"We have heavy stubbers, what could go wrong?"
Caption contest, GO!
Caption contest, GO!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
40K Hobby: Death Guard Pre-heresy Predator
Warmachine: Weekly Roundup
Another week, and three new models from Privateer. Lets get right to it folks:
40K Open Thread: Blood Angel First Impressions
So the floodgates are open and the community is flipping through preview copies of the Blood Angel codex, and drooling over the minis. The initial rules rundown is here, and the painted minis are here. So the question gang is what do we thing the design studio has dropped in our laps? Here's my first impressions:
40K: Blood Angel Painted Minis (Pics)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
ODDBALL: Scientists Find Red Ones DO go Fasta!
Flames of War: What's it gonna take to build an army?
A guest piece by Bluestroll
Hi everybody. Today I want to talk about the expectations of the game tactically. Since money can dictate your army make up. Let’s break it down. Armies are pretty much made up three types of teams.
Types of Models
The first group of teams are the Infantry team. The basic building block of infantry platoon is a fire team. In WWII, the fire team concept had evolved from the mass formations of previous wars. The infantry teams have the unique advantages of being supple in terms of taking cover, cheap gamewise and having 66% chance of saving just about everything fired at them. They are usually groups into platoons of 5 to 15 teams. The main disadvantage is that they are slow, easily pinned and susceptible to large amounts of fire.
The Second group of teams are vehicles. Each vehicle is a team. This type of team has the advantage of speed. If armored, then they have the added bonus of resisting fire. They can vary in cost. The big heavy tanks cost the most expensive teams of the game. Transports, not so much. It all depends how much armor, AT of the main gun, and number of secondary guns. Sometimes, they act as force multipliers, in which their role is to support the main platoons of the army. Mainly they are in platoons of 1 to 5 teams.
The third group of teams are gun teams. Each gun is a team. These teams can very in cost, but are less expensive than their vehicle counterparts. These teams are man-packed gun teams, artillery, anti-aircraft, and other support weapons. They only have a 33% save, so you will have to be careful of them. They are generally 2-8 teams.
Basic Army Pricing
The price of the items generally fall like this for BF figures. $15-20 for an infantry platoon, $11 for an armored vehicle or 2 to 3 transports, and $15-$20 for 2 guns or a platoon of man-packed gun teams. They also have packages the give a small discount for a platoons of vehicle or guns, and couple of platoons of infantry with HQ.
To make an army, an armor army usually has 4-6 platoons, infantry armies can run 4-12 or more platoons, but usually runs around 8 platoons.
So most armor armies run about $150, infantry armies can run between $100 to $200 depending on the support you give it. If you want to mechanize (add halftracks or trucks) your infantry army price will double.
Time wise, to get the minis up to playing standard doesn’t take that long. At 15mm, a platoon of vehicles can be done in a night or two. So if you have a month, you can have 1750 point up and going.
This game is growing strong. Believe it or not, there is a vibrant tournament scenes in Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, and in the EU. So that means you don’t have to always play your best friends or locally gaming group. In fact in Texas, there are at least 20 tournaments a year within 4 hour drive from where I live (Austin) with more adding all the time.
Meet ya at the Table,
Bluestroll
40K NEWS: Battle Missions, Minis Ship
40K SNEAK PEEK: Blood Angel Sprues and Summary Snippets
Today we followup on yesterday's Blood Angel rules dump, with some further visual proof that we are now past the rumor phase, and into the eyewitness account era, based on the Black Boxes that are shipping out all over the place. Enjoy the further snippets from the summary page, and the sprue pic of the Sanguinary Gaurd.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Wargames Gallery 3-05-10
I present the scariest toolbox in the world!
Caption contest, GO!
Caption contest, GO!
Warmachine: It's Alive!
It's been almost a month now since the second edition of rules for Warmachine officially hit shelves and, like many, I have answered the rally call for the fields of mangled metal and steampunk sorcery.
Wargaming ASKEW: Arrogance is Bliss?
There is something great about soccer/football unlike any other professional sport you will see; you get the best teams and the best players from around the world competing against one another. Rarely can it be said in this singular global event that any team (minus Pele’ and the 1970 Brazilians) goes undefeated from qualifiers to the championship. Now let us compare any war game that has a competitive scene. None of them has a unified system or grand tournament that showcases the best of the best. Really there is nothing wrong with that.
For the most part we are happily unaware of the rest of the wargaming world as we sit like toddlers in the sandbox playing however we want. Though most of us do not sit in the sandbox all day sometimes we venture out to the playground and play with the other kids. Then, there is the Internet, the smörgåsbord of our little wargaming desires. It is a place where I can live out my fantasy as TastyTaste and not Larry B. Scott. It is also a place where I can pretend to be larger than life and make boasts to live in ignominy, but never face any real reprisal.
So it is not a big surprise that on forums and posts some of us like to proclaim our domination of the games we love. With sigs at the bottom of forum handles to just flatly stating they never lose, we have a cadre of people who are simply loud mouth braggarts. As a loud mouth without the braggart, I find this sort of thing well quite...
Not to mention the list of things that come to mind.
- Is that person lying?
- They are trying to look cool.
- They play against their baby brother/sister exclusively.
- Do they think post count is equal to win count?
- They do not count games that get interrupted by “emergencies”.
- They suffer from low self-esteem.
- They play the same five people over and over.
Culminating into a picture of Jack Johnson loving, popped collar lamers drunk during Mardi Gra 2006 now suddenly choking on my bandwidth. Now I want to take this time from interrupting Taylor Swift, to let it be known that we should not mind people telling us some factual information, they should be proud of like tournament awards or what level their adoptables are. I just don’t care to know that you are 77-0-1 with Space Marines. I will automatically take any advice you have with a grain of salt as I raise shields and at least go to yellow alert.
If you are winning every match, then you are not learning anything. Every wargame has plenty of John Daly’s, but no wargame has a pre-Thanksgiving Tiger Woods. I'd rather hear from the players that get beat and go back to win the next time. They have something more to say than, “look at my unbeaten army list and you can be a winner too” advice. Even if you are the Tiger Woods of wargaming please keep it to yourself because there is nothing like the Augusta to prove that you are the best.
Tell me about your great stories of defeat that taught you the most? Are the games we play so unbalanced that someone could go undefeated all the time? What type of player you think gives the best advice?
Visit me at bloodofkittens.com where we tackle the dangers of comp scores and bad punctuation!
40k NEWS: Blood Angels Codex Viewed
Its been a VERY long and dirty ramp up to the Blood Angel release window, but at long last, multiple eye-witness accounts of black box copies of the physical codex are with us. Its time to put aside all the last month of craziness and see what the Blood Angels are REALLY bringing to the tabletop:
40K EDITORIAL: The Las Cannon Returns! Bring back the Tacs!
Information does not need to be game changing or groundshaking to be insightful. Sometimes taking a look at the game from a tried and true, but forgotten angle is all you need to do to add more scalps to your trophy rack! It definitely benefits us all to take a look back once in a while, and see how we can buck the trends. On occasion, it is the obvious that steps up and slaps us in the face for that "Duh!" moment. Today's subject is the mighty Las-cannon.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wargames Gallery 3-04-10
Pic submitted by Sandwyrm
I hope carnifexes can read...
Caption contest, GO!
Caption contest, GO!
Hobby: Painting Fennblades
As some of you will probably recall, earlier this year we posted a review of one of Privateer's first forays into the field of plastics, the Trollkin Fennblades. And as excited as I was to get my hands on them, other projects ensured I've just now gotten around to posting about painting them. Hopefully this article will be useful, not just for the budding trollblood player, but also to anyone with questions on painting leather, cloth or non-human skin.Fantasy Tactica: Fear Not
Fear Not
by
Revenant
by
Revenant
These days 90% of the tournament field is causing fear or terror. Whether its the whole army or just a part of it depends on the army. Well lets look on how to minimize the impact of those scary guys with 3 different solutions.
40K RUMORS: Blood Angel Latest
Two lists of details today from 2 sources, one on the contents of the black box, the other the contents of the Sanguinary Guard kit. Lets take a look:
40K Tactics: Dreaming Of Fire Dragons
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Supa Battlewagon- Orky Conversion Painted Showcase
Flames of War: The Sound of Guns
A guest piece by Bluestroll
The Sound of Guns
In WWII, an infantrymen could tell what side fire was coming from by the sound of the guns. So what sound will your guns make. This can be a daunting proposition when planning your army because there are so many choices. Tactically, two factors make up style of your army. The most prominent is Type - Infantry, Mechanized, or Armor and the other is the Nationality. Let take a look.
40K Tactics: Winning with Eldar - Foot Edition
A guest column by Reece Robbins
Winning with Eldar in 5th Edition Part 1
I see the pointy eared space elves getting a lot of negative press these days. The general consensus on the net is that the Eldar are not the heavy hitters that they once were and that they are now relegated to playing defensively for objective grabs and pulling tricks out of their hat to have any hope of winning. Well, I am here to say that is not so, and that the Eldar are still one of the big boys on the block.
Eldar in 4th edition had a typical Phill Kelly codex: on the whole, a great book with no units that were totally useless, but one unit that was just too good. And that unit, as we all know, was the super falcon. In 4th all you had to do with Eldar was take 3 indestructible super Falcons, pack them with your choice of killer clowns and fire dragons, drive straight at your opponent, laugh as his weapons bounced off your skimmers like gentle rain, then deploy your units and slaughter everything before you while the Falcons parked on objectives. The list was arguably the best in the game at the time, and required very little tactics since the army was so hard to kill and the units inside the Falcons hit so hard. It was a blunt force instrument; you just clubbed the other guy over the head with it.
This is where I see people having trouble in 5th edition. With the changes to the core game rules, these old style skimmer armies lost a lot of steam. Falcons are no longer unstoppable juggernauts and Harlequins, while still amazing assault units, are no longer able to rip through an army like a buzz saw.
The game has changed and so tactics and overall ideas about how the army plays need to evolve as well. Playing a 4th edition style Eldar army in 5th is not going to get the results it once did. Eldar are an army that requires synergy within the list in order to succeed. You hear this a lot on the boards, but most people don’t really understand this concept or how to apply it. What I mean by synergy is that an Eldar list must have a mesh of units that all are able to support one another in order to mitigate its weaknesses and multiply its strengths. Eldar (and their dark kin) are an army that are really easy to lose with, but once mastered can be extremely powerful. You can’t just take the units you like and hope to win.
So how to do it? Any good list must begin with an overall strategy in mind. You need to address the main objectives of 5th edition missions and how to succeed in achieving them with what yo have available in your codex. There are a multitiude of options in each dex, but for the sake of this article we will analyze Foot Eldar and save an aggressive Mech list for next time.
If you decide to go foot Eldar which is a very potent option in 5th, your best bet is to go with Guardians, Dire Avengers and Rangers as your troops choices. Why? Guardians, while not providing a ton of kill power, are very useful none the less. First of all, don’t waste points giving them an anti tank weapon if you go the defender route, they are only going to disappoint you. They need to have rate of fire weapons, the cheaper the better. Mine always take a Shuriken Cannon which compliments their role of anti infantry. Second, max them out. Why? Less kill points to give up and they can perform one, hugely important function: screening. A foot list needs to have mobile cover (think Mek Boys, Venomethropes, etc.) and a 20 strong unit of Guardians led by a Warlock creates a huge line of cover for the infantry behind them. They also provide a screen from enemy assault units. They are a big, tough to shift scoring unit as well and can move and fire their weapons. This means that at close range, they can lay down a lot of flak fire to shred infantry. I know it runs counter to conventional wisdom, but conceal is a great buy for the warlock here. Why? Because this unit is operating as a screen, it needs to have a cover save to increase its resiliency and while it will normally have a 4+ cover save, you can’t run the risk of a mobile enemy maneuvering into position to negate that and shred those little toughness 3, 5+ bodies. This unit is also an assault defense as anything charging them (and as they are the screen, they will be the only thing able to be charged) will get stuck in the fearless Guardians and get counter charged next turn, or if they wipe the Guardians out, get shot and countercharged next turn.
Now the real power of this unit comes when combined with the HQ choices. A foot Eldar list needs two things to really be viable: the Avatar and a Farseer (Eldrad is really the clear choice here). The reason being that the Avatar makes everyone fearless (and provides incredible counter assault) and the Farseer fortunes the guardian screen to make them really difficult to kill (and the Avatar too with Eldrad, which is why you need him). What this means is that your opponent can choose to fire at the fortuned guardians or the infantry units behind them who will have a cover save. Now those flimsy Eldar are suddenly very hard to kill and fearless. Eldrad additionally allows you to bait your enemy with your deployment or react to him if you go first with his redeployment ability. Yet another reason Eldrad is the obvious choice here (and why he should honestly cost more than he does).
To compliment the Guardians, you have a lot of options, but I choose to run 4 full squads of Dire Avengers with no upgrades. Why? They are cheap, each a scoring unit, relatively fast and when run behind the guardian screen, pretty hard to kill. I pass on Bladestorm because to give it to three of the squads I would have to drop one full squad, and I would rather have the extra scoring unit and the extra bodies.
When combined with the guardians, this means you can put out 120 Shuriken Catapult rounds a turn, on the move. What this means is that ANY infantry that comes with 18” of you is going to be gutted. Not necessarily wiped out, but with wound allocation they will be neutered due to rate of fire. Combo this with Doom or Guide from your Farseer and you will see enemy infantry melt before you. This creates a no fly zone around your infantry that is going to intimidate the hell out of your opponent.
The last troops slot is a coin flip in my opinion. I alternate between a 5 man Ranger squad and a 3 man Jet Bike Squad with a Warlock plus Destructor and a Singing Spear. The Ranger squad doesn’t ever actually kill anything, but they will win you the game. Park them on an objective and go to ground if anything looks at them funny. I pass on pathfinders because they cost so much more and they don’t ever kill anything either. With 4+ cover saves so common now, their abilities are largely wasted. Better to save points on them, in my opinion.
The jet bike squad serves a similar function, they are there to grab an objective and win you the game, but they are fast, and they can hit hard in a pinch. The Warlock with a spear and destructor means they can effectively engage infantry or tank hunt. The choice really comes down to preference.
So, now you have a solid core of 6 troops choices (don’t see that too often with Eldar!) to make sure that you have the bodies to take objectives, and the firepower to waste infantry, plus the entire thing is mobile. The HQ choices multiply the effectiveness of these units and provide some counter assault punch. So what is the list lacking now? Anti tank/monstrous creature firepower.
With the preponderance of mech lists in 5th edition, you need to have reliable can openers or all those Shuriken Catapult shots will be useless. You have several options to fill this role, but I go with Wraithlords because they are so hard to kill. In this case, take three of them, all with an Eldar Missile Launcher and Bright Lance and two flamers. This gives you three very tough units that can reliably pop transports or take out heavy tanks at range and on the move. They also fill the secondary function of tar pitting units that you don’t want to engage in combat. Throw a Wraithlord into a 30 boy Ork Mob after you have Mind Warred the Nob and laugh as that unit does NOTHING for the rest of the game. They also do well at popping any tanks or squishing IC’s that get too close. They are wonderful multipurpose units and mesh well with the army as they will be in psyker cover to avoid Wraithsight (the Warlock with the Guardians should have spirit seer if you take Wraithlords). Just be wary of units with poison attacks, etc. Don’t expose them to assault until you are prepared by keeping them behind the screening units.
The second choice to fulfill this role for this type of list is War Walkers as they can put out an astonishing amount of firepower. Combo these guys with guide and fortune from your Farseer and they can devastate your opponent. My only issue with them is that they require psyker support to really function well and they are fairly flimsy when compared to a Wraithlord and are target priority number one for auto cannons and such.
With this core, the rest of the units in the army are discretionary depending on play style. I always take one unit of Firedragons with an Exarch with a Firepike and crack shot as this allows him to reach out to 18” and ignore cover (including smoke, etc.). This means that that Land Raider with Vulkan and Assault Terminators (or any such unit) will have to think twice about committing to an assault as it will most likely be destroyed once it gets close. Again, this unit takes cover behind the Guardians and moves and shoots, meshing with the rest of the list.
Lastly, the unit I always take is a 10 man unit of Harlequins with a Shadowseer, all with Kisses. This is the ultimate counter assault unit. It cannot be targeted until the enemy is within assault range, is very mobile and it hits incredibly hard. These guys can lurk outside of the screen to increase their mobility, just be wary of fast moving or deep striking units as anything that actually shoots them will most likely kill them. These guys will obliterate nearly anything but the absolute hardest assault units (and they mulch monstrous creatures). Combo this with doom or fortune from your Farseer and not much will be able to resist them. Against a shooty army these guys can be run aggressively, going up field to engage units. They don’t perform as well in this role, but they will at the very least absorb a turn of shooting as you force your opponent to deal with them. If they make it into enemy ranks, they will cause serious damage and they have good odds of destroying a tank with their rending attacks on rear armor.
So what you have on the whole with this list is an army with a lot of bodies (about 100), a unique play style, that is mobile and can effectively take on any type of list or units you encounter apart from a few builds (but no army can hope to have no weaknesses). Enemy units will have a very tough time cracking this phalanx as it is so powerful at short range with shooting and assault, and it is fearless. It takes about a turn to get into range, but once this army gets there it starts to put out serious pain. By careful positioning of your units and creative causality removal, you can keep your units safe from assault but then charge out of your screen when needed. You have a large amount of scoring units and with the Farseer and screening units they are very hard to kill. Another benefit to this army is that it screws up the Meta game. Players who pack in Melta weapons will have wasted all those points as they will have no targets worth shooting. Wraithlords should be deep in the screen to protect them, the infantry are a wasted target for these weapons, and the Avatar can’t be affected by them. Scary assault tanks that get close will be destroyed, and assault units can’t get past the Guardians to the meat of your army until late game when you have already done a lot of damage to them and counter assaulted.
Now it is not all sunshine and roses. This army suffers a bit in Dawn of War deployment, but it is fairly fast so it really only lose a turn of shooting, two if you flub your fleet roles. Also, armies with fast or ranged template weapons (think Hellhounds) and lots of indirect ordnance can be difficult to take on as they ignore your screens and hose your troops (Imperial Guard can be the nemesis to this list). In these situations, hope you get first turn and use your deployment to mitigate the alpha strike. Obviously, target priority needs to be implemented to eliminate the biggest threats first. The other big threat are armies that can shut down your psychic phase, but it is not all bad as this army does not NEED the psychic buffs, it just helps a lot if you can get them off.
Now that is fine for theory, but how does this army operate in practice? In a year of running my foot Eldar list as my primary army I have not yet lost a single game, and I play at least once a week against a very wide variety of armies and players who are very skilled, and play competitively. Now am I saying I am the greatest player of all time or that this list is unbeatable? No, I am not. What I am saying is that this is an Eldar list that can meet nearly any other army in the game head on and defeat them; whether it is a foot or mechanized list. No ducking, no hiding, no tricks, just a boot in the teeth. Plus, the army is a ton of fun to play and to play against as unlike skimmer armies, things actually die. I also have to say that unleashing a fortuned Avatar into enemy lines after having him lurk behind the screen is one of my favorite parts of this army (and I shelled out for the Forgeworld model, which makes an amazing centerpiece).
Here is the list I run that I have had tremendous success with. I can’t wait to finish painting it to take in on the tournament circuit, but the white and baby blue scheme I chose looks great, but takes ages to paint.
Headquarters:
Eldrad
Avatar
Elites:
Harlequins, kisses x 9, shadowseer
Fire Dragons x 7, Exarch, Firepike, Crack Shot
Troops:
Guardians x 20, shuriken cannon, warlock, spirit seer, singing spear, conceal
Dire avengers x 10
Dire Avengers x 10
Dire Avengers x 10
Dire Avengers x 10
Rangers x 5
Heavy Support:
Wraithlord, Eldar missile launcher, Bright lance, 2 x Flamers
Wraithlord, Eldar missile launcher, Bright lance, 2 x Flamers
Wraithlord, Eldar missile launcher, Bright lance, 2 x Flamers
~Have at it guys, I'm sure Reece and the community would love to hear your thoughts.
40K Tactics: Doubling Up - Part 2
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wargames Gallery 3-02-10
It was only a matter of time before "It" showed up in the daily pics...
Caption contest, GO!
Caption contest, GO!
HOBBY: Spackle Basing
Written by: Grey_Death
After aquiring an APE Grunt mini from a friend, I couldn't wait to get started on it. I have been following Incusrion for some time now, and I'm really excited to actually own a piece from such a cool game. Hopefully the first of a full set yet to come! Once I ripped open the package and pulled all of the parts out, I realized that the basing was of the 'fill in' variety, similar to Battletech bases. I had just recently posted my spackle terrain tips and immediately thought to make use of the filler
for basing for the first time.REVIEW: Battlefoam Warmachine/Hordes Bags
Lets take a detailed look at the latest Warmachine and Hordes bags from Battlefoam. We got to take a couple of these for a testdrive and want to give you all the skinny on them.
40K RUMORS: Blood Angels Sighting?
As we move within about a month from the Blood Angels Release, the first folks claiming to have seen the codex have arrived. Take a look at these and make up your own mind:
Monday, March 1, 2010
Wargames Gallery 3-01-10
Pic submitted by: Chris Hlynka
No one ever said Orks weren't brave...
Caption contest, GO!
Caption contest, GO!
Lor'Maxxim- Painted Figure Showcase
To make my masterpiece I used the classic Bel'kor model from Chaos Fantasy, and sculpted on power armor, a breast, and of course the Lash itself. And if that was not enough, I also added a custom lava base with some source highlighting.
Here is the final product from various angles. What do you think, does he represent Lord Slaanesh well?
If you liked that be sure to checkout my in depth guide on both the conversion and paint job for Lor'Maxxim back at my blog, Spikey Bits.
40K Batrep: "New" Jawaballs Blood Angels vs Chaos Dual Lash
Hi guys, Jawaballs here and amid all the new baby business, I managed to get in a first test game of the Blood Angels mystery-dex reported here . Sorry, I got no vids or pics but figured I would give you a little batrep of the action.
The Mission
Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Pitch Battle
Blood Angels Mystery-dex Armylist
Dante
10 man tacs in pod, melta, multi-melta, homing beacon
10 man tacs in pod, melta, multi-melta, homing beacon
VAS x5 2 meltaguns, 1 powerweapon -Lander
VAS x7 4 powerweapons and 1 powerfist - Lander
Exalted x7 - Lander
1850 pts
The Cunning PlanThe idea was to have the two pods come down with their homing beacons and bring in the landers. But they had to survive a round of shooting.
Sadly I was up against Black Matt's infamous Duo Lash list. Two Lash sorcerers attached to Plaguemarines in Rhinos, 3 squads of 2 Oblits, two other Rhinos with Plagues all jacked with fists and meltas. He had a Dreadnought too.
Turn 1: I won the roll and gave him first turn. He deployed and I deep striked every thing. He moved his guys up into a U shape, ready for my landing.
Forced to drop one of my pods turn one, I had little choice but to drop the pod next to his base. The boys got out. They were going to die horribly with two lashers and all those plasma cannons, so I tried to do some damage. I Combat-squaded them, sending one to shoot at oblits and the other to shoot melta at a Lash Sorceror Rhino. I failed to do anything.
Turn 2: He slaughtered my troops and exploded the pod.
On my turn the other pod and two landers came down. One with melta vets and one with Exalted. The Exalted lander scattered onto his tank, and I rolled a 2 on the mishap. Destroyed! The other landed safely. The vets got out and popped a lash Rhino, then assaulted the guys inside. The Tactical squad got out and popped the other lash Rhino. My melta vets did little vs the Plaguemarines and Sorcerer, and would not last long.
Turn 3: He shot up all but one of the Tactical marines from the pod. Here is a question for you all. When I equip a squad with a homing beacon, do I have to give it to a model and if that model dies, it is gone? Or does it work like an Eldar Guardian heavy weapon in that some one else can use it if the gunner is killed. (That is how they work right?) Since I was getting slaughtered, we ruled it as the latter. Dante's lander came down on the beacon. I sent the vets after his Plaguemarines and Sorcerer that shot up my pod marines, and sent Dante and the lone tactical survivor after a squad of Plague Marines in a Rhino on my objective.
I failed to pop that Rhino and my vets killed most of the squad they assaulted. He killed my melta vets this turn.
Turn 4: He lashed Dante out into the open and shot him up but failed to kill him. But in the assault he managed to finally take him down. My CC vets finished off the Plaguemarines, but it was over. So we just called it.
Lessons Learned
This was just a quick test of the viability of the Tactical pod idea. Epic fail vs this nasty CSM list. Against a list that cannot pull me out of cover I might have stood a chance. 10 marines are hard to kill when they go to ground in cover. But this army just blasted me off the board. Losing my Exalted lander to mishap did not help.
Is the deep strike/assault ability just an over priced novelty? In order to pull it off it seems like you have to invest a lot of points in beacons which gives your opponent a serious chance of thwarting your plans.
Other options? Starting the landers on the table and turn one moving 24" and popping smoke. Hopefully they will live, then you can disembark move and assault on turn two. It really is not that different and probably a more survivable option.
Also, Danny Internets pointed out Scout Bikers to me and their Bridgehead ability. Scouts can deploy a stealth homing beacon. It does not work while an enemy is within 6" of it, but that is fine. It creates a nice hot point that will bring him out of cover... place that thing on your half of the table in open space. The lander can come in within 6, and should still be long enough to let you assault out of it. I shall have to experiment.
Well there you go! That wraps up Jawaballs mystery-dex test one. Who knows if its totally accurate, but is sure was a fun and refreshing challenge for the Blood Angels. My next try? I am going to try to squeeze some advantage out of the nifty new Baal Pred options. I will play one with ass cannon, meltas and OCE and another with Missles and auto cannon. Some VAS in landers with Dante, a big tactical and Librarian or Moriar in a pod. Oh, and a squad of Scout Bikers with a fist and melta. :)
What have your experimental trials been like so far Blood Angel Fanatics? I would expect to start seeing Blood Angel model advanced order pics showing up any day now...
Jawaballs out.
BoLS Polls: Has Mech Peaked?
Goatboy's 40k Thoughts: DEFF TO MECH!
So we all know the new FAQ just came out for Orks. We all know what was said in there and we all can guess how it will turn Orks from a "lots of tanks, good luck" to an army that now has some kind of chance versus heavy boxes of doom. I know as an Ork player I am pretty excited about this change. I think overall it is for the good of the game and can hopefully help change up this so called "metagame".
First of all, I know lots of people say there is no metagame. I come from playing a lot of Magic in-between my dance with GW, and so the word isn't something foreign to me. For those wondering what I think it is, it is the other game that isn't decided by the dice rolls. This might include who has the newer codex with cooler toys, who has the better reputation of being a good player, and what happens to be the flavor of the month. All of these chance change and warp your local gaming. I know lots of people who just hate Necrons, even though the internet thinks they are a weak codex. Or how about the Eldar and the overall thought for those pesky dancing pointy-ears. So what I think is my own metagame might not even come close to what you see locally at your table. I am just going to go into what I think I might see and what I will be doing to respond to this.
Alright to start things off, let me just say that I knew GW would let Deff Rollas hit vehicles. They made a plastic kit for it. If it just hit guys, then why would you even think about buying one. As we all know a plastic sprue costs a good bit to design, create, and process. We all can see this in how certain new models come out with brand new spiffy rules that just makes you want to buy them for your own army. I also can see how some of the newer writers for the game are starting to see this as something more then just a fluff bunny fight. These FAQ changes as well as responses are starting to look like someone is caring about this game beyond the whole "buy more plastic crack".
So now we have the change we have been wondering about ever since the Ork codex reared its ugly head. So do I think it is a good one? Hell yes. I think it is something needed to help create a better game. I don't know about you, but 40k has been kinda ticking me off lately. Between the whole "MECH is KING" and IG for the win I really haven't enjoyed as much 40k as I wanted too. I look at anything that pushes the game away from moving 6 inches and firing a ton of guns to be a good one.
With this push for more faster moving vehicles, could the oldy but goody lascannon make a triumphant return? I've been experimenting with TWL lascannon Razorbacks championed by the internet and have found them to pretty good. I know they are expensive, but that chance to stop something as it barrels into you is something we are really missing in this day of massed templates and Tetris style armies. I know we all can argue on how melta is king, but controlling 48 inches of the battlefield is a lot better then only controlling 12 inches.
I am also glad to look at ways GW could maybe breath some life into older armies. I know that the flavor of the month before was Nob Bikerz, but this change in the Ork rules could mean that those dusty old orks could come back out to wreck some face. Orks are one of the "main" 40k races and it is good to know that they are a decent choice. Heck the main box set has a ton of them, so you might as well get some use out of them other then trade bait right?
Here is the Hybrid list I was already playing with orks. I will list it at 2000 points with what you can take out to make it a nice slim 1850.
Orks - Deff Rolla or Bust
HQ: Warboss, Warbike, Attack Squigg, Cybork, Bosspole, Power Klaw, Kombi-Skorcha
HQ: Big Mek, Kustom Force Field, Burna, Cybork Body
Elites: Nobz (3), Painboy, Warbike, Power Klaw (3), Cybork, Kombi Skorcha, Waagh Banner
Elites: Lootas (15)
Elites: Lootas (15)
Troops: Nobz (4), Painboy, Power Klaw (3) Waagh Banner, Cybork, Bosspole
Transport: Battle Wagon, Big Shootas (2), Deff Rolla
Troops: Boyz (19), Big Shootas (2), Nob, Power Klaw, Bosspole
Troops: Boyz (19), Big Shootas (2), Nob, Power Klaw, Bosspole
Heavy: Battle Wagon, Big Shootas (2), Deff Rolla
Heavy: Battle Wagon, Big Shootas (2), Deff Rolla
That fits right at 2000 points. The Nob Bikerz are there as they are still good against a lot of different armies. I went with a regular nob squad as my scoring unit as it creates a nice wound allocation zone for the Big Mek to hide in as well as FNP all around. I went with full loota squads as Lootas are just the other answer to low armored foes. There are some things you have to get at range and the cheatie Ork super gun is the answer.
To get the list down to 1850 I would look at dropping the extra stuff on the Big Mek (mine was a conversion so he had a bunch of random junk on him so that is why I buy it for him), changing the walking nob squad into a mega nob squad (Similar Klaw load out for hitting and killing) and then dropping 5 Lootas making one squad 12 and the other 13.
Use your deff-rollas to corral your opponents together and in hopes to pulling off a roll or die maneuver. Use the Nob Bikerz as a good fear tactic to try and drag some of your opponents pieces out into areas that are not the best. There are games where the Nobz shoot forward 24 and there are some that they shoot to the side to try and scare the opponent into thinking there is a flank. The army is designed for a good single smashing assault turn and it is your job to set that up with multiple assaults as well as a complete shock and awe style of play.
I am going to be working on some Killa Kan builds that add into the Hybrid nature of this army. The new kit is fantastic and really one of the cheaper options they have come out in a long time. I don't know how good the army will be, but there has to be more ways to create interesting Ork builds right?
Questions? - Shoot me an email to GoatboyBOLS@gmail.com. In the mean time, lets shout our praises to the deff-rolla from the rooftops!
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