Biggest change in 7th.....

It took a while for this to sink in, even then I had to re read it quite a few times.

  After all the internet pre release moaning about unbound armies, which lets face it it will be discussed first and if you dont want to play unbound you dont.  But this one has really gone under the rader.

  Basically, FOC is under detachments, but you can have as many detachments in your Primary detachment as you want.  FOC is still there in that 2 hq's 6 troops 3 FA Elite HS etc but as long as you meet the minimum requirement for FOC you can have mutliples.

  Lets have a example

Primary detachment Choas Space Marines

Detachment 1

Sorcerer, 65pts Warlord

10 Cultists 50pts
10 Cultists 50pts

Heldrake 170pts
Heldrake 170pts
Heldrake 170pts

Detachment 2

Sorcerer, 65pts

10 Cultists 50pts
10 Cultists 50pts

Heldrake 170pts
Heldrake 170pts
Heldrake 170pts

Detachment 3

Sorcerer, 65pts

10 Cultists 50pts
10 Cultists 50pts

Heldrake 170pts
Heldrake 170pts

Total, 1840


So under your primary you have 3 detachments, but you are using 3 FOC's, which is in the rules for Battle forged armies, who will care about unbound or not.  This is 3 sorcerers, 6 units of cultists and 8 heldrakes..... Yes vector strike has been nerfed but this is mainly for a example of what spam 7th ed can bring, this is the total opposite spectrum of balance.

  Extending that further, you can have as many allies as you want, So you can have a guard blob with Dante, Celestine, Tiggy, Dragio and their min troops requirements and still have a few hundred pts to spend, hero hammer!.



  I have spoken to someone else with the book and they agree they read it the same way I do as I was frankly in disblief at it.  I have spoken to two TO's and by the sounds they will restrict their GT's to one FOC in primary and only one Ally.

War of the Roses Batreps - Intro and Games 1 and 2 - Yes that means I finally went to a Tournament again :) - The Voice

So, yea, I fell out with 40k for a bit and fell in love with X Wing.

But with 6th on the way out and 7th incoming I thought id give the old bird one more spin on the dance floor. I have a bit more time now anyway and fancied seeing all the guys. (Love you guys :P)

This was made easier due to the "Highlander" side competition (where every troop is slightly different and you cant duplicate anything else, and no allies. Plus all the non beardy lists could only play each other.) "Perfect" I thought and signed up; figuring id get all the fun of going without the pressure or bs of playing O'vesa's or Pasks or Deathstars ETC,....

......so, yea they cancelled the highlander......

New 7th Ed. Psychic phase

So, Psychic phase, something close to my heart as I tend to run psychic heavy armies.  Now there has been a massive change in the way psychic powers are manifested in 40k, no longer are we doing the ld test on 2d6 to get a power off, it is now following the route of Fantasy.

So basically it is all about how many psykers you have on the table, these contribute towards your Warp Charge pool.

Lets take a nice simple situation of a Mastery lvl 3 Librarian versus a Mastery level 2 Librarian.

Player A with the lvl 3 gets 3 dice then he rolls a d6 and adds that many dice to his Warp charge pool, Player B gets 2 dice from his lvl 2, and also adds the amount of dice from the result of the d6 player A rolled.

So lets say he rolled a 3, player A ends up with 6 dice, player B with 5 dice.

Take the perspective of Player A, these 6 dice are his Warp Charge pool. Assuming he rolled on Biomancy at the start of the game getting Iron Arm, Warp Speed and Endurance (he will also auto get Smite, more on this later).


So Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Smite are all warp charge 1 powers, Endurance is warp charge 2.  So what you need to do in order to cast a psychic power is use your warp charge dice in order to meet the warp charge value on the power you want to use, so if I want to cast Iron arm I need to get 1 successful warp charge from my dice, how you get succesful warp charges is by rolling a 4+.

I want to cast Iron arm... it is plausible I would roll 3 dice to get at least 1 4+ to be able to cast it, if I want to cast Endurance being warp charge 2 I would need to get at least 2 4+ to make the power work.

  The odds on these working is here......

The Voice - Building a better Marine list

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Ive just been really busy job hunting and looking after the little one.

So, Marines; its all about the bikes right?

Wrong

I won't lie i looked at the book and thought the same initially. With grav as it is and scoring cheap bikes the way they are, then surely that's your starting point with marine lists?  We'll this is what i thought and played some games...and its good, but its not great. If you don't go first it can be a problem. It was almost 2 army's, the one where you went first and the one where you went second and the tactics changed a lot depending on that. With Coteaz as an allie then i think it is a strong contender, but other wise its good but not tourney winning good (Hello Mr Sacket :P)

So what do i think marines should be doing. Well that depends, on one thing. The chapter tactics you use. This rule more than any other really does define how you should build your list, and, in my humble opinion, tactical marines tend to use them to the fullest.

I was a bit disillusioned with the tacs at first, they didn't get much of a buff and they were not cheaper (not really, when you consider their old free/cheap weapons upgrades). But add in the chapter tactics and the fact that a lot of the upgrades are optional and available for squads under 10 strong now and hoo nelly!. Suddenly tacs en mass can be scary.

Yes i said it, Scary

So what I'm going to do is go through each of the chapter tactics and show you a list , talk about it a bit and throw some ideas your way. I won't include allies out of codex as frankly thats an exercise that would take forever. Plus i think allies are kinda cheating :P

First off. White Scars:

Introduction: Alex Rae and my Flesh Tearers

So I am writing an article for the first time on the blog, Gary 'The Voice' Percival told me I should do an introduction and here I am….

As someone who currently runs my power armoured models in the livery of the Flesh Tearers, Sons of Sanguinius seems a good fit!

I just read Andy's article where he brags (Editor: Strong word...was for a point! Introducing the 'Obnoxious' series)  about his teaching job. I feel inclined to mention I DJ for a living, work 2-3 days a week and also get flown round the world all expenses paid… PLUS I don't have to deal with teenage kids. Is that Top Trumps on his teaching job? haha
 

I like 40k. I have done since 1993. I started by buying White Dwarf issue 164 with my birthday money with that awesome looking Nurgle warrior on the cover for Man O' War.
Been hooked since then.
I love me some Power Armour. It's such an awesome looking design. So iconic! You can do so many cool things with it. I also happen to love armies that play up close and personal. World Eaters, Space Wolves, Flesh Tearers. They all hold a place in my heart. However I didn't really play the game from 4th Edition all the way through to 6th. I just followed passively, buying White Dwarves, picking up models that looked nice, going to Games Days and reading Black Library novels. I absolutely love the background of 40k.

Mechdar!! that's Mechanical Eldar to you..is it going to be a thing?

Ok so the secret is out..apparently those very expensive transports - Wave Serpents - might be kind of good. Now I don't know if its everyone's cup of tea, but I like bucking trends. 6th edition it seems had the vehicle fall out of favor. But could the wave serpent be part of that elastic band snaping it right back?

If you follow the etc and the home nations you may have noticed that a fair few armys (Grey Knight and Guard mainly) have started creeping back to their old "hulls" style of play. Ie, i'll put lots of vehicles in front of you as you cant get all of them. This I feel is because of the so shifty meta nowadays and the preponderance of taking as much anti infantry as you can. Guys in the open or cover just are not as safe as they once were and a box covering your troops is a good idea.  Now this is all well and good in a team format, where you can, to a degree, choose your match up. But could it win you a tournament? Well Paul Burke won the Gt with a fair few hulls, but with Tau now on the scene and able to pump out massed amounts of fire power round that S7 sweet spot that scares most vehicles AND infantry. Is it still viable?

Personally I think yes it is, and if I may humbly put forward my proposal....I think Eldar can do it best...maybe.

This is because Wave Serpents are a bit pimp. A 60 inch ignoring cover d6+1 shots autocannon, probably twin linked...carrying, and coming out of, your troops allowance. Plus they have other guns too... Yikes. (Also a question mark is currently a hot topic on the subject of the ignore cover save usr. Does it effect vehicles? As it states that the rule can only be used on "wounds" but yet when taking cover saves vs glances and pens , they can be saved against "like wounds". But their not wounds, its just a mechanic that works "like wounds", so raw....I'm hoping, that those pesky marker lights cant somehow suddenly pick up a fast moving target...)

So Eldar have basically a heavy support vehicle in their troops section making all your squishy stuff immune to hell drakes and the like, while also pumping out the fire power. Whats not to like!!

So what would a list look like?

Well I have 3, cos I cant decide what I like. All variations of a theme and all tailored (kinda) to deal with Chaos Marines, Crons and Tau (so s8 ap 2 stuff for broadsides, oblits and wraiths with Destroyer lords, lots of rerolls to help hit flyers, lots of shots to hose infantry, lots of troops as blade storming battle focusing infantry are great when your fighting over objectives....you get the picture).

So firstly. We have this. The min max version with a bastion thrown in as Tau actually realy dont like av14 that much:

List 1

Farseer, bike (almost obligatory for the save, toughness boost and lets you jet round the back lines dishing out re rolls to hit (usually war walkers)

3 bikes (farseer bodyguard)

5 Dire Avengers in wave serpent, scatter laser and holo fields (so the basic build for a serpent with reroll dakka goodness and resilience)

5 Dire Avengers in wave serpent as above
5 Dire Avengers in wave serpent as above
5 Dire Avengers in wave serpent as above

10 guardians in Wave sepent with holo fields, scatter laser and star engines (  Ive thrown in a star engine for late game deployment zone boost. Its on the guardian unit as my sence of symatry doesnt allow it to go any where else)

3 warwalkers with 6 bright lance (lots of high stength ap 2 for popping t4 multi wound models be it paladins or broadsides - usually gets a reroll of the farseer)
3 warwalkers with 6 bright lance

Bastion with Icarus las cannon

3 dark reapers with exarch, fast shot (so basically there for a 2 shot, no jinks, b5 icarus lascannon...not bad AA. Small unit though, will probably say in the bastion and not on top of it untill turn 2 when the flyers actually start to turn up.

So that's the basic all comers list. As said I think it covers all the bases. Yes the scoring is a squishy but there is a lot of it, and with blade storm they are no slouches in a pinch. The first turn of shooting from this list is phenomenal. With Scout moves, battle focus and fast vehicles nothing should stay my wrath if I get turn one.  Return volleys are being ignored 50% of the time due to the jink and holo combo. If i go second then use cover and debate putting the war walkers on outflank.


List 2:

Where Gary worry's that the scoring is still a bit too light and see's how far he can push it. Also a sneaky plan as I also worry the bike/farseer unit with get punished by hell turkeys.

Farseer, bike

3 bikes
10 guardians in stc wave serpent (Scatter laser, holo fields)
10 guardians in stc wave serpent
10 guardians in stc wave serpent
10 guardians in stc wave serpent
5 Dire avengers in stc wave serpent

3 bright lance war walkers
3 bright lance war walkers


I then have 164 points. Now I have a few further options:

• A fire prism with holos and a shuri cannon and the bikes get a cannon too. Solid dakka all round

• Spend obscene amounts on a Night Spinner - holo fields, star engines and a crystal target matrix - this would allow me to go 36 inches turn one, get a 3+ cover save and torrent a S7 (s8 vs most tau or crons) , better than rending, flame template. Sounds pretty good to me!! Plus it should be one hell of a distraction to take the heat off of the serpents. If I can get a good angle it could also mean frying a lot of marker drones or other choice targets that thought they were safe or had an 2+ armored character tanking the front of the unit. The lovely thing about this tank too is that it has a barrage mode too, so it could just as easily hide at the back and try and snipe out that Ethereal and put some solid pie plate action in for a few turns and then redeploy 36 inches....and still shoot as its doing it.

• A Falcon with pulsar, scatter laser, shuri cannon and holos. Again yet more solid dakka but also with the option of putting some dire avengers in here. This leaves an empty wave serpent...which can carry 12 models....or 4 "very bulky" ones...yep!!! if i'm really worried about hell drakes I can just bung my seer and jet bikes in the back of an Eldar Transit van. I don't know why but this really pleases me, even though falcons are only ok rather than good. It just means I can be fully meched up.

• Take an Aegis with quad gun to shore up the AA a bit and then put Shuri Cannons on pretty much everything. More dakka!!! I haven't taken the cannon as standard as usually you'll want to move 12 inches to make the most of the mobility and that third gun will only snap fire. But its always a nice option to move 6 and then lead with the scatter laser and follow up with an absolute fuck load of medium strength shots. I'm not sure but I also think the serpents get a cover save from the wall if i'm forced to go second.

I worry a little about Flyers with this list as i'm really just relying on the copious amounts of re rolls I can generate (unless I go the Aegis option). But I think it should be enough.

List 3: 

Whereby Gary wants to try a Crutch and try and abuse the warlord trait.

Ok so one thing I haven't mentioned is that personally I think that the Eldar Warlord traits are just ok, not great.  Ambush of blades is pretty good, fates messenger is kinda handy but eye on distant events is amazing in a mech list such as this. Basically its giving all your skimmers in range a 3+ cover save if they moved normally or a 2+ cover save if they boosted (and remember those Tau markerlights cant get rid of it) by giving stealth which stacks on to the holos and the jink save. So being able to get this warlord trait is very useful... so who has this as standard? Eldrad!!

Eldrad

10 guardians in stc wave serpent
10 guardians in stc wave serpent
10 guardians in stc wave serpent
5 Dire avengers in stc wave serpent
5 Dire avengers in stc wave serpent

3 bright lance war walkers
3 bright lance war walkers

Then I have 150 points, so its either a Fire prim with all the trimmings or shuri cannons on everything as usual and then it leaves 90 points. I'm debating here 3 Shadow weavers for the barrage s7 (s8 vs Tau and Crons) sniping. It also gives me a place to put Eldrad turn one before he dives in a Serpent to give his stealth buff turn one probably (as I need to be outside a transport to cast divination and guide to the war walkers turn one). It gives me a few options as other wise I may not be getting the most out of Eldrads powers. His redeploy is very useful too as its stops being out deployed. With careful deployment too it should help mitigate not going first as the warlord power is done in the enemy shooting phase, so I should be getting some nice cover saves even if I haven't moved turn one.


So anyway these are my ideas.

Whattdya think?

G

The Voice Speaks - Eldar knee jerk Codex Review

Ok so after much waiting they are here.....but are they any good?

Frankly the internet is divided. So what do I think? My answer is.....yes and no.

Personally I think there is going to be some good lists coming out of it. So as a competitive book, yes I think you'll see them winning stuff...BUT.....not like Necrons or Tau etc, all the time. Its a good competitive book. Not a broken no brainer one.

Do I think its a good Codex? That's a slightly different question. Personally id er on the no side. I say this as there is just too much chaff with the wheat. When you have 3 different choices doing the same thing and ones better, it just means that 2 thirds of your choices just are not going to be used that much. Theres few effective synergy's and the AA is very lacking (mainly as there is no points effective skyfire and it has tissue paper planes). The rules on the models you ARE going to use are great however - its one of those kind of dealios.

It will also have a very sharp learning curve - your offence went up, the trickiness went up; but the resilience went dooooooown.

So lets dive in shall we?

Top 5 characters in 40k - The Voice Edition

Seen these popping up on various blogs so I thought id put my oar in too:


In no particular order:


Ethereal
50 point buff character that makes a shooty army shootier and can make bubble wraps stubborn or let them snap shoot after running (oh and the fnp thing). Pretty decent. Oh wait and it gives a ld 10 buff bubble to an army with famously pants ld? Re-donk-ulous. Oh and I get 3 shots when I overwatch  with fire warriors and kroot? Yea 50 points sounds fair...totally :/


Coteaz
100 Points with all the special rules in the world. Beefy armor and wargear. Add in that hes a level 2 (divination-ed!!) psyker and makes the gk access cheap troops. Stupidly cheap.



Destroyer Lord with gubbins
2+ save and natural T6 - combined with a warsythe, mindshackle and giving pref enemy to his unit (of wraiths). Its a silly combo of buff, beatstick and tank. Not that expensive and your really getting a warlord that pulls his weight.


Rune Priest
Need ATSKNF for a blob squad, with counter attack? Want a great psy defense as well as a broken ass Psy power that can just remove models almost on a whim? Well all that and more can be yours for the price of thunderfire cannon. W...t...serious..f!? You may as well spend 20 points and give him a 2+ save and 5+ psy power nullify too while your there...


Eldrad/Farseer
How old is the Eldar book? And this is still probably one of the most active geriatrics in history. I've slashed a Farseer in there too as the runes of warding are just a stupid good allied in ability at the moment. Eldrad just more so due to his redeploy and the sheer amount of buffs and powers he can dish out. Oh and he never dies.....

....for the next 2 weeks at least .


Whats your top 5?


G

Dark Angel Codex - Run down and Knee Jerk Thoughts

Ok - you know the score - ill review the book with initial thoughts and any combo's that come to mind. I wont cover all the items but ill note ones that seem to be pretty good and usable.

One caveat -  I hear there is an faq already in the works for monday as the 11th hour amendments didn't go in and so there are a few odd things in there - so if I rage or skip past something important its probably due to be changed.

Any way on with the show:

First Game of 6th - IG Help...

Atreides tried to quit 40k...but he just can't!

So yeah, its been a while.  You know how it is, life takes over, hobby seems like a chore, your opponents get boring, all the usual crap.  I decided not to fight it, and just stopped being interested in 40k for a while. 

Hopefully though, all that is in the past.  I have booked my first game of 6th edition for tomorrow (Thursday) night and want to take my guard for an outing.  Only issue is, I have no idea what to take.  I don't want to go into my first game with a crap army and no chance of winning, so I am asking for the cumulative experience of you guys so far.  What works for guard these days, and what doesn't? 

Having read numerous blogs and articles since the start of 6th (I haven't been able to let go entirely it seems), it would appear that the days of Chimeltas and Hydras are over, Vendettas are awesome as ever, blob squads are having some kind of renaissance, and everyone is convinced that allies are the new black. 

I have enough men and tanks to field virtually anything, so I am thinking of trying some sort of hybrid army with a large blob, and possibly some allied Marines or Blood Angels to help attack into midfield.  Honestly though, I have minimal idea what truly works, or what is truly needed in this edition.

All help appreciated!

Blog Wars 4 . Bat Reps...

So it was full of Gusto I breezed in to my second Blog Wars with my tourney untested new marine creation, I was hopeful as in play testing the "tool kit" army seemed to be working well and had yet to be trounced (which is not the same as "not lost" :P )

Anyway this was the list I took. The inclusion of Chronus was due to the mission pack making special characters score or give away extra vps but you HAD to take one. Either way a scoring predator that could then cheekily throw the character from the wreckage to go and hide in a squad seemed a good bet. The fact he then gave me immune to stunned and shaken and bs5 was just icing on the cake:

Libby - Gate and Null Zone
10 Sternguard in a pod
Iron Clad with 2 hunter killers in pod

10 tacs with the holy trinity of melta in pod
10 tac with missile, plasma and assault cannon razorback
10 sniper scouts with Telion
Aegis with Las

Storm talon with cyclone
Vindicator
Thunder Fire
Dakka Pred with Chronus

Let's see how I got on then..

The Voice Speaks - Blood Angels 1850. Return of the Mech

Howdie peoples.  Its been a slow week hobby wise, i'm not getting much gaming in at the momement what with trying to finish building an empire army, running round after the pregnant one and painting my wolfs. So the internet has been my only real source of hobby love (i am not loving the commissions...its not fun when its a job :/)

Anyway, I was reading this:

http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-s...6th-part-2.html

He makes some very good points about mech in 6th ed.

I read it and I am of the thinking that yes, hes correct. Mech msu may not be as GOOD as it was, but its by far from BAD. Hull points as a concept has really just brought all styles of army in to roughly the same ball park competitively wise (apart from maybe flyer spam but I digress). So yes - your seeing more infantry based army's, no - mech isn't the no brainier it used to be and yes I think it can still work. And I think Blood Angels can do it (I love my Bangles and I've been itching to get back to them somehow)

Why?

• A lot of people are assuming that they will only be playing a handful of vehicles now, so their anti tank will not be as prevalent in their lists as before. Allowing you to swamp the big threats with your msu giving you a easier time as the game progresses.
• Shaken and stuns do not happen as much now, and when they do you can still snap fire. Damage output from your mech actualygets BETTER than in 5th
• Assaults squads give you cheap as chips razorbacks. Allowing yet more mech
• Fast vehicles are still very useful gun boats. Combat is death to mech now, so anything to keep stuff further away is good.
• You have a hq that can give you a 5+ save to everything in range. No longer is 5+ "not that good" its kinda the norm now, you don't feel robbed of a save as you scoot round the flanks dakkaing everything.
• They have access to Baals, the hidden heavy support choice.
• Twin linked weapons on a lot of your vehicles makes flyers not look as smug zipping around, and that snap fire isn't that big a deal when stunned.
• More infantry = more things to tank shock!!
• Fast vehicles can get under the "flyer radar" easier. Turn 2 I could be on the enemy's deployment line making it very difficult  for them to start drawing a bead on me.

So how does this all translate in to a list. Well here's my current thinking at 1850:

Libby - Shield (for the save bubble), not sure on the second power.

5 assault marines, plasma gun in razorback with twin linked assault cannons

5 assault marines, plasma gun in razorback with twin linked assault cannons

5 assault marines, plasma gun in razorback with twin linked assault cannons

5 assault marines, plasma gun in razorback with twin linked assault cannons

5 assault marines, plasma gun in razorback with twin linked assault cannons

5 assault marines, plasma gun in razorback with heavy flamer

Baal, assault cannon, heavy bolters

Baal, assault cannon, heavy bolters

Predator, autocannon, heavy bolters

Predator, autocannon, heavy bolters

Vindicator

Bastion - Quad Gun

Basic premise?

Assault cannon and dakka stuff. The flazorback gets in the way for cover saves maybe or hangs about for those problem units in cover. The squad from inside mans the bastion. 5 razor units run round with shield on them shooting stuff lots. If I need to I debunk and let rip plasma too.

The av 13 chassis pour massed firepower in to any an all infantry with the vindicator trundling around putting the fear of god into anything with a good save or more than one wound.

Simples huh?

I need to play this just to see if it can compete. Though I'm still thinking of what to use as the second power. In the old days it would have been lance. But I'm really tempted with fear of the darkness or shackle soul - for those pinch moments when you really need stuff not to be running on to objectives (or run away). Fear is stronger, but I worry ill be too tempted to use it and get out of the tanks when really my warlord should stay in. Shackle soul would be for turn 5,6,7 last gasps and so wont put me in dangerous positions due to over eagerness. (in case your wondering - shackle soul is 12 inch range and unit needs to pass a ld test to move, then one to run, then one to charge)

I don't think any of the main rule books power trees benefit this list. So I'm sticking with the codex powers. Though id be interested if people had any thoughts on that.

So comments? I'm kinda liking it :)

G

The Voice Speaks -Meat for Meta. Or "How I recon I can get Tyranids to work...for a while.

Meta – its talked about a lot. Too much?  Maybe.

The fact is I started trying to write a blog on how the meta will/maybe develop and its started giving me a headache. The reason is – there is just too much dam choice now.  List development meta as it once was, I think, has gone out the window because with so many choices a counter can and will be found from one book or another pretty quickly to any dastardly list or trend that may appear. Already Andy O is possibly bringing back Venom Spam in an attempt to counter the Deamon/Nids/Genral Infantry heavy armies we see. And if that takes off?? I’m sure taking out 18 fast moving Av10 hull points will NOT be a problem to a tinkered with list from one book or another.

So, my meta predictions for 6^th? Circles.  It’ll be like fashion. One thing gradually evolving into another until one day you find you are wearing bell bottoms again when you swore you never would again xxx years ago.  I think there will be common principles to list building, that’s a given,  but I don’t foresee a situation where your having to pick certain units BY DEFAULT because “I know I’m going to face razor spam GK/Marines a lot of times this weekend”. Flavour of the month is what I think will happen.  Ridding high in popularity for a list or build, but for very short bursts of time due to the infinite variety of ways of picking it apart as soon as it raises its head above the parapet. You will not see one list or book dominating to the extent or for the length of time that you saw in 5^th. You will see people with large pools of available models changing their lists a lot.

The constant escalating way that some people build  lists to become “perfect” will ultimately cause a ever changing cooking pot of ideas where certain lists will have their 5 minutes and then sink again. I think this is good. I like this. It means my knee jerk way of changing armies every 10 minutes doesn’t hinder me and I can just get on with some games.

So anyway. My flavour of the month is Tyranids. I figured that scoring is such a big thing now that an army with good scoring options  for me and nice options for hoovering up the enemy’s would be a nice departure having played a lot of marines or marine based armies for a while now. Also with access to the Biomancy powers and spamming spells such as Iron Arm ( +D3 to Strength and Toughness), Enfeeble (minus one toughness for the enemy) and Endurance (Fnp and it will not die) you can really create an army where the big things get bigger and the little things can actually really start churning out some damage, especially when you add in Hive Tyrants ability to create Preferred Enemy bubbles (which as everyone knows is now rerolling ones to hit and to wound in both SHOOTING and assault). So shooty nids FTW.

So the list building – what will I need to take in to account while I work? Well, while there isn’t one army that seems to be that popular our there (see my above meta comments), there is an awful lot of models hitting the table. Hordes or at least lots of bums on seats seems to be the order of the day. But there is still flyers to contend with and also while there are far from everywhere, a few of the big tourney players are hitting the Necrons for the time being – so Wraiths, barges and scythes seems to kicking about a bit at the top (though I’ve not seen any 2 lists identical yet). So if your doing well then you have a good chance to maybe face a tin head army on the top tables.

So if I’m doing nids I’m going to need a few things:

• Lots of weight of fire for the hordes
• Some AA firepower
• Scoring, lots of scoring
• A way to deal with wraiths/multi wound models – but not to the point im weakening my list with something too specific - as this could very well change soon and make the unit redundant.
• A way to deal with AV13 that doesn’t eat to much into my weight of fire – but again not to the point im building too specific for something I may never face.
• Id also say an assault element just in case, but its nids. Its kind of built in lol.

So this was the first list I’ve bee trialling. Its 1850 which is still tourney standard. But had been practising at 1500 while I build everything. Since discussing this with peers however I was warned off by my good friend and Nid player James Ramsey: “you’ll never finish a game in a tournament. What with moving the gaunt’s and resolving that many psychic powers and abilities and explaining to people how it works and fiquring what exact combo your doing this turn with your 14 psychic powers -it’ll be a 4 turn game tops every time”

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Doom in a pod

3 Hive guard
3 Hive guard

Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison

10 gaunt
10 devil gaunt
10 devil gaunt

Which is a shame as I really liked the amount of firepower it could chuck out with that pref enemy bubble making all those ones reroll. The sky fire from the Hive tyrants was nice and getting lots of Iron Arms and Enfeebles and Fnp’s on things really was making me happy. I still may try it at this points level just to see though because my smaller scaled down lists/games at 1500 were very promising. The Hive guard were keeping the Necron Barges and wraiths honest but also wrecking any vehicles that turned up. Despite having no fast attack or Heavy support the scoring in all objective missions was never a worry. In fact I kinda liked having only elites sometimes as it made everything almost of equal threat in some games (If you have a Trygon Prime in big guns never tired for eg ..why wouldn’t that be one of the first things to die??) The Hive tyrants did get picked on but again if I got fnp or Iron Arm on them, then they lasted a good while to cause havoc.

At 1500 I only had 2 Tirvigon’s and 2 basic gaunt units and was really looking forward to trying the devil gaunts (gaunt’s with devourers). But apparently I have it on good authority that 3 Tirvigon’s will just bog the game down too much so…….

Plan B:

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Doom in pod
3 Hive guard
3 Hive guard

Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc
9 Tyranid warriors - devourers and rending claws in pod
10 gaunt
10 gaunt

Less spitting out of gaunts slowing the game down but reducing my scoring somewhat. To make up for this a nice big unit of Tyranid warriors will be dropped in peoples faces instead. 27 (hopefully preferred enemy) devourer shots and rending attacks should make them a threat in the enemy lines from early on. They cant be ignored as they are scoring and there is 27 wounds in there too. Pot shots will not cut it. I want really to be charging these into the fire support units at the back if I can.

And Plan C:

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

Flying Hive Tyrant. Twin Linked Devourers and Pref Enemy Bubble

doom in pod
3 hive guard
3 hive guard

Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison
Tirvigon - 3 powers, fc and poison

11 gaunt
11 gaunt

Harpy

Harpy

Spending the points that was on scoring on 2 Harpys instead. By throwing 4 flying Mc’s at the enemy I hope to keep the precious Flyrants alive a bit longer. The Harpys also keep the high volume of armour saves that the enemy has to make from shooting as well as some ok vector striking at some of the lighter armoured flyers.

So thoughts? Personally I’m liking the warrior version if I cant go for plan A. But there are other considerations. Gargoyles are amazing in this edition especially with preferred enemy. Do the Hive Guard fall under that “too specific a counter” that thing I’m trying to avoid? I’ve taken them as they really help vs quantum shielding  but do I really have to worry that much? They are adding resilience to the army and 12 shots in to the pot vs infantry too. Mech hasn’t disappeared totally so its nice having them. But am blinkered. Should I just suck it up and maybe swap them out for a nice big unit of Gargoyles?

See, too many Choices. Lol.

Till next time

G

Truth be Told ... On 6th.

Good evening Gents,

There's a more robust post coming up on 6th Edition and my expectations, but I wanted to mention something that's getting me a little excited right now.

I have to say up until recently, I honestly thought I was done with the hobby in terms of playing. I really didn't like 5th Edition, for reasons that will be explained in a later post, and I couldn't say I was too optomistic about 6th Edition, despite knowing there will be some element of the winds of change.

Plateau'ing -When you hit it. Pt.1

I feel like I'm having an issue lately. My gaming seems to has plateau'd, not peaked but hit a ceiling of sorts. I'm at a point where I'm a decent player but I don't feel like my gaming is progressing, so I'm going to try to analyse why and see what I can do to change it.

I'll start with where I feel I'm at game play wise. In the last tournament I played in, I placed in the top 1/3 out of 60+ players.
 I ended up just below my goal.
I find my way to top tables but can't hold on once I get there.
I can't overcome my counter lists and get into that top tier of players.

 I've also noticed that when I'm playing against someone I tend to have a "go to" strategy for each army/build. And without spending a minute or so before the game planning a strategy according to the mission and the opponents weaknesses and strengths, I deploy.

And it ends up being either that strategy crushes like it should or it completely falls on its face without a chance to adapt. But even with my biggest counter, GK. I tend to do the same thing every time. Deploy forward to get as many lance shots early as I can, pray to the dice gods and hold on for dear life. And its not working, and I do it over and over and over with different versions of the same list.

Change is needed. So I've looked at my play and lists and there are a few things that need to change. The list, the strategy, the mentality.

No Sleep Till Blog Wars

So with Blog Wars coming up I thought I'd throw up a post about the list I'll be taking. If you don't know Blog Wars has a few special rules and one is that you must have a special character in your list. I was tempted to take Baron again as he is probably the best HQ in the dex IMO. But I just played him a couple weeks ago at a tournament and want to give another character a try. Duke "Motherfucking" Sliscus. Heres the list

Duke-150
4x Trueborn w/Splinter Cannon x2, Shardcarbine x2-78
Venom w/SCannon-65
5x Wyches w/HWG, Hek, Agon in Venom w/SCannon-155
5x Wyches w/HWG, Hek, Agon in Venom w/SCannon-155
5x Wyches w/HWG, Hek, Agon in Venom w/SCannon-155
5x Wyches w/HWG, Hek, Agon in Venom w/SCannon-155
9x Reavers w/HLx3, CCx3-294
6x Reavers w/HLx2, CCx2-196
Ravager w/DLx3, FF, -115
Ravager w/DLx3, FF, -115
Ravager w/DLx3, FF, -115

Heres the catch. My army isn't finished. And nowhere close. So tonight, I will not get sleep. But you. Will get updates. I am currently short 2 Venoms, 2 Ravagers, a trueborn unit and none of my reavers are painted. Trying to move into a new place and deal with work/holiday/club and an unhealthy fixation on Battlefield 3 (mostly) has left me way behind. I'm aiming to have everything assembled and primed tonight(if I can find my glue). Here is the current state of my desk.



So as tonight and tomorrow goes I will come back to this post and edit/update it to show my progress. And if there is no sleep till Blog Wars, so be it. Didn't sleep the night before Brighton and I did alright! Lets do this!

UPDATE: Got all my models cut off sprues and both Venoms and Reavers shaved. Buddy brought me a Red Bull so now I'm in Rambo MODE!


And Table V2!



Cut Cut CUT!

Sooo any thoughts on the list?

The Darkness Returns.

Well, after a lovely 4 month absense and a bit of being burnt out on 40k. I re realized why I love 40k. Great fluff, great models, and debasing spesh mahreens.

After being home for a few weeks I finally made it into a GW. I originally wanted to grab a couple paiints and maybe a book, but I managed to squeeze past the crowds of kids and harassy blue shirted fellas (who followed me) to the tiny row of Dark Eldar on the shelf.

After checking out some of the shiny new finecast boxes I actually bought something. I wanted to see some of the new models and see if I could rekindle my love. Theres nothing like 5 mishapen, surgically enhanced, sadomachicist torture machines to get the love juices flowing!

Wracks sure are lovely.

As I made my way back past the 4-5 tables of spesh mareens fighting other just as boring marines, it dawned on me.
Not only do I want to beat every marine list out there into the blood soaked dust.
 I want my army to look better doing it.
 So I'm starting a long term project to slowly build and paint an competitive, interesting list with a strong base that can be switched around depending on whats needed.