows an opponent to assign bonus dice from rolling a 6 to the Fighter should it survive.
Bombers receive +1 to AD rolls.
AP from Assaulters receive +1 to the first roll in a Boarding action (AP from other sources receive no bonus even if they participate in the boarding action)

Carriers:

Wings activate as part of a Carrier's combat action and may Link Fire with their Carrier (assuming the Wings can make a legal attack as per standard FS:A rules, see Clarifications regarding Command Distance). When Linking Fire with Wings, the Flight receives its full AD and the Carrier links with 1/2 AD.
All Wings from the same Carrier activate simultaneously. In effect, this allows mixed Wing Flights. However, Carriers are still restricted to only carrying two types of Wings.
All Flights/Wings from a Carrier activate at the same time as the parent Carrier, even if they are working independently (choosing not to Link Fire). Wings that are attached to a ship may detach as normal per the activation rules, but may choose to remain with the attached ship as normal.
You do not receive an additional STAR card for your carrier-bound wings. They are NOT an additional squadron, they do not have a separate activation from your Carrier. They are a component of your Carrier's squadron, and only activate with your Carrier.
Opponents who are able to roll PD against a Torpedo salvo and/or Wings must split their PD amongst all valid targets as normal per PD rules. Boarding Actions exempt (see clarifications).
PD against Assaulters & PD against Boarding Actions by ships are handled separately. However, after PD resolves AP from both sources are pooled together for the Boarding roll.

Clarifications:
These are core rules which are relevant to the Variant Wing Rules.

In the standard rules, Wing v. Wing combat rolls of 3-5 result in Driven Off results and Destroyed only on a 6. Rolls of 6 grant bonus dice which may be rolled against adjacent
Wings do not have to obey Command Distance
As per previous rules clarifications, Boarding Actions are a separate phase of combat. Therefore, PD is not split between Boarding and other forms of attack (such as torpedoes). The ship defending against a boarding action receives its full PD against a Boarding Action, but other ships may not participate in its defense (only the ship being boarded rolls PD against boarders).

Your army is overpowered

2011-11-21T10:41:00.001-08:00

Got another thread for you guys to look at:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323620

Yes, it's from Warseer, but I've seen stuff like this on a billion other forums: Dakka, Heresy, B&C, BoLS..etc. It seems to me that everyone and their dog seems to think Grey Knights are overpowered. Is this true? Personally, I do think that aside from the outrageous fluff that the book is a little strong. I think the book is more Space Marine hunters than Daemonhunters, but hey, to each his own.

Let me sum up this thread for you guys in a nut shell:

The OP is a Space Wolf player calling Grey Knights overpowered.
Several IG players chime in calling Space Wolves overpowered.
Blood Angels are mentioned briefly but dismissed because they are overshadowed by Space Wolves, IG and GK.
No GK players come to defend themselves.

Does that mean GK, SW and IG are the only OP armies? Is that what the internets have decided? What about you guys and what do you think?

What Tactical Marines ought to be

2011-11-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

Saw this thread on Warseer:
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323585

Thought it was interesting. There's a ton of proposals in there, but I have one of my own:
Let Tactical Marines take 2 special weapons, 2 heavy weapons or a combination of both.

That is all, thanks for listening.

BR: 4K BA vs. Necrons

2011-11-15T17:02:00.001-08:00

NOW UPDATED WITH BATTLE REPORT!
11-16-11
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33985835@N06/page2/
Pages 1+2 has the game photos.

Haven't played the game yet, but I will be playing it in the next couple of hours.
It will be a 2v2, Blood Angels vs. new Necrons, 2k points each player, so 4k total on each side.

My list looks like the following:
Mephiston
3x 10x ASM w/ PF/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns
2x Priests w/ JP
3x Baals w/ TLAC and HB sponsons
3x Preds w/ AC/LC config

My friend's (Darian) list:
Astorath
3x 10x ASM with PF/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns
2x Priests w/ JP
Furioso Dreadnought
Contemptor Dreadnought (FW, opponent's permission approved)
2x Stormravens w/ TLLC and TLMM, totting Dreads in the back

VS.

Steve
Phaeron w/ Weave, Phase Shifter, Res Orb, Warscythe
Lord w/ Warscythe, Res Orb
Lord w/ Warscythe, Res Orb
Cryptek w/ Harbinger of Transmog, Seismic Crucible
Illuminator Szeras
12x Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
12x Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
10x Immortals w/ Tesla Carbines
C'tan Shard w/ Swarm of Spirit Dust and Lord of Fire
5x Scrarabs
Monolith
Doom Scythe
2x Sypders

Brad
Nemesor
Obyron
Cryptek w/ Lance and Solar Pulse
Cryptek w/ Ether Crystal and Voltaic Staff
C'tan Shard w/ Time's Arrow and Writhing Worldscape
10x Immortals w/ Gauss Blasters
9x Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
9x Warriors w/ Ghost Ark
8x Scarabs
3x Wraiths w/ Whip Coils
Annihilation Barge
2x Sypders
Monolith

For a combined might of 60 solid ASM boots in the air, 6 AV13 vehicles, 4 Priests, the High Chaplain to spread Red Thirst love, Mephiston to rip apart robots and Stormravens flying high.

It will be marvelous, there will be pics, and much blood to be had! Stay tuned!

PS - There might be a few proxies, the Necrons are just coming out of statis.

We ended up just playing Kill Points because both Necrons were just coming out of 5th Ed. statis and the new book didn't make it any better!

I'll just abbreviate the BR in bullet point form so you guys can follow a bit easier. Just got the lists from the Necrons!

Shadows of the Primarch sees every single Blood Angels unit save 1 ASM squad from both players with Red Thirst.
So the battle starts with Necrons going first and the BA getting into position. All 3 of my Baal Preds Scout smoke towards the enemy lines while my Hunter Preds act as back support. The Stormravens also fly towards my armored advance and the Blood Angels seek cover behind the AV13 walls. Our idea was to force the bulk of our firepower and fighting strength to one side of the table and sweep all before us. Mephiston rolls a 11 on his fly and does not join his fellow angels. The Necrons activate their Solar Flare for night fighting after pushing their models up. Our attempts to shoot at the metal robots end in failure.
Next turn sees both Monoliths miss their chance to DS in and the BAs advance up even more. Since they only had one Solar Flare, we take advantage of this opening to unleash hell. A lot of fire goes all around the map and surprisingly, nothing really happen. I put some wounds on the advancing C'tan but it was not enough to kill it. Mephiston tries to join his fellow angels again, fails and takes a perils. Fresh squads of BA fall behind and in front of the Necron lines while the rest of the forces push up. They run to minimize incoming Monolith damage and with Priests in the squad or nearby, they have FNP to wither the bulk of the Necron retaliation. Our positioning was good, and the full force of the Blood Angels will fall upon the Necron lines next round. Or so we thought.
Something neat happened here: The Contemptor Dreadnought gets out of the Stormraven after moving 12" and assaults the C'tan. With Astorath's Red Thirst on the Dread, he goes first with Furious Charge and fails to do anything to it. The C'tan swings back and rips off one of the Dreadnought's arms and that was the end of it. Pretty boring, I was expecting massive explosions everywhere.
I'm not sure if this is the case, but next round a lot of shooting happened and it didn't go our way. The Ghost Arks that my opponents were driving were double-tapping with both Guass Arrays from both sides and we thought that was a little weird. You would think that a single boardside will only consist of one array shooting but our opponents insisted that both sides of the ship can double-tap. Anyways, the gunboats opened fire and a lot of Blood Angels died. To make matters even more interesting, Nemesor gives a block of Immortals Furious Charge when they had already received a +1S augmentation from a named Cryptek SC. So with FC in hand, the Immortals charged a unit of BAs and actually kill a couple. Most the damage came from the Necron Lord w/ Res Orb attached, and the Sarge's fist didn't as much damage as we hoped. It's OK, the combat stays and sits around.
Another interesting fact about this turn is that the back squad of BAs got charged by 2 Spiders. With 3 wounds a piece, those T6 MCs really held their own and the squad of BAs were stuck in combat with them for 2 more turns. The BAs eventually killed them off, but 2 Tomb Spiders held up a big squad of ASM.
Throughout the game, the Nemesor would take FC away from carefully selected BA units. Which ever squad was the biggest threat, the Nemesor would just wave his hand and say no. This was pretty frustrating towards the end as the BA army started to diminish and I needed the full impact of the charges to alter the tempo of the game.
As if the Ghost Arks weren't bad enough, the Scarabs also charged this turn. So this is what we learned. A small, crappy squad of Sacrabs advancing through Night Fighting while constantly being built up from 2 Spiders turned into a giant blob of free, awesome AT at the end. I think they had a pretty decent squad each with 2 Spiders to support them and ended up with a giant blob of each. Steven's squad charged 2 of my Baals and wrecked them both. So I'm not sure if this is correct, but we did this for damage: He rolled to hit on a 4 because my Baals moved 6" and then tallied the hits. He then rolled for Entropic Strike results on a 4+ which reduced my Baals' armor by say... 6 or 7. He then rolled S3 vs. AV4 rear armor and blew the Baals to shit. I was horrifically surprised because those Scarabs (both players charged with them this turn) killed 2 Baals, the Contemptor Dread and a Stormraven. And keep in mind these Sacrabs were basically free; starting out as a tiny squad and turning massive because of 2 rounds of Spider boosting.
So at this point, our perfect flanking locations and desires to crush the Necron forces doused by xenos trickery and deception. We took what was left of our forces and rallied them for action. Though reduced in number, we were still more than a match for most foes and retaliated with fury. My Preds threw back some fire and wrecked one Ghost Ark, stunned/pen'd another and destroyed the Death Ray flyer who Steve forgot to move. Mephiston rolls another 11 on his ability to fly (LOL) and he walks/fleets into the Scarabs who just killed the Baals. He tries to Unleash Rage and rolls another 11. At this time, I switch out my friend's painted model for my own and blame the mini for my life's failures. My other squad of ASM jump into the fray as well and we slaughter the Scarabs entirely. We rally forwards towards the enemy forces while my ally deploys his Blood Talon Furioso into the fray. Those Scarabs need to die we say, so he Heavy Flamers, Meltaguns and charges into the giant squad of bugs with his talons. S6 Red Thirst kills scarabs left and right but it's not enough. They swing back with those Entropic Strikes and the Furioso goes down.
On their turn, the Monolithes both come in and Brad asks Steve to wait for him to put it in first. We laugh like huge nerds. They drop the Monoliths near the remaining Blood Angels on the left flank and shoots all all its weapons. The Particle Whips were a miserable failure from both and the Guass Flayers killed very little. I think the biggest impact this turn was also from the Ghost Arks. They just shot so many shots it was unbearable and eventually, the BA forces were dwindled down some more. There was also another strange craft - something the Blood Angels recon force did not spot (or forgot). The Annihilation Barge opened fire and arc'd multiple times for massive amounts of damage. I think Brad rolled something like 3 6s on the hit so it did 7 S7 hits on one of my squads. Thankfully I saved like a beast but the arc continued to hit units next to it. FNP and the Emperor's grace denied the Necrons this time, but as our forces dwindle, so does our chances of securing victory.
I forgot to mention something: There was 2 C'tans on the map. One of them had Writhing Worldscape and Time's Arrow and the other one had Lord of Fire and Swarm of Spirit Dust. The craziest thing to happen was when Steve's Cryptek shot off his Tremorstave and applied it to my ASM squad. He did this a couple of times and with Writhing Worldscape on the map, things just got really hairy for the angels. Here's why: Vehicles effected by Difficult take Dangerous and fails on a 1 and 2 thanks to Writhing Worldscape. I lost 2 Sergeants with Power Fists during the game because I jumped and failed a dangerous. These things might not seem like a lot at first, but they hinder my plans a lot.. especially when I'm hoping to swing the tide of battle. Brad's C'tan had a escort of Wraiths who had the Lash Whip-equiv add-ons. If the C'tan would get into melee with any of my guys, Time's Arrow would force a I test at I1 (thanks to whips) or be removed from the game. That's just really scary!
Going back to the game, the Blood Angels, desperate for the tide to turn face the Monoliths and shoot them with meltas and angry words before charging in. I immobilized and blew off the Particle Whip on my target Monolith and my ally stunned and took the Particle Whip off his. Too bad our charges didn't do anything and the Monolith's reply was: Come into the light. I lost 5 Marines next round (including another Fist) and Darian lost 2 as the marines get sucked into the abyss portal. What the hell is going on?!
It's OK, we still got this. Mephiston actually passes a flight roll this turn and ends up in combat with the main Immortal squad in front of my smoking armored column. He rolls a 11 for Unleash Rage, misses with all but 2 attacks and does 1 wound after that. The main assault force (which had its FC removed from Nemesor) charged into a squad of Immortals with Counter-attack (Nemesor again) and killed a bunch of models. I rolled a crap ton of 3s for wounds but hey guess what? They don't count for anything. This is the only major victory we won in CC before Brad's Scarabs kill off another Stormraven, an AC/LC Pred and the C'tan can-opens our stunned and useless Vindicator.
At this point, we played for 4.5 hours and we call it because it was getting too late and our phones were ringing. A lot of things happened this game and I'm not sure how to describe it. Cheap, extremely cheap and FREE Scarabs managed to run through everything armored the Blood Angels have. These things are a must-kill first from now on. Hmm.. what else? Losing those Power Fists from Writhing Worldscape + Tremorstaves was just frustrating. Combat slows down a lot once you lose vital killing power and the loss of Infernus Pistols weakened us as well. Those Ghost Arks shot more than expected and I think this was a mistake? We didn't even get to see Obryon in action because he was baby-sitting Nemesor, but Nemesor was ridiculously awesome. Taking away FC and giving him CA did exactly what I feared before the battle even started: It robs you of momentum and turns the tide. Another thing that I found interesting about the Necrons was that they're really efficient in Kill Points with WBB and Res Orb.
I think if I was to make a good Necron list, it'll have plenty of Scarabs, a good amount of Spiders, Nemesor, Obyron, Solar Flares and plenty of footslogging Immortals/Warriors with Ghost Arks. I also want to revisit the Doomscythe when 6th comes out, but I think Heavy Destroyers can be good too. I do like the C'tan, but adding him and Tremorstaves takes a good amount of points.

Blood Angels lose 6-13 to Necrons!
The Necrons allow the Blood Angels to withdraw as long as they bro-fisted.

Just a heads up for 40K

2011-11-12T00:18:00.001-08:00

I hear Tau and Chaos Legions is next in that order.

I will be doing both: Tau because it was either them or Grey Knights back in the day, and Chaos Legions because I own 40 Forgeworld Deathguard.

Yep, that is all.

Edit: Oh wait, there's Vampire Counts coming out early next year too. Yep, doing that too. Damn.. next year is going to be expensive..

Necons: Thinking outloud

2011-11-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

A collection of Necron tips and tricks!

Tip #1 - Lychguard Deathstar
Submitted by HERO

Say you have Nemesor and Obyron.
Nemsor sits on a perch with 20x Warriors and a Cryptek with Tremorstave in cover with good LoS.

A Necron Lord w/ Res Orb, a Cryptek with Gaze, Obyron, 10x Lychguard with Dispersion Shields fly towards the enemy in a Night Scythe going Supersonic 36". The Night Scythe has 3++ due to turbo and Stealth because Nemesor says he does.

They get out, and start wreaking havoc. If things go poorly, they just teleport back to Nemesor.

Random thought: Anyone assaulting that squad will not have Furious Charge, the Necrons themselves will have Counter-Attack and defensive grenades. It's just all kinds of bad news.

Tip #2 - Destroyer Lord and Wraiths
Submitted by HERO

On the flank, you have a Destroyer Lord with Res Orb.
His bodyguard does not consist of Destroyers, but 6x Wraiths.
3++ bodyguards with 3 S6 Rending attacks each and a 4+ WBB for later.
Not bad for roughly 380 points.

Tip #3 - The World trembles
Submitted by HERO

A good amount of Crypteks with Tremorstave in transports.
36" range blast that on hit, makes the unit suffer Difficult Terrain.
C'tan with Writhing Worldscape on the field somewhere.
When you blast things, they're taking difficult and dangerous every time they move.
Note: Difficult for vehicles is always considered Dangerous, and they fail on a 1 and 2.

Tip #4 - Monolith LoS
Submitted by EldarCorsair

My own suggested trick: Move/face the Monolith backwards (it has the same armor on all sides and its guns don't really care which direction you're facing), when unloading Troops onto objectives, that way you can likely keep your troops hidden from enemy shooting by the Monolith's size.

Tip #5 - Doomscythes in the dark
Submitted by Metalloveman

Here's my evil trick: get night fight in effect (solar pulse/stormlord) and advance your doom scythes under cover of darkness. Note that the wording of the death ray means you can fire it without rolling for night fight(pick a point not "target a unit").

Tip #6 - Hiding your Destroyers
Submitted by Metalloveman

1. Deploy a couple of Ghost Arks mostly parallel to your board edge, nearly touching nose to tail. Deploy a squad of Heavy Destroyers near the place where the two Arks almost touch, so that you your opponent can't see them through your Ghost Arks.

2. In you movement phase, either move your Arks up or just rotate them so they're facing forward, creating a gap through which the Heavy Destroyers can shoot.

3. In your shooting phase, shoot though the gap with the Heavy Destroyers. Then shoot one set of each Arks' flayer arrays at a unit in front of it. Pivot the Arks to shoot with that array. That will close the gap between the Arks, hiding the Destroyers.

Submit your tips and tricks today! I'll add them here :)

New Necron Codex Review

2011-11-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Well guys, it's been quite a long time since I posted. I had a lot of chores with the new house, threw a house-warming party, got a new position at work, worked ridiculous hours at Blizzcon, then got sick after Blizzcon. In short: Shit's been really crazy lately and I haven't had time for any minis gaming. It's alright though, I received the new Necron codex this weekend and this review will hopefully nail all my thoughts on the book.

First, some self-made rankings and numbers:
Overall Power: 7
Internal Balance: 8
External Balance: 7
Creativity: 9
Fluff: 9
The verdict: A solid 8

What do all of these mean? Let's cover the obvious one first: Overall Power. By this, I mean how powerful I feel the book is. Personally, it would be on the same level as Dark Eldar or a balance Blood Angels list. There's a overwhelming weakness of close combat in the book, but isn't that the weakness of Necrons in the first place? I don't see this as an issue; I see it as adherent to the original army's design. The book, like the Dark Eldar book, feels very good in my hands. There's a lot of unique weapons that the Necrons have available that will change the metagame for the better. From the pseudo AV13 vehicles, to plentiful S7 power weapons with 2d6 armor pen, to teleporting Necron units, to long-range dominance in overwhelming firepower, the book's got options. The options are all pretty solid, but they're not over the top or completely faceroll compared to the other books out there.

That brings us to our next category: Internal Balance. What do I mean by this? I mean the book's got viable options that can suit many a player's playstyle. There's CC-heavy options via Wraiths, Flayed Ones and Lychguards, there's great shooting options like Immortals, mass Warriors and Deathmarks, and there's long-range anti-metagame options like the Doomsday Arks and Heavy Destroyers. When flipping through the book, I didn't see any glaring suck units and a bunch of different options that fulfill my needs. There's powerful long-range shooting, powerful mid-ranged shooting, and powerful CC options that's suited for building balanced army lists. If you want to min-max on shooting, you can do that too: Maybe not in the sense that you can spam out Razorbacks, but in the sense that you can counter-battery most RBs all day long. There's good units in the book, all of which are fairly competitive in price and function and there's no obvious "bad" choices. If I was to group units into categories of shooting, CC, long-range firepower..etc, I'm supposed to be presented with viable options everywhere. In a well-designed book, there shouldn't be a unit that outclasses everything else in its category and that's what I see here. The HQ choices are solid, not overpowered or weak, but the basic Necron Overlord does leave much to be desired. I don't mind it though, Mat Ward does give you the option to build your own lord if you want and that's all that matters. Don't expect the flexibility of the Grand Master though, those kind of special rules lies in the Special Characters (which it should be).

For External Balance, I'm looking specifically at the book vs. the metagame. How does the book fair against everything else that's out there? With a good amount of vehicles holding the AV13 flag and Skimmer status, I think the weight of Missile Launchers and Long Fang spam will go down a bit. Anything less than 6 on a S8 missile is only going to glance and that's not enough to strip away Quantum Shielding. Combine this with the option to ignore Shaken on a 2+ and 4+ from Stunned because of Living Metal and you've got yourself a metagame changing scenario. Since most of the Necron craft come with these two special rules as standard, I can see the meta changing to Lascannons. Guess what? All those Rifleman + Psybolt Dreads out there will be applying for new jobs. Especially if you consider the return of the Monolith and the plentiful amount of Destroyers/Heavy Destroyers a Necron player can put on the board (D/HDestroyers in FA slot). For those players already totting RBs with LasPlas or TLLC, this is good since you guys don't need to change anything, but for everyone else rocking all rockets, there might be some adjustment. Dark Eldar sees little change in how they play their game and Blood Angels will see very little as well. Space Wolves might want to man it up with AC/LC Predators like me and Grey Knights might want to look at TLLC Dread variants. Personally, I'm for anything that'll spice things up a bit.

As for Creativity, this should be a no brainer. When I examine a book, I look at one's ability to write with the casual, mediocre and hardcore player in mind. Are the units in the book new, exciting and fun at all levels? Do they all have a purpose and not feel like trash? I think Mat Ward did a good job bringing a dead book back to life (literally) and gave it purpose, direction and longevity. None of the units are particularly dull and there's a lot of interesting new ones. Sure, one can argue that Necrons are now basically Tomb Kings in space, but I think that's perfectly fine. It gives them character and personality, not in a sense that Bob the Necron is a good guy at heart, but in a sense that players can relate to Bob if they wanted to.

Lastly, I'll touch upon Fluff. For the first time in a long time, I think Mat Ward did a good job with the fluff. The last time he wrote good fluff was back in the 7th Ed. Daemons Army Book for WHFB. Even though that book was broke as shit, the fluff was spectacular and it's still one of my favorite shitter reads. You know what I think it is? Space Marines. Mat Ward goes all super fanboy when he writes about power armor and you eventually get shit like Draigo carving names on Mortarian's heart. However, like I said about the book's creativity, Ward was able to steer Necrons in a new and better direction. There's genuinely a lot of cool stuff in the book and they're all very well explained. I loved reading about the different weapon systems, and a lot of the whys I had last book have been answered. Overall, it's very satisfying to read something you thought was going to be atrocious and having it smack you in the face after. It's a very humbling experience.

Stay tuned with Part II of this review, then I'll get down to the nitty gritty.

Edit:
Wow, 20 minutes after the first post I decided to come back and write more. That's perfectly fine with me!

I'll break this down into FOC sections, and like always, I'll touch upon what I think is the most interesting.

First, the HQ section. When I look through the HQ section, I actually get a little bit confused. I'm happy in a sense that there's a lot of flavor, but I'm disappointed in my competitive choices. The big guy in this book is Imotekh the Stormlord. He's pretty good overall, has basic Necron Lord stats with a lot of nifty items. Comes with 2+/3++ in his cost, D3 wounds respawn but no Res Orb! Has a bunch of cool special rules like perpetual night fighting and Vect's 4+ seize vs. non-Ork armies but that's about it. Personally, I expected better. His fighting stats are mediocre and his army-wide rules are nowhere as game-changing as say... Logan Grimnar or Draigo Kaldor. Fighting wise, he's not as good as Vect or Mephiston so it's safe to say that's he's pretty mediocre. For the big guy in the book, I expected better. However, one can argue that making Night Fighting last for half the game can bring back footslogging lists! Shit, I would love to see that happen.

The one buy that caught my eye in the book is Nemesor Zahndrekh and Vargard Obyron. You basically buy both all the time because they're pretty much a package deal. I mean, you can buy them separate, but it would be like buying a hotdog without the bun. Anyways, the reason I love these two is because they're fantastic for the price. For 185 on Nemesor, you get 2+/3++ and a Res Orb. You do that with your generic Necron Overlord and it comes out to be 180. See what I mean about the DIY Lord? Back to the Nemesor: On top of the wargear, what really makes him tick is his special abilities: Adaptive Tactics and Counter Tactics. First, I love the fluff. Zahndrekh is a great general and these special abilities fit his character perfectly. Adaptive Tactics allows you to give anyone in your army a USR (CA, Furious Charge, Stealth, Tank Hunters, Hit and Run..etc) every turn. This means you can give your Warscythe-totting Lychguard S8 with Furious Charge, Wraiths or Flayed Ones Hit and Run or Heavy Destroyers Tank Hunters with S9 AP2. Outrageous combos are yours to invent. You throw on the fact that he has Counter Tactics, which at the start of the turn you choose a enemy unit in his LoS and they lose and cannot gain the same set of USRs until next turn. Your Blood Angels want to charge? Cool, no FC vs. my T5 Lychguard. Grey Hunters expecting to Counter-Attack? Nope. Dante has gives Hit and Run? No he doesn't. The list goes on. Lastly, he has Phased Reinforcements. As long as Zahndrekh is on the battlefield, any number of units in reserve coming in from DS can enter the play on the enemy turn just like Deathmarks. Pretty much, he gives the entire army Ethereal Interception. All for what? 5 more points than a generic Overlord. I think this is the biggest hit and miss and one of the reasons why I shot the Internal Balance a full point lower.

Next is Vargard Obyron. He's the only WS6 in the entrie book and he comes stock with a 2+ armor save. T5 with 3W and 3A just like most Overlords, but he has Ghostwalk Mantle which is a supped up version of Veil of Darkness. When he uses it, his entire unit is removed from the TT and placed anywhere via DS just like Veil. The big kicker here is that unlike Veil, he can use this even if he's locked in combat. He just peaces out and takes his entire squad to wherever the fighting is the thickest. The best part about this is that with Vargard's Duty, he does not scatter if he's 6" within Zahndrekh. In addition, if Zahndrekh is ever in trouble, Obyron will literally appear next to him and pile in whatever combat the Nemesor is in, even if Obryon is in a transport. That's just freaking outrageous. To make the fluff even better, Vargard Obyron has Cleaving Counterblow. If you swing at him and miss, you keep a tally of how many attacks missed him and when it's his time to swing, he swings back with his normal attacks +1 more for each attack missed (up to 6). Pray you hit him, or else he'll be hitting on 3s wounding with 2s vs. 90% of the game with no armor save. Oh, and he doesn't count towards your HQ choice if you buy Nemesor Zahndrekh.

Like I said, the other HQ choices are good: Andrakyr the Traveler can take control of an enemy vehicle within 18" of him on a 3+ and force it to shoot their own allies. Imagine taking control of a Vindicator and having it pound Dante's squad into dust. He also comes with Furious Charge and Counter-Attack and gives a unit of Immortals the same USRs. Orikan the Diviner is pretty fun to mess around with to see if the stars align and the ability to take a Royal Court with you is pretty neat. For example: If you buy a big named Lord guy or a DIY Overlord, you can buy a Royal Court with 0-5 Necron Lords (with 1W) and 0-5 Crypteks. Crypteks are cheap and have cool weapons and abilities and Necron Lords are just beaters. For example, Crypteks can take Tremorstaves which cause difficult terrain to whoever it hits (Writhing Worldscape anyone?) and provide the unit with defensive nades or a 36" S8 AP2 shot. The Royal Court can also split off like Wolf Guard and go to other squads to buff up their CC or Shooting. This flexibility is really nice.

As for troops, there's only two: Warriors or Immortals. One is obviously more expensive than the other and you can only take 10 Immortals per squad. That's cool, because they can put out Rapid Fire S5 AP4 shots whereas the Warriors can only put out S4. Warriors are now 13ppm but come with a 4+ armor save. The WBB rule is now a 5+ and Res Orb from the Overlords is the only thing that can make it 4+. Immortals have a better armor save but the fact that they can't select a Ghost Ark as a dedicated transport means they're going to be bouncing around via Monolith or footslogging across the field. They can go into a Night Scythe since the thing has a 15-model transport, but AV11 with no Quantum Shielding is meh at best. Even if you Supersonic 36". Regardless, they are now Troop choices and that's awesome. Necron Warriors can go up to 20 and they can take a Ghost Ark to travel around in (if you take 10). Ghost Arks have Quantum Shielding, Living Metal and 2x Guass Flayer arrays so you can broadside things. AV13, open-top so Necrons can spew from any angle and Skimmer means this is a good transport for 115 points. Good, not great because of the points.

Elites have all kinds of cool shit in it and that's always good: Deathmarks are a interesting shooting solution with Rapid Fire Sniper weapons and Hunters from Hyperspace. Hunters gives them the ability to mark any non-vehicle target before the game starts and any shooting done vs. it wounds on 2+. That's pretty strong considering they can come out of nowhere (and on your opponent's turn) with Ethereal Interception and start shooting things up.

Lychguard are your Terminator-like beaters with Warscythes default, S7 power weapons on a T5 3+ armor model. They cost the same as Terminators and you can buy them up to Hyperphase Swords and Dispersion Shields. DShields have a 4++ invulnerable and is capable of bouncing shots back at the enemy within 6". Say you're a Grey Hunter squad and you're ready to launch an assault. Before the assault, you shoot 2x Meltagun shots at them, hit with 2, wounds with 2, he saves both and 2 of your Grey Hunters gets gibbed because of it. A pretty good deterrence from assault-based shooting if you're totting melta or plasma weaponry if you ask me.

Triarch Prateorians are pretty interesting, combining Jump Infantry status with T5 3+ armor. Their Rods of Covenant can shoot out S5 AP2 at 6" and they count as power weapons. With I2 and only 1A, I can see them as anti-TH/SS Terminators or any exposed MEQ. A full squad of them can be expensive, but I don't recall seeing any other T5 Jump Infantry in the game so that's definitely interesting.

Next in the Elite slot, we have the C'Tan Shard. It's a little weaker than before with only S7 T7, but most of the rules is still the same. 4++ stock with Monstrous Creature, Eternal Warrior and ignore difficult terrain and a bunch of buy-up abilities that's very cool. Since he has BS5, he can buy up a S9 AP2 shot from 24" away, has the ability to take pseudo offensive and defensive grenades + Stealth, or have a Large Blast template centered on him that inflicts S3 no armor saves plus it heals him. I think for my strategy, I would give him Grand Illusion and Writhing Worldscape. Grand Illusion allows him to reposition D3 of your units after deployment and Writhing Worldscape makes the entire board count difficult as dangerous terrain for your enemy. If the terrain is already dangerous, he fails DT tests on 1 and 2. To make things even funnier, you take this with Orikan the Diviner because of his special ability: Temporal Snares. It reads: During the first game turn, all enemy units that move count as moving through difficult terrain. In addition, if units are actually moving through DT, they take the lowest D6 result rather than the highest. Damn, I kinda want to see this game played vs. a Green Tide player. It's also great vs. vehicles since difficult counts as dangerous on vehicles.

The next two I'll cover really quick because they're pretty straight forward. Flayed Ones can be taken in units of 20 and have 3 attacks each with Infiltrate. They're the same cost as Warriors so that's pretty cool. The Necrons also get a Walker in the form of Triarch Stalker and he has Quantum Shielding and Living Metal with Move Through Cover. He can act as an additional shooter for the army because he can take a Twin-linked Heavy Gauss Cannon (same as Heavy Destroyers, S9 AP2) and any time he hits a target, all additional units shooting at that target count as twin-linked. If that's not cool enough, he comes standard with a Heat Ray which is a 24" Heavy 2 S8 AP1 Melta. He can turn that into a Heavy Flamer too.

Looking at Fast Attack, you have quite a bit of options. Wraiths are your basic 3++ Jump Infantry who ignore terrain and slice things up with their claws (S6 Rending). They can also take Whip Coils which act the same way as Lash Whips so things in CC with them will be very sad. Canoptek Scarabs do what they do best and that's smacking vehicles and applying their Entropic Strike. On a 4+, the vehicle's armor is permanently reduced by 1 on all sides for the rest of the game. I can see these guys as an auto-include in every list because they're cheap, hard to get rid of without blast and munch up on mech lists.

Tomb Blades are the Necron's version of Jetbikes and I don't find them that amazing, but that's because I'm comparing them to Destroyers. Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers in FA is awesome. T5 with 3+ armor saves Jump Infantry with Preferred Enemy everything. You can buy up to 5 Destroyers for 40ppm and can upgrade up to 3 of them to Heavy Destroyers for 20 more. So ideally, you run 3 HDs at 180 for the unit. Attach a Destroyer Lord with a Warscythe, Res Orb and 2+ armor save and you're pretty much good to go as a lethal flanking unit.

Heavy Support sees the return of the popular Monolith minus the brokeness of last edition. It trades nigh-invulnerability with the fact that it can suck enemy units into it and have it S-test or be removed from the game. The Heavy Slot sees versatility in that it has anti-infantry in the form of the Annihilation Barge totting Twin-linked Tesla Destructors and the Doomsday Ark which is strictly anti-everything. It has Quantum Shielding, Living Metal and carries the deadliest ranged weapon in the game as long as it doesn't move. As long as the Doomsday Ark remains stationary, it can shoot out a S9 AP1 Large Blast, which honestly is enough to erase any squad of MEQ from the game, Paladin or not. The effects of it on vehicles such as Razorbacks is self-explanatory. You can mess around with your enemies by putting some of these on the field and then re-positioning them with Grand Illusion if you have a Shard.

I'm a little disappointed with the Doom Scythe figher-plane looking thing though. For 175 points, it's a AV11 Fast Skimmer with no Quantum Shielding. It has really cool fluff, looks like the Alien craft from Independence Day and has awesome weaponry (Death Ray!). It also comes with Aerial Assault and Supersonic just like the Voidraven, but's not as powerful from far away. Personally, I think this is a strong indication that there'll be a change made to Flyers next edition to make them more viable.

Alright guys, that's about it. Like I said, the book is very solid and is very fun to play with. I think I would rank this book in par with Phil Kelly's Dark Eldar. That's really saying something.

BR: BA vs. GK, SW vs. BA

2011-09-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

Fun times to be had!

Well guys, no pictures, but I do have some hysterical fun times to tell you. My friend took all the pictures so I'll probably just upload them later. Don't worry, the BRs I'm going to share to you will be pretty epic. First thing's first: We played two games tonight, one with my Blood Angels vs. his Grey Knights, and then another with my Space Wolves vs. his Blood Angels. Which one is more awesome? I'll let you folks decide.

My list:
Dante
Librarian w/ JP, Sanguine Sword and Unleash Rage
3x 10x ASM w/ Fist/Infernus and 2x Meltaguns
5x Sanguinary Guard w/ CBanner and Fist
Chaplain w/ JP
2x Sanguinary Priests w/ JPs
3x AC/LC Predators

His list:
Draigo
Librarian w/ MC Halberd, 3x Skulls
Sanctuary, Shrouding, Might and Vortex
10x Paladins, 4x Psycannons, BBanner, the works
5x Paladins, BBanner, 2x Psycannons
2x Rifledreads
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator, Teleporter

This one was capture objectives and table corners. Everything but the Dreads were in DS.

The game started out pretty boring, a few Lascannon shots here and there from my Preds. Opening volley immobilized both of his Dreads behind mid-level cover which gave him and me 4+ cover from any shots from his Dreads for the rest of the game.
I deployed everyone and everyone just hovered around my Preds and waited for his reinforcements to come in.
His Dreadknight came down and flamed a bunch of dudes but didn't get much result out of that. He was quickly assaulted by Dante's unit (10x ASM and a Chaplain), the Libby's unit and the Sanguinary Guard for an easy kill.
Next round his Draigo came in on the opposite side of my ASM; which shot the hell out of one of my Preds. His other Dreads started to kick through my cover saves and disabled more of my Preds (rendering them immob/stunend).
Since I was far away from Draigo, I had to move the rest of my jumpers in ASAP. Draigo was with the smaller squad, but it was still a deadly force to be reckoned with. I got in closer to Draigo's unit with Dante's squad, ASM squad A, B and the Libby squad. To successfully defeat Paladins in combat, BA's have to put their superior numbers into play. Assaulting squads individually just means certain death.
To get into position, I sacrificed one of my Preds by boosting 18" and generating a smaller cover/gap for my jumpmans to move into.
This did not help me next turn as his giant squad of Paladins + Libby comes streaming down and inflicting 21 wounds onto my Libby squad. Six marines go down through 3+s and FNPs but I was able to pass morale. Draigo's squad destroys another Pred while his Rifles work on the last one.
I shoot Draigo's squad with my entire army before charging in. Without the cover he needs from the terrain and the Libby to give him Shrouding, my metaguns kick in full force and drops 3 Paladins before I charge in with everything I got. With the Deathmask of Sanguinius reducing Draigo down to 3 wounds, he takes another 2 from shooting (2 melta shots). Down to his last wound, all of my guys hit that unit and kill Draigo before he can swing (I4 vs. my FC Sanguinary Guard).
My positioning and massacre roll helps to keep space between me and the giant Libby squad. Paladins are hard as rock, but they're insanely slow once they reach the battlefield. With a full jump pack army, I am able to negotiate the terrain around him and surround the remnants of his army. His Psycannons drops a few marines from Dante's squad, but nothing can stay my wrath next turn.
I surround him with everyone and shoot him with everything I got. Once the meltagun barrels cool, he has 5 Paladins left and his Libby down from a full squad. The ones remain have Halberds. I assault with everything I have and several Blood Angels die, but not before 4 Fists, Dante, the Chaplain and Sanguinary Guard clean up the rest of his army.

Let the meltas roar and the chainswords sing!

PRO TIP - Victory in numbers
BA jumpers vs. Paladins might seem like suicide at first, but you really need to determine which fights you can win and which fights to avoid. Sending in units of BA into I6 Halberds could mean certain death, but all this depends on how many Paladins they have, how many wounds you can inflict beforehand, and how many units you have at your disposal. Use your mobility and the terrain to negotiate victory on your terms. Do not attack when you don't feel like you can win, and always use your superior maneuverability and numbers to overwhelm his forces. Paladins are nigh immune to small arms fire, so it's up to the weight of your meltaguns and power fists to work his ranks. To do this, you need bodies. Many Blood Angels will die in the process, but their sacrifices will not be in vain.

This next game is pretty hysterical:

My list:
Ragnar
Rune Priest
3x 10x Grey Hunters in Rhinos, WG Fist/CbM, Melta, Banner, Wulfen
10x Grey Hunters w/ Arjac in LRC w/ MM/EA
2x AC/LC Preds

His list:
Mephiston
5x Honor Guard (assorted CC) in Storm Raven
3x 10x ASM w/ Fist/Infernus, 2x Meltaguns
2x Sanguinary Priests w/ JPs
Vindicator
Rifledread

Game was Kill Points and Dawn of War.

Typical of DoW, nothing happens first turn as we push models onto the table.
Second turn, I light up his Vindicator with my AC/LC Preds and I immobilized it and rip the gun off. That is one sad Vindie. His return fire from his Rifledread doesn't do anything.
His BAs fly towards the center of the table in unison while my Grey Hunters in RBs + the LRC moves up the middle to meet him.
With his BAs flying closer to me, Ragnar and his unit (10x GH w/ Arjac) rushes forward in the LRC and disembarks for some First Blood. Arjac throws his hammer at someone's face, meltaguns goes off and bolt pistols were fired. Some poor rolling from the BAs saw half the squad die and they fail their morale test. They fly back 3d6 while the rest of my dudes are sitting out in open terrain in the middle of the map. Awesome.
Next round, his cowardly squad decides they want another shot at Ragnar so they move up. Everyone of his dudes moves up at this moment and the fireworks starts. One of his squads blows up the LRC behind Ragnar and explodes it on a 6. All of my dudes get caught in the explosion and so does 8 of his guys. He saves all of his and two of my Grey Hunters go down. Another one of his squads lights up a Rhino and explodes it as well. The Grey Hunters inside fair a little better despite some insane wound rolls and only two die. He says why not and assaults Ragnar and his unit. Counter-attack goes off and Ragnar tears into 3 of them before the rest of the squad finishes off the rest of the unit. Only 3 Grey Hunters die the process.
Here's the big turn. Everyone's in the middle of the map and there's much blood to be had. The Space Wolves decide it's time to show the Blood Angels how to properly assault. Everyone disembarks from their Rhinos and get into charge range of the Angels. Ragnar lets out a terrifying Wolf Howl and the entire Space Wolf army goes berserk. After all shots are fired and a measly 2 BA die from meltas, Ragnar runs headfirst into the first unit of ASM with Wolf Standard on. He killed 3 last round, has +2 attacks from his D3 attacks this turn, and 5 attacks base for a total of 10 attacks: He misses with 1 and wounds with all. Ragnar single-handily kills an entire squad of Blood Angels. Next round, if anyone decides they want a piece, they will have to deal with Ragnar with 14 attacks. With the help of Wolf Standard and a 12" bubble of Furious Charge, the other BA unit melts under the onslaught of 2 rabid Grey Hunter squads and the Wolves massacre closer to the immobilized Rifledread.
Long story short: Arjac destroys the Dreadnought before dying to Mephiston and the Honor Guard that came down from the Storm Raven. The SR blew up a Predator before getting destroyed by Grey Hunters afterwards. Mephiston goes on to tear Ragnar's head off. Mephiston goes down from being swamped by 2 squads of pissed off Grey Hunters w/ Wulfen and 2 hidden Fists.

Ragnar wolf howls his brothers into a killing frenzy.

PRO TIP - Tactical and flexible

Grey Hunters are best utilized in a supportive role in mid-field. With their healthy array of upgrades, Counter-attack and mobility, Grey Hunters are the workhorse of the Space Wolf army. Greys are best used in conjunction with other units; either more Greys or Wolf Guard Terminators. The objective of the Space Wolf player would be baiting your opponent into likely targets and then springing the trap with sheer weight of fire. There is nothing that 30+ Grey Hunters can't do in the right circumstances, so its up to you to determine when to use them. Like the saying goes: There is no such thing as overkill.

Why does everyone have Grey Knights?

2011-09-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

I've been out of it for a couple of months now because of the whole house thing, but I kept up with blog feeds and tournament reports. As if the metagame wasn't stale already, it seems like everyone and their mother plays with Grey Knights now. That's all I see on major gaming forums, all I see on major blogs and frankly I'm sick of it. This is probably the biggest bandwagon in the history of 40K. I've been playing the game since 3rd and I can't remember when everyone played the same army.

Am I crazy? But come on..
Cheers to the death of originality and fun. I'm gonna start posting more fun BA and SW stuff soon.

Playing some Space Marine!

2011-09-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Come at me bro.

Have you guys played it yet? I'm loving the Multiplayer especially. I haven't played single-player at all, but I've been hacking away at some faces in MP. My main class is Assault, but I do like to roll Tacticals every now and then.

Chainsword/Bolt Pistol

Swordsman's Zeal

Air-cooled Thrusters

A lot of people complain that everything's overpowered, but hey you know what? If everything seems imbalanced, then I'm willing to bet it's balanced.

Sample Ogres list

2011-09-07T23:49:00.000-07:00

So I've been toying around with the new Ogres army book recently and man do I think Ogres are funny. Truth be told, I've been looking around for an army that's on the opposite end of my High Elves and I think I might of found the right one. High Elves are small in stature, elite, loves Dragons and has powerful game-changing magic. Ogres are big and fat, ugly as sin, has a pretty small army size (I guess they're elite?), and are just overall hysterical because they're physically everything High Elves aren't.

I don't know, what do you guys think? What would you say are the opposite of High Elves? I already have a VC army sitting in the closet, but I don't think I'll break them out just yet. From the looks of things, 8th Ed. is heading in a great direction and all the books I've seen so far are balanced. For the first time in forever, Games Workshop has been writing balanced books. I know right? Crazy..

As for my Ogres list, check this thing out:

2501

Tyrant = 322
Heavy Armor, Great Weapon
Dragonhelm, Giantbreaker, 4+ Ward
Other Tickster's

The Tyrant here is supposed to be me on the battlefield. A personal avatar if you will. He's big, powerful, is swinging at S8 (-5 to your armor!) and has a 4+/4++ save. Not the best save in the world, but with his ability to make other folks re-roll successful ward saves, he's bound to do a lot of damage. With S8 attacks, anything with a 2+ save gets no armor saves against him.

Lv.4 Slaughtermaster = 285

Maybe I only need a Lv.3 with Ogres, but I decided to spend the extra 35 pts to bump the Slaughtermaster up to a Lv.4. Time will tell if I need more on him.. but for now he's running naked.

Bruiser = 191
BSB, Great Weapon
2+ save, Dragonfire

Simple Bruiser BSB with a 2+ save and the Ironcurse item to give the unit a 6+ save from Warmachine fire. Better than nothing I suppose.. the other contender is the 2+ ward vs. fire/flaming attacks.

Lv.1 Firebelly = 154
Great Weapon
Scroll

Just a scroll caddy + S4 breath in close combat. The Firebelly also allows me to take away those Regen saves so my Tyrant and Bruiser can go to town.

7x Ogres (Ironfists) = 259
Full Command

The Slaughtermaster chills in this unit and just buffs up the rest of the army and provides dispel support. When needed, they go charging in after the main blocks of units engage.

9x Ironguts = 422
Full Command

The main fighting force of the army right here. With 9x of these dudes, the Tyrant, BSB and Firebelly, I form a 4x3 unit of face-breaking fun. One of the strongest units in the entirety of Warhammer, anything that gets caught in its path gets completely trampled into the ground. Now.. if only I can get into combat without getting molested by Purple Sun or Pit of Shades..

6x Leadbelchers = 258

These guys are at 6x right now but I'm also thinking about dropping them to 4x (in 2x2). Right now with 6, they're putting out 6d6 BS3 S4 armor piercing shots with no moving to fire penalty at 24". That's pretty damn impressive. But with 2x2, they're small and agile enough to shoot down Eagles on my flanks and with the extra points, I can buy Sabretusks to go Warmachine hunting. I don't know, what do you guys think?

4x Mournfang (Ironfists) = 360
Full Command
Dragonhide Banner

A huge threat to anything that lives and breathes. On the charge, they put out 4d3 S5 impact hits, 16 WS3 S5 attacks, 13 WS3 S4 attacks, re-rolls all 1s to hit, wound and failed armor saves (Wolf Standard in WHFB wtf!), has a 2+ armor save with parry and is T4 with 3 wounds each. Talk about the bulkiest heavy cavalry to ever grace the game of Warhammer. Damn. If I want the unit I'm holding onto to stay still, I just pop the Dragonhide Banner's S3 breath attack and everyone that gets hit is striking last next turn. Ridiculous.

Thundertusk = 250

It's a freaking mammoth, why not? Comes stock with 6" ASL aura to all enemy models effected, built in Stonethrower, Bolt Thrower and random 12" S6 Killing Blow ranged attack.

Ogres, Sisters and other news

2011-09-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I made an update and I apologize for that.

First, I'd like to say that I'm officially an homeowner. I'm now knee deep in moving so I'll remain elusive until that's all done. Then there's a few repairs I need to do with the house so who knows when I'll get back to minis. However, I have been keeping up with my minis news via White Dwarf, updates from every known forum on the internets and from my fellow bloggers. Thanks everyone!

The second thing I'd like to talk about is the Sisters codex. I was disappointed when I checked out the first WD where it had the special rules. I was disappointed again after seeing their point costs in the 2nd WD. Needless to say, I think they're going to be a middle of the ground army that adheres to fluff and fun more so than competitive play. They're just not that good, especially now that their Faith points are not guaranteed and the powers themselves are weaker. Kirby said it pretty well in his review here. One of my biggest gripes with the codex is how unreliable their FP system is. Sure, you can stack HQs in the unit to make it more reliable, but putting more RNG in a RNG-based game is not good game design imo. It simply takes away with what you can do with them in the future.

I guess my only other follow-up for 40K is the Nova open. It's been a while since I commented on the metagame, and the only thing I have to say about it is that it sucks. There's just so many MEQ players these days that tournaments don't facinate me anymore. Grats on the Draigo player taking GK to the final rounds, can't say I saw that coming. Wonder what his list was.

And lastly, I want to say that I'm very excited to get my Ogre Kingdoms book in the mail. For the first time in a long time, it appears that GW has finally gotten their shit together in terms of designing books. If you look at the current trend of 8th Ed. books, all the books are balanced and tame compared to the 7th Ed. atrocities. I still think the super killy spells is bad news bears in terms of game design, but the balance of 8th Ed. Fantasy is going in a great direction. This, on top of the ridiculously awesome models they've been putting out is nothing short of awesome. Let's just hope GW keeps this up.

That's it for now guys. Let me know what you think.

Minor update

2011-08-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

You guys are probably wondering where the hell I've been. Well for one, I'm currently in escrow for a house! Been really busy house hunting the last month with my wife, and we lucked out on a short sale on a really nice place so we're knee deep in escrow. We're scheduled to close at the end of the month so I've been swamped in paperwork.

As for minis related stuff, I picked up a Covenant of Antarctica fleet from Spartan Games but have not put anything together. I have a whole VC army sitting in the corner that I haven't touched, and an ALEPH army that's semi-put together. Needless to say, I haven't really touched anything super time-consuming for a month.

Really busy guys! Hoping for a more relaxing September..

My MTG decks

2011-07-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

White deck mascot lawl

Since the Magic phase is continuing, here comes a post dedicated to my decks:

Blue Illusions
Aggro/Control

Main Deck:
23x Island

4x Phantasmal Bear
4x Lord of the Unreal
4x Phantasmal Image
3x Adaptive Automaton
3x Phantasmal Dragon
3x Grand Architect

4x Spell Pierce
4x Vapor Snag
4x Mana Leak
4x Ponder

Sideboard:
4x Spreading Seas
4x Mental Misstep
4x Into the Roil
3x Flashfreeze

I like aggro and I like control, so the deck above showcases both of these to its fullest. Blue is often considered a pretty control-heavy style of play, but I like being able to dictate the ebb and flow of the battle. In card games, this is known as tempo. The purpose of this deck is to be able to drop down cheap and effective creatures while providing them with ramping +1/1 buffs and hexproof. Since the Phantasmal Image can copy the LotU and Adaptive Automaton, I am able to pump out these buffs like crazy. Phantasmal Dragon is there to punch people in the face with Flying and Grand Architects buff my creatures while putting the Automatons on the board faster.

As for control, I'm running 4/4 Spell Pierce to Mana Leak for counterspells, Ponders for card draw and manipulation and Vapor Snag for creature bounce. A lot of people don't run Vapor Snag but I think that's a huge mistake. Blue has problems dealing with bigger creatures or creatures that can block and trade so bouncing them is the best option. It acts almost like a counterspell for creatures because they can't tap out and play big creatures without getting sent back.

The sideboard here is pretty standard. Spreading Seas helps takes care of lands that can possibly block your tempo and choke other decks out of mana. Mental Misstep gives me protection against 1-drop weenies or creature destruction (such as mono-red or white) and Into the Roil gives me additional bounce. This deck's biggest problem is equipment and creatures so additional resets are always appreciated. Flashfreeze is there just for Red/Green hate.

White Knights
Aggro/Enhancement

Main Deck:
23x Plains

4x Student of Warfare
4x Knight Exemplars
4x Mirran Crusader
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Hero of Bladehold
2x Baneslayer Angel

4x Honor of the Pure
4x Brave the Elements
3x Swiftfoot Boots
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Angelic Destiny

Sideboard:
4x Celestial Purge
4x Kor Firewalker
3x Divine Offering
3x Day of Judgment
1x Oblivion Ring

This is my Knights deck with an angelic twist. The Student of Warfare is a powerful starter since he can go up to a 3/3 with First Strike on turn 2. Knight Exemplars apply +1/1 to all my Knights and make them Indestructible. Mirran Crusaders have Double Strike and when they're equipped with Angelic Destiny, things just get ridiculous. Hero of Bladehold works nicely with Swiftfoot Boots since she gains Hexproof and Haste and can apply her Battlecry instantly. Like I said, this deck has a angelic twist and what good is a angel deck without the Baneslayer Angel! She's just there to hang out and watch the Knights do the work.

For my spells, it's really quite self-explanatory. Honor of the Pure gives all my white creatures +1/1, Oblivion Ring exiles trouble cards and Swiftfoot Boots keeps the big hitters safe. Brave the Elements also allows me to walk through creatures trying to block and gives me protection from any destruction cards. Angelic Destiny is there for the angel-theme and when correctly played, can send a Mirran Crusader from good to amazing.

The sideboard is there to better protect myself from black and red and board aggro. If my smaller and more elite army is overwhelmed, Day of Judgment is there to reset the field. To be honest, there's a lot of options out there for white. Another option can be to run Condemns, but I'd rather keep things simple and kill/exile everything I see.

A new MTG format?

2011-07-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

This is mainly for us casual players at work who want to play with the new stuff.

I was thinking of a new format which consists of the current standard (which is M11, M12, Scars block, Zendikar block) + the future block. The only difference is, once Innistrad rolls around, we won't drop Zendikar and M11.

What do you guys think about this?
What should I call it?
Right now, I'm calling it T2-1, what do you guys think of the name and format?

The worst type of gamer

2011-07-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

I picked up 4x JvC Counterspells for no reason!

Random post update!
Yes, I am still doing my MTG stuff, and I probably will until that dies down for a bit. On the minis side, I did pre-order my Covenant of Antarctica fleet from Spartan Games so I can play that in August. My ALEPH army is still being worked on whenever I have free time because those models piss me off. I bought the new ATGM resculpts but I haven't touched them in 2 weeks.

I'll tell you one thing though, I love learning new things. It might be my obsessive personality coming out, but reading 15 years of competitive MTG articles is invigorating. There's just so much knowledge in this TCG, it's like reading the entirety of Team Liquid's StarCraft section (or Liquipedia!). I think the thirst of knowledge is what's driving me deep into Magic right now.

However, there was a topic that was brought up a few days ago. I'm a pretty diverse gamer: I've played RTS, FPS, MMORPG, TCGs and TT (Table-top). Out of all the gaming genres I've ever got myself into, I would say my experiences goes as follows in terms of competitive gaming.

TCG - Worst gamers you'll ever see for the most part.
FPS - A lot of really angry people play this genre.
MMORPG - If anything, a lot of trolls more so than bad sportsmanship.
RTS - I haven't seen as many trolls or bad sportsman, but there is the occasional moron.
TT - Now that I think about it, WAAC TT players are nothing compared to TCG.

What do you guys think? Sorry for the random burst.

Magic: The Gathering

2011-07-14T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've been kinda absent from miniatures gaming lately because I've been doing Magic TCG. Believe it or not, I have never played Magic. While other players were playing MTG, I was playing Pokemon, Yugioh and WoW TCG (competitively). I picked up WoW TCG something like 3 years ago and from what my friends tell me, it's basically the same thing as MTG. Since I'm pretty new to the Magic scene, I've been doing a lot of research into the current format of cards.. which is Magic 2012, 2011, Zendikar + Mirrodin blocks and Innistrad.

Here are all the research material I've been using lately:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=judge/resources/sfrstandard
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/3688_Clear_The_Land_And_The_Fundamental_Turn.html
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=15089.0
http://magicgameplan.com/blog/

Here are the card databases:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx
http://www.mtgvault.com/

Here's the trial program I use to test decks:
http://mws.mtgbr.com/index-us.html

My current deck looks like this:

// Lands
18 [ZEN] Island (3)
4 [WWK] Halimar Depths

// Creatures
4 [M12] Adaptive Automaton
4 [M12] Phantasmal Bear
4 [M12] Phantasmal Dragon
4 [M12] Lord of the Unreal
4 [M12] Phantasmal Image
3 [SOM] Grand Architect

// Spells
4 [M12] Ponder
4 [NPH] Vapor Snag
4 [M11] Mana Leak
3 [ZEN] Spell Pierce

I'm a pretty aggressive TCG player and I'm also a big fan of countering and cancelling my opponent's moves. This is why "Blackice" is one of my favorite WoW TCG decks. It's a Mage deck and the objective is to lock down your opponents with Water Elemental, stop his creature removal via counters and burn him to death with Myriam Starcaller. Since I had no idea what "Blue" was in Magic, my friend said the closest thing to what I played back in the days of WoW TCG would be blue. I went ahead and looked up a bunch of decks played by top players and formulated a deck based on my playstyle. The only rule I had when building decks was to stay away from Jacemill decks or other top netdecks. I wanted something a little more unique to my personality and playstyle. The above is a Blue Aggro deck with a hint of counters. No Jace or anything crazy, and it comes with a bunch of the new cards from the latest M2012 core set (comes out tomorrow).

The Bears and Dragons aren't really dangerous by themselves, but with the Lord of the Unreal down to protect them, they get buff and become hexproof. The Adapative Automatons and Grand Architects continue to buff the creatures on the field your counters keep enemy spells or creatures at bay. I haven't worked on a sidedeck to this yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll have some Frost Breaths, Counters, maybe Sleeps, some Swiftfoot Boots and Mental Missteps.

A look into style and mechanics

2011-07-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry about the inactivity lately. After China, I got sick, then my wife got sick, and then I started playing Axis and Allies for a little bit (RTS, 2004). That game's very fun, very detailed and has a lot of things I look for in a good RTS game. Anyways, the point of this post.

One advice that I give to newer players whenever they start an army is to play the army they like the most. In a game like Warhammer, it's really easy for someone to read the background of an army, like what they see and go with it. This is not to be confused with playstyle though, keep that in mind. The background, fluff and aesthetic value of an army is what players should look at before they dive into a game. If you don't like the very models you plan on building, assembling and taking hours to paint, there's absolutely no point on getting them. There's also that "cool" factor that gets people in a certain army. The red hot bloodthirst that is the Blood Angels vs. the highly technological railgun tech of the Tau is a good example. Arcane Tempest Gunmages shooting out sorcery-infused bullets from rune-laced pistols is another.

Playstyle is also very important when choosing an army. Now that you like what you read about the army, their background fluff and their models, it's time to build the army around your needs. Playstyle is simply your preference when it comes down to generalship. Do you want your army to play defensively and shoot? Or do you like to aggressive and assault? Or would you say you're a balanced type of guy that looks to shoot a little and assault a little. In the simplest terms, your playstyle describes yourself as a general for the most part. If it was me you're describing, my general playstyle is fast and decisive, impatient and violent.

When people ask me what army they should play, I normally tell them the same thing: Go with whatever army you think is "coolest". This has to do with the models and the fluff more than the playstyle and I think this is the most important. However, I've seen players who got into their armies because of the fluff and fail horribly time and time again because it doesn't fit their inner general (and subsequently, their playstyle). I'm talking about Tau players running upfield into the melee because their personalities are reckless and their playstyles clash with their style preference. Do you know anyone like that? Maybe yourselves? I think this is one of the biggest reasons why people jump armies.

So at the end of the day, I still think it's better to have an miniatures army that fits your style more than your playstyle. This is mainly because army books are flexible enough (or should be) to satisfy your inner general. A Tau general that loves the look of Tau but secretly worships Khorne might take more Kroot... or a Blood Angels player can take max Devastators with Razorbacks. Thoughts?

What is this? 6th Ed. Rumors?

2011-06-29T20:22:00.001-07:00

My wife and I at Shaolin Temple.

Hi guys! I'm back from China and boy was it fun. My wife and I visited my uncles and cousins for the first time since we got married and the itinerary they prepared for us was insane!

We spent 4 days in Beijing and saw the following places:
Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Bei Hai, Hou Hai, Ming Tombs, Great Wall, and other smaller places.

We spent 3 days in Shanghai and 1 day in Zhengzhou to see the Shaolin Temple.. which was amazing!

I came back a little under the weather and to a billion emails. Thanks for all those who Emailed questions and had the patience to wait for me to answer them. Anyways, so what the hell is this I hear about 40K 6th Ed. in 2012? If you guys haven't seen the rumors already, check this stuff out:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/06/40k-rumors-6th-edition-first-murmors-it.html
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/06/40k-rumors-6th-edition-round-two.html

Looks like a good amount of changes to the following things:

Ballistic skill and hitting different targets moving at different speeds
Vehicles are easier to destroy from heavy weapons
Cover being a lot less forgiving
Independent Characters being a lot better
Torrent of fire is back! no more wound allocation

I haven't looked into this as hard as I should since these are just rumors, but I'm curious to think what you fellas think. From first glance, this looks like that everything I hated about 5th Ed. will be addressed.

Thoughts?

My ALEPH army lists

2011-06-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

Let's go over 2 army lists really quick. One of which is 200pts and the other one is 300pts. I figured that's what the guys around here is playing since everyone's just starting out. From looking around the forums, I'm seeing the 300pts is the standard for most lists. That's cool, I'll probably start at 200pts for my first couple of games. Hmm.. I wonder if I can take 2 Lieutenants in a single list if I have the option? I can't seem to find anything in the main rulebook. Getting pumped for this game.

Here's the short notation of my army lists:

200pts
8 orders
3.5 SWC

Asura LT w/ MULTI Rifle
Myrmidon w/ Spitfire
DEVA Hacker w/ Combi Rifle
2x Dakini w/ HMG
3x Netrod

300pts
10 orders
5.5 SWC

Achilles LT w/ Spitfire
Asura w/ MULTI Rifle
DEVA Hacker w/ Combi Rifle
2x Myridon w/ Spitfire
Dakini w/ HMG
Dakini w/ Combi Rifle
3x Netrod

Below, you'll see the full notation using the Devil Team army builder.

Have you guys tried this army builder?
http://www.infinitycreator.com/

It allows you to make lists like this:
http://www.infinitycreator.com/users/1226/army_lists/print?id=13607

Pretty neat. Oh! I'm going to China for 8 days. I'll be reading this awesome version of the rulebook multiple times while on the plane.

ALEPH
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 (Regs: 8/Irrs: 0):

ASURA Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW (73)
MOV:4-4 CC:16 BS:14 PH:14 WIP:15 ARM:5 BTS:-6 W:2
Regular, Not Impetuous, Cube
V: No Wound Incapacitation, Multispectral Visor L3, Lieutenant

MYRMIDON Spitfire, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW (32 | 1)
MOV:4-4 CC:17 BS:12 PH:13 WIP:13 ARM:2 BTS:0 W:1
Regular, Frenzy, Cube
Martial Arts L3, ODD: Optical Disruptor

DEVA Hacker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife (35 | 0.5)
MOV:4-4 CC:14 BS:12 PH:11 WIP:15 ARM:2 BTS:-3 W:1
Regular, Not Impetuous, Cube
V: No Wound Incapacitation, Hacking Device

2x DAKINI Tacbot HMG / Electric Pulse (22 | 1)
MOV:6-4 CC:8 BS:11 PH:8 WIP:13 ARM:0 BTS:-3 STR:1
Regular, Not Impetuous, G: Remote Presence
CH: Mimetism

3x NETROD Electric Pulse (4)
MOV:- CC:- BS:- PH:12 WIP:- ARM:0 BTS:-3 STR:1
Regular, Not Impetuous
AD: Combat Jump, AI Beacon

196 Points | SWC: 3.5

ARMY CODE: eNozM1Q1UTNWM6yxUDMBksZqRkDSUM0QQZqpGaBTADjwC5o=
Army Infinity v.3.0. - http://www.devilteam.com

ALEPH
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 (Regs: 10/Irrs: 0):

ACHILLES Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW (81 | 2)
MOV:6-4 CC:20 BS:15 PH:16 WIP:15 ARM:6 BTS:-6 W:3
Regular, Frenzy, Cube
Martial Arts L4, ODD: Optical Disruptor, Multiterrain, Lieutenant

ASURA MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW (73)
MOV:4-4 CC:16 BS:14 PH:14 WIP:15 ARM:5 BTS:-6 W:2
Regular, Not Impetuous, Cube
V: No Wound Incapacitation, Multispectral Visor L3

2x MYRMIDON Spitfire, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW (32 | 1)
MOV:4-4 CC:17 BS:12 PH:13 WIP:13 ARM:2 BTS:0 W:1
Regular, Frenzy, Cube
Martial Arts L3, ODD: Optical Disruptor

DEVA Hacker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife (35 | 0.5)
MOV:4-4 CC:14 BS:12 PH:11 WIP:15 ARM:2 BTS:-3 W:1
Regular, Not Impetuous, Cube
V: No Wound Incapacitation, Hacking Device

DAKINI Tacbot HMG / Electric Pulse (22 | 1)
MOV:6-4 CC:8 BS:11 PH:8 WIP:13 ARM:0 BTS:-3 STR:1
Regular, Not Impetuous, G: Remote Presence
CH: Mimetism

DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse (13)
MOV:6-4 CC:8 BS:11 PH:8 WIP:13 ARM:0 BTS:-3 STR:1
Regular, Not Impetuous, G: Remote Presence
CH: Mimetism

3x NETROD Electric Pulse (4)
MOV:- CC:- BS:- PH:12 WIP:- ARM:0 BTS:-3 STR:1
Regular, Not Impetuous
AD: Combat Jump, AI Beacon

300 Points | SWC: 5.5

ARMY CODE: eNozM1Q1MlQzVTOsMVEzAJIWaiZw0ljNCEgaqhmCSZCsoRkmBQDmRw6M
Army Infinity v.3.0. - http://www.devilteam.com

To Infinity and beyond!

2011-06-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some serious research into Infinity lately and I have to say that I'm really digging it. Good thing my brother is in town and he's just as much of a geek as I am. I got really excited to play this game and I went home with a full batch of rules and proxy'd minis. We had a good night of learning and playing as we watched Dark City and Waking Life. Shit got really really real.

I built a 200pt ALEPH list and a Yu Jing list with as much simplistic stuff as possible and gave the game a run through.

We used a roughly rectangular 3.5x2.5' table and loaded the board up with terrain. By terrain, I mean cups, LoS blockers, some DVDs cases to represent buildings, my wife's nail polish, my GW paintset (never seen so much dust in my life), and some other stuff. There were elevations and buildings to take advantage of climb and normal moves, open terrain, LoS blockers in the form of barrels, and ~6 or so models on each side.

We rolled off, tested WIP and I made him go first so I can counter deploy and set up firing lanes.

The first thing I noticed in this game is that I had to think hard, and I mean really hard about the way deployment was to pan out. We both took advantage of our heavy weapon allowment and we both had the ability to shoot across the table at any targets that presented itself. With lethality being the way it is in this game (and I'll get to that later), it literally became a cat and mouse game of wits. Just to make things fun, my brother's Yu Jing (thanks to the Wych model) also fielded a Oniwaban, which is a specialized CC assassin type ninja with Thermal Optical camo. You know that ninja thing bro from Metal Gear? That's basically what the Oniwaban is.

Another thing I want to note is the hugggggeeeeeeeee amount of weapon profiles, stats, special rules, and things you can do with each model. Each model is equipped with a set batch of gear and depending on what you take, the costs vary. Fair enough. In addition to this, every thing, and I do mean every thing has a profile that does something. Combi Rifles are different than HMGs, Multi Rifles have different types of ammo that can be toggled and the list goes on and on. I thought 40K was rough when I first started, but this game has probably the steepest learning curve I've ever seen.

So the ninja gets to deploy in the middle of the map because he has superior infiltration and start the game in camo TO. I set up my dudes so that I had firing lanes into my brother's units if he moves across terrain and if he moved across certain. I also had to make sure I could draw LoS on places that the ninja could run through or climb over so I can attempt to detect him using my Willpower. Lastly, I put my Multivisor Lv.3 Spitfire-totting Asura in a location where I can neutralize the ninja (multivisor sees through the ninja's bullshit) if he is to assassinate one of my dudes, or if he climbs on top of a building, or cross into my firing lanes.

I want to emphasis the importance of deployment, as shitty deployment and poor planning could lose the game for you right here. It felt instantly like an RTS (my forte) over a miniatures game. Positioning was key and a forced conflict when you're out of position could/is mean instant death.

My brother advanced his troops carefully, weaving through the barrels and paint cans using double move short-short sprints, or advancing with a long skill 4" move but using Cautious Movement so I wouldn't get an ARO (my reactive). In turn, his dude moves slower since he's not allowed to do his secondary move. I did manage to draw LoF on one of his dudes and I shot with my 1 shot into cover and with the cover giving me -3 to my ballistic skill and +3 to his arm, I didn't make too much success.

Now that the battle has engaged, it was my turn to be the aggressor. I used terrain to my advantage and moved into firing locations at his units with multiple orders and used my weapons high burst fire to beat down his ARO of 1 shot back. This showed off how high lethality is: 3 shots go through, he fires 1 back and hits (they cancel), so technically 2 shots go through. With most armor in the game on common infantry being 1 or 2, even with the +3 armor you get from cover, you have to roll a 10+ to survive a POW14 gun. Without cover, you just get shot in the face.

What I find interesting in this is that you can use all your orders to send one guy running up the field and unleashing hell at an overextended model out of cover, or you can move several dudes up the field and taking pot shots. With the limited amount of orders per turn, I felt another RTS element come up: managing resources, even more so than Fury or Focus, more so like Fury because losing dudes drops the amount of orders you can make in the next turn. Unit preservation is very important, and maximizing damage and opportunity is key when exploiting weaknesses in your opponent's movement. Since all of this happens so fast, map awareness is key in every decision you make. I can see how for some people, this might take a long time to make a decision..

The highlight of the game is probably when my bro blew all his orders to make a daring attack on one of my Mymridons in a forward position.
Order 1: He moved past a firing lane using his 4" move + cautious movement to sneak past my guns.
Order 2: He snuck around the DVD case with 2 short sprints.
Order 3: He moved again and attacked my Mymidon from behind.

I was like, yo bro, I have Martial Arts 3. And he goes, yo bro, I have Martial Arts 4, which cancels 3 and denies me any reactions. Normally I can react to someone STABBING ME IN THE NECK, but he's so stealthy and pro that he cuts right through my armor with his Monomolecular blade and caused instant death as he cuts me in half down the middle.

The ninja's victory is short lived as my Asura was in range to pick him off as soon as he killed the Mymridon. Now, I couldn't find through the cluster fuck of rules what happens when a ninja with camo TO kills a dude when there's people looking at him (he had no orders left).
A. Does he stay invisible, gets seen my by Asura immediately and I can take a ARO?
B. Does he decloak and I get to shoot him in the face as a ARO?
C. I don't get a ARO and the Ninja has to die on my next turn.
D. The Ninja decloaks but since he has no orders left, has to wait until next turn to recloak, in which I can shoot him to death anyway.
E. None of this shit matters because I just remembered that when the Ninja rounded the corner without cautious movement, my Asura could of ARO'd and shot him in the face anyway.

Like I said: There's a lot of shit in this game to remember.

I also want to touch upon 2 really cool things that I wish we explored:

Models can overwatch an area with Suppression Fire. If any model crosses this area, I get to react and shoot back with a full burst instead of just 1 shot. Very cool, very realistic and deadly. Needs a lot of pre-planning because it takes an entire order to activate overwatch.
Models that are being shot at can attempt to dodge the shot using his PHysical skill. He can use this in melee too if he can react to the target, which you normally can unless you're a fucking ninja. Being able to dodge things can move your model that's not into cover into cover on a successful dodge, or it can make you break melee! A lot of cool things here.

Just wanted to share my thoughts on a new gaming system, and although it's a complicated game, I can see this game as the most challenging miniatures game I've ever played thus far. It shares many of the same mechanics as StarCraft and for that reason alone, I'm getting it. I will say this though: It's not a game faint of heart. Things can go really poorly for you if you don't think ahead and look at the battle plan as an absolute whole. It's essentially StarCraft micro wars on a table-top, which is very appealing for me.

Sisters Rumors, part 2

2011-06-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Straight from BoK!

It is that time again, thanks for reading and posting your questions. Let me start by letting everyone know I have no idea (or will never know for sure) about new model releases. I don’t know if the new sisters release will be resin or plastic or the numbers in the boxes, but like I said before my bet is on Finecast re-release. Now with that out-of-the-way on to new rules…

What is not in the Codex

Repressors

Arbites

The Units (some more information than others)

Canoness: Here is my special shout out to the Canoness: you are terrible. I mean grossly underpowered. Now this is going to sound like a cop-op, but I am not going into details because my hope is that she will be changed before release. It just sounds and looks like she is an unfinished product. She gets her own retinue that cannot do anything; she starts out cheap, but her upgrades are expensive and lame when you compare to everything else. So here is hoping to GW getting her fixed.

Repentia: Forgot to mention they have fleet

Celastians: Cheaper than a Marine, but not really anything going for them (that I know of)… extra attack. Re-roll hits for act of faith

Sister Battle Squad: Can still get a Heavy Flamer

Shraphim: They are pretty amazing. Cheaper than a Space Marine you get a Jump Packing, Hit and Running, and an act of faith that has them re-rolling wounds. You can also upgrade them to run with double hand flamers and melta pistols. They act both as an extra close combat weapon and become assault 2 instead of being twin-linked. So that means Assault 2 melta weapons.

Dominion Squads: Still get 4 special weapons. Act of Faith twin-linked.

Retributor Squads: Pretty fantastic. CHEAP! Talking under Long Fang cheap to fully kit out. Expect the return of the Heavy Bolter with these. Act of Faith is Rending.

Penitent Engines: Again fantastic. Same statline (Walker). No Scout or Infiltrate. Cheaper and can be a squadron aka 9 Engines. They still get the 1D6 attacks, but any wounds generate additional attacks (don’t know if they work like Blood Talons). 6+ Invul (don’t know if they generate faith)

That is all I got guys, if I get more will let you know. As always you can get a new developments by following Blood of Kittens.

Best way: Register with Blood of Kittens and receive email warnings about impending rumors or news.

Become a Facebook Fan of Blood of Kittens

Or join Blood of Kittens on Twitter

As always for those that don’t want to sign up for anything, don’t worry you will get all the same information as everyone else just no advance warning.

Grey Knights FAQ!

2011-06-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

The FAQs:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1830600a_40k_Rulebook_version_1_3.pdf
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1830601a_Grey_Knights_v1_0.pdf

Here are some things that stuck out:

Q: If a Grand Master gives a unit with personal
teleporters the Scouts special rule, can they use the
shunt move as a part of their Scouts move? (p22)
A: No.

No more first turn charges!

Q: Does a Dreadknight with a Nemesis doomfist strike
at Strength 6 or Strength 10 in close combat? (p34)
A: Strength 6, as it is not a walker.

Awkward wording on the NDF, but I guess that makes sense. Makes the Great Sword something to be desired now over what we thought was S10.

Q: For each Jokaero Weaponsmith in a henchman unit
after the first you add +1 to the Inconceivable
Customisation roll. Does this mean that if you have 6 or
more Jokaero in a unit that they will receive no
bonuses (as you cannot roll less than a 6 and duplicate
rolls are ignored)? (p50)
A: Yes.

So I guess take 5?

Q: Can models in Terminator armour embark onto an
Inquisitorial Chimera? (p51)
A: Yes.

And here's the final word.

Q: If a model with a Nemsesis force halberd has had his
Initiative reduced to a fixed number by an
ability/special rule, do they still get the +2 Initiative
from the Halberd? (p54)
A: No.

Lash Whips rejoice!

Q: How do you work out whether a psyker is affected
by the Psi-shock special rule on a mindstrike missile or
a psyk-out bomb? (57, 58)
A: Any psyker under the template will be effected by
Psi-shock.

Been playing it like this for a while, but I'm glad they made it clear.

Q: Do you take into account the strength increase from
the psybolt and psyflame ammunition vehicle upgrades
when working out if a weapon is a defensive weapon
or not? If a vehicle has either of these upgrades, must
you use them? (p62)
A: Yes to both questions.

S5 Hurricane Bolters do not count as defensive weapons! I hope everyone's been playing them right.

Q: Would an orbital strike relay targeted within 12" of
one or more servo-skulls have its scatter distance
reduced? (p62)
A: No, it always scatters the full 2D6".

Just icing on the cake.

Q: Are Wounds from Dangerous Terrain tests allocated
in the same way as shooting attacks? (p14)
A: No. Each model moving through dangerous terrain
must take a test. Each model that fails takes a Wound

A lot of people have been playing this as shooting for the purposes of allocation, but I'm glad that it's clear as day that each model has to take DTs. This increases the chance your IC, Sanguinary Priest or Meltagun dudes fall on their face when jumping.

Q: Do the effects of the same psychic power cast
multiple times on the same unit stack? (p50)
A: Yes, unless specifically stated otherwise.

This is big, because this means that Hammerhand from a Librarian can stack with Hammerhand from a Paladin squad. If you have a Grand Master in there, you can test for HH 3 times, so on and so forth. Interesting...

Q: Can a psyker attempt to cast the same psychic
power more than once in a turn? (p50)
A: No, unless the psychic power itself specifically allows
it.

This means that you can't just bring a Libby and have him spam HH to buff your dudes. In order for you to stack, you must cast from separate sources.

First batch of SoB rumors from BoK

2011-06-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

Click this for SoB confirmation!

Updated: 1:19pm PST, 6-12-11

Thanks BoK for the awesome rumors:

Sorry for the delay real life got in the way for once. Before we get started just want to drop two cents to some comments made in my last post: the only reason I could come off as gloating or soap boxing about rumor vindication is because the instant I post a group of rumors across the Internet on forums elsewhere they are quickly discounted (which is fine), but many times it pretty venomous and my attitude is just a little way of defending myself; by pointing out who was right and who was wrong. So sorry to everyone that just wants rumors and no ego every time I post something, it is only directed at the certain naysayers and shouldn’t be taken as me trying to tell you how awesome I am. I am not always right, but for the most part I am pretty damn close so let us leave it at that.

Ok, with that said let us get on with why you are really here some SoB rumors.

As always let us start with the easy ones that pretty much everyone figured was going to happen.

Allies gone
Inquisition gone
Faith streamlined
USRs updated to 5th
Cheaper Unit costs
Inquisition elements gone

So let start with the big one and perhaps most controversial change to Sisters of Battle: Faith

I am amazed reading around the Net how quite few people had great guesses on how the new faith works. One caveat about the faith rules: I only have most of the story so let us hope someone else can pluck the rest from the aether. The only thing that really stays the same is only faith producing units can use faith. Gone is the over and under rules based on model count and gone is faith powers that everyone can use. It is replaced with every unit has its own unit specific act of faith to call upon.

So for instance Repentia Act of Faith allows them to always land an attack even if they are killed before they can swing. They are little bonuses like re-rolling to wound and hit, no USRs. Now this if fine and dandy if you just pop a faith point and bam! power goes off, but not so fast. Acts of Faith require that you roll 5+ to activate . This makes faith much more unreliable… maybe. In addition every unit that can get faith generates 1d6 faith points per turn. This also means that a new faith pool is generated each turn with no storing of past faith. As well faith can be activated in multiple phases of the game, so for instance you can re-roll to hit in your shooting phase or in your assault phase. What is not clear is a few things. Like how many dice can you throw at a single act of faith? How many times can you attempt to activated a power? If you get an act of faith to go off in one phase does it carry over to the next phase? If you fail an act of faith does that mean you cannot try again in another phase? I don’t have the answers, but what do you think?

Random tidbits

All Faith generating units get +6 invul save
All units that can get transports get Immolators or Rhinos
Assassins gone (Death Cult still in)
Wargear with the same names as GK wargear stay and get changed over. (e.g. Psybolt Ammo)
Karamazov gone
Priests in, pretty much same as before.
No change to the general Bolter, Melta, Flame concept of the Sisters

Specifics

Sisters have about 5 HQ choices including Special Characters

St. Celestine: Same price as a Grand Master you get 2+/+4 saves, WS/BS 7 Jump Pack, Fleet, Power Weapons always wounds on 4+ Has the power to come back like GK Thawn if killed.

Confessor: Takes the slot of the old Inquisitors. Cheap HQ (Warboss). Can create a henchman band using most of the henchman found in the GK codex. What makes the Confessor extra deadly is the ability for it to re-roll hits and wounds for her and the squad. This is the translation of the rumor matrix. So think for one second about her and the Death Cult together?

Repentia: Cheaper close to SM cost. FNP, Rage, Fearless, 6+ invul, no transports

Battle Sister Squad: Cheaper 10-20 unit size (no combat squads), but has access to Immolators which begs the question… Immolators either get increased transport capacity or Sisters break the rules concerning model count and buying transports. Multiple acts of faith.

Exocists: Pretty much same as before.

This is it for now gents and dames. If you have any questions let me know I can see if can get them answered sometime this week with another post.

Can you build competitive and fluffy?

2011-06-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

Before we go too deep into the lines of soul-searching, let's lay down some definitions first. For me, the word competitive means to play your best. This means improving on your generalship, optimizing your army list and designing an well-tuned army. I tagged an assload of articles I wrote previously and labeled them as "recommended". These articles speak of list synergy, threat application and cost effectiveness. This is the type of knowledge that I apply when playing competitively.

Now what about fluffy? Or better yet, my definition of fluff: You build your army how the army was designed to be played. Space Wolves should be seeking a glorious death in combat and Blood Angels should be charging into the fray. This is the element of fluff that I'm talking about and this is what I design most of my army lists around. My recent article on BoLS called "Remembering Who We Are" covers my thoughts on this much more vividly.

As you guys have noticed, my blog's pretty much a competitive blog with a thematic twist. You'll never see any Razorfang or RB spam lists here; instead you'll see well-tuned army lists trying to make my creations work. I see army list construction a game in itself, and I take great pride in kicking ass with an army spewed from my own creativity.

My current army lists:

Space Wolves
Wolf Lord w/ TH/SS, Saga of the Bear
Rune Priest w/ Chooser and WTN
3x 9x Grey Hunters w/ WG in Rhinos
7x Wolf Guard Terminators in a LRC
3x Predator w/ AC/LC

The Wolf Lord Lagnar and his companion Rune Priest is leading the Space Wolves into battle. Three Grey Hunter squads in Rhinos will insure mid-field security while the Predators draw the enemies up close . Once that happens, Lagnar and his entire retinue of Wolf Guard Terminators will charge into the fray and slay any opposition. This tactic is known as the Wolf's Jaws.

Blood Angels
Mephiston
3x 10x ASM jumpers w/ Fist and Meltas
2x Sanguinary Priests w/ Jump Packs
3x Baal Preds w/ HB sponsons
3x Preds w/ AC/LC

Chief Librarian Mephiston is leading an expedition force of Blood Angels. At the front of the assault is a spearhead of Baal Predators followed by long-range supporting fire from AC/LC Preds. Despite having full access to the Chapter's Rhinos and Razorbacks, Mephiston and his battle-brothers choose to take the fight to their enemies in the way the Blood Angels know best: Death from above.

Grey Knights
Librarian
3x 10x GKSS in Rhinos w/ Psycannons and Psybolts
6x Paladins w/ Apothecary and 2x MC Psycannons
3x Rifleman Dreads w/ Psybolts

The Grey Knights strike at the heart of the enemy with devastating medium-range firepower while the Chapter's Dreadnoughts offer long-range support. Having recently retro-fitted their armored brothers with Twin-linked Autocannons, Librarian Larrus is confident that the enemy will founder. Should the battle go ill, Larrus and his retinue of Paladins will teleport to the battle directly and make swift work of any assailant.

Dark Eldar
Vect
2x Raiders w/ 5x Warriors
3x Raiders w/ 10x Wyches
3x Venoms w/ 3x Trueborn w/ Blasters
3x Ravagers w/ NS and FF

Asdrubael Vect has always been a warrior without peer. His arrogance is so great, the mere thought of haemonculi "helping" his army disgusts him. As Vect invades his target destination, he does it with the speed and precision that the Dark Kin is known for. With a flash of utter darkness, nothing is left save for the burning wreckage of his foes. As the darklights fade, so does the opponent's chances of victory.

Let's be fair now. Do any of these lists looks WAAC and min-maxed for the Ard Boyz win? They're fine-tuned, definitely, but aside from repetition that can be viewed as spam by some, I don't see any any uber powerful lists here. My Space Wolves uphold their virtues in seeking a glorious death and my Blood Angels will charge head first into battle. You might think that's a lot of AV13 armor, but shit, I pretty much coined the phrase 3/3 and I've been using variants of that list since day 1.

What do you guys think about my lists? They're certainly not the lists you tend to see on other sites but you come here for tactical advice none the less. I must be doing something right.

My CSM predictions for the next book

2011-06-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

I have an entire Forgeworld Death Guard army sitting at home doing nothing this edition. Part of me wants to go out there and play them and the other part of me actually wants to win a game. Keep in mind that I'm not saying it's impossible for CSM to win a game, but I don't think they can win in the manner that people want them to. Why? Because just like the Tyranid codex in 5th, the CSM codex was the worst codex to be released in 4th.

It's bad in a way that confuses players in terms of unit choices and leaves them with limited no-brainer options. This severely limits a player's ability to make war with the units that he wants. It's either because the units pale in comparison to others so much that it's stupid not to take them or they just plain out suck. To me, there's nothing more frustrating than playing with an army book with a limited unit selection. I want to be able to take whatever I want and make things work. Just look at Space Wolves, you can take almost anything in the codex and make it work. That's what I want for my Chaos Space Marines.

So what am I looking for next edition?

Marks over Icons. You gotta be kidding me with Chaos Icons. I mean, shit, there's no way in hell that Chaos Marines who share an allegiance with their godly patron suddenly lose their blessing for losing a god damn standard. Ridiculous.
Overall stat boosts across all Chaos HQs. This means WS7 Chaos Lords with at least 4 attacks. He may either get some kind of 4++ equiv or be able to take Terminator armor.
Chaos Markings will be pretty similar methinks. This means Khorne gets +1A, Nurgle gets +1T, Tz gets +1 sv. to their Invul and Slaanesh with +1I. I don't mind this at all, and I think it works quite nice with 40K. Who knows, if we're lucky, we'll see a lot of minor upgrades unique to the gods in the same manner as the Space Wolf trinkets.
Some form of psychic protection, definitely. I'm confident we'll see the Sorcerer take some kind of protection that'll cause the enemy psyker to take perils. It's fluffy and it makes sense in that respect. Chaos needs some kind of psychic protection and it will be offensive in nature.
This also means that Chaos Sorcerers will also gain access to a good amount of psychic powers. SM had an good amount, SW too, BA had even more and GK lol. I'm expecting to see all kinds of psychic powers in there for Tz, Nurgle and Slaanesh. Keep in mind that I'm expecting 1 page dedicated to powers from all the gods. I highly doubt they'll break them up like they did in Fantasy.
Chaos Space Marines will probably be the most "cost effective" unit choice in the book. If I was the next designer, I would bring back Veteran Skills. Why? The answer is simple and effective: Because no one will take CSM over Plague Marines unless they do something unique. Maybe they won't bring back Veteran Skills, but you bet your ass that the basic CSM trooper will be worth taking in their own rights. Whether its by price, or the fact they can carry 2 specials or 2 heavies or 1 of each, or something else, they're going to be worth it.
You will still be able to take iconic units like Plague Marines, Rubric Marines, Khorne Berserkers and Noise Marines. Don't worry, I don't think these guys will get moved to elite or anything. If they do, they'll risk removing a huge chunk of the army and suffer the same catastrophic FOC problem that Tyranids do.
By the latest trend in book design, I don't think the next CSM book will see the return of Legions. I think it will be focused on the four main god-legions: World Eaters (Khorne), Thousand Sons (Tzeentch), Emperor's Children (Slaanesh) and Death Guard (Nurgle).
This also means that Abaddon is going to be a complete beast, Typhus, Kharn and Lucius will be pretty good, and fill in the rest here. There's always one badass SC in every new codex we see, so I'm definitely betting on Abaddon being that.
Overall, I foresee a huge points drop for everything and many things getting boosted. I can see Obliterators get their stats boosted (T5 maybe? or 3W?), CSM being able to take LRCs and possessed vehicle upgrades as plentiful/cheap as Extra Armor. Havocs will probably see better days as well. Depending on what happens to the Chaos Terminators, we might see the return of Chosen Terminators (or Chosen with the option to take TDA like Wolf Guard).
Lastly, I predict that the book will be written by Mat Ward. He seems to have an affinity to all Space Marines. Him or Phil Kelly, but I think Kelly's doing SoB.

Space Marine Mixed Armor Tactica

2011-06-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

This is the long awaited vehicle tactica that deals with different armor groups, notably the AV13 toys that Space Marines have to play with. One of the biggest follies in the 40K gaming community is that Predators and Vindicators suck because of their static nature and fixed firing ports. A lot of people see this as a weakness because these two tanks, as dominate as they are in the front arc with their AV13 hulls, have AV11 side armor. This means that every time they pivot and shoot, they're as durable as Rhino.

That must suck right? Wrong. This guide will show you the folly in your ways with some tested battle formations. I took all these pics using my iPhone since my attempts at MS Paint sucked harder than it should have. Keep in mind that this tactica is designed for a mechanized army. Some elements in this guide may or may not work depending on what you field.

Linebreaker formation, pushing up in force.

So over here, you see the typical Linebreaker formation. Alternating armor values with everything moves up in a straight line. The entire army rotates and pivots with the Vindicators so their side armor of 11 is never exposed. The only way your enemies can take advantage of the side armor is if one of your Rhinos or LR explodes. You can even keep Vindicators next to wrecked Rhinos so they can take advantage of LoS and cover saves while limiting your opponents line of fire towards the AV13 front. With this formation and smoke, you'll find that you'll be all the way in mid-field in relative safety.

Here, you will see R-V-R-V-LR-V-R. Armor values are 11, 13, 11, 13, 14, 13, 11. Your heaviest guns and your biggest threats, will be AV13 and 14 when they push up the board. If you run into a building in the way, move your vehicles in a way that uses that building to deny a side shot. Think of the building as one big Rhino. You're essentially making a Vindicator sandwich with R-V-Building.

The Predator version of Linebreaker.

Over here, you see the same formation but with Predators. My config of Predators is normally AC turret with LC sponsons. It's cheap and it's an effective firebase. Preds share the same AV13/11/10 stats as the Vindicator, so their methodology is similar in the fact they're still vulnerable in side shots. The main difference is that they have longer range, can play refused flank better and have the luxury of rotating turrets and sponsons. If the Predator ever needs to bring its full power into effect, it needs to rotate exactly like a Vindicator (to bring forth 2x Lascannons and the AC). Keep that in mind at all times.

Another thing to note is that Predators attract a lot less attention compared to Vindicators. No one wants a S10 AP2 Ordnance pie plate in their face and people will go to hell and back to see them destroyed. The humble Predator, however, is looked down upon. Nothing is better than to see your opponent's vehicles explode in white hot fury after they ignore that lone Predator in the corner of your army. But more on this later.

Full weight of fire assembled on the left while the right side moves for a flank.

Lets say your opponent deployed all his armor and and heavy hitters on the left. You refuse armor flank like this and bring all your heavy guns to bear on his active side. The formation here is R-V-V-V-LR-R-R. With nothing but AV13 and 14 to shoot at in the center of your army and possibly exposing his flank to the LR and 2x Rhinos on the right, your opponent has better get his shit together. The yellow arrows shows a possible flank, but this entire army would probably move 12" and smoke first turn. BA Vindicators don't give a shit and can move 12" and start firing because they're fast. As awesome as it is to do so, always keep your AV13 facing the direction of the highest threat. The main objective is to preserve these bad boys and have them wreak maximum damage on the enemy while taking minimal damage in return. It's like Gun Kata, but with vehicles.

Spearhead formation pushing forward while a Vindicator and Rhino stays back as support.

Check out this formation. It's the same Linebreaker formation we went over the first post, but this shows a tactical advance of the primary armored column while 2 vehicles remain to cover objectives (they smoked). The idea of armored lists is to saturate the field with a lot of threats. An LRC filled with angry Space Wolves, flanked by 2 Vindicators and 2 rabid Grey Hunter Rhinos is an enormous threat: Especially if the front armor is AV11-13-14-13-11. Do your opponents try to flank and risk getting shot by your Vindicator sitting in the back? Or do they try to fight your primary spearhead head on. Either way, your giving him a lot to think about in a short amount of time.

LoS blockers, cover saves, AV13 fronts, the works.

Before you look at this and give up, read what I have to say carefully. Over here you'll see the armored column of vehicles rush into the fray while leaving Predators in the back as supporting fire. If the enemy is dead ahead, the return fire will be funneled into 2 realistic scenarios: Your opponent is forced to shoot at AV13 front, shooting through 50% of the vehicles so I get cover, or doing both of those.

The Red arrows show the Predators trajectory of fire. They didn't move from their starting locations, but they can pivot just fine. The Yellow arrows show what the rest of your dudes are doing; rushing forward to do battle with the enemy like real men.

As for your opponent, this is what's going to happen:

The Green arrow shows what happens if your enemy is firing at the Pred A: 50% of the vehicle is covered by the LR and he's limited to front AV13 armor. Denied.
The Blue arrow can't even draw LoS to the middle Pred, so he's limited to AV13 front armor at the Pred A. Denied.
The Pink arrow has no shot at the Pred A at all and the rest of his Pred targets are AV13 in the front. Denied.
The only possible shot comes from orange, because the shot has to be so accurately spaced and he'll be able to see side armor on Pred C. But then again, if you knew this was going to happen, you'll probably just space Preds B and C closer together, giving him AV13 while keeping everything else remains the same.

Refused flank formation using a building as an anchor.

Refused flank deployment using the table edge and a building.

Here are two examples of how to refuse flank deploy while keeping your tanks safe. The tide box is a building, so work with me here. Oh, and the random ass battery is the edge of the board. By the way this army was deployed, your opponents are limited to shooting at AV13 while the Predators have a pretty large covering zone. In the top pic, if the army wishes to advance towards the enemy, he can do so by moving his army parallel to the Predator's covering fire. This insures that the Predators keep shooting true while the enemy cannot outflank towards the left or right to get side armor shots. Keep in mind this leaves them vulnerable to deep strikers or outflankers.

In the bottom pic, the LR and the Rhinos are in a defensive formation with the LR blocking LoS on the floor level while preserving the Pred's AV13 front. The LR and the Rhinos can pounce towards the enemy at any time if they get close enough.

Another formation of deploying, and this doesn't have a picture, is spreading the Predators out all over the place. Since you shoot 48" with a pivot, you can sit back all day without relying on your tanks to baby sit them. This forces your opponents to direct their fire at 3 separate targets and thus exposing their side armor to you if they have a fixed arc. With a full spearhead of Space Marines coming towards them, 3 spread out Predators sitting in the back is the least of their worries. This formation, called the "lone hunter" formation should only be used if you're confident your opponent don't have the means to deal with you at 48" and that you're the primary aggressor (which you should be!).

Main force pushes upwards and around while Predators focus on left flank.

LoS is blocked by the main force at ground level while Predators engage targets on the left.

Check out these two. The first pic shows your iron column advancing on enemy positions while the Predators shift positions from their starting location to deal with .. say fast Skimmers. They pivot and bring their full power to bear while your army pushes on their objectives. If he closes towards your Preds, your tanks can change course, speed 12" and unleash hell with your troops inside. You also run the possibility of closing around your opponent all together and crushing him off the board.

The bottom pic is what happens when your opponent sends a flanking force left while keeping some of his AT in the front. You rush forward and pivot so your armor is forming a hard LoS blocker towards the enemy's incoming fire. Depending on how high he's positioned, he'll either be screwed out of luck completely from shooting the back Preds or barely draw LoS at all so you'll get a healthy cover save. Out of desperation, he shoots AT at the left most Pred which is going at his front arc of 13 and given a cover save because of the 50% block from the Rhino. If you smoke all your Rhino and LR in front this turn, and then rush into his face next turn, your giving him a real difficult decision to make. This formation is what you use to isolate and destroy flankers while preserving your own vehicles in battle.

Rhino moves back while Preds angle in a way to reduce incoming damage.

I know you guys are used to seeing things move up and push up, but now it's time to show a defensive position with a step back. The Rhino marked with the Yellow arrow is stepping back to allow the Predators Pink and Red to engage different targets. Notice the angle of the Predators and notice that AV13 is all over the place with no side armor available. The upper most Rhino moves in to cover the side armor of the Red Pred while Blue is sandwiched nicely between the Rhino and LR. Marines don't retreat, they regroup. The same applies to their vehicles of war.

I'll probably be updating this and editing this this week so feel free to stop by and give me some comments.

Short BR, SW vs. GK

2011-06-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

This will be a tactics overview because the game was pretty much a slaughter in my favor.

Mission was Kill Points and deployment was Dawn of War. Darian got 1 KP from a Rhino at the end of the game to my 8 (leaving on the Dread alive).

The list I ran was the following:

1980

13 kp

HQ:

Wolf Lord (TH/SS, RA, WTN, WTT, Bear) = 230

Rune Priest (Chooser, WTN) = 120

TROOP:

9x Grey Hunters w/ WG (Rhino, PF/cbM, Meltagun, WS, MotW) = 243

8x Grey Hunters w/ WG (Rhino, PF/cbM, Meltagun, WS, MotW) = 228

ELITE:

7x WGT (6x PW/CbP, 1x CF/CbP) = 281

in LRC (EA, MM) = 275

HEAVY:

Predator (AC/LC) = 120

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Darian ran..

2x 7x Grey Knight Terminators

Librarian

2x Stormravens

Psyfleman Dread

10x Purifiers in a Rhino

Dreadknight w/ Heavy Psycannon and Incinerator

I have inserted 3 screenshots to help explain.

First, a screen of the board we played on. For a board without any terrain from the closet, I actually REALLY liked it. It looked like a wild Tyranid Hiveworld with all the fauna coming out everywhere. A good amount of LoS blockers spread out evenly, a few patches of terrain (napkins) and a long lost Imperial missile silo in the middle. I made the board and I'm pretty proud of that.

The deployment being Dawn of War saw me get 1st turn.

Since we were playing with the entire table and Dawn of War was killer for first turn shooting, I knew I was in a pretty safe distance. My Preds sat in the back to take advantage of their 48" range and they spread out pretty evenly to maximize pivot, but remain safe to side armor shots by the way Darian came on the board. Everything else smoked and took refuge and LoS blockers behind the huge alien plantlife.

Once his Stormraven TB'd up the board, my Predators shot at it with everything and gave it 6 penetrating hits. It explodes shortly after. Return fire was minimized to the fullest because of range vs. his 48" Dread and AV13 in the front kept me relatively safe. This, as the Wolves like to call it, is setting the trap. We normally do this with Long Fangs, but Predators can also work at a discounted price.

This is what us Wolves call, springing the trap.

A is the LRC with Lord + WGT, D is the Rhino w/ Squad pack 1, B is squad pack 2, and C is squad pack 3 with the RP.

The pink Xs are where the Terminators deepstruck in.

B and C moved in such a way that the Rhinos blocked LoS to his Terminator squad (top X, not there anymore), and if he had to move and shoot, I would get cover for the Psycannons.

With the top Terminator squad's ranged efficiency reduced dramatically, both squads B + C can pour all their fire in the bottom Terminator squad. Combined with the Preds, meltas and bolters, I reduce the squad to 4 dudes, plus they are now in difficult and dangerous cause of Murderous Hurricane. Btw, Darian made every single Terminator Invulnerable save. It was the bolters that actually forced enough wounds lol.

So why isn't the top Terminator squad there and its replaced by my Wolf dudes? Because the LRC moved up, pivoted in such a way that it faced his Stormraven while letting my dudes disembark from the side hatch. I unload my WGT, and they combi-plasma the fuck out of his Terminators before charging them, annihilating the entire squad. Despite my best efforts, I could not kill that damn Stormraven with the Rhino's 2 shots with guys that moved 6" and the Pred.

The guys on the table in the back are in transport D.

So basically after decisively crushing 2 squads while taking almost no damage in return, this game was already going into a bad direction. Darian's attempts to cast sorcery was thwarted by my Rune Priest, his shooting was pitiful compared to my more experienced Grey Hunters, and his Storm Ravens came crashing down all over. His Purifiers eventually pushed up the board towards my bros by the top X, but my LRC pivoted w/ the Wolf Lord's squad and shot the beejesus out of them before charging in. They die like regular marines.

I take the head of Darian's Librarian back to the Great Wolf and we feast, drink and arm wrestle.

Just to let you guys know, I will be posting a mixed vehicles and positioning tactica tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Wolf Lords, their word is law

2011-06-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

The only time I find myself taking Wolf Lords is in games of 2K points. At 1750 points, I find that the humble Rune Priest is all I need in the HQ slot. Sometimes, I even take 2 Rune Priests as their psychic powers and psychic protection is too good to pass up on. So why Wolf Lords? Well, for one, I think they're one of the most iconic pieces in an old-school Space Wolf army. Space Wolves, by design and fluff, are Vikings in Space who rely on honor and courage to carry them through the day. That's why most of my army lists for Space Wolves have little in terms of campy shooting.

Now that I've thrown down that my Space Wolves enjoys the nitty gritty, let's examine my favorite Wolf Lord builds. He is my physical manifestation on the battlefield:

Wolf Lord
Runic Armor
Frost Blade (or Thunder Hammer), Storm Shield
Wolf Tooth Necklace
Wolf Tail Talisman
Saga of the Warrior Born (or Saga of the Bear)
225 points (or 230 with Thunder Hammer), Thunderwolf Mount for 45 more.

Let's take a look at this build and examine what I like about it. He has 4 attacks, has 2+ armor and 3++ invul saves, always hits on 3+ vs. anything with a WS with a S5 power weapon and goes ape shit after killing things in melee. He averages 2 MEQ kills in the first round of combat and that bumps his attacks up to 6 in the next round of combat since he gets +attacks for each model killed in the previous combat. The Warrior Born Saga is more for fun really, since it allows him to chew through enemies so you can tally up the totals. Wolf Tail Talisman is one of those neat little gizmos that lets you take a 5+ save against anything that's targeting you or your squad with a psychic power. If you roll a 5+, you negate the psychic ability outright. If I could be anyone in 40K, it would probably be this guy.

Why no Terminator Armor? Because if you want a Storm Shield, you're going to have to pay 15 points more on top of the 40. Runic Armor is 20, Storm Shield is 30, so for 5 less points, you have the same 2+/3++, can be put in a Rhino, takes up less room in a LR, has the benefits of Runic Armor (5+ invul vs. all wounds caused by psychic attacks) and you keep your frag and krak grenades. It's a no brainer at this point. Saga of the Bear makes your Lord immune to instant death because of Eternal Warrior and the Thunder Hammer allows him to deliver crushing force against anything in the game.

What it really comes down to is whether or not you want to put the Lord on a Thunderwolf mount or not. Personally, Thunderwolves don't make sense to me because marines are riding them. It's 40K years into the future and as if things couldn't be more ridiculous, marines are now riding ancient battle beasts. Aside from how ludicrous this may seem, we can't overlook the benefits of a Lord on the Thunderwolf. True T5 makes him immune to Fists (although not Force Weapons), the extra attack and strength makes him a beast in combat. The higher strength makes all the weapon options good to have: The Wolf Claw is cheap and S5 re-roll hits or wounds is fantastic at killing MEQ, S6 Frost Blades are more dangerous to vehicles and S10 Thunder Hammers just rock anything in the game. With 6 attacks on the charge, the Lord is absolutely fantastic at putting down anything in combat.

Unless you're taking a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf, the WL can be put anywhere you want. I personally like to put him a LRC with a WGT retinune, but I feel very comfortable putting him in a squad of Grey Hunters. The great thing about Runic Armor is that it allows the Wolf Lord to travel freely. If he wants to be in a Rhino, he can, if he doesn't feel like being bogged down by Terminators, he can leave and join something else. Best of all, the Wolf Lord can run things down once he beats their ass in combat. For that reason, I like to keep my Wolf Lord as violent as possible. He is my personal avatar on the field and there's nothing better than seeing him rampage through mutants and aliens in the name of the Allfather.

If you like taking a Wolf Lord too, let me know what config you like traveling with.

How do you fight against I6 Halberds?

2011-06-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

Email in: How do you fight against I6 Halberds?

If they're on Purifiers, the answer should be quite simple: Shoot them to shit. Forcing enough wounds is enough to kill Purifiers so I suggest focus firing on them as much as possible. Everything that kills normal marines kills Purifiers just fine. You do not want to get into combat with these guys with normal marines, no way. Even BA elites lose when charging into Purifiers with Halberds because everyone's swinging before you and killing marines with each wound. That's after you take your Cleansing Flame wounds.

So what do I shoot them with? Marines hate plasma, in every sense of the word. S7 AP2 wounds and kills every type of marine on 2s and the options to get them can be plentiful. Walkers can take a Plasma Cannon, Dev Squads or Long Fangs can take Plasma Cannons, Honor Guard can take 4x Plasmsa Guns, Wolf Guard can take combi-plasmas up the ying-yang and Sternguard can take both.

What if he takes Terminators with Halberds? GKT can have up to 3 attacks each with the BBanner and 2+ armor makes them pretty resilient against wound saturation from normal means. However, 2+ armor is still prone on getting its ass beat by plasma shots. Normal shots also work, but you have to shoot the living crap out of them (most likely with your entire army) in order to force enough failed armor saves.

But, but, Paladins don't die from anything! This is true, to an extent. If the Paladin squad has as Apothecary, they're not going to take damage from anything save for plasma shots and meltagun shots. Forcing wounds with S8 can be a lot harder than you think considering the amount of anti-tank firepower coming from a balanced list. The only way to reliably kill Paladins is by a huge number of meltagun or lascannon shots. If they're in cover with Shrouding up, good luck with that. At that point, it's better to take the fight to them in the most extreme of ways, the nitty gritty of close combat.

GK Paladins can be absolutely horrendous to deal with in close combat. If the squad has a Grand Master, you're going to be in for one hell of a fight. Rad Grenades makes you T3, Hammerhand makes him S5 and you do the math. Psychotroke can be hit or miss, but its effects always happen so you know for sure you're in a world of suck. Blind Grenades also reduce the number of attacks you're going to get so be prepared to suck it up and attack with EVERYTHING you've got. The best way to deal with Paladins is by massive combined arms. That means your entire army moves, shoots and assaults the same target (the Paladin unit). If you absolutely have to kill the unit, here's what you do:

Step #1 - Bait them out of cover. Run away, flee, hide, tank shock, do something that forces them to leave the sanctuary of cover and you will have a better chance at killing him. The reason for this is that you need to shoot them with as many high-power, low-ap weapons as you can without him taking any cover saves.

Step #2 - You need to shoot him with everything. Every bit of anti-armor firepower and every bolter should be aimed at the Paladins that are out of cover.

Step #3 - You need to assault him with everything at the same time. Get as many models into the fight as possible and deliver as many fists as possible. The more Fists you can deliver into the fight, the higher your chances at winning. Get as many models in base to base with Paladins as possible so you force him to swing at different squads. If you throw in one unit at a time, you are simply wasting points as the Paladins will probably slaughter you to the man.

What kind of changes have I made to my lists? My WGT now take a crap ton of combi-plasmas and I've replced my Long Fangs with AC/LC Predators. My BA already shoots a crap ton more than my SW, so I've made no changes to my 3/3 Baal-AC/LC Pred config. With 9 Meltashots and Mephiston, I should be able to tear some shit up without dying too horribly. And my DE, well, they've always been as good as they're going to get when it comes to destroying smaller elite armies.

Long Fangs vs. Predators

2011-06-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I play Space Wolves. They're actually my first Space Marine army after Grey Knights and the first army I blogged about. I think it's time to pump out a few articles on them this week. To start things off, let's talk about a rarely discussed topic.

We all know Long Fangs rock and for good reason. They are cheap, effective and put out diverse and powerful long-range firepower. As you can see from this article I wrote a while back about Long Fang loadouts, I do like myself some missiles. However, with the recent shift in the meta, I'm wondering if there are other options out there for Space Wolves. Let's take a moment and look shall we?

First, let's look at the humble Predator.
Not just any Predator, but the AC/LC Predator that comes in at 120 points.

What's the difference between the Pred and the standard loadout of ML Long Fangs? Well for one, it's cheaper, by 20 points. It's AV13 and it's a vehicle and thus is immune to DE Venoms, S6 shots from Mechdar and better protection vs. S8 shots since it needs a 5 to glance. With 2 BS4 Lascannon shots at S9 and 2 BS4 S7 Autocannon shots, it's an incredible fire platform vs. vehicles and MCs but lacks severely when it comes to hordes. Just like Long Fangs, once deployed, there's very little opportunity to move these things around unless you want to sac a round of shooting. The only difference is that if Long Fangs want to move, they'll take a Razorback (more points) whereas the Predator will move 12" and smoke.

Long Fangs can also Split Fire, but most ML loadouts opt to shoot all their missiles at one target to force results. Flexibility is there, definitely, but for all intensive purposes, the Predator and the Long Fangs share similar target priority vs. vehicles. The biggest drawback of the Predator is the dreaded VDC. If you're glanced, you're spending 120 points to sit there for a turn. If one of your Long Fangs die, you pull the Leader and continue shooting 5 missiles back at your opponent. Of course, we can also say if the Pred got stunned or shaken, it doesn't lose any damage potential next round whereas you might lose out on missile fire if Long Fangs start dying. There are pros and cons from both, but for the points mentioned, both are solid choices imo.

I think this is where the metagame comes in. Looking around my area, I see a shit ton of different Space Marines, BA, SW, Grey Knights, Mech IG, Tyranids and Dark Eldar. Orks are a rarity but I think I'll mention them anyway so players get a better picture. I only have one friend who plays Eldar and he's got a good amount of diversity as well. I think it's safe to say that against mech-focused armies, the AC/LC Predator serves a better role. Unless, of course, you're siting cross table from Long Fangs who can outspam you in terms of raw shots. When fighting Grey Knights, AC/LC Preds are better imo. S9 AP2 gives you a solid answer to Paladins and Terminators and Lascannons are better for punching through Psyfledreads. Lastly, it goes without saying that Predators are much better vs. Dark Eldar. You ignore Splinter Cannon fire from his Venoms and destroy vehicles with each breath you take. Against the likes of Tyranids and Orks however, when the ever-shifting need of anti-horde and anti-crappy armor arises, the Long Fangs are clearly superior.

A short IG post about DE

2011-05-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through whineseer looking for some good threads to read while I was in the shitter and I found a thread about IG vs. DE. Yes, IG can be one of the most powerful armies in the game, and yes, they absolutely roll most balanced armies. However, there are a lot of tactical decisions that DE players can make to help alleviate the faceroll.

This includes but is not limited to..

Use terrain to your absolute advantage. I can't stress this enough. Check this link.
Turbo-boosting Trueborn units in his face and out of LoS of Hydras
Shoot the Hydras and Vendettas first.
Outrange his vehicles with Night Shields and go for side armor.
Take Haywire Grenades against vehicles.
Take Vect so you have that 4+ seize threat even if you lose first turn.
Deploy in mass so IG can't kill you in piecemeal.

It is a very tough fight for DE, but it isn't completely futile as some people suggest.

I think Vaktathi says it best in that thread.

IG are actually probably the worst thing DE have to face. Against massed AV 12, dark lances aren't exactly amazing. Multilasers glance and pen on the same values against their AV10 vehicles as the DE's lances do against the IG's AV12 tanks, but have three times the numbers of shots and inflict greater damage due to DE's vehicles generally being open topped. Other anti-infantry weapons can also be put to good use against DE vehicles, such as Heavy Bolters.

If you work out the math, chimeras versus even a Ravager aren't too far from an even match in a shooting war. Given that IG can get two Chimeras for one Ravager, it makes it very uneven.

Also, Multilasers and autocannons, two weapons very popular in IG armies, not only are exceedingly effective against DE vehicles but also inflict ID on DE characters, ignore FNP on most of their units and wound just about everything on a 2+, usually ignoring saves. Then of course there are dirt cheap Hydras which not only have very effective anti-light infantry/anti-skimmer guns but also ignore one of the DE's most powerful defensive actions, which is moving flat out with skimmers.

Additionally, DE splinter weapons wounding on a 4+ isn't very impressive against T3 infantry, they're basically AP5 lasguns at that point.

DE are very, very good at destroying small numbers of very powerful things, they make mockeries of terminator armies and stuff like Land Raiders and Monstrous Creatures. They get butchered when they have to face large quantities of mediocre things.

More Tyranid stuff

2011-05-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

In my first article, I touched upon some rather unexplored options in the Tyranid bestiary in hopes to expanding your Hive Mind. A lot of the units I mentioned are often overlooked, but I assure you, they kick ass when giving a specific purpose. The more I play with Tyranids, the more I realize that army design is very important. Each and every unit has to play a specific role and they have to work in conjunction with the rest of your list. I'll provide some lists in my following article so I can show you guys what I mean.

So far, we have explored the following units:
Swarmlord
Deathleaper
Venomthropes
Dakkafexes
Genestealers

Now, we will talk about:
Tyranid Warriors, Shrikes
Gargoyles, Harpies, Winged Tyrants
Zoanthropes
Ymgarl Genestealers

Tyranid Warriors are often overlooked because they're viewed as a direct comparison to last edition. They're more expensive, don't have Eternal Warrior and can't be customized as much as last edition. The for some wild reason, the Tyranid didn't help them either because you mysteriously can't take Primes w/ Warriors in a Spore Pod. Weird? You bet you ass. Useless? Far from it. Tyranid Warriors w/ LW/BS and Toxin Sacs are arguably the best assault units in the game. They're WS5 base, 6 with the Prime and have 3 attacks by themselves. Add in the fact that they don't really care for frags because they're lashing everything they touch and going first with power weapons and re-roll wounds (vs. T4 and under), they're absolutely devastating. I don't think I've ever seen a 10-man unit of Marines manage to hit back under the right circumstances. You can either choose to go Scything Talons for re-roll 1s, Rending Claws for vehicles or just keep the Devos/Venom Cannon if you have a Prime to lend his BS4.

Another interesting option for Tyranid Warriors is giving them Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs and taking them in a pod. Believe me, they're a threat to everything save for Land Raiders as soon as they land. People will be foolish react and relocate their vehicles once these guys hit the field on turn one.

So what now? Let's talk about the flying threats that Tyranids can take but are often overlooked. Who cares about Trygon models when you can make half the army flying while the rest of your army drops on his face! The only way you guys can take a flying army work is you take Gargoyles. They're small, dirt cheap and you can take an assload of them to provide a flying screen of mobile cover. Can you guys imagine how much hurt a Flyrant flying around with two Harpies w/ Stranglethorn Cannons can pour out on horde armies or even Marines? S6 large blast all over the place from 12" flying creatures that can exploit any exploding transport. Sure, they might get cover saves, but you're pouring out so much hurt it doesn't really matter. Anyone wishing to shoot at these will have to kill the Gargoyles first. Taking a full unit of 30 Gargs costs 180 points. They'll die to anything your opponent throws at them, but that's their entire purpose in life - to serve as a living, moving meat shield.

As for the flying Tyrant combination, I personally like the Flyrant with a Stranglethorn Cannon, Adrenal Glands, BS/LW and maybe Implant Attack. Keep in mind that this is no way set in stone, you take whatever configuration you need to fight your metagame. I just think that when combined with 2 Harpies shooting twin-linked Stranglethorn Cannons, and 2 Cluster Spines, you're looking at a possible 3 S6 Large Blasts and 2 S5 Large Blasts landing on people's faces per turn. Adrenal Glands is also preferred for the Harpies because they're MCs and S6 + 2d6 charging tanks and hitting rear armor isn't all that bad. Shrikes are also pretty good with a large unit of Gargs because you can pair them with a Flyrant with Old Adversary (Preferred Enemy 6" bubble) and go to town with BS/LW and Toxin Sacs. This gives them re-roll hits and wounds with power weapons and everyone in base contact with you is swinging last. Sounds overpowered doesn't it? Give it a try.

Zoanthropes are often on the back burner compared to Hive Guard and with good reason. They need to take psychic tests first, your opponents can stop it, then they have to shoot and possibly miss, then roll to wound and pen, then if your opponents have cover saves, they take those. This is some pretty bad odds with all things considered especially when most of your opponent's vehicles can stay out of 18" range. So what makes them worth it? They shoot the most powerful anti-tank weapon in the entire game. S10 AP1 Lance or S5 AP3 blast is capable of blasting apart the strongest tanks and the strongest marine. The only bad thing about these guys is that 18" is in range of hoods and runic weapons.

So they suck right? Wrong. Tyranids is all about flexibility and applying threat. Even if your opponent has the tools to stop Zoanthropes psychic abilities, they can't stop it 100% unless they're killed. Their S10 shot can take down any tank in the game with relative ease and their S5 AP3 blast scares the crap out of any marine out of transports. When you factor this in with an army that can fly, drop pod in, outflank or deploy as normal, an entire host of strategies begin to open up. The key to using Zoans is to take 3 of them and drop them in in a pod. You can either choose to do this outside the 24" hood/rune range and shoot at viable targets or you can choose to drop them in on force with an all out attack. Zoans are best with a Drop Pod army that can force a lot of threats and target saturation early and unexpected. With Mysics and Inquisitors out of the game, Drop Pod armies will definitely more play. More on this later.

Lastly, I want to talk about a funny little unit that competes with one of the most coveted spots in the Tyranids codex - the elite slot. Most of my lists only run with 2 units of Hive Guard and thus my 3rd slot opens for something else. Sometimes, I take the dreaded Ymargl Genestealers because they're hysterical to use. I don't know how else to put it, but anyone deploying Devastator-type units (infantry carrying heavy weapons) is in a whole world of shit. You either force them to stay inside their dedicated transports, not deploy in terrain at all, or deploy in terrain and spread out in all kinds of stupid ways just to find out you popped out from somewhere else. Nothing plays more mind games than Ymargls and for good reason. Once they pop out, they can move, fleet and assault freely, which means they can threaten anything on the turn they arrive. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Ymargls should be taken over the other Elite choices in the book, but it's fun to see Long Fangs spammers get ripped a new asshole once in a while.

Some Tyranid tactics

2011-05-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this article is to touch upon some of the units that people might not use, but they're actually really good in their own right. I advise everyone to think outside the box every now and then.

Have any of you guys try the Swarmlord yet? I have and I think he's amazing. For 280 points, I think that's perfectly acceptable for a T6 5W 3+ and 4++ in close combat. When the close combat invul combine with the WS9, the Swarmlord becomes an absolute menace in close combat. Throw on the fact that he's I6 with 4 Bonesabres that cause Instant Death, I think we got ourselves a real winner.

My favorite thing about the Swarmlord is his 18" synapse and the ability to give a unit Furious Charge or Preferred Enemy. This happens every turn and there's nothing your opponent can do about it. Throw in the fact that he can make units WS/BS1 for 1 entire turn with Paroxysm, I see no reason not to take him when the Hive Tyrant I want is about the same amount of points.

If I was to take a Hive Tyrant, he would have..
Hive Tyrant, Stranglethorn Cannon, Hive Commander, Old Adversary = 240

So for 40 points more, I get a 2 psychic powers a turn, WS9, 4++ in CC, awesome special rules and a cooler looking model. I think there's just no comparison imo.

Let's say I didn't want to take a Hive Tyrant at all, to save points I'd probably just take a Tyranid Prime w/ Toxin Sacs and Lash Whip/Bonesword. He's 120 points and is perfect for taking Warriors w/ the same load out. He's perfect for allocating S8 missile shots (especially with cover) and he's just a very solid buffer. I don't know about you guys, but 5x Warriors with BS/LW makes every assault unit in the game think twice about assaulting your lines. No one, not even assault-heavy armies wants a piece of WS5/6 Warriors that strike first with power weapons that always wounds on 4s and re-rolls vs. T4 and under.

Next, I want to talk about the Deathleaper. For 140 points, he's pretty expensive for a simple Lictor model. The key notes is that he reduces a IC's leadership by D3 at the start of the game. This is mainly cast on enemy psykers because it makes his spells harder to cast and his hood less effective. For armies like BA, GK, SM and other armies that rely on psychic hoods to dispel your dreaded Paraoxysm, a nerfed leadership is a huge blow to assault-based armies.

Deathleaper is a very fragile unit, but can reap great rewards when used well. A 12" bubble of 1d6 less when moving through difficult terrain is extremely frustrating once enemy vehicles have been destroyed. Just make sure you deploy him out of LoS or far away enough to take advantage of his super Night Fighting rules. To make matters a little worse for your opponents, he can disappear T4 and re-appear T5 to contest any objective, anywhere. This can be great for opponents rushing for objectives at the end of the game because their positions are getting overrun by your mans.

Now, I want to talk about Venomthropes. No other unit frustrates assault-based armies as much as these dudes. Dangerous Terrain tests + defensive grenades on every unit within 6" of the Venomthrope makes your army unassailable by assault. It's just SO frustrating running into Nids and having the strength of your charge robbed from you. Take in the fact that 2 Venoms can cover the entirety of most Tyranid armies and still keep their 4+ cover makes them attractive yet frustrating units to shoot at. Do you want to shoot missiles at these things or do you want to shoot them at the BS/LW Warriors, Carnifexes or Hive Tyrants? I think that's the key for a successful Tyranid lists: Load the board with so many dangerous targets that your opponents sweat thinking about what he's shooting at.

Oh yes, the Carnifex. More so, the Dakkafex. A lot of you guys have turned your Fexes into Trevigons and I feel your pain. GW made them almost twice as expensive in an attempt to sell a bigger and more expensive model (the Tyrgon). Fear not, for I am here to tell you that the Dakkafex is still one of the most dangerous units in the game. First, they can be covered by 4+ cover from your Warriors of Hive Guard. Second, 3 Dakkafexes in a unit is 12 T6 3+ wounds with FNP thanks to your Trevigon. Third, they can shoot 36 Twin-linked BS3 S6 shots at 24" of threat range (6+18"). Forth, you can't get in combat with one without getting in combat with all of them. Do you like taking 12 S9 attacks? I don't. Fifth, they are much dangerous than Trygons because of their range and they're much harder to kill because they can be covered. Three of these guys in a unit is 570 points, about the same as a unit of whatever in a Land Raider, which is perfectly acceptable. Pop a Rhino with your Hive Guard and shoot at its contents. I promise you, full squad or not, those Marines are going to get murdered.

Many of you have seen lists out there with a lot of Genestealers. I don't know about you guys, Genestealers are really good. They've always been good, and even without Flesh Hoods, they're still stupid amazing. WS6 I6, Rending Claws and the ability to take Toxin Sacs makes them extreme killers. They can also Infiltrate, which means they can Outflank and thus can apply pressure from the very start of the game or later in the game. With the Swarmlord, I have greater control over where and how I want to apply pressure so GS are always a must for me. To keep things even more effective, a small unit of GS hanging out by your backlines makes you near invulnerable to assault. Unless the GS are getting shot to death by Marines coming out of a Drop Pod (and which case you should Outflank them), no one is going to be able to get near you without risking getting fisted by Genes. Tie units up with your cheap ass Gaunts and then run Genes in to clean house. My preferred loadout is 20 strong for 280 points in an Infiltrated position. Move your Trevigon first, get up there and give them FNP for some Move Through Cover, Fleeting, highly resilient shock troops. Believe me when I tell you: Anyone who underestimates Genestealers is a noob. Genes have been ripping Marines a new asshole since as long as I can remember.

That's all I got right now, more to follow later.

When does it become spam?

2011-05-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

This happens a lot more in 40K than it does in Fantasy, but when does army composition become spam? If you have 3 10-man Grey Hunter units in a Rhino, is that considered spam? What about 3x Baal Preds in your army? What about taking 3x 10-man units of Assault Space Marines geared out in the same way?

What exactly qualifies as spam?

At what number does it qualify as spammy?

Do they have to be the same loadout?

Is 40K a repetitive game with redundant units? Without redundancy, it appears that lists are less effective because there's a higher chance they won't impact the game if they're destroyed. The argument for most people when they ask the old-aged question of: How many Land Raiders should you take? Most people reply with 2. Why 2? Because if one goes down, you have another. At the same time, these players are also the same players that bitch about 3-4 Razorbacks with TLLC sitting across the field from them.

Personally, I don't think spam is necessarily a bad thing in a game like 40K. In fact, I don't think the game is designed to promote different units on the battlefield. Is this a problem with internal book balance (useless units vs. non), or is this just player mentality? Something to think about.

Tyranids, the new pro?

2011-05-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

The more I look at the Tyranid book, the more I think it's one of the most difficult armies to play. It's been a long time since Tyranids joined the 5th Edition party and I think it's time to revisit them as an army. Let's talk about some of the flaws of the Tyranid book really quickly:

A lot of stuff doesn't make sense: Why aren't there frag nade equivs on a lot of the assault units? Why can't the Carnifex take 2+ armor? Why the hell is it priced so high? Why can't Lictors pop out and charge? There is a LOT of these questions vs. the last army book.
The FOC is all messed up: The elite slot has like 3 pages worth of units. Really? All this for 3 unit slots? Why couldn't some of these been placed in the heavy slot. In fact, why's there so many units all over the place?
Why is everything so expensive? Compared to the 3rd Ed. army book, almost everything went up in cost.. by a lot. This leaves lists with very "limited" options for the most part. I put limited in quotes because what I'm going to say next is going to make you think Trygons over Carnifex isn't as clear cut any more.

Now that that stuff is out of the way (and if you disagree, please let me know), let's talk about the good stuff:

Everyone knows that compared to Cruddace's other book, the IG codex, the Tyranids book looks like a rush job, sloppy piece of shit that's horribly imbalanced both internally and externally. Then we look at how the book plays and it is nothing like last edition. Then we slam our faces against a wall for over a year, bitch and moan all over whinseer and fakka and then play with every single unit in the book trying to "crack" the winning build. Just when all hope is lost, I'm here to tell you that Tyranids is actually a "master-class" army.
What?! You can't be serious?! Well, I kind of am. I think Tyranids are one of those armies who's synergy and list composition has to be so tight that there's virtually no room for error. Everything in the army has to make sense and every unit you take has to do its job according to your army's design.
But, what do you mean? I mean the general has to be superb, the list has to be a well-oiled machine and that he must play his heart out against the horrors of the current meta. Like Dark Eldar, the only other army I would put into the mythical "master-class" category, there needs to be a battleplan in your head before your deployment against every army. This isn't a I'm-going-to-shoot-this army like Vendetta/Chimeras, Razorspam or Psyfleman where the only true skill of the army lies in target priority, but an army that can be destined to fail from deployment to movement, to shooting to assault.
Lastly, I want to say that no matter what, by book flaws alone, that they'll struggle to place at the top tables. It doesn't help that Venom spam ruins the shit out of the army and that seems like the new WAAC DE thing.

I will elaborate more as the week goes on. I want to hear what you guys think first.

Space Marine Psykers

2011-05-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

This is a follow-up to my Librarians, why not? article. Each Librarian will list the powers I find most attractive and why. Most libbies can only choose 2 powers, but the GK one can buy as many as he wants.

Space Marine Librarian
Null Zone, Avenger, Gate of Infinity

My builds:

Libby, TDA w/ SS (Null Zone, Gate of Infinity) leading 5x TH/SS Termies in a LRC

Libby, (Avenger, Gate of Infinity), Drop Pod, 10x Sternguard w/ Combi-weapons

The weakest Librarian out of the bunch, the standard SM Librarian gets access to quite a few unique powers. Null Zone really screws anything with invul saves; ranging from TH/SS Terminators, Wyches in CC or 2++ Shadow Fields. Avenger is one of the best templates in the game as S5 AP3 cuts through MEQ like butter. GoI is a little tricky but can play a big part in your army as you can take your TH/SS Termies from one location to another or carry a large bunch of Sternguard into your enemies' face.

Blood Angels Librarian
Unleash Rage, Sanguine Sword, Shield of Sanguinius, Blood Lance

My builds:

Libby, TDA w/ SS (Unleash Rage, Sanguine Sword) leading 5x Assault Termies in a LRC

Libby, JP (Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinius) leading 10x ASM w/ PF, 2x Meltaguns

The Blood Angels Librarian holds many destructive abilities that compliment the offensive nature of the BA army. Unleash Rage is one of the reasons the Reclusiarch is a subpar choice. Preferred Enemy for multiple rounds of combat is much stronger than one round of re-roll hits. Sanguine Sword allows the Librarian to take on anything in the game because S10 can touch anything on 2s while punching through the strongest armor. Shield allows BA to spam mech like no other while advancing towards the enemy. Then, there's the Blood Lance. It's not as strong as JotWW in terms of what it can target, but it can threaten any vehicle with its S8 AP1 Lance. Versus enemy tank lines, if you can line up a good shot, you might be able to take out quite a few targets per turn. The best thing about these abilities is that both the offensive assault ones I noted (UR and SS) can be used in either player's turn. Shield is a defensive ability that fires during your enemy's shooting phase and Blood Lance is in your shooting phase. This healthy mix of choices allows the BA Librarian to get off psychic powers in either player's turn.

Grey Knights Librarian
Shrouding, Sanctuary, Might of Titans, Warp Rift

My builds:

Libby, (Shrouding, Sanctuary, Might), 3x Servo-skulls, MC Halberd leading..

6x Paladins (Apoth, MC DH, 2x MC Psycannons, BBanner, MC, all Halberds)

10x GKT (MC DH, DH, rest Halberds, 2x Psycannons, BBanner, Psybolts)

Some say the GK Libby isn't needed, but I think he's one of the best buys in the book. For 150 points, you get a Epistolary that's in Terminator Armor, can have a 4++ in close combat because of his Force Sword, has access to I6 Halberds or MC weapons, and is equipped with Frag and Krak grenades. On top of this, he has 4 amazing psychic powers that compliments the GK army perfectly. Shrouding keeps your units safe in cover with a whopping 3++ save, Sanctuary provides assault protection that covers a large area, and Might of Titans allows your units to punch through tanks with +1S and 2d6 armor pen. This can be used in conjunction with Hammerhand for S6 vs. T4 MEQ or Hive Tyrant strength vs. armor. Lastly, we have Warp Rift. I like this ability because it's essentially a template-sized JotWW. Sure, it doesn't target models, but against slow, expensive units who are bunched up (think Nids and Orks), this ability is invaluable. Just like the BA Librarian, the GK Libby can get off multiple abilities per turn since Shrouding is cast in the enemies' shooting phase, Sanctuary in his assault, Might in your assault, Hammerhand whenever and Warp in your shooting. An unupgraded GK Libby can cast 2 abilities per player turn, and up to 4 per game turn. With Ld.10, he is my go-to guy to get off Hammerhand when my Paladins use their psychic ability to activate their Force Weapons via Brotherhood Banner. Instant win. Oh, and he has access to Servo-skulls, which is pretty much a must-have if you intend on taking Deep Strikers.

Space Wolves Rune Priest
Murderous Hurricane, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf

My builds:
Rune Priest (Chooser, Murderous Hurricane, LL) leading..
8x Grey Hunters w/ WG (Rhino, PF/cbM, Meltagun, WS, MotW)

Last, but certainly not least, is the SW Rune Priest. The best thing about the Rune Priest is that his runic weapon nullifies enemy psychic abilities on a 4+. No need to roll off like the other libbies, a 4+ within 24" is all you need to shut down enemy powers. In addition, he can take quite a few pieces of wargear to make him stand out more so than the other librarians. First, he can take Wolftooth Necklace that makes him hit anything with a WS at 3+, no matter what. It doesn't matter if he's fighting a Gaunt or a Bloodthirster, if you roll a 3+, you hit. See a trend here? Second, is his ability to take Runic Armor, which is the SM-equiv to Artificer Armor w/ a built-in psychic protection. Third, is his ability to take Sagas that improves his killing potential ontop of his natural Counter-attack. He has so many different wargear options that he makes other librarians look broke ass poor, save maybe the GK one. I guess since the Chooser of the Slain is pretty much an auto-include for me, he should get a mention. 18" perched on top of a high point gives the RP +1BS with Living Lightning and pushes back all infiltrated units. Viewed as the best HQ choice in the game by many players, I take him in every game with Space Wolves.

As for powers, I find Murderous Hurricane, Living Lightning and Jaws to be the best choices. Murderous Hurricane allows you to slow down and destroy enemy infantry, Living Lightning allows you to punch through armor from infinite range, and Jaws is just... jaws. No other psychic ability in the game caused as much ruckus as Jaws did when it first came out and it's still being talked about today. It has a 24" line that can snipe any model it touches and if they fail a I test, they're removed from play. Laff.

Bringing back vehicle death

2011-05-23T00:06:00.000-07:00

Goatboy recently wrote a article on BoLS that touched upon a very sensitive issue. By sensitive, I mean mech players are going to cry buckets of tears all over the place. Seriously though? I don't give a shit. I'm sick of seeing Razorspam and Chimerawalls to a point every list on every site looks the same. Let's be honest, 5th Edition was good, but not nearly good enough.

This is fine if you think about it. 5th Ed. was GW's first attempt at getting True Line of Sight right. They did good for the most part; it sped up the game and made things visually impressive. However, they failed on two major accounts: The general cover system and the Vehicle Damage Chart. Everything right now, is too forgivable. A 4+ cover on everything means half of your shots are negated and the glancing modifier means you can never destroy a vehicle with a glance under normal circumstances. This is ass.

Here is what I want in 6th Ed., more so than any other change GW can think of:

Increase vehicle lethality by bringing back ways to kill vehicles with glancing shots. A simple -1 modifier for glancing instead of -2 will do the trick. This will result in a lot of vehicle death everywhere once you throw enough heavy weapons into the fray.
Decrease the general cover bonus for all units by 1. This means everything will get 5+ cover for the most part, which is perfectly fine for me. Skimmers, Jetbikes and anything capable of turbo-boosting should get a 4+ cover at best.

Who is willing to test some of these rules out and see how it will effect the current armies out there? I have a bunch of 40K armies that would like to experiment.