40K: Breathing Life into Daemonhosts

This is the first in a series of articles designed to breathe some new life into unused (or underused) units. If you have suggestions for future articles (units that you'd like covered or clever ideas for using them), email me at mkerr@chainfist.com. I'm starting with Deamonhosts (from the Daemonhunters codex) because they are one of the most colorful, but least used units in the game.

Daemonhosts are great models, plus they are one of the few units a radical Inquisitor can take to match the dark and edgy tone of the background fluff. They have a place of honor in my Relictors army, but I have struggled for years to squeeze them into a competitive build.

This tactica is a little different than my usual articles, as I'm focusing on making a weak unit a little more effective. I'll give you some tactics to minimize the weakest areas and suggest some tactics and combos to make them a little more useful and an lot more fun.

DEAMONHOSTS 101
Daemonshosts are a 0-1 Elite choice available to a Daemonhunters army that includes an Inquisitor but does not also include Grey Knights. You may buy up to three as a single unit and they operate using the Independent rule. The Independent rule allows you to deploy them individually, but prevents them from contesting objectives, joining units and riding in transports.

Daemonhosts are Fearless and may enter play using the Deep Strike rules. In close combat, they attack at a middling I4, but sport a respectable Strength 6 and D6 attacks. If you are lucky enough to roll Warp Strength (up to S9) or Timeshift (up to 13 attacks on the charge), a Daemonhost can be a real terror in close combat.

Daemonhosts are pricey at 85pts, but resilient (4 Wounds, a 4+ Invulnerable save and it has a chance to recover all wounds suffered with Re-knit Host Form). The only glaring weakness is their vulnerability to Instant Death when facing S8 or better weapons.

All Daemonhosts are psykers and roll randomly each turn to determine which of their psychic powers manifest. Here's the list:

1. Terrify: All units (friend or foe) within 12" must make a Pinning test.
2. Re-knit Host Form: Daemonhost recovers all wounds.
3. Teleport: Daemonhost may immediately move to anywhere on the table (not within 1" of an enemy model or within impassible terrain) and scatters as per Deep Strike. It may assault that turn.
4. Bloodboil: In the shooting phase, place a large blast template over the Daemonhost and any model touched by the blast marker (besides the Daemonhost) takes a S3 AP2 hit.
5. Timeshift: Daemonhost can move 12", assault 12" and doubles the number of attacks it makes.
6. Warp Strength: Add +D3 to both the Daemonhosts Strength and Toughness until the beginning of the following turn.

As you can see the Daemonhosts list of powers is fantastic, but the random nature really hurts the model and can be frustrating. For me, the random element is a lot of fun because it adds a lot of character to an already capricious unit -- but it makes the unit unreliable on the table.

Note: Although Daemonhosts aren't required to make psychic tests to use their powers, they are still vulnerable to disruption by Psychic Hoods and the like. This is doubly important because Daemonhosts are only LD9.

WHEN TO USE DAEMONHOSTS
The best time to use a unit of Daemonhosts is when you don't mind relying on the Dice Gods for good luck. In my experience, they are the most fickle unit in the game. Combining Deep Strike, random powers, random attacks and a chance to blow up or pin your own units makes them a tad unpredictable. But if you want to have a good time and let the dice fall where they may, Daemonhosts can lead to some very fun games.

Daemonhosts are terrible when facing armies with tons of S8 or better weapons, so you'll need a plan that keeps them away from power fists and high-Strength shooting. You also want to avoid them in small games. The larger the game, the less the impact of fickle Daemonhost rolls. I tend to use them in groups of two or three in 2,000 point games (although one or two in 1,750 to 1,850 point games can work too). They are great units in Planetstrike and Apocalypse games.

Unless you have a very strong army list, I would avoid using them in tournaments.

HOW TO USE A DAEMONHOST
The best advice I can give to a Daemonhost player is to roll really, really well at every opportunity. Make the important Invulnerable saves and roll the right psychic power, and your Daemonhost will win games for you. Fail your first save against a Lascannon, and your Daemonhost will be banished back to the Warp (or at least back into your army transport).

Besides good luck, I can give you a few more tips and tricks:

Tip #1: Don't hold them in Reserve. I know it's cool to "summon" them, but there's no need to waste a couple of turns waiting for them to come on. Deploy them in a protected location and wait for an opportune Teleport or Timeshift to get them into the mix.

Tip #2: Don't deploy them within 4" of a friendly unit -- Bloodboil doesn't sound nasty but S3 AP2 hits are brutal. Don't deploy them within 12" of a unit that can be Pinned. Don't deploy them where they can be targeted by S8 or better shooting and don't advance them in the open. If you can't move them up in the shadow of a mechanized unit, then keep them out of line of sight then keep them hidden until you roll a Teleport or a Timeshift.

Tip #3: Don't deploy Daemonhosts near each other. Nothing will ruin your day like accidentally placing them where your opponent can cover all of your Daemonhosts with a single S8+ template. They are Independent so spread them around. Hide them so that you opponent forgets about them (or better, make him worry about them so he doesn't focus on the rest of your army).

Tip #4: Don't send them into close combat unsupported. Daemonhosts look tough, but it doesn't take a lot to bring them down. They are best used to support another assaulting unit (i.e., charge the Daemonhost in after charging with another unit). This helps you in a couple of ways. First of all, they take a lot of attacks to bring them down (it takes 8 normal WS4 S4 attacks to cause a single wound to a Daemonhost, thanks to their 4+ Invulnerable save) and an engaged enemy is going to have a hard time putting too many attacks on your Daemonhost. Secondly, any hidden power fists should be engaged by the first unit and you can position your Daemonhost in a way to avoid that S8 attack.

Tip #5: Daemonhosts shred AV10 rear armor vehicles, especially if they roll Warp Strength or Timeshift. Even without those two powers, D6 Strength 6 attacks is often enough to mess up a squadron of light tanks. Teleport and Timeshift can also get your Daemonhosts into locations where they can pop immobile tanks -- and the models are small enough that they can often hide behind the wreckage.

KILLER COMBOS
There are some unit combinations to make Daemonhosts more effective. If you know of any other combinations, post them as a comment or email them to me at mkerr@chainfist.com!

Killer Combo #1: Vindicare + Daemohosts. This is my favorite combo because the Vindicare is ideal for taking out those pesky hidden power fists and heavy weapons that make my Daemonhosts cry. He dramatically extends the shelf-life of your Daemonhosts.

Dirty Trick #1: Your Daemonhost stuck in close combat and can't get out? If there's only one model in base contact with your Daemonhost, use the Vindicare to kill that model. At the beginning of the assault phase, the Daemonhost is no longer engaged so he can move freely. This will allow him to Re-knit, live to fight another day or engage the unit in a safer location. This works well in large combats where all of the models are engaged before the Daemonhost assaults.

Note: I hesitate to call these tactics "Dirty Tricks" because Daemonhosts are such an overpriced and underpowered unit. If you are using Daemonhosts, you are generally not "tricking" your opponent -- but since these can be surprising and effective tactics, I'm going to stick to the "Dirty Trick" terminology.

Killer Combo #2: Other Imperial Assassins + Daemonhosts. Although both units are pricey, Daemonhosts work well with all of the Imperial Assassins. Both the Callidus and the Eversor make great support units for Daemonhosts (extending their lifespan). And they are Fearless so Terrify won't affect them.

Note: Daemonhosts are psykers so they can charge up the Culexus' Animus Speculum. Also since Daemonhosts don't roll psychic tests when using their powers, the Culexus' Souless power doesn't cause any problems. Being Fearless also prevents them from falling back.

Killer Combo #3: Tough Close Combat Unit + Daemonhosts. This combo works great when you have a close combat unit (Fearless units are best) that is tough enough to survive multiple rounds of close combat. Assault with tough unit (making sure to move into base contact with any hidden power fists) and then join the assault with your Daemonhost.

Killer Combo #4: Teleport Homers! Daemonhosts have a power called Teleport that allows them to Deep Strike elsewhere on the board. Since the Daemonhost is clearly "teleporting", they work with Teleport Homers. Teleport Homers are best used when you have three Daemonhosts. Since each turn you have a 1 in 6 chance of rolling Teleport; you have ~50% chance of getting at least one Teleport each turn.

Dirty Trick #2: If you have a model with a Teleport Homer in your "Tough Close Combat Unit", you can use Teleport to pull a Daemonhost out of the close combat each time you roll the Teleport power. A Daemonhost can assault after Teleporting, so he can charge back into the close combat. With three Daemonhosts you can charge them over and over into the same close combat.

DAEMONHOSTS AS ALLIES
Any Imperial army (except Black Templars) with a free HQ and a free Elite slot can ally a Daemonhunter Inquisitor Lord and 1-3 Daemonhosts. This is a fantastic way to add a lot of color to your Imperial Guard or Space Marine army. Just the addition of a handful of models is a quick and easy way to radically change the theme of your army (pun intended).

Here are some ideas on using Daemonhosts as allies:

1. Space Marines: Space Marines (like my Relictors) are great homes for Daemonhosts. The abundance of close combat units give the Daemonhosts the support they need to do their job.

Combos/Tricks: Pedro Kantor gives your Daemonhosts +1A while within range of his Inspiring Presence. Sergeant Telion can act as a sniper to get rid of pesky hidden power fists. Tigurius gives you re-rolls on Reserve rolls (making it reasonable to Summon your Daemonhosts).

2. Imperial Guard: Imperial Guard armies benefit from a Daemonhost's close combat ability (and their ability to tie up enemy units).

Combos/Tricks: An Astropath can help you bring in your Daemonhosts early (making Summon viable). Psyker Battle Squads make Terrify a lot more terrifying. Creed's Tactical Genius allows your Daemonhosts to outflank or get scout moves (getting them into the mix a LOT more quickly). Straken gives your nearby Daemonhosts Counter-attack and Furious Charge. Daemonhosts make Marbo a lot more Marbo-lous.

3. Blood Angels: Like Space Marines, Blood Angels have enough close combat units to support Daemonhosts. Daemonhosts also have the speed to tie up a unit (or pop a transport), giving the Blood Angels extra time to get into position.

Combos/Tricks: Exsanguinators work on Daemonosts. There are no Teleport Homers in the Blood Angels army, but Daemonhosts and the Fearless Death Company work together like peas and carrots! Also Dante makes nearby enemies within -1WS and -1BS; that goes a long way to keeping your Daemonhosts alive a turn or two longer.

4. Space Wolves: Although the Space Wolves' fear of teleportation keeps them from keeping Teleport Homers around, they make up for it by providing a ton of close combats for your Daemonhosts to join.

Combos/Tricks: I love the idea of Ulrik Mentoring my Daemonhost to give him WS5. Daemonhosts work great with Rune Priests (in particular Njal) and Jaws of the World Wolf can snipe hidden power fists. Since your Daemonhosts are likely to join a close combat in progress, Saga of the Warrior Born works great in combination with Daemonhosts.

5. Dark Angels: And nothing will confound your opponent more than using the Teleport Homers on your Ravenwing Bikes to summon in your Daemonhosts!

Note: If you don't have Teleport Homers in your army list, you can ally them with a unit of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers! That's a also decent way to get Teleport Homers into a Blood Angels army.

As you can see there's a place for Daemonhosts in just about every Imperial army - and if combined with some "strateg-ery" and luck, Daemonhosts can pull their own weight.

CONCLUSION
I hope I've given you some ideas to encourage you to dust off your Daemonhosts or perhaps make you want to add a Radical Inquisitor and some Daemonhosts to your existing army (just think of all the conversion opportunities...). They instantly transform a standard Imperial army into something much more, well, "radical".

~Daemonhosts are colorful and fun and are a blast when they work -- and when they don't work, they are still pretty funny. If you've used Daemonhosts before, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then proxy them in a game and see what you think. If you've ever used (or had one used against you), I'd love to hear the story! Comments are welcome here and at http://www.chainfist.com/ -- and as always, your mileage may vary.

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40K TACTICS: Nine Principles of War - Pt. 6

Applying the Nine Principles of War to Fifth Edition Warhammer 40,000.

A series by: Rogue428

We’ve made it to week six and we’ve covered Mass, Objective, Simplicity, Security, and Maneuver. This week we’re going to talk about the Principle of Offensive and taking the fight to your opponent.



Offensive: Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative.
“The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions: when they’re ready and when you’re not.”
-Murphy’s Laws of Combat

When we think of the Principle of Offensive, we immediately think of charging forward to engage the foe. We think of hordes of Ork Boys, or a Death Company, or Berserkers, and certainly this is not wrong. GW designed the majority of 40K armies to favor this Principle very heavily. It seems that it is far easier to list armies by exception rather than those that fit the mold. Tau and Imperial Guard immediately spring to mind as armies that would rather let opponents come to them and break against their lines rather than surge forward on the offensive. That goes for many of the ‘gun-line’ builds as well. But we shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that simply because they do not have models charging downfield, that they are not on the offensive. Anyone who has been on the receiving end of a brutal gun-line build will agree that a static army can still take the offensive with firepower.

This Principle of War really covers what some people refer to as pacing. Simply put, pacing is about knowing your army and knowing how many turns it will take for a given unit to do its planned task. For instance, you know that most deep striking units cannot assault on the turn they arrive. So it’s obvious that if you need them to assault a unit, pacing dictates that you calculate deep strike plus one turn. Therefore, if you are moving a unit across the board to support the deepstriking unit, or screen them so they aren’t shot to bits when they come in, you must take into account how long it will take that unit to get to their destination before you would ideally like the deep striking unit to come in. Another instance where pacing and taking the offensive work hand in hand is during the Assault Phase. In Fifth Edition there isn’t as a great a payoff in wiping out a unit you assaulted on your turn. That just leaves your assaulting unit vulnerable to incoming fire. The ideal pacing is to assault the target unit hard but to have it survive long enough so it can be destroyed in your opponent’s Assault Phase. This leaves your unit able to move, shoot, and assault again in your following turn. Any change to your plans (reserve rolls, immobilized transports, tied up fighting popcorn/quagmire units, etc…), disrupts your pacing to an extent and with differing degrees of severity. As one of Murphy’s Laws of Combat goes, “Failure of plan A will directly affect your ability to carry out plan B.” This Principle comes into play because pacing, and more importantly, the disruption of it, works both ways.



Offensive, when it comes right down to it, is all about disrupting your opponent’s plans and pulling off your own. The simplest way to do that is to force your opponent to react to what you’re doing instead of doing what he would want to do. In the early game, he would dearly love to blast your advancing beardy HQ unit to bits, but he didn’t count on those scouting units to be so far forward so fast and threatening his own HQ. In the later game, ‘surprise’ units that arrive by Deep Strike, or Outflank, or fast maneuvering reserves can easily disrupt an opponent’s pacing and turn control of the game back to you.

When we’re talking about ‘Seizing the Initiative’ here we’re talking about controlling the pacing and dictating the way the game will be played. A good start to doing this is to preserve your options and take away your opponent’s. Or give him so many choices he can’t address them all. The key is that the choices you present should consist of units that are viable threats independently. Ideally, you should present your opponent with a no-win scenario; he ignores one target over another at his own peril.

Finally, the key to seizing the initiative is to roll a six on that critical die roll at the start of the game. Yelling, “Six!” in a loud and high pitched voice seems to work wonders.*

(*Your experience may vary.)

Bottom Line: Try to make it so that your opponent is always reacting to your plans and not the other way around. If you find yourself in the ‘react’ mode, do something different (or unexpected) to force your opponent to give up the initiative and relinquish control of the game.

~Next time, we’ll talk about the Principle of Unity of Command. Until then, let’s talk about how to use the Principle of Offensive to disrupt an opponent’s pacing and control the initiative.

Rogue428 has been playing 40K since the start of 4th edition. He fields Dark Eldar, Tyranids, Daemonhunters, Necron, and of course, Space Marines.

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40K Pic of the Day 11-11-09

pic submitted by reader: Gilles

Caption Contest Mon-keigh!
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us. If its one of the rarer xenos races, even better!

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40K NEWS: Forgeworld Tau "Hazard" Battlesuit

Hi guys,

Forgeworld just released a new Tau Battlesuit in time for the holidays. The new XV9 'Hazard' Close Support Armour is available for immediate orders now.

~Rules for the new suit here, That T:5 and vectored retro-thrusters with drones combo may make this suit about as close as the Tau can get to putting together a unit with a chance of dealing with enemy assaulters. Based on earlier info from Forgeworld it sounds like this model is only the first in a series of weapon variants for the new design.

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40K RUMORS: Tyranid Dribblings

The latest from the mill following up on the last set of Tyranid rumors:

-Release date is January 16th (apparently pushed back due to some manner of printing snafu)

-A new Tyranid Batallion box is listed on retailer schedules for December 5th oddly enough. Contents are currently unknown.

-Carnifex will be made to be more assaulty. The shooty buildouts are said to have been dropped in overall power.

-Many FOC options for Warriors based on buildouts.

-Genestealers are going to be reduced stat wise. Moved to Elites.

-Broodlord and Lictors will be much improved.

~Standard Caveats on all of these, but we are rapidly approaching the 2 month mark, so all kinds of pics, advanced orders,black boxes should be showing up in the GW marketing channels shortly. Have at it guys.

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40K TOURNAMENTS: Road to Adepticon - Pt 1

Adepticon released it's tournament packs last week and we have the wheels already turning in the BoLS team. Not too long ago, there were some people asking on how we gear up for Adepticon, tournaments and just general understanding of what we do before the big showdown. I am going to go through the latest breakdown of what we have down for two of the major tournaments that we love to play in.

Gladiator:
Last year the Reaver was the big winner and Adepticon has made some recent changes such as restructuring which Super heavies are allowed. Nothing more than 4 structure points, and ruling that flyer blocking is out are the two biggest changes they have made. This has obviously adjusted the power level and balance of the tournament as other uber-units are going to rise to the top. Here are some of our quick first pass ideas of what may be the most potent units and list combo’s that people could bring.



An'ggrath and Fateweaver:
An'ggrath is a monster with 10 strength, 8 toughness, 8 wounds and a crazy amount of attacks that can scale up quite nicely. He also has a 12 inch move that ignores all terrain he can just tear up units. Having a great armor save and with re-rollable saves from Fateweaver he will be a hard combo to take down.

Hierophant:
This big monster is toughness 9 , with a 2+ save and regeration. Its horrific bio-cannon's fire up to 16 shots at str 10 ap 3! per turn That is a lot of pain and it can move 12 inches and fleet up to 2d6 in a turn while still getting that 6 inch charge. Having this unit that will be in your face, can shoot, and assault will be tough for a lot of armies to deal with.



Eldar Flying Circus:
(Vampire and multiple flyers): This list will play to the Eldar's true strengths and fall under Fritz 5th dimension of scoring last turn and you can’t touch me. This is a heavy flyer list that will sit off the board, come in with devastating precision strikes, then take objectives at the last turn. A lot of weapons will not be able to hurt flyers and the Eldar Flyer's two additional saves they will be even harder to take down.

The current meta-game this year may hurt the big tanks and titans because in all honestly they are pretty easy to kill. Imperial Guard, Marines and a lot of other lists can make short work of titans and the common superheavies or at least make them ineffective. The big threat may indeed be the potent gargantuan creatures that you are going have to deal with or well protected flyers that can also protect scoring units.

Team Tournament:
So far we have decided it’s going to be Goatboy, Jwolf and myself. The fourth person is an unknown yet but the one thing that I have to say I love about our gaming group is our ability to work together and develop lists. Our process has been selecting a theme or idea that we can to go with and trying to build the list on our theme. Team tournament is really about having fun and coming up with crazy ideas. (we hear that Goatboy may be playing in an *unique* outfit this year). We started talking about what we wanted to play. We broke apart ideas, tore down suggestions, make changes , studies point values like an accountant, and that's just the first week. Whenever we build lists as a group we take a break-build approach which has benefited us greatly. We build the list trying it out over a bunch of games breaking it down and trying to tweak certain components of the list all the time. We do this with multiple list and units. The vital thing is keeping an open mind, and letting multiple people from our group challenge and improve our lists, instead of getting defensive.

Playtest:
Which brings me to the next thing, once we have done all of the theory crafting we start play testing. With scenarios from previous Adepticons on hand we sit at our game store on Thursday nights and hammer through the contenders. With a ruthless ability to call games the moment you see that something won't work, we are often able to finish games in under 30 minutes. Playing 7 hours a week, you can see it is possible to get a dozen+ games going per testing pair. When people come up with these lists they need to do sufficient play testing to work out the kinks because there are times that you will forget about certain units or you just feel that this unit doesn’t work for you. Sometimes weapons ranges don't mesh well in a list, units may not work efficiently in tabletop use, or spending 1000 points on a super cool model only got you a neat collectible but no easy way to use it. In the end, its good ideas, elbow grease and a bit of luck that will get you there!

~We want to see what other people are doing to gear up for Adepticon? How do you play test out certain units and assemble your lists in the first place? Does your group try to work together to make better list and create a synergy between your gaming group or is it every man for themselves?

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40K Pic of the Day 11-10-09

pic submitted by reader: ColCorbane

Caption Contest! (this will be good)
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us. If its one of the rarer xenos races, even better!

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POLL: Chaos Marines Unit Smackdown!

So I've been throwing myself into the Chaos Space Marine codex pretty hard lately.

One of the things that happens to all of us is the tunnel vision casued by our own miniatures collections. Some folks are hard-core number crunchers and every edition, absorb the rules, re-evaluate the codices, and custom build efficient killing machines to sow terror on the tabletop.

Then there are the other 99% of us. We collect what we want, add units here and there, and sometines find ourselves years down the road hemmed into a set of sub-par units that we use day in and dayout, just because we have them.




To break this cycle, I have been using my giant Night Lords and Death Guard armies (old pics, they are bigger now) along with Jwolf's Red Corsairs to test out every unit in the codex from front to back, even the ones I think are stinkers. Its an interesting exercise and I suggest it to everyone out there. The magic of the playing the game is that each person has their own individual mindset. Units your buddy can't fight his way out of a paper bag with, may be just what you were looking for, and you often will uncover gems that YOU can use effortlessly, that didn't seem like all that staring out at you from the page.

~So here is today's poll. We're going to rate the units in the CSM codex. Pick the top ten units YOU can use to win. This isn't about powerful on paper, but powerful in practice so factors such as ease of use, predicatbility, etc. apply. And I want you to tell us why in the comments. I've already voted, so lets see who the winners are in 5th (my list has changed quite a bit from a year ago).

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Mechanicon 2009 in Review

Hey folks, Jawaballs here!

Mechanicon has come and gone and I have to say it was an outstanding weekend. When I got there, the first thing that struck me was the smell of paint hanging in the air. Thats because they just finished painting row after row of brand new tables and terrain for the tournament. When I say beautiful, I'm not kidding! Every table had original GW terrain pieces that as I understand were graciously donated by the big boys themselves. But in addition, there were many hand made pieces consisting of destroyed ships from other genres like Star Wars. I noticed an A wing fighter, X wing fighter and Millenium Falcon all in the debries. It was fun to play find the fighter! Most notably was the size of the custom tables. Each table was regulation size, plus 2 feet on the end to give room for army boards. Also, they had wooden ridges around the table edges to stop dice from rolling off the table. Genius!

Pre-Tourney Events
I got registered and met the guys running the show. One was a Blood Angel player I met at the last GT Jeremy. The whole thing was run by Tony who probably had not slept in 3 days at the point when I met him so he looked like he was the living dead. But a quick shower fixed that for him. :) Jeremy walked me through the festivities giving me some behind the scenes info. One major event was the Chris Bledsoe Charity Tournament for Leukemia. I did not know him, but Chris was a major player in the miniature gaming scene and an all around swell guy. He passed much too early, and his family donated some of his belongings to be auctioned for charity. Other notable items in the auction were the rights to design your own model that will be mad by Ral Partha and a combat ready stage prop replica Light Saber that light up. It would be mine... oh yes... mine.

Open gaming started on Friday night early, and I got in two games. I was up til about 2:30 am hanging out with some cool dudes and having a blast! They had a bar in the convention room and all the guys were friendly and open. I will be posting batreps on my blog for all of my games. One is already up.

I did not get to see the rest of the events, but I believe there was a successful Blood Bowl tournament going on upstairs. I will leave that stuff for another reviewer.

The Tourney
How was the tournament? Top notch. The rules were very well written and the point system helped to even the playing field between some of the cheezers and some of the fluffers. Most of the games played a modified victory point set up and Kill Points were eliminated thank god. You earned victory points for completing certain objectives, like having all of your heavies survive, or taking table corners or objectives. The game was decided by the difference in each players victory points. A 400 point difference was a minor victory, and so forth. Well thought out and implemented, if a little difficult to figure out... great stuff!

The games went well and from what I could see, there were no uglies. Every one was there to play like gentlemen. The encouraging thing that I noticed was the large number of young players in what was a very expensive tournament. I am glad some of these young guys, who I had a chance to play against, (and lost to) were able to come represent!

The judging was straight to the point. Any rules dispute? If the judge could not answer them immediately, or find a definite answer in the book, roll them off in the spirit of the true GW rules. When it came down to some of the wonky arguements like Tank Shocking with Star Engines where there is no winner or loser I believe it was the best way to go. Punish neither camp with a rock hard ruling. Leave it up to chance!

The games went smoothly and they could have actually taken some of the time to play them off. I think they gave us 2.5 hours to play each game and that could have easily been 2 hours in my opinion. I don't think any of my games went over 1.5 hours.

On Saturday night I went to the auction to claim my Light Saber. I don't know why, but I wanted it, plus I wanted to help out the charity. So, 180 bucks later I walked out with the saber which will find a reserved spot on my wall of loot, and arm loads of gaming materials for my after school club. It made me happy that I was not only giving to charity, but giving to my kids at school. I'm a teacher and I have a gaming club on Tuesdays. The kids will be thrilled to see the cool stuff I got them! Unfortunately there was not much else in the auction I could bid on. If only there was some lots of 40k stuff, or an army or two. That would have sparked some rabid bidding I'm sure.

Sunday would wrap up the gaming and the competition was fierce. To cut to the chase, yours truely won 3rd best overall. It was my own fault though. I changed my list 4 days before the event and had to get it table ready. I had no time to give my new pods and squads the love I usually do, and I lacked a pretty display, so I ashamedly lost points on painting. What the hell Jawa?? But what it all came down to was the last shot of the last game for me. I was winning and all I had to do was keep my commander in his immobilized Rhino for the win. Instead I panicked because it was facing an assault by two Carnifexs. So I bailed and tried to run him away behind other tanks. He got caught and instant killed in a Str 8 blast from a shooty tyrant. This turned the game from my victory to a draw and probably cost me 1st Best Overall. Drat!

Pros and Cons
It was a great event and well run by Tony and the gang. I will be first in line for next years tournament despite the fact that it was nearly a 5 hour drive home for me on Sunday night. Curse You, George Washington Bridge in NYC! There was a lot of prize support, and I believe this was probably the first GT in history where EVERY ONE left with something. They also did a very unique thing by adding an Army Domination prize. For every codex army they gave a prize to the most dominating player. I won for Blood Angels being the only BA player there. :) But it is a cool idea and will reward some of those guys playing weaker armies!

Were there any cons? A few and I would not be a fair reviewer if I did not point them out. First of all, the location was less then desirable. I had no problem with the remote place, but the hotel was in the crux of a busy intersection next to a highway on-ramp. There was no light to get out of the hotel, and I literally sat there for about 10 minutes at one point trying to get out. I believe the numbers would have been higher if the cost of the entry fee were lower, but I completely understand the price. You have to understand that these convention spaces cost money. Plus these guys spent a load of cash building tables and organizing, not to mention time. But none the less, I feel that the price excluded some gamers who are already strapped as it is, especially the casual guys who would normally go to a GT just to get in 5 fun games even though they know there is no hope of winning. For them the price tag may have been a little steep. Instead I think this one was mostly the competitive guys, painting or playing who showed. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I feel I got every pennies worth. But that still doesn't help the guys whou could not scrape up the cash.

My only other con was the time that elapsed between games. For example on Sunday 2.5 hours elapsed between game 4 and 5 for me. The games were scheduled with a lot of time in between and spending so much down time made it tough to come back and be sharp. Some of the larger armies required more playing time I understand, but I definitely felt it in game 5, and so did Paul my opponent. If Tony can take any thing from my experience at Bolscon, it would be to cut down the lag time between games and at the end. I was finished my last game before 3 but it was after 4:30 before I was on the road facing 4.5 hours of driving. But I am sure they will improve on that naturally with time!

Summing Up
So there you have it. An event well worth the time and money. Every one left with loot in their hands and an exhausted smile on their face. The boys put on a great event with very few snags that I could see and that is the best you can hope for. I will be buying my ticket for next year as soon as they go up for sale and I hope that more of you all can make it. I would love to get my hands on some of the BoLS boys again without flying half way across the country.

Be sure to check my blog for all of my batreps, and also look for me on youtube for video of the event. I got lots of behind the scenes footage, interviews and fun stuff.

Jawaballs

~If you had your choices for a dream GT event, what would you include? What sorts of side activities would you like to see? How about prize support? How can independent guys like Mechanicon and BoLScon make the Super GT? What do the fans desire?

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HOLIDAYS: Beating Macy's to the Punch...

Hi all, Jwolf here. I normally talk about playing 40K here, but tonight I want to shamelessly plug a few of our vendors from BoLSCon and their incredible products. Before you get all weird about me talking about things you can spend money on, think about it – Christmas is coming and you have family and friends than might not buy you toy soldiers, but these items could make it under the radar.

You’ve all seen the picture of the battle for the Golden Arches in our pictures of the day? That piece was a one-of-a-kind artwork made by Peter Carlson at gameswithoutrules. I’m a huge fan, and I think really cool terrain pieces are one way to add something special to your battles. Peter also does unique objective markers, and builds amazing large terrain pieces (for those at BoLSCon, he did the trenches and mountains for the Narrative tables).

Keep in mind that none of these items are done in batches; each item is a unique piece of art that Peter handmakes, so you’re getting something special.



Another one of my favorite vendors is Battlefoam. Romeo spends a lot of time coming up with all the specialty trays to have everything you need. I carry about 8000 points of Imperial Guard, Daemonhunters, and Chaos Space Marines in my 1520, and I have room to add even more if I choose. Before I loaded those into the 1520 I used 3 smaller soft cases and 3 hard cases for the same forces. Besides the great capacity for miniatures, the Battlefoam cases have great designs for holding books, army lists, tapes and dice.

~Point your aunt to one of these sites for your Christmas wish list; she may not buy you Daemonettes, but how can she turn down art or a suitcase?

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40K Pic of the Day 11-9-09

pic submitted by reader: Jonathan Hartman

"Presenting: Lil KONG...WAAAAAGH!!!"
~have at it guys
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us. If its one of the rarer xenos races, even better!

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WFB RUMORS: Beasts of Chaos

Rumors brought to the community by Scryer in the Darkness and Grimgorironhide

Following up on earlier hints from Games Workshop, the first real rumor dumps of the Beast of Chaos armybook have arrived:

Scryer in the Darkness says:

Doombull (Metal Box) - TBD
Grulgor* (Metal Box) - TBD
Gors (Plastic Box) - TBD
Ungors (Plastic Box) - TBD
Bestigors (Plastic Box) - 32,50 €
Minotaurs (Plastic Box) - 35,00 €

And the Chariot got a new product code, though that may not necessarily mean it's getting a new model.


Gors (Plastic Box) - £15.00 / US?? / 19,50 € / Oz$41.00
Ungors (Plastic Box) - £15.00 / US?? / 19,50 € / Oz$41.00
Bestigors (Plastic Box) - £25.00 / US?? / 32,50 € / Oz$69.00
Minotaurs (Plastic Box) - £27.00 / US?? / 35,00 € / Oz$74.00

But the metal box codes are a bit muddied by the multitude of new codes for existing metal products that aren't actually going to to be getting new kits. I have three metal products that are "new", I'm pretty certain the first two are Doombull and Grulgor respectively, and I get the feeling that the £35 box is just the existing Centigors. So I'll just leave these unassigned for the moment until I can get a confirmation on what is actually new and what has just been given a new product code:

(Metal Box) - £15.00 / US$25.00 / 22,50 € / Oz$44.00
(Metal Box) - £25.00 / US$41.25 / 32,50 € / Oz$69.00
(Metal Box) - £35.00 / US$57.75 / 50,00 € / Oz$96.00

and Grimgorironhide adds:

"Not sure if already posted but I found this off warhammer forums.
"Beastmen due out at the start of March.
*** Herds/Ungors are still mixed and rank up 5 wide. Champions no longer confer a +1 LD bonus - however the majority of beast units and characters have went up 1 in LD.
*** Ambush is still available to the herds.
*** Minotaur lords are still available and have access to Beast mutations. Makes minotaurs core.
*** Chariots are now special choices but 2 for 1.
*** Centigors are core and fast cav however you still need to take gors/ungors/bestigors to fill up your core slots.
*** Gorgon is the new monster in the Rare spots.
*** Centigor Hero available
*** Beastlords with LD9"

The width issue is a no brainer to be fixed, I think we can take that as a given. I have also heard talk about different "breeds" of warhounds perhaps being available... I'm guessing this might be as simple as buying them poisoned attacks/regeneration/clown shoes and red noses etc etc.

I gather the roles of the Shaman and the Minotaurs will be expanded upon in this release.. makes sense and is, again, a kind of retrotastic move by GW back towards the RoC era fluff."

~Standard caveats on all this stuff, but there has been Beasts of Chaos chatter for a LONG time out there. Reported relase date is March 2010.

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