Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!  I will be gone until the 15th of January as I will be on vacation in Southeast Asia.  My wife and I are going to check out Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.  There will be tons of great sights to see, food to eat and awesome cultures to explore.  I wish everyone here a safe and joyous holiday season.  Take care!

When I return, I will be playing some more Dystopian Wars since that seems to be the new (old) hype in town.

DW: The British and their torpedoes

Long live the Queen!

The first thing I have to say is:  Holy shit man, torpedo spam with British is strong!  I played my friend James today and he brought a list with no larges except for the Vengeance Class Submarine.  Everything else was Cruisers and smalls, but man, the list was absolutely brutal.  After facing such a list, I'm not sure if I would consider the British underpowered anymore.

I'm just going to capture the highlights from the game:

• Overall, I can't say I'm too happy with the performance of the EotBS fleet.  The Hachiman Otsu-Gata is still pretty bad for the points and the Raijin War Gyro is just very unimpressive.  Flying units in general, unless of course, you're a flying Dread like the CoA Euclid are just awful in this game.  They have less protection than naval units, Obscured is just garbage because you're hardly contributing to the battle, and the damage you inflict is mediocre.
• The core design for the EotBS fleet is just a huge gimmick in my opinion.  Rockets in general are very subpar in earlier stages of the game when squadrons are healthy and at full strength.  They become even more subpar once the enemy closes in on you while your gimmicky rockets and subpar Raging Fire effects get weaker, and can be consistently dispelled with AA and repair rolls.  Because of this dependency on rockets, EotBS gunnery takes a huge hit as well (weaker at long range).  The design of the faction wants you to weaken the enemy with rockets first, then close in with strong guns and solid boarding.  Sadly, if those rockets don't do what they're supposed to do, the enemy closes in and outguns you pretty easily.  All this is happening while the other factions hammer you with torpedoes (more difficult to defend against), vastly superior long-range gunnery (4+, no AA or CC protection), and other "gimmicks" that straight up inflict the desired result (Tesla, for example).  In short, dependency on rockets and Raging Fire suck.
• This British list I faced however, hot damn it can inflict an assload of damage from all range bands.  I'm not sure entirely what his list was, but it had Agincourt Gunships, Dominion Support Cruisers tagging 2x units of Orion Destroyers, 2x Lord Hood Battlecruisers in a squadron, and a squadron of Tribals Cruisers.  Once the Dominions started target painting my stuff, it was bad news bears as his Orions just lit up everything that I had.  I was very surprised at the lack of larges in this list, but the damage that it was able to inflict on my forces were horrendous.
• It's been a long time since I've seen the British preform this well and I can only imagine that the support box and the Lord Hood helped with that.  The Vengeance Sub is just a pain in the back side because he'll just creep along the water on my sides while constantly pouring dice from afar.  The good thing about the Sonar Target Painters is that once one target is lit up, everything else that shoots at them get +1 to hit with their torpedoes.  This is especially dangerous with the British Destroyers (I think the best DD in the game) because their damage potential is so great.  Not just that, their range is insane and the fact the Dominions can be attached to them is just ludicrous.  A unit of 4x Orions with an attached Dominion is 215 points, but with this, you gain the ability to do long-range torpedo death.  Well worth it to me.
• James' entire list just made sense from a synergy perspective:  There was a healthy amount of squadrons, hull points and target saturation on the battlefield, plus the fact there were 4 different Target Painters.  With the Target Painters active, Water Hunters all over the place, and torpedoes from every which way, the only thing that was really safe was my Raijin.  That is, until he got closer to do damage with his guns and got annihilated by combined gunnery from the British.  That 6/9 is just asking to get killed, especially when you can't screen him and you contribute almost nothing to the battlefield if you go Obscured.
• The Lord Hood is by far the best Battlecruiser in the game.  It moves 8", has Sharp Turn and packs dreadnought-class guns.  Even when it hung out in the backfield, 2 of these things manages to throw out 14 AD from RB4.  This becomes 21 dice at RB3, 22 at RB2, and 29 at RB1.  Now I'm not sure what the justification was for having this kind of firepower from two of these ships, but these guys were insanely good in the game that we played.  The damage potential from these guys made them absolutely killer when cruising parallel of my fleet.  That 14/21 at RB4 and 3 just can't be ignored.
• Truth be told, the mission objectives in the game need some work.  James needed to kill 70% of my fleet and I only needed to kill 50% of his, including smalls.  With my Dreadnought taking up 280 of those points, I managed to snag the game from him when one of my Ikas caught up and ate his Vengeance submarine.

TLDR:  If you're playing Kingdom of Brittania, you better be spamming torpedoes.

The end of competitive 40K

The beginning of the end.

With the recent datasheets, Escalation, Strongholds, Titans, and crazy netlists, I think competitive 40K is finally going to die.  Events and TOs out there have already started making restrictions, rules and banlists to counteract GW's efforts at making the casual game that it was set out to be.  If you look at how the game is designed, how the army books are written, and how the current edition of rules (6th) promotes a cinematic form of gameplay, you will know this game was never meant to be played in a competitive setting.  You know what?  Good.  I hope 40K dies as a competitive game.

Frankly, I don't know what happened to 40K from 5th edition going into 6th.  Out of all the years I've played 40K, I've sat and watched power armies rise and fall like autumn leaves.  Poetic, I know, but shouldn't this be a clear sign that the books were not designed with balance in mind in the first place?  God knows I love game balance,  but GW is not a company who makes its money from eSports or tournament players, they make their money from their lore/model fans.  As much as GW loves free publicity and marketing provided by these external tournaments, they don't need it to run their business.

As a widely-labeled competitive player myself, I'm a bit ashamed to see what the meta has turned into.  I'm saying this as a player who's lived through the early days of Nidzilla, Mechdar and Lash Princes to seeing what the game has become now (Taudar, Cronair, Screamerstar).  For the older players out there, how are you still enjoying this kind of play?  I sincerely hope you're not and you've moved onto greater and better things.  For the newer players out there, I tell you this:  This is not how the game is supposed to be played.  It took me a long time to realize it myself, but once you get out of that repetitive circlejerk you'll find yourself having more fun with your hobby.

Truth be told:  With all these tournaments out there making up their own rules, it's only a matter of time before 40K turns into Warhammer ETC.  Before you know it, you won't be playing the same game you started the hobby with, and that's a sad, sad thing.  It divides the community, alienates newer players and kills the hobby for a lot of older players.  None of these are a good thing and best way to solve this is not get involved in any competitive circuits.

DW: A game and some thoughts

Melting through all your ships.

I played a game today vs. my friend Kyle's FSA force with my French.  Since my Attack Flotilla haven't arrived yet, you will not see any of the newer stuff here.  No matter though, at 1000 points, my French were well-equipped to fight against the opposition.

My Fleet:
Charlemagne DN, Cloud
+Toulon CA
Magenta MkII, Cloud
+Toulon CA
Couronne BCV, Cloud
5x Fighters, 1x Recon
3x Escuyer CA
4x Chevalier DD
5x Torpedo
5x Torpedo

Kyle's Fleet:
Independence BB
+2x Springfield Escorts
Valley Airship
4x Lee Scoutships
3x Lexington CA
4x Augusta FF
4x Augusta FF
5x Torpedo
5x Torpedo

Some notes from the game:

• The Toulon MkII ships are great upgrades for my heavier ships.  Not only do they add extra dice on the defense of my larger vessels, but the extra Heat Lance is absolutely monstrous.  This elevates the relatively unimpressive 2x DR to 3x on a major target and that's just amazing.  For the extra 80 points, this brings the Charlemagne package up to 320 points.  Pretty expensive, but worth the points if you deploy and screen well.
• His Independence BB got within RB3 of my forces, went full stop and started pounding my Couronne.  Sadly, he was unable to inflict any damage on my forces over the course of 3 turns.  On the third turn, I was able to throw 21 dice with my Charlemagne + Toulon's Heat Lances into the BB, forcing a crit that he turned into no damage with some incredible shield saves (-7 damage).  No matter though, the Indie was pretty much deadweight since it did not do any damage to any of my forces.
• The combination of Retardant Armor and Cloud Generator is super strong at denying enemy damage.  When the dust settled, the only bit of damage that my opponent inflicted was on activation turns that he was able to 1. seize initiative and 2. go before my Cloud generator could activate.  Where a few of my ships took good damage from his forces, the Redoubtable Heat Lances just kept chewing through his forces (due to FSA's high DR).
• I was extremely surprised at how much damage his Augutas were pouring out.  Not only do they have good 4/5 DR/CR, but they were throwing out upwards of 16 dice at some of my ships.  With their good speed and damage, I will be wise never to underestimate them again.  I had Torpedo planes ready to go most of the time but I was saving them for the bigger ships.  A mistake I'll never make again, that's for sure.
• Speaking of surprises, the Lexington CAs have an amazing amount of AP to throw around.  FSA in general took me a little off-guard with the sheer amount of boarding actions that they can take.  Not only do they have Sharpshooters to drop my AP, but their Lees and Lexingtons can really put on the hurt in boarding.  Lee Scoutships are really solid when it comes to boarding my ships:  They can throw huge amounts of AP at me while I'm unable to board his ships in return because they're flying.
• After the game, Kyle said it probably would of been better if he had went Obscured for more rounds to deny my shooting since he was shooting at Cloud Genrators anyway.  This was a pretty good call.  The Valley and the Lees didn't do as much damage as he would of liked because of the French's fleet's AA.
• Speaking of AA, a lot of people look down on Escuyers but I find them to be quite good for 165 points for 3x.  They have a crazy amount of shots against enemy air with their threat range of 22" (6" move + 16" guns) and re-rolls, plus their 90 degree secondary turrets are solid firing solutions with 7/6/5/-.  For the points, I find them hard to beat for how much versatility they can put out.  Maybe this will change if my opponents stop bringing air units completely.
• My Chevalier DDs were largely useless this game and most of our TFT did nothing to each other's ships.  Kyle said he'll probably swap out the Valley for the New Orleans the next time around and maybe take a dreadnought of his own.  While a lot of people see the Charlemagne as a lesser DN, I find it to be very good in every single game I've ever taken her.  She has an amazing amount of gun coverage and firing solutions as well as 2x Heat Lances that can be directed on either side.  Now with the ability to take a supporting Toulon, I can't see myself playing a larger game without it.

Which brings me to another point:  Do you think dreadnoughts should be LA 1250?  Are they too much for a player to handle at 1000 points if they don't bring one?  Are they undercosted, or are they fine?

DW: Back in the saddle

Ottomans man, damn they're sexy.

Yes, you read correctly.  Instead of wasting my time with Escalation in 40K, I've decided to invest some more time in an old favorite.  I'm officially back and playing Dystopian Wars on top of making commitments in Firestorm Armada.  What can I say?  I've been loving the stuff that Spartan Games have been doing for their games because I honestly feel like they care about their fanbase.  I read over the 2.0 rules for Firestorm and it looks like they touched upon a lot of the areas players were having issues with.  They streamlined the rules, made them easier to understand and cleared up a lot of things that were confusing and unneeded.  On top of this, they added a lot of player suggestions and developed their project around community feedback and player expectations.

With that said, I now own a total of 3 fleets.  I have the Empire of the Blazing Sun, which were my first army but right now, they're probably my least favorite.  I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I think it has something to do with the lack of special rules and the over-reliance on gimmicky mechanics such as Incendiary Rockets and Raging Fires.  The Sharp Turn MAR on all the ships is the only saving grace since I absolutely love maneuverability.  While not as movetastic as the Japanese, the French is probably my favorite fleet at the moment.  They have really cool abilities in both aesthetic design and fantasy so that's really appealing to me.  The thought of Heat Lances ripping superheated holes into the side of ships while Cloud Generators shroud your advance is way cool.  That's why for my third fleet, I've recently decided to pick up Ottomans.  While I don't like the idea of flying ships, I really like the aesthetic design of the Ottoman ships and the fact they're riddled with broadsides.  The fact that they can generate storms through their Firtina Generators that can be used offensively or defensively is just too much.  Oh, and they can ally with the French, so I can't wait to try some allied fleets out and see what happens.

Oh, and incase you're wondering what happened to my Tyranid pictures.. let's just say I got contacted by GW Legal.  The pictures are gone, but I'm sure you can find them elsewhere on the net!

FA: Directorate and Aquans

Kill everything in sight.

After creating a bunch of lists over the last couple of days, I think I've finally found something that I'm comfortable with.  I'm definitely going to be playing Directorate and Aquans as my primary fleets, as I'm a huge fan of having one good faction and one evil faction with completely different playstyles.

1200
Directorate

Persecution DN = 325
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

Eliminator BB = 220
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

Eliminator BB = 220
Improved Shields
Upgraded Engines I
Decreased Turn Limit
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

3x Abraxas CA = 195
Biohazard Ammo
Special Forces

4x Enforcer FF = 120
Biohazard Ammo

4x Enforcer FF = 120
Biohazard Ammo

This list is pretty straight forward:  Put Biohazard Ammo on everything that I can while maintaining a good amount of Special Forces on all my ships.  Three big ships allow me to put out a lot of damage and the -1 Turn Limit is absolutely mandatory on any ship that has a Fore Fixed weapon.  The extra speed allows me to cover a greater arc of fire and gives me a little more range to launch assaults.  Due the bigger ships packing unimpressive long range damage, the faster I can get close to the enemy the better.  Since most of my ships already have Reinforced Fore, adding a little bit more Shields really improves their durability on the battlefield.  I'm a pretty big fan of the Abraxas Cruiser's impressive cost to effectiveness ratio.  They have good speed, biohazard turrets and comes charging with Special Forces and 12 AP.

1200
Aquan Prime

Manta BCV = 270
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Energy Transfer I
Quick Launch
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

Poseidon BB = 235
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Increased Wing Capacity
Energy Transfer II
Precision Strike
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

Poseidon BB = 235
Improved Shields
Decreased Turn Limit
Increased Wing Capacity
Energy Transfer II
Precision Strike
Corrosive Torpedoes
6x Bombers

4x Storm CA = 260
Difficult Target
Energy Transfer I

4x Piranha FF = 100
Energy Transfer I

4x Piranha FF = 100
Energy Transfer I

This list is pretty similar to what I was rocking back in 1.5.  The Manta BCV and 2x Poseidons all reeling with 6x Bombers is something that looks really scary on paper.  Corrosive Torpedoes on everything so I can play a medium ranged game and deal damage from afar while extra Shields help for when I get close.  Once I weaken my enemy and open up a corridor of opportunity, I will charge in and let things rip with Energy Transfer.  With Beam Weapons all over the place, enemy units should be very wary when fighting the Aquan Fleet.  One of the biggest weaknesses to Aquans in general is their vulnerability to assaults.  Thankfully, most of their ships have relatively high PD and can now link their mine for deadlier payloads.