tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77326153858244310502024-02-06T20:44:50.862-08:00The Lost and the Damnit!Making them lose to the warp. ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-17064727463457115222017-07-27T16:59:00.000-07:002017-07-27T16:59:55.724-07:00Philosofelt: In Defense of Power Level<br />
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With the coming of the new edition has come a great change in army construction: Power Level (P). In the datasheets section, it is defined as: "The higher this is, the more powerful the unit! You can determine the Power Level of your entire army by adding up the Power Ratings of all units in your army." In my local gaming club, we've been playing games at 100 P and not using points. So far, it's been fun and accepted. However, last night I had a spirited discussion about the merits of using P as a list creation tool. In that spirit, lets explore how it relates to the more traditional points method of Army list construction.<br />
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<b>The relation of Points to Power Level.</b><br />
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At first glance, it appears as though P gives a marked advantage to units with wargear. Because all wargear is free using P, there can then accrue a marked "free points" advantage for an Imperial/Traitor army where all units have wargear and can therefore get "free" upgrades. However, a cursory examination of units and their upgrades shows that P has the wargear upgrades built in. That is, P was determined with the assumption that all upgrades would be taken. Lets look at three units of basic troops, their point values and their P values.<br />
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Space Marines Tactical Squad - 5 P<br />
13 points/model; +20 Power Fist; +8 Grav Pistol; +17 Melta Gun = 110 points or 22 points/P<br />
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Craftworld Dire Avengers - 3 P<br />
10 points/model; + 35 Avenger Shuriken Catapults; +20 Shimmer Shield; +4 Diresword = 109 points or 36 points/P<br />
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Necron Warriors - 6 P<br />
12 points/model = 120 points or 20 points/P<br />
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Wargear definitely shows an edge here, especially with the dramatically undercosted Dire Avengers. Its likely this was a classic GW oversight where the calculated P did not include the Avenger Shuriken Catapults costing points, unlike most unit's basic weapons costing nothing. If this was taken into account, their P would more likely be 5.<br />
Next, lets look at their dedicated transports.<br />
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Space Marines Rhino - 4 P<br />
70 points; + 2 Storm Bolter; +2 Storm Bolter; +6 Hunter Killer Missile = 80 points or 20 points/P<br />
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Craftworld Wave Serpent - 9 P<br />
107 points; +40 Twin Bright Lance; +5 Crystal Targeting Matrix; +8 Force Shield; +10 Star Engines; +10 Vectored Engines = 180 or 20 points/P<br />
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Ghost Arc - 8 P<br />
170 points or 21.5 points/P<br />
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A high level of parity here. Lets look at hard-hitting melee elites.<br />
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Space Marines Assault Terminators - 13 P<br />
31 points/model; +100/5 Thunder Hammers; +20 Storm Shields = 280 points or 21.5 points/P<br />
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Craftworld Wraith Blades - 10 P<br />
29 points/model; +75/5 Ghost Axes; + 15 Flicker Shield = 260 or 26 points/P<br />
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Necron Lychguard - 8 P<br />
19 points/model; +75/5 Dispersion Shields; +15/5 Hyperphase Shields = 155 points or 23 points/P<br />
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Melee elite units have a definite edge in points/P efficiency. Finally, some named HQs.<br />
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Marneus Calgar - 13 P or 250 points, or 19 points/P<br />
Maugan Ra - 8 P or 159 points, or 20 points/P<br />
Nemesor Zahndekh - 9 P or 180 points, or 20 points/P<br />
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It appears as though the standard value of P with all highest-costed wargear available is 19-26 points/P, with a likely aim of making it a +/- 2 points/P with some outliers. This fits closely with the community's assumption that a 100 P game is ~2000 points. It is, however, obvious that there are some serious winners and losers within P level. This is unfortunately true with the points system as well. As most players know, competitive list building revolves around maximizing the most points-efficient units and weapons and minimizing the rest. <br />
The easiest conclusion is that both systems are flawed. Army creation is a highly complicated process with so many variables that it's likely impossible to create a totally balanced system. Looking at basic troops, for example, shows that the Space Marine Tactical Squad costs less in points and more in power level than the dire avengers with or without wargear. It follows that the choice of army creation between points and power level is going to a personal one. Here are some basic pros and cons of Power Level.<br />
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<b>Power Level Pros.</b><br />
<img alt="Image result for power level" height="320" src="http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/019/296/over_9000_power_level_meter_tshirt.jpg" width="320" /><br />
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Ease of Use - The new edition is bringing new players into the game. My club has two complete newbs and two returning players who have been out for several years. P is a much simpler system to use, and does not require significant min/maxing. This removes a large advantage veteran players have in list construction expertise and makes it more difficult to make bleeding-edge efficient lists. It also cuts down list creation time when players inevitably make their lists just when a game is decided upon.<br />
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As Modeled - My sergeant has a power sword and a plasma pistol for the first time in forever. He's modeled with them, and because they're free, he actually has them. Same goes for heavy weapons teams, sponson weapons, storm shields, etc. Much less list checking for what a model "actually" has versus what they are modeled with.<br />
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Rule of Cool - It's fun when every unit is at it's maximum power level and can have an effect on the game. While my Renegade Command Squads will likely never make a significant impact with their heavy bolter weapons team, it's more fun when they don't simply exist as command-net vox holders who can shoot five lasguns.<br />
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Book Mode - Power Level games are more like the action in the fluff. Every unit has impressive weapons and feels more like the squads and heroes we read about. Back line HQ tax can pull off impressive feats of heroism. Books don't feature five units of minimum scouts that all have bolt guns and hide behind walls.<br />
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Less Filler - Points allow you to forgo wargear to buy more of the most powerful units. This usually leads to naked troop squads and chassis with only the single best weapon on them. Every unit is more effective, and therefore more valuable, when they have access to all their wargear for a set price.<br />
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Finding What's Effective - Full wargear can surprise you with it's effectiveness. That power sword might do enough work to justify inclusion in a points list. Lots of wargear for experienced players is a "never buy" and might be more valuable than it's statistical expectations. <br />
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<b>Power Level Cons</b><br />
<img alt="Image result for power level" height="213" src="http://www.dbzwarriors.com/pics/powerlevels/bardock.jpg" width="320" /><br />
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Exploitable - There are definite exploitable units that have a greater battlefield role than their P indicates. However, this is also true for points. Without a thorough survey, I can't say which is more broken; I assume they have a parity level of exploitation. <br />
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Less Granular - The manipulation of spreadsheets and the secrets within the numbers is one of the longest running sources of fun in the game. Finding a way to exploit points to get the best stuff in quantity is quite satisfying. P removes much of the list-creation mini-game within 40k.<br />
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Appeal to Authority - ITC, ATC and other tournament acronym organizers all are using points for list creation in their tournaments. Points is the primary way to play matched play according to the BRB. As an ITC club, I have mixed feelings about this. I feel that P is too new, and the competitive scene to entrenched in traditional points values, to accept P as an alternative. Time will tell if tournaments introduce P options within their systems.<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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If you consider yourself a competitive player, points are still the way to go. The inability to compare P lists with what is actually winning games is a severe detriment, because they all use points. If you consider yourself a casual gamer, I recommend trying several games with P lists. You may find that your games are much more action packed and enjoyable, with less of the game decided during army construction. P is also an opportunity to pull out more of your old models and watch them actually do some work.<br />
Arguments that state that P is broken should also appreciate that points are broken. Both systems are flawed, and without a full statistical analysis of all units, it is unknown which is the superior system form a battlefield effectiveness standpoint. For instance, the melee elite units above all have a numerical advantage in points/P. However, these units have traditionally been weak and underutilized in my experience. P seems to give a slight advantage to units that are tricky or unreliable to use effectively. This introduces probability and support(such as dedicated transports) as required to appreciate their actual battlefield effectiveness.<br />
P is especially great to introduce new players into the game. It simplifies a hurdle that for many people is as large as the painting and modeling required for making an effective army. It's up to experienced players to be willing to give up some advantages in order to facilitate new players in the hobby. At least consider playing some introductory games with P in order to give new players a view on whats' effective without needing to learn the complicated math of efficient army creation.<br />
Everything, is, of course, pursuant on FAQs and the incoming Codexs. With some tweaking and correction of both points and power levels, either system may wax or wane.<br />
Anybody else playing with P? What's your experience?ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-92015198115203550352016-02-22T16:24:00.000-08:002016-02-22T16:24:58.452-08:00Xtreme Kitbash: Greater Brass Scorpion of Khorne<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Grey Knights had called, and been answered: by the brooding Raven Guard, who massed their scouts in shadowed black; by the maddened Blood Angels, whose Death Company whispered their final oaths as they embarked upon the vessels of the steel rain; by the mysterious Dark Angels, hooded and purified; all ready to bring war. Their fleets coalesced into real-space and took orbit around the fallen Forgeworld of Delnor Prime. The guns of the mighty cathedral-ships barked until they ran empty, striking down the bastions and defences upon the surface. They had not come to inflict Exterminatus, but to reclaim this world, where the artifice of war was made. It must be purified with blade and bolter, but it would again arm the sons of the Emperor again. Innumerable attack craft and drop pods spilled from the orbital ships, hurtling towards the heretic below.<br />
Brother-Adept Mercutio, pilot of the Storm Talon <i>Final Witness</i>, felt the unmistakable slip of warp-translation before the first flames of atmospheric entry limned his ship. Through the canopy, the curving grey-brown of the planet was suddenly replaced by the battle-lines of the enemy, terribly close. Flak exploded around the silver ship, and soon both engines were flaming, the ship a flaming coffin hurtling at a sharp angle downwards.<br />
"Spend out lives dearly, Brother," came Justicar Elin's voice over the comm, his tone weighty with the knowledge of his Paladin squad's inevitable death.<br />
Mercutio complied. He loosed the full complement of missiles the ship carried into a horde of screaming cultists below, and set the many bolters on the ship to full auto, trusting the machine-spirit to prosecute their wroth. Close ahead hundreds of cultists gibbered around a daemonic blood-throne, a horned beast ensconced within exhorting the flesh-chattels to unleash their auto-guns upon the lone enemy in the sky. As the small-arms pattered the viewscreen like a hailstorm, Mercutio made a final push upon the control yoke, sending the Storm Raven smashing to the ground, skidding through the cultists, smashing the self-destruct toggle just as the Raven careened into the blood throne.<br />
The throne was old and had tasted blood upon thousands of worlds. It was a curse upon reality, brought forth from the warp wherever the slaughter would be thickest. The occupant's death meant little. Chains of molten brass twirled from it's base and through the wreckage of the Storm Raven, swinging the limp form of Brother-Adept Mercutio into it's seat. Baleful energies sucked the shattered flesh of the dead and the barely living strewn around the wreckage like water spiraling into a drain. The flesh ran like wax, reforming into tendrils of daemon flesh, filling the shell of the storm raven, the hands of the dead clutching the still-living Paladins within. Unconscious, shocked by the warp-translation and the sundering of their ship, the rage contained within the throne infected their minds. They cried out, desperate to bring destruction upon their foes. <br />
"My Faith is a litany," Justicar Elin rasped, trying to bring the image of the God-Emperor to his mind. All that came was a laughing skull, horned, forged in brass, weeping blood. "For-for-"<br />
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" Mercutio screamed from within his throne-prison. <br />
"SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" The Paladins replied, the daemon flesh around them becoming pliant, responsive to their rage.<br />
Incorruptible spirits falling, their networked psychic minds screaming together to the God of Murder, finally rent the already-thinned barrier between the warp and reality. As the first flaming contrails of the Astartes lined the sky, rainbow tears opened around them, the daemons behind the veil gibbering, ready to join the fray.<br />
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My collection has become almost an exercise in machoism. At this point, I'm as much looking for things that will finish out my range of models as things I want to play with. To wit, the Greater Brass Scorpion of Khorne(BS) needed to join the collection. But if there's one thing I know about myself, it's that I was both unwilling to buy the ludicrously expensive model, and completely unable to do it justice with a decent paint job. So I decided to make something that was at least unique, if not beautiful; and have probably hit the pinnacle of my art. Because really, I don't have another super-heavy to make, and I think I hit about sixty hours with this monstrosity. In doing some research, I was happy to find out that the ubiquitous defiler-scorpion was actually an official GW kitbash before there was an official model! If you want a sub-100 dollar model this is till a great way to go.<br />
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/43031599/Brass-Scorpion-1<br />
It's a rule around the garage that if it sits too long, I'm going to corrupt it. Well, if the orks don't get to it first. I already have corrupted Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Raven Guard, and Black Templars. All the main factions that are played around here. Devon's Grey Knights Storm Raven had been sitting unused for at least a year. It was second-hand, with a terrible paint job and giant seams where the man-child who assembled it had probably just waved a tube of glue like a fetish over it. So I asked permission like a sucker, then promptly broke the wings off. The engines and guns were snapped up by the orcs as soon as they fell off. Hilariously, it's almost impossible to find size descriptions on the interwebs, so the whole project is based off this picture, which I at least have the models for reference.<br />
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Well, shit, where do I go from here? A standard of Xtreme Kitbash is use what you have, and let the emergent bits inspire the design rather than have a vision going in. I had a giant hulk action figure that had been bumming around for years, possibly to become a shitty-looking titan, but we've moved away from counts-as since a wave of Gundam started clogging the tables. So I hacksawed his green ass apart, because his giant smashy fists would make great stand-ins for the pinchers of the scorpion. I decided these would come out of the disembarkation ports, and the model itself would stand on action figure arms that I looted from He-Men, Wrestlers, and some bizarre western gun-cyborg. A healthy application of grey stuff tentacles would cover up the all the seams and make the daemon-flesh.<br />
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I had a Cthulhu tail from the amazing reaper model, that was originally supposed to be a Daemon Prince and instead became an imperial knight. That was grafted where the tail-fins were to provide stability. This was originally going to be a sprue-tree, but wiser heads mentioned that tail was useless anywhere else and solid for this application. Now, I had some shitty options for tail guns, but decided that I really needed some more official bits to make the thing look better. So I assembled a Paladin Squad. These guys were painted to tabletop ready, then attached to the tail and some lengths of sprue sunk into the resin of the tail to make a four ended tail, each tail ending with a Paladin, pressed forward guns blazing. They are held in place with long ropes of grey stuff that twine out from the rear-hatch weak point, which is the blood-torso of Mosquitor, who gave his arms for the project. Throughout the flesh-tail I attached the arms from the Vampire Counts ghoul kit, for some reason you get 74, great for me. <br />
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So the Paladins were the first emergent aspect, when I saw that the rapidly-diminishing visible surface area of the Storm Raven wouldn't really tell the story of corruption as well as the occupants enslavement. Then it was time to attach the limbs. Since they need to be solid, I bought extra-long bolts, drilled some holes in the frame, and stuck them through the arms, attaching them with wing-nuts on the outside. These added some nice extra industrial/mechanical touches to the beast. But now there were too many gaps where I hadn't really lined things up that well.<br />
The Green Stuff Tentacle Maker came to the rescue. I made lots of these things, mimicking one of the primary design cues of the BS's underside, and ran them everywhere daemon flesh joined the body of the ship. Lazy work pays off.<br />
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Now, I of course had made several bad plans for the top of the ship. I
had already decided to keep the hulk-mojo going by attaching his face to
the canopy, but wanted a captain of some kind for the whole thing,
pushing the monstrosity forward. I ordered the Sigmar started kit khorne lord, hoping to put him in the skull throne from a, well, skull throne, but he's a three part model that was never going to sit down. Thankfully I had ordered a Chaos Terminator Lord body, thinking that he would be in the front hatch to stand in for the hull-mounted flamer weapons. I decided to go with one of the Grey Knights instead, and Joe cut up the Lord to sit in the throne kind of. <br />
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Now the whole thing is together, except for the hulk arms. I listened to our painting guru, who I finally realized knows better than me, in going for the full standard paint job for Khorne. I usually don't do the canon color for anything, but this being a kit-bash-counts-as, I agreed that it would help the recognizability of the model. And shit, <i>Khorne Red </i>and <i>Brass Scorpion</i> are some damn good looking colors together.<br />
The daemon-flesh was primed with a mix of white jesso and brown craft paint; at this point the Storm Raven and the Paladins are already painted so I can't spray it. This made a great base for the <i>Brass Scorpion</i> on the tentacle tubes, and a good shadow base for the daemon flesh. I put a ??? <i>Flesh</i> coat over the flesh, then a drybrush of <i>Khorne Red</i> over that, leaving the grasping hands in flesh. These received bone highlights and a <i>Agreran Earth</i> wash.<br />
Finally, I ran a brass tube, actual brass hilariously enough, through the body of the ship, which went into the holes that attached the hulk arms to the model originally. Then these were grey-stuff gap filled and glued for stability. I didn't want these embarassingly falling off at some point. The shoulder pads are made out of pieces of the wings that were hacksawed apart.<br />
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So I'm at the very end, it's time to make a giant design decision on the moment that changes the whole thing. Another standard of Xtreme Kitbash. The throne structure I'd made wasn't quite fitting because I'd done a shit job of leveling the top of the Raven. There were only a few points the glue was holding, and I'd hate for him to fall off. As well, I'd like a method of keeping track of hull points. I had a bunch of zombie vixens left over from Daemonette making. We have a throne, why not have semi-clad women clambering toward it Conan style? We had a few feet of brass-colored chain. I glued the throne assembly down, then wrapped the chain around the whole model to hold it down. This provides a base for the zombie girls with magnets glued to them to to stick to it. Nine Hull Points, eight girls. If he takes damage without a girl it's all over. I stuck some daemonette bits throughout because the idea that this freshly-formed daemon engine would immediately have what amounts to a pest infestation of an opposing god makes me crack up no end. <br />
Still to do is cover the thing in <i>Blood for the Blood God</i> and then poly-seal it. But it's actually 95% done and ready for Apocalypse next week! As with all things, it pays to have a community. I got painting tips, the base for the model, the front cannon (melta cannon from an imperial knight), some of my paints, and some modeling help from my hobby mates. Makes things a lot easier.<br />
So -<br />
Paladins - $45<br />
Ghoul Arms - $15<br />
Blood Throne - $7<br />
Terminator Lord - $7<br />
Three Tubes of Grey Stuff - $60<br />
BftBG and Agreran Earth - 15 <br />
Total - $150<br />
Official Brass Scorpion and Paints - $250<br />
Not quite half price. I barely touched the third tube of grey stuff so I'll call it a moral victory. But I made something completely unique that I love, rather than cursing cracked resin and doing a shite job on a beautiful model. <br />
Keep on bashing out there, Chaos!ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-90701938894600233822015-09-25T12:05:00.001-07:002015-09-25T12:05:10.567-07:00Time for War: Khorne Daemonkin First Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Time changes all things. Long warp-battered, a blood-hulk finally emerges from that place of frothed reality. A stalwart warrior who stood against the madness for a long and bitter campaign now screams for skulls beneath dead eyes. The urge to triumph has overwhelmed all else within him, for even bitter enemies may become the closest allies when the war forces them together. The prince of pleasure, the king of lies, their titles mean nothing to one who will wear a crown of blood. </i><br />
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After a long and fruitful state of Khorne-bashing, I finally decided it was time to try a bit of the ol' blood god to see if Blood and Skulls might be for me! The Daemonkin codex opens up some interesting builds and a chance to play a different side of daemons. So far, the most satisfying part of the games has been saying "Psychic Phase....no Psychic Phase!" And moving on, rather than spending the next ten minutes agonizing over probabilities. No probability blocks for me, just the surety of blood!<br />
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I started with -<br />
Slaughtercult<br />
2x 8 CSM, Melta, Rhino<br />
1x Possessed, Rhino,<br />
Chaos Lord, Juggernaut, Axe of Apostrophes<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Gorepack<br />
20x Flesh Hounds<br />
2x 3x Biker, Plasma<br />
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First game was against a mega-centstar, playing the relic. What a boring game. I managed to kill all his troops while he managed to immobilize all my Grinders. The game ended when I couldn't block his centstar from getting up on the relic due to poor positioning on my part. A total lack of obsec in this list is shit. Not enough overwhelming killy to take the table and live without it. Also, Draigo is balls against a Grinder list, since he'll just kill all of them. Ouch. Also, my Lord failed to kill 5 scouts in two rounds of combat. Ouch.<br />
Second game was against a battle company, White Scars because all marines are White Scars. Again, the grinders got immobilized by grav and we kind of ground down. Neither of us won because it was a very underwhelming game that was not fun.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Soul Grinder in it's natural state: Immobilized with 1 Hull Point Left</td></tr>
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So I looked at what was missing - obsec and effectiveness. The lord can't deal enough damage with his strength 5 swings, the marines are overcosted and ineffective, and the possessed are just an expensive tax for an ho-hum ability. How I'm reading it, the bonus power only applies to the slaughtercult, and those guys can't fight for shit, so the bonus power never played out. I'm ditching those losers but quick!<br />
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Revised List<br />
Daemonkin CAD<br />
Lord, Juggernaut, PF, Axe of Apostrophes<br />
4x 8x Bloodletters<br />
Heldrake<br />
Heldrake<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Soul Grinder<br />
Gorepack<br />
20x Flesh Hounds<br />
2x 3x Bikers, Plasma<br />
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That's better. We have some obsec bloodletters to DS in or hide, Bikers to grab objectives but mostly to provide sergeants to turn into 'thirsters, and of course the ubiquitous Heldrakes to kill everything. I've preferred Chaos armor for quite a while. Daemon engines are the flabby strength of the codex, and Grinders and Heldrakes give everybody a headache. This list gives a strong nullish deployment, with the hounds and the lord in cover and everything else having the option to deep strike. It still suffers from Grav-woes with so many points in walkers, and it's just about guaranteed these boys will get immobilized. So it's vital to DS the grinders onto objectives, exploit rear armor, and tie as much grav in combat with 'letters and hounds as possible to give them a chance to fight.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soul Grinders mating with Rhinos to make new Daemon Engines</td></tr>
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I played this against a battle company and did better, with the Lord and hounds alpha striking a foolish scout push and the grinders and drakes mopping up exposed marines. Much blood was provided for the amusement of the red god. (full disclosure: my opponent played poorly and had the worst dice I've ever seen)<br />
Also played against Blood Angels, which initially seemed like a total gimme for me, but a hard-hitting honor guard went on a worthy rampage that almost pulled it out for my opponent. <br />
The blood tithe table, while initially exciting, is not playing out well. It's usually best to throw it every turn at FnP or +1 Attack and push the advantage rather than waiting for ascension. Maxing at eight and losing any additional points over what you spend is underwhelming, and failing a Ld check to turn into a 'thirster just feels...unfluffy. Better to keep the wave of blood going.<br />
If I had the models, I'd probably drop the gorepack, because the HoW is rather underwhelming, and put those bike points into more hounds. A CAD seems to be the way to go rather than the funormations, because we need obsec and they don't fit anything amazing onto the table.<br />
I still haven't stepped up against Eldar shenanigans, but I'm willing to believe my grinders will melt. As much as I love the model and the rules, they simply don't stand up in the meta against the what can be expected - easy D & grav. They exist in weird middle ground where they will wipe out lighter lists and get wiped against anything tournament ready. But without them, there isn't any reliable AP2 or armor popping available. Again, more hounds seems to be the answer, with another Juggerlord leading them, waving his PF in predictable arc, reminding us all of the last several years when he hung hard with Chaos Spawn.<br />
But is it fun? Still haven't had a good game yet. Against BA was the closest, but that was a game where the dice made it interesting, and it should of been a painful brutalizing of legions of marines. Daemonkin didn't address the reliance of CSM on the Heldrake, and without a way to pop centurions, mega-nobz or any durable melee deathstar, the devotees of slaughter aren't exactly the elite melee force you were probably hoping for.<br />
Really, the sad moral of the story is that Daemonkin plays just like CSM/Daemons, with instability thankfully gone, but without changing anything. It just provides more durable Bloodletters and Hounds, but you were bringing Daemonettes because you were paying attention to how rules work anyway. The hounds can now reliably tarpit just about anything for the majority of the game, but that doesn't mean too much when you should be killing it. The blood tithe table is a distraction, providing some small bonuses, but in practice just tipping the game a little harder if you're winning already. In the end, most of the blood you'll be providing will be your own, squeezed out of an angry metal box.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-22222227942770345382015-07-21T14:24:00.000-07:002015-07-21T14:24:22.913-07:00Time for War: CSM v. BA SimultaneousThe armories rumble, the mouths chant, the planet wails. Over the horizon, a grim wall of marching men and crushing treads advances, their grim resolve already weakening the defenders. What hope can their be? Walls of ceramite-bound flesh advance, and the fate of the city is near - wait a minute, are those cult marines? Orbital bombardments wipe out those poor slow bastards and everybody takes the afternoon off.<br />
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As threatened, I decided to run a game with simultaneous turns. Well, near simultaneous, we took turns in each phase activating units. This was a simple, "fundamentals" type game with decidedly mediocre units without great synergies or anything that simply wipes units.<br />
I'd already gotten a regular game in, a mono-nurgle CSM/Daemons list vs. a mono-tzeentch CSM list. If you haven't seen marines fail to kill each other in a game, try some plague marines vs. 1000 sons. You'll be amazed at how nothing dies the entire time.<br />
I brought Typhus, a giant blob of plague zombies, two squads of PMs in rhinos, a vindicator, heldrake, great unclean one, big blog of plaguebearers, soul grinder. My opponent brought a dante/sanguinary guard murder squad, Death Company, storm raven, and a mess of tacticals in rhinos.<br />
The amazing thing about this match was how little taking alternating actions changes anything, except for the excessive boredom of waiting a half hour to take moves, and the excessive despair you feel as your army gets mauled before you do anything with them. The biggest material difference was that flyers are definitely wonky, and require a different methodology for movement that neither of us really gelled on. Other than that, I don't think anything died that would have lived, and nothing lived that would have died.<br />
Psychic powers should probably be generated per psyker to avoid confusion and delaying. That means that Draigo could gate, nova, and sanctuary as one activation rather than three. A big part of the game ended up being delaying, "null" activating and shuffling guys around, waiting for the opponent to reveal their hand. So this format definitely encourages MSU to an extent. <br />
Because we weren't playing uber-lists, the total killing power of our lists was definitely neutered. I couldn't push his line and he couldn't push mine. His CC guys were tied up thankfully with my GUO who had iron arm; otherwise they would have rolled over my midfield with ease. He eventually died, but not before dante's kids had no chance of moving over to any contested areas. We held our objectives, and couldn't budge each other of them. Nor did our lists have enough mobility to even hope to take it to the backfield. I failed my first reserve roll on my plague bearers and then promptly forgot them for the remainder of the game. Damn.<br />
We played maelstrom; I lost by a point, same as the game before. Maelstrom is pretty stupid. I had a brief interest in it from tournament format fatigue, but taking a game about dice and ALSO making it about random card draws makes the game just about unplayable. Without extreme mobility and cheese methodology, you may as well just roll off to see who gets favorable draws and call it good. <br />
It's been awhile since I've had a jetbikeless army, and boy, do you need them. The realistic mechanics of distance mean that most units can never hope to be a part of the game other than holding back objectives. If you're not heavy on DS, jump packs, or turbo-boosting, then you really can't hope to get into your opponents face.<br />
I'm going to try playing this mode with some tournament-level lists, see how it goes. My initial impression is that it will work fine, and again not change the overall "what-would-happen" of the battle. But maybe the powerful will rise higher and the low fall lower. For casual/friendly games I highly recommend it, simply because you are engaged with the game the entire time rather than in 20-minute increments. ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-16135645906158310582015-07-09T20:44:00.005-07:002015-07-09T20:44:43.544-07:00Philosofelt: Skyhammer Anhilliation Force<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Beyond the reaches of what you know, there wait terrors that may be glimpsed from afar. Wailings upon the warp-ways bring hints, damned souls babbling of powers incomprehensible. Do you really think that all that can be known is contained within your little books, lying impotent upon a dusty shelf? Nay, there wait secrets within the darkness between the stars that may only be glimpsed by those willing to pay the ultimate price: ~$700 USD.<br />
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The Skyhammer Annihilation Force has led to a lot of internet babble. Since you're down into the deep niche blogosphere, I'm going to assume you know what this thing is, and what it supposedly does. Wait, supposedly?<br />
Lets look at the facts. Limited webstore exclusive, consisting of a PDF (or similar) document emailed to purchasers if they bought two drop pods, a tac squad, four boxes of assault marines and two boxes of devastators. 200 copies worldwide. What are the chances that one of those 200 copies fell into the hands of someone who, I don't know, enjoys sharing things in the realms of piracy? Someone who (1) has $700 to waste on what are probably redundant figures for their collection, (2) cares enough about removing the exclusivity of ability that said $700 dollars has purchased them, and (3) wants the internet to have free and open access to what they paid $700 for. Hmmm.....1,2 & 3 seem a bit mutually exclusive.<br />
The existence of this formation is not in question - but what it actually does is, for me, completely in question. We have the words of some bloggers - <a href="http://elite40k.blogspot.com/2015/06/analysis-skyhammer-annihilation-force.html" target="_blank">Charlie</a> was the first that I saw give us a report on the capabilities. Now, a busy 40k hobby site could be willing to pay $700 for what amounts to a "scoop" in this cuthroat journalistic world of hobby reporting. The rules have been parroted in several places since, notably on Frontline, which gives it a bit of a veneer of legitimacy. But, nowhere have I seen anyone say they flat out bought the thing, and, like the rumor mill, <a href="http://www.spikeybits.com/2015/06/revealed-exclusive-skyhammer-annihilation-force.html" target="_blank">the same source gets cited</a>,<a href="http://greenblowfly.blogspot.com/2015/06/skyhammer-annihilation-force.html" target="_blank"> if one is cited at all</a>. <br />
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So...do we trust Charlie? I don't see a reason not too; I don't see a reason too. We have an easy-to-forge digital document, with an easy-to-fake digital signature, an easy style to ape....we can't say for sure what the rules are.<br />
I'm willing to play this in casual games, just to put down the spectre. Lets ignore for a moment the <a href="http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/654816.page#7953262" target="_blank">total shite rules that will cause some real arguments</a>. But is it legal for tournament play? You'll see me rockin' the PDF always, but that's a document that is physically verifiable. The 100 MBs of fluff pages also make viewer just as slow as thumbing through a book. Are you willing to trust the veracity of an <a href="http://imgur.com/gallery/Sr75Tx5" target="_blank">imgr document?</a><br />
One of the things I love about tournaments is seeing the things that are only myth and rumor in my local sector. Green Tides exist, sure, but here's an actual stack of greenskins with some crazy formation super bonuses! Triptides in Farsight Enclaves and Harlequin courts! With beautiful books that hold all the secrets. SAF is just a possibly-real screen turd.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSjUobVJIVpMiHghZkORKQFLkbq6GkM9iK8qJOaEsh2vfFE_H-If6zSqP6QXroyR4AiPvHAJ49gctD9F8j2KgudKss7GQD-ftOIGk5ustPdeuUOjY3vbzLoXeXFw8kk6sbn4bWWBRE4JB/s1600/%2524_35.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnSjUobVJIVpMiHghZkORKQFLkbq6GkM9iK8qJOaEsh2vfFE_H-If6zSqP6QXroyR4AiPvHAJ49gctD9F8j2KgudKss7GQD-ftOIGk5ustPdeuUOjY3vbzLoXeXFw8kk6sbn4bWWBRE4JB/s1600/%2524_35.JPG" /></a> </div>
Same goes with the <a href="http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/307722-warhammer-world-exclusive-campaign-blood-oath/" target="_blank">Blood Oath</a> book. Haven't even seen a full scan of that one. But, if someone wants to produce the physical document, I have no problem with it. Until then, all the <spoilers click to view> are just possibilities. Those formations might not actually exist. Because we love our rules.<br />
The rules are what hold us together even as they push us apart. We don't have some apologist digitally updating ruleset. Our rules are legitimate until they replace them, and <a href="http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/645007.page" target="_blank">even then we aren't willing to admit it.</a> We played old Eldar until the new copy showed up. But show up they did, bound and dated, shiny, so shiny. What's between the hardcovers doesn't change, damnit. The rules of war were set a millenia(of seconds) ago and this is how we will fight! That temporary immutability of the book makes us spend months hobbying for a few skirmishers with the correct special weapons. The ones that use those juicy RULES.<br />
So yeah, SAF doesn't exist in my galaxy. A big part of the game for me is the tactile experience, the beautiful model spreads, the BOOK. The temporary piece of law that covers 98 square inches of my playing surface and always gets in the way. We trust the book. We don't trust the internet.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-74994625110356318912015-07-04T20:13:00.000-07:002015-07-04T20:13:00.841-07:00Tactica: Simultaneous Loving Baby<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8uqh-ReUxnSuMwKzqldb1QSDgi8OzU9vtwih179s5wdGvgHzdRteOz0Xy8dZg0kulI8sF-ncrTmkLFjEBfGIgUibMktwVYGDXRFHU1OF6Vfjv6PZZ6Dt7Bm-F_Dz27Qczxvi2m_R7gap/s1600/NOW-KISS-AVP-aliens-vs-predator-34193018-500-397.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi8uqh-ReUxnSuMwKzqldb1QSDgi8OzU9vtwih179s5wdGvgHzdRteOz0Xy8dZg0kulI8sF-ncrTmkLFjEBfGIgUibMktwVYGDXRFHU1OF6Vfjv6PZZ6Dt7Bm-F_Dz27Qczxvi2m_R7gap/s320/NOW-KISS-AVP-aliens-vs-predator-34193018-500-397.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I wanted a picture of two Adeptus Astartes kissing, but this game is too hetero for such a thing to be found on the internet.</td></tr>
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There's a lot of bitching about rules, and units, and units with rules. I do quite a bit of it myself. But when it comes down to it, I think my biggest bitch has to do with alpha strikes. I myself beta strike, so I'm not one of these filthy jerks, and I only do it because the cool kids are. Seeing 20% or more of your army evaporate on the first turn is....really dumb. It sucks the fun out of the game. So many matches are won or lost on the dice roll to go first. Since the casual season is coming up fast, it's led me to think our first week of games might be a little lab experiment....<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>I'm thinking of simultaneous turns. We keep the movement phase, combine the psychic and shooting phases, keep the assault phase. The big difference is that the players alternate moving/shooting/charging/etc one model/unit at a time rather than moving their whole army, shooting/assaulting with their whole army, sticking their entire foot inside your arsehole by proxy with their army. This will obviously lead to a few issues with bookeeping, but that could be taken care of with some chits that mark an activated unit, or us getting less blazed pre-game, or a combination of the two.<br />
What will this do? Well, it will mean that some moves get blocked off during the movement phase. It means some guys will get shot before they get to shoot. And it means that some assaults will...wait, do people still assault? I'm hoping it will make the game a bit more tactical, because you are reacting to what your opponent does and working with real target priority. Rather than, what do I want to completely wipe off the table whilst they sit with a thumb up type of priority.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MOVEMENT PHASE</div>
I don't see any issues here. Deep strikes/reserves/whatever that happens at the start of the phase happens at the start of the phase, with players alternating bringing in their reserves. Then they alternate moving their units. The caveat probably has to be that a unit must finish everything it's going to do, can't think of a multi-mover, but I'm sure it's there. Should be fun, because you could actually block some movement, and need to think about being too close/too far away.<br />
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SHOOTING/PSYCHIC PHASE</div>
I would say these should remain separate, but since I lean on psychic shooting, it would make it really unfair for any psyker-heavy army to have it's own phase. Besides, what's the big deal about these occurring at the same time? It will make some real mind games, waiting for your opponent to turbo-boost into position to hit with mind bullets, running guys out of range of psychic shrieks. It would also be great to just blow that psyker off the table before he gets around to dropping his brain lazer.<br />
I'm thinking having a deny pool and a cast pool will be the beta test, and try running just a common pool, though again, that seems to buff psychic-heavy armies.<br />
Thinking of myself and eldar, since I see that a lot, the biggest thing would be that turbo-boosting/running ends that unit's ability to act in the shooting phase. So no hurtling across the board to blow up some rear armor. And that again, a unit that can run/shoot has to do them both at the same time. A unit has to fire all it's guns it's going to - no going back for that lone melta.<br />
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ASSAULT PHASE</div>
I think this will be really fun. It will make assaults more powerful, because you might have both moved towards each other, but you better choose your most important charge first. Cause you're getting counter-charged, suckah! I believe the BRB says jetpack movement happens at the end of the assault phase, so that takes care of that. If it doesn't, it does now.<br />
<br />
So to summarize:<br />
In each phase, you activate units until you pass, or have no more units to activate. You may "null" activate, which would mean, for example, activating a unit then not moving it. You may only activate a unit once a phase, unless it is a psyker psykering. <br />
Movement: <br />
Players alternate activating a unit then moving it.<br />
If a unit gets multiple actions in the movement phase, they must all be accomplished in the same activation. <br />
Shooting/Psychic Phase<br />
Players alternate activating a unit, then shooting/using a psychic power/flat-out/run/turbo-boost. <br />
A unit that can run and shoot must do both in it's activation.<br />
Psykers can be activated multiple times, up to their maximum number of powers, and with their unit an additional time to shoot. <br />
Turbo-boosting/running ends a psykers ability to activate psychic powers.<br />
Players have a "denial pool" and a "casting pool" of dice. The "denial pool" is used to deny powers. The "casting pool" is used to cast powers. <br />
Assault<br />
Players alternate activating a unit then assaulting with it.<br />
Jetpack/jetbike movement occurs at the end of the assault phase, after all assaults have been resolved.<br />
<br />
Soooooo internet...why am I dumb? What are the obvious game-breaking rules that I missed? Why can't this work and be totally fun? I'm thinking we'll break out the poker chips, get ready for some frothy arguments, and I'll report back once we got our games on.<br />
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<br />ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-74087999481407841352015-05-19T18:11:00.000-07:002015-05-19T18:11:14.389-07:00Time for War: CW Eldar v. Daemons<div style="text-align: center;">
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Deep within the fortress-yomamasteries of the planet Saddius Prime, there was heard a wailing. It was one of pain, of loss, of yearning. The Vaginus Custodes regarded the crying ones with eyes of metal that could not shed tears. "It's not fair!" The broken ones cried. "It's not fair!" Was it a fresh cry, or an echo among the endless corridors? Outside, a Whambulance tore through the atmosphere, weighted with those who could not wage war. They would find a dusty end here. Within this forgotten planet, all those who had too much bitch in them would forever decry the war. Outside, the war would continue.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Well, I figured I had to ACTUALLY play a game to see if scatspam was ACTUALLY the end of the world. Things move slow in the warp, and it usually takes a while for things to spin up. I rolled a game this week and have another one planned next week against these hated space elves. It's easy to get caught up in theoryhammer, mathhammer, nailhammer, etc., and never get around to seeing how the dice lay.<br />
Primarily, I have been running the summon factory as a summon factory, dedicated to pumping out daemonettes like a welfare mother and seeker chariots like American automakers. That's been working okish for me, but wasn't providing the real pain-train I want. Really, I would shit out a bunch of daemons, they would die, and then my original army would try to do some work. Or my opponent's army would be not that great, and I would think, boy, daemonettes are awesome.<br />
Getting mad about scatspam made me suddenly realize I have a ton of S6 shooting, and getting mad about D made me realize I have a lot of high strength AP1/2 shooting. I just wasn't using it. If I can remove my opponent's ability to wage war, then I can remove their ability to destroy me. Duh. So if they can erase my summoned units, I need to erase the things that can erase before I summon anything. Standard eraser-causal-inference loop.<br />
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So my approach to this was - remove the things that menace my summoned units before I bother to summon. Have impossible to kill pinks hold the line until my screamers come in, laden with mind bullets, in a tactically superior position. Basically, I decided to play drop pod assault. Really, bear with me. If each Tzerald has bolt of change and flickering fires, I have the equivalent of three autocannons(average) and a plasma cannon. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. Eight screamers produce 8d3 slashing attacks, IE 12 S4 hits, IE exactly what you would expect 9 bolters rapid firing to produce. The difference is I have invulnerable and cover saves and go wherever I want instead of sitting on an objective and dying, and can spread all my attacks around. My assault starts on the second turn, and the comparison breaks down once ravening claw-girls start tearing through the warp on turn three.<br />
Enough talking, on to hitting!<br />
<br />
CW Eldar - <br />
LOW - Lynx<br />
CAD Eldar - <br />
Farseer (ML3, all that elf psychic gear)<br />
6x Windrider w/ Scatter Laser<br />
6x Windrider w/ Scatter Laser<br />
6x Windrider w/ Scatter Laser<br />
6x Windrider w/ Scatter Laser<br />
Seer Council Formation -<br />
Farseer (ML3, more brain gems)<br />
Farseer(ML3, bedazzled cerebellum)<br />
7x Warlock<br />
Skyshield Landing Pad<br />
This is Clayton's first game with the new codex. It's quite close to the list he took 27th at the LVO with, with Scatter Bikes instead of Wave Serpents. This is at least our fifth game against each other, so he's pretty familiar with my tricks. Though we found out our hubris keeps us from learning some rather basic things about each other's armies.<br />
He got the -1 to reserve rolls warlord trait, pretty good against daemons. I think he got all the psychics he wanted, including the full buff tree for the council. His CAD farseer joined the Seer Council and the Lynx deployed on the skyshield.<br />
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Daemons -<br />
CAD Daemons - <br />
Tzerald, ML3, Disc, Locus of Conjuration, Exalted Reward (book) - Bolt, Possession, Cursed Earth<br />
Tzerald, ML3, Disc, Locus of Conjuration - Firestorm, Bolt of Change, Infernal Gateway<br />
Tzerald, ML3, Disc, Locus of Conjuration - Infernal Gaze, Cursed Earth, Firestrom<br />
Tzerald, ML3 - Infernal Gaze, Possession, Summoning<br />
Kairos Fateweaver - Endurance, Prescience, Sunburst, Psychic Shriek, Sacrifice<br />
17x Pink Horrors, Icon - Incursion<br />
17x Pink Horrors - Incursion<br />
8x Screamers<br />
8x Screamers<br />
8x Screamers<br />
Aegis Defense Line, Comms Relay<br />
Pretty standard screamerstar plus screamer very bright spots. What I've felt like is the competitive edge of daemons for quite some time. I've overcome my dislike of the Kairos tax and just learned to lean in.<br />
<br />
ITC Mission 1 - Emperor's Will<br />
Deployment - <br />
I placed my Aegis between two buildings in the center and put all my horrors behind it. They were visually screened to my left and right, and had the Aegis in front. Kairos wedged into a building where he couldn't be seen for at least two turns of moving and shooting on the jetbikes part. The foot herald is joined to the icon squad of horrors. The Disc Tzeralds and Screamers are reserved, one herald to a squad.<br />
Clayton put three scatsquads on the left side of the table; the lynx, shield, council and one group of bikes are placed on the right.<br />
I'm going first, Clayton fails to seize, no night fight.<br />
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Turn 1 - <br />
I cast sacrifice with Kairos to make a Tzerald with Cursed Earth and Possession. Then cast cursed earth and summon a unit of pinks to fill out the aegis.<br />
Clayton gave me the guns and buffed his seer council. He killed six pinks with their combined fury. Here was the first big better than serpents moment - without ignores cover derpa shields, my pinks are rock-hard with a 2+ re-rollable behind the aegis. The seer council boosted behind my lines and got ready to charge next turn.<br />
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Turn 2 - <br />
Everybody came in. My least valuable squad psychic-wise was the only one that got out of position to really reduce their damage potential. Kairos moved up with two squads of screamers to menace the left flank; one squad of screamers strikes on the icon to deal with the scatbikes on the right side.<br />
Bolts of Change, which we're playing do not offer a chance to jink because they don't target a unit, kill 3-4 bikes apiece, and flickering fires mop up the remainders. I throw some infernal gateways to force the rest of the bikes to jink. One squad dead on the left side and one weakened to three. The squad on the right is destroyed with screamer slashing attacks. All the screamers are far enough away from the council to not get caught in CC. In particular, one squad is on the skyshield saying hey to the Lynx.<br />
Clayton - The scat bikes bounce to the lower left corner where my objective is. Firing is ineffective. The Lynx goes supersonic and goes into reserves. The seer council multi-charges a squad of ObSec pinks and the summoned unit, wiping both after daemonic instability does it's thing. In the telling beginning of a pattern, a warlock is lost to blue horrors.<br />
<br />
Turn 3 - <br />
Two units of screamers consolidate onto the skyshield and, with Cursed earth, are rocking a 3++. Awesome. I book Kairos and drop him so he can turn around. Some innefective mind bullets occur. I run my summoned herald into the open and try to cast possession, fail with a perils.<br />
Clayton - The seer council smashes into the remaining unit of pinks, who somehow hold. The lynx comes back and fails to do anything impressive, along with the remaining scatter bikes. 3 screamers are lost to their ineffective fury. The CAD warlock separates from the council and gates over to the lynx. Six bikes are turned towards the lone, unpossessed herald with predictable results.<br />
<br />
Turn 4 - <br />
Kairos gets into position to toast the remaining scatter bikes, which he does with a heaping helping of mind bullets, shriek and bolt of change. The foot herald turns into a lord of change, and the locked pinks cast incursion. Literally 2/3 of my psychic phase goes through Kairos' brain, who also summons a Slerald w/ Seeker Chariot. Screamers strip 4 HP from the lynx.<br />
Clayton - The CAD warlock gates onto my objective, hanging out next to Kairos. The council moves towards the center and fails a charge against my booked, cursed earth screamer squad. Probably better for them, all told.<br />
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Turn 5 - <br />
Between a vector strike and mind bullets, the CAD farseer dies. At this point, it's just the seer council, and I've never gotten to punch one in the dick before, so I line up two squads of screamers and Kairos to light 'em up. They are as effective with 20+ dice as 34 blue horrors have been. Damn. I should have just charged them with the booked screamer squad, but instead just fart around and make some dubious moves trying to get good slashing attacks while grabbing the his objective. <br />
Clayton - Saves the greatest minds of his craftworld by flying off the board. Discretion, valour, all that.<br />
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Came in expecting to get my dick punched, and instead I did the punching. I'll never forgive GW for making me rework my tactics.<br />
ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-49080788748761762322015-05-07T22:17:00.001-07:002015-05-07T22:17:38.389-07:00Philosofelt - ITC Polls and the Favorite Child<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Erratic jerks of a servitor-harness scribed the last characters upon the last scroll of e-vellum. The poll was completed, a labor that consumed the attention of a score of Monastery worlds. Everywhere, the signs of a battle of words had left the victors scarred and haggard. Ink stains spread like blood upon the exposed skin of the tech-thralls. Here a scalding inkpot had tipped, a legion of paint mixers burned alive; the scribes ten feet away had not paused in their writing. The call for another reckoning had come too soon after the last great push for them to reset the mile-long printing wheels, to harvest the skins of a continent's worth of space sheep. But Reecius, commander of the ITC fleet, must take the counsel of each of his uncounted generals; the scribe-servitors must labor until they fall. Those who had survived the conflict of quill and eye strain did not pause to bury their acres of dead; for they knew that Space Marshal Rawdogger was bloated with opinion.<br />
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Coming barely two weeks after the initial ITC poll, interested tournament-goers have been asked to vote again on some immediate changes to deal with the unexpected codex supercreep of the Eldar. The questions were - should we nerf D weapons to deal less wounds/HP and not cause instant death, and should we limit the special weapons on Eldar Jetbikes to 1/3 instead of 1/1. Also, should we have a 2 or 3 detachment protocol for army construction, and how should we deal with CtA allies.<br />
I gave a hard yes on force limitation and D nerf. Previously, I had voted for a two detachment army composition. This time, in light of these changes, and still feeling the Eldar are quite powerful, I figured a three detachment setup would at least broaden the playing field and enable more variety of lists, which should help with generating more tactical possibilities. Highly focused power-gaming lists have a harder time competing the more potential counters are available.<br />
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I'm in favor of CtA allies that have been modeled to a theme. Some of the most impressive armies I saw at the LVO featured incredible mashups. People have been going wild with IKs, and they are a unique force multiplier that should reasonably be available to all forces. A fully modeled and painted CtA ally creates incredible board presence and shows a dedication that really defines the "Renaissance Man" ideal FLG has been rewarding, for a combination of great generalship and hobbying. <br />
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D weapons aren't too great a threat to a chaos player. We don't have a lot of multi-wound models, and have access to cheap and free units that make D shots really expensive autocannon equivalents. However, they are functionally tiresome to play against, and at worst fully invalidate many unit options across the board in their full-strength iterations. Blast D weapons typically just erase whatever they touch and remove tactical consideration in the face of certain destruction. When a game hinges on a few key, individual dice rolls, it makes the time investment of a game seem like a waste. They reduce the viability of vehicles and elite infantry and promote a bleary sameness in what can face them. How much more hopeless is the iconic wall of Vindicators when a troop of D-scythes ignores their stalwart armor?<br />
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The scatter bike swarm, which I hopefully just won't have to see, was ridiculous. Arguing for it is bound to come from a position of advantage (I.E. playing Eldar) because it was simply an egregious brain-typo from GW, same as the 6th edition Serpent Shield. As Abuse Puppy rightfully pointed out, scatter bikes were points-equivalent to a broadside for damage output, on the most mobile obsec unit in the game that brings a cover save with it. It doesn't create a new challenge, it creates a certainty. That it will remove fun.<br />
Reecius has given us an awesome <a href="http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2015/05/40k-tournaments-itc-policy-polls-philosophy.html" target="_blank">opinion piece</a> detailing the philosophy of the ITC polls and ruling systems and why he feels it is a just system. After reading it, I immediately thought, what if GW gave us a document like this? That explained from the viewpoint of the creators how they make decisions and what their design philosophy is? It's not going to happen of course....<br />
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<span style="color: black;">Let me get this right out there: I like the poll, and that my participation in ITC events makes me part of the poll group.</span>I feel that this removes a lot of the trolls and armchair generals from the sample group that we sometimes feel like dominate the online discussion. The voters are those who have invested their time and money into the competitive scene. Having a say in this organization that I have a vested interest in makes me feel like part of a community. However, there is no real possibility for most of the options that avoid a nerf or modification. I'd at most give them a lasgun wounding a Seer Council chance.</div>
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Let me get something else right out there - my parents bought my sister a horse when we were kids. I eventually got over it, but at the time I was pretty unhappy about her obvious material advantage over me. What if they had put it to a vote? Sister - For, Young Scumlord - Against. Well, half the interested parties are against it, it wouldn't be fair for her to have a horse. </div>
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How many armies are there? I'm to busy blogging to count. Lets say there's twenty, and Papa GW announces that the Eldar get four S6 AP4 assault shots out of one of the best units in the game. As many as they damn well please. Nobody else gets anything. If the armies all vote, even if four of them other than the Eldar might get to use those shots, then the other fifteen will vote against them getting something while the fifteen get nothing. Voting, acting in self-interest is a basic human instinct. THE HORSE IS SCATTERBIKES and to a lesser extent plentiful ranged D.</div>
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So while I don't feel that the poll is an effective tool in determining issues like 2++ re-rollables, Invisibility and Horses, it's a great tool for things like detachment limitations, how the missions are scored, mission variations. And I trust the FLG staff and their super-group of high-powered bloggers to fairly debate the ridiculous high points of power that homogenize army composition. In this case, I prefer the absolute power of the enlightened monarch advised by parliament over the roaring of the masses. If a new daemon codex, for instance, gave an automatic Grimoire 2++ instead of the die roll, would you, my scions of the Ruinous Powers, vote it down? </div>
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Us Chaos Kids can't have our 360 degree torrent baleflamers. That was in a FAQ because somebody at GW got butthurt when they finally played a game against them. We can't wait for those masters of buggery, the English, to work up to getting butthurt by a squadron of cheap bullshit. Our less-violated arseholes have to get good and hurt just at the thought of that rodding. As Reecius says, it's better to FAQ a glaring funsink before we become dependent on it, before the models are painted, and before bad will starts bubbling through a few unhappy tournaments. It's business, the business of playing that the ITC is in as opposed to the business of creation that GW is in. People who feel like they can participate in an event will come again, while those picking up 1/3 of their army on the first turn won't.</div>
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It's great to see transparency in motive and a continued effort by the ITC to make the game rewarding to play. When it comes to the most powerful units and combos, hell, I can't keep it in my pants. I need the law to stop me before I start waving it in everyone's face. So I don't blame anyone who wants to bring really powerful lists - I want to play against them. The game has always been about describing what your units do, and your opponent saying, "That's BROKEN!" Then they describe what their units do, and you say the same thing. But we're facing an obvious break of the power curve that makes those cursed space elves the fat kid on this precarious teeter-totter of fun-game-imbalance. Vote wise, vote selfish, cursed majority.</div>
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ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-48277966734675832482015-04-24T11:57:00.000-07:002015-04-24T11:57:00.989-07:00Philosifelt - Codex Craftworlds Eldar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The rumor mill is shooting out hunks of bone and gristle, coating the onlookers faces with a torrent of gore. So it goes, a terror unlike we have ever seen before. Well, I'm lying, it's mostly the same terror, it's just a little more terrible. I'm talking about the new Eldar Codex of course. It's not out yet, but the rumors for the last <em>N</em> books have been correct, so we'll assume these are as well. And it doesn't look good for the game at large.<br />
We're going to solve a mystery - the prime suspects are US and GW. We'll ask <em>what's</em> the point, <em>where </em>it started, <em>who</em> we're going to be annoyed at, and <em>when </em>this pain train will end.<br />
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You can get the rumor rundown somewhere else - I assume if you're here you're deep enough in this niche to already have read the list on a forum or competing blog. I'm going to assume that everything will play out as rumored. So what's the problem?<br />
Scatter Bikes/Shuriken Cannon Bikes - People are getting mad about straight scatter spam, though I think we'll see a mix of them for the pseudo-rending on the SC. These things are straight-up unprecedented and emblematic of what the bull is. The best troop in the game can have as many heavy weapons as they want, and they're relentless, with a threat range of 48"? 27 points apiece? F'ing ridiculous. Assault can't do anything against this. <br />
Lets assume somebody brings the much-feared 1080 points of scatter bikes, and I bring my double wing screamer star (2x 8 screamers w/ 2 tzeralds on disks), a brutally durable unit. Assuming one round of shooting - 160 * 2/3(hits from shooting) * 5/6 (S6 V T4) * 5/12 (4+ jink re-roll 1's) = 37 wounds. I am left with one and a half tzeralds from THE FIRST ROUND OF SHOOTING. That is the heart of my army, and there is literally no way to hide them on any board I've ever played.<br />
This is really the same problem as serpent spam was, only a little more terrifying in damage output. At least, indeed, there aren't two obsec units for the same price point as 5 scatter bikes. But what can really stand against this terror? Remember, S6 kills almost everything, and their threat range is the board. Sucks.<br />
This is simply the most obvious and egregious standout from this new book. The seer council, always a brutally powerful unit, is even better with a free boost to WC. Great. All the aspects are awesome, and everybody has weird tricks. The formations rule. The Wraithknight lost it's big weakness to poison and now stomps and is gargantuan. And the D is everywhere.<br />
So, rant over, back to the mystery. <br />
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<em>Who </em>is responsible? Well, the author, primarily. And the culture of fanboyism inside of GW that demands that the Eldar and only the Eldar get to fit their fluff. But I think WE are responsible more than anything. GW seems dedicated to making their most vocal fanbase angry, and to kill the "competitive" scene. As there's a resurgence in interest in the game, with tournaments selling out and third-party websites like frontline and this lovely blog talking about the game, they lose control of their precious information stream. What better way to kill us than to make our game unplayable? And if, in the process, they sell thousands of jetbike kits, it's a win-win for them.<br />
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<em>Where</em> did it start? It really started with the release of seventh edition, when the unbound rules and maelstrom missions forced the competitive community to come up with it's own systems. There's a nascent feeling in the community that we should be playing to the letter of the books, and you absolutely can't compete and have fun with unbound. WAAC demands a slew of WKs and Transcendent C'tans. So many were lost when even moderate FAQ/mission systems were developed by FLG and NOVA. Our overall resistance to balancing FAQs and comp missions is truly the place where it started - a place inside of us that feels like we're ruining the game by changing the broken rules and systems.<br />
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<em>When </em>will it end? Probably never. Overcoming total BS(not ballistic skill) in the systems, beyond some small house rules, is not in the cards. Think about it - it's hard to let your opponent re-roll that 1 on the DS mishap table. Because it's in the rules, and it benefits you. Every codex comes with a few obviously broken things, and we willfully exploit them. If our overall TO's (FLG on the west coast/NOVA on the east coast/somebody in Britain) would make some more broad-reaching FAQs, and I mean the ones that GW should but won't write, then we could at least shave down the brutal, exploitable aspects that rise again and again. It's really not fun to see White Scars, Fiverant, Seer Councils, Leaf Blowers win again and again. But for some reason it's preferable to have this bland repetition rather than saying, "ok, now we see that these things are really broken, let's change them a little bit, and see what's really broken now." It would be more fun for the community, because we would have unknown quantities to chase. We're about a year of tournaments away from a balanced, fun game that is never going to happen.<br />
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<em>What's </em>the point? I seriously don't know. I've always struggled against even the most basic Eldar builds. They're cheap, and don't require any real tactics. They can just blow you off the board. I don't like the idea of my 4+ years of experience being slapped by a total n00b because their codex can shunt out all the firepower in the world. I don't like my CSM being utterly useless. I really don't like feeling like my friends are better generals than me because of what's in their case.s It stretches to the whole, imbalanced game. But the Eldar have the shotgun in the R/P/S game, and it has never been fun for me.<br />
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Mystery solved? Nope. We're all guilty of why the game needs to broken to such an extent. GW wants control, we want to play outside that control. I'm going to play it out and see how it happens, but I don't see how mathhammer can not accurately represent the utter hopelessness of what I have to work with here. I'm going to run at least four games with the hardest cheese my friends can come out with after Tzeentch Daemonkin arrives. If I don't feel like I can compete, then I'm not going to.<br />
It sucks because I really enjoyed the BAO and LVO. But I felt like I had a chance there. I don't feel like I have a chance against this new book; honestly, I feel like I'm going to get tabled quite often. And that's seriously not fun. <br />
How do we still win? I'm going to make a pledge I want ya'll to join me in - not one more dollar. GW doesn't care about us, so we can stop supporting them (and not get off the plastic crack). You can get all your codices on KAT.PH from user: bran stark. You can get all your models from many resellers. Look up recaster threads on Dakka for who's selling models for 1/2 price. And stay bitter friends. Stay bitter.<br />
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ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-19374368130000359482015-04-08T10:27:00.001-07:002015-04-08T10:27:13.008-07:00Read a Book: Khorne Daemonkin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Judging by the number of bicep tattoos I've seen, Khorne is the most popular of the chaos gods. <br />
Judging by the number of models I've seen on the table, Khorne is the least popular of the chaos gods. <br />
And now here I am, judging Khorne. I'll be up front - I've played a lot of CSM and a lot of Daemons, but I ain't never fielded no Khorne. However, I understand how an assault army works, and guess what? The most predictable god likes to smash lots of bodies into the opponent.<br />
Today we'll be looking at what the codex adds (and doesn't add), what seem to be the standouts, and some sample lists.<br />
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First off, the bad news: these are the same stat lines and point costs from the CSM and Daemons books. Daemons have lost Daemonic Instability and gained fearless, which is great. This means Heralds/Lords can join marines/daemons. But it also means that we shouldn't be expecting a new CSM book in our lifetimes, or at least not one that addresses the overall low-tier quality of the CSM book. It also points to no update to the daemon codex, which is good for those of us who play daemons and bad for those that don't.<br />
Errata - CSM MoK now gives counter-attack, which is great. There are three varieties of Bloodthirster, which is pretty cool. One has a D strength ax, which is awesome! Rhinos are fast attack choices. The mutation chart is gone, but all character must accept/declare challenges.<br />
The major new special rule that Daemonkin adds is Blood for the Blood God! and the associated blood tithe table. Yes, this is the first special rule with an exclamation point. Whenever a unit containing at least one model with BFTBG! is completely destroyed and/or a character with BFTBG! is destroyed, you gain a blood point. So yes, an independent character dying is worth two blood tithe points, <br />
The blood tithe table cashes these points. It gives some buffs that get better the more you spend on it, topping out at sacrificing a CSM character to summon a bloodthirster or daemon prince. However, since it will probably be at least turn three before you could get a free bloodthirster for eight blood tithe points, and he can't assault before turn 5 in that case (you cash these points at the start of the turn, it arrives swooping, can't change flight modes first turn, can't assault when it changes modes), you'll probably be better off using the 2, 3 & 4 point options (note: these only affect units with BFTBG! so any allied units from CSM/Daemons cannot benefit). Two points gives your Daemon units Rage to supplement their furious charge, and your CSM units furious charge to supplement their rage. Three points gives everybody FNP. Four points adds one to everybody's attacks. Pretty awesome, and, if timed right, can totally swing a game. 5 & 6 give you bloodletters, flesh hounds, skull cannons, bloodcrushers. Again, not going to come in early enough to swing the game, especially when you can get their worth in attacks or units survived from lesser investments.<br />
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A big change to army composition lately is the "Decurion," so named of course because Necrons did it first. Here, it's the "Blood Host Detachment." These are basically flow charts or choose-your-own adventure army composition. You have some mandatories at the top, then some optionals at the bottom. In the BHD, they are led by a Bloodthirster (flavor of your choice(optional)). Then you MUST take a slaughter cult, Then you can choose 1-8 of the formations and/or "War Engines." The big benefit from taking this is you generate an additional blood tithe point every turn, before you spend them. It also makes the army battle-forged, which gives all your formation troop tax ObSec.<br />
The formations are:<br />
Slaughter Cult - HQ(not special bloodthirster), 2-8 marines/letters/zerkers, 1-4 possessed, 0-2 cultists, 0-2 spawn. The possessed tax sucks, but you can destroy your cultists if they fail morale (to get blood tithe points, deny maelstrom missions), and <br />
Brazen Onslaught - 1-4 terminators, 2-4 bloodcrushers. At least they put two of the worst units for in the same formation. Basically they get rampage. Just no.<br />
Khorne's Bloodstorm - 2-4 raptors, 1-4 warp talons, 0-1 heldrake. Add +1 to HoW or Vector Strikes. Again, overcosted, poor performing units except the Heldrake.<br />
Gorepack - 2-4 Bikers, 1-4 flesh hounds. Hounds get HoW, bikers get shred on HoW, everybody gets Preferred Enemy(psykers) and Move Through Cover. Hell to the double yes. I love some flesh hounds, and chaos bikers have needed MtC for a long time. This will definitely see some competitive play as a MSU formation. I would probably add it to my current daemons list by removing a few screamers to get two packs of minimum strength bikes and to add fearless hounds. I've lost too many to instability! Since the hounds typically do some serious murder, I could conceivably pull an additional summon off of blood tithe points.<br />
Charnel Cohort - 1 HQ(not DP/BT), 2-8 letters, 1-4 hounds, 1-4 bloodcrushers, 0-4 skull cannons. The HQ re-rolls reserves and units from the formation don't scatter within 6" of it. -2 to fear checks in the 1/10 games a unit takes a fear check. Counter-Attack. CA is awesome, but the bloodcrusher tax sucks, and it's easy to have a bubble wrap of cultists or hounds if you are going to soak a charge. In fact, just pay for the wrap instead of the crushers. <br />
War Engines - Maulerfiend, Forgefiend, Soul Grinder, Defiler. I don't have any maulerfiends, but every single battle report says they die the first turn. I'm sure if you had four of them, one or two might survive to die the second turn. For my money, it's all about soul grinders with baleful torrent. Seriously, there are few armies that could stand against eight of these monsters. More seriously, there are fewer people who have eight soul grinders.<br />
Wargear -<br />
Some real stinkers, and some real standouts, as we have come to expect.<br />
Icons of Wrath - add 1 to assault results. Gives your CSM furious charge and a re-roll on charge range. A must buy for 'zerkers and CSM. Basically a 20 point tax. Tax is annoying.<br />
Banner of Blood - add 1 to assault results. Gives your 'letters a 6+d6" charge. Basically a 20 point tax. See above.<br />
Goredrinker - S +1 AP 2 unwieldy. Gets more powerful the more the bearer wounds, topping out at S10 instant death at eight wounds. Could be paired with a power weapon to make sure he don't die to massed assholes.<br />
Blood Forged Armor - 3+ armor, FNP, Eternal Warrior. Pretty cool for a lord, might work on a herald but they only have two wounds. Probably put him on a juggernaut, but then he gets a bit pricey. A lord on a bike or juggernaut with this would be truly worthy of his attentions!<br />
Blade of Endless Bloodshed - power weapon that adds a blood tithe point if the bearer inflicted any <br />
casualties.<br />
Kor'Lath - S user AP2 not unwieldy! Instant death on a six, and you get a free bloodthirster if the bearer dies! Well, it loses d3 wounds a turn (++ allowed) but still super awesome!<br />
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Pretty solid codex overall. I hope this points to more cult marine releases. Khorne was definitely not viable before this, and I can see them winning some games, even some really competitive games now. Fearless daemons is big, because you can still lose combats, especially multi-assaults, and then get punished by the dice gods. This book takes that out, as well as the annoying warp storm table and random rewards. There's plentiful FnP for these blood-crazed madmen across the board, though I feel the CSM side is still quite weak and basically a tax for the superior daemons. The book has no place in it's special detachments for IA13 vehicles, which is a shame, and a CAD would really be wasting the strength of the book which is the Blood Host Detachment. The blood tithe table is clever and fluffy while still looking to be effective, a real accomplishment for GW.<br />
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<br />
Some list ideas - <br />
<br />
Just a Gorepack 1845 -<br />
Chaos Bikes x3, PF, 2x Melta<br />
Chaos Bikes x3, PF, 2x Melta<br />
Chaos Bikes x3, PF, 2x Melta<br />
Chaos Bikes x3, PF, 2x Melta<br />
20 Flesh Hounds<br />
20 Flesh Hounds<br />
20 Flesh Hounds<br />
20 Flesh Hounds<br />
Total board denial with those 50mm flesh hounds (as based in the book). The bikes will probably die before they deal with what they're there for, but any army will have a hell of a time chewing through these 172 wounds. Will (maybe) lose to knights, will have a good chance against anything else. Remember, flesh hounds scout and are fleet.<br />
<br />
Grind! ~1850, battlescribe is sometimes difficult<br />
Blood Host Detachment<br />
Slaughtercult -<br />
Herald of Khorne, Goredrinker, Locus of Fury, Juggernaut<br />
20x Bloodletters, Banner of Blood<br />
8x Bloodletters<br />
5x Possessed, Rhino<br />
War Engines - <br />
Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent<br />
Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent<br />
Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent<br />
Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent<br />
Soul Grinder, Baleful Torrent<br />
Allied CSM<br />
Chaos Lord, Power Weapon<br />
10x Cultists<br />
Spartan Assault Vehicle, Ceramite Plating, Legacy of Ruin that gives Khorne Daemons +1 invulnerable within 6"<br />
<br />
This would actually be brutal. A wall of five grinders with a 4++ giving the Spartan a hull down as they flame and dakka their enemies. Then 60 S5 AP3 attacks plus the herald's hate when it disgorges. This would give any enemy a real headache. The possessed, small squad of letters, and cultists hang out in back and earn the blood god's eternal scorn. Or maybe they brought something to kill. Also will completely fill your deployment zone.<br />
<br />
That's all I got, I might try a go at this grinding list and see how it shakes out. Anybody out there used this yet? Jazzed about the new doctorate in Khornology?ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-26597642649767357992015-03-11T16:03:00.002-07:002015-03-11T16:03:53.977-07:00Season of the Carnifex - Kraxxus Evacuation Protocol<div style="text-align: center;">
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Amidst the din of chaos consuming the moons of Phalanx, A distress call is heard from one of the larger moons. Kraxxus is under siege! Though the message is difficult to make out, it appears that the mining operation on Kraxxus has uncovered some strange xenos archeotech that has reactivated itself and is potentially sending its own distress beacon.<br />
Not far away in Erinyes Nebula, alien eyes descend upon the source of the beacon, soon thereafter followed by the silent wake of their sleek starships.<br />
Just as the attacking forces start to arrive at the battlefield, the defenders erect a forcefield cutting off a portion of the attacking forces. Likewise, the defender has dedicated a portion of their force to facilitate evacuation while the rest remain behind to buy them time and recover the archeotech data.<br />
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I was chomping to play some big bad bugs this week, so our warmaster did the traditional move in a narrative setting - generate a contrivance that allows all the factions in 40k to show up. It ain't hard mind you, but it's always silly when you try to justify why everybody is there ready to throw down. We have tyranid bio-research labs, a necron tomb world, the Eldar show up just because - well, hopefully, the Eldar fuck off for the whole season. Orks will, I suppose, just Ork on over because we're brawling.<br />
We have a club Tyranid army that was thankfully left by a friend of ours after the warp storm table destroyed his desire to play forever. Seriously - two games, two first turn 11's, two failed leadership tests. First blood, slay the warlord, 300 points gone. But the legacy remains. Because I ruined his game, I'll at least use his miniatures.<br />
My List for the Week (unbound):<br />
<br />
Endless Swarm<br />
3x 18x Hormagaunts, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs<br />
2x 17x Termagaunts, Fleshborer<br />
3x Warriors, Devourers<br />
<br />
Swarmlord<br />
4x Hive Guard, Impact Cannons<br />
2x Trygon Prime<br />
2x 3x Venomthrope Brood<br />
<br />
The twist this game is that there is an attacker and a defender. The attacker has 500 points extra, but has to destroy the force field objective or his units entering from reserve die on a 1-3. The defender scores secondary points from holding objectives, the attacker from destroying them. It actually seemed pretty fair, and we had some good games. I wiffed my second because I thought I didn't get my extra 500 until I took down the force field, and I kept killing hormagaunts on the field, and the primary is purge the alien. I took the first through ballsy reserve antics, eventually tabling my opponent despite the force field taking me down more than 500 points. Give it a try, it was fun:<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2FffKNu2uAEXzd0X2s0cHVwWnM/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2FffKNu2uAEXzd0X2s0cHVwWnM/view?usp=sharing</a><br />
My list in the first game involved a flyrant w/ 2x devourer w/ brainleech worms. I had to take him out for the second game, and he won't be returning in this season. They're just too meta to take in a friendly game session. I should give anyone who brings really meta stuff a hard time - though I don't know what those are, and everybody is bringing fun stuff so far. Our IG player brought chimera rush/russ wall, which was awesome to see. He's been spamming WKs and WSs for so long it was a pleasure to see his first love on the table.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUGJPxBdPfDEr0KmoQ7SSMS_P1O7idNeuE7YJwxUDOmbVC87tBW39w6aT5AQNn63kTSQJQSXCOFq9ALlqtSVeQHEJboRdcs2yx_WHtp_f0poPZDeHlM9o46Mi6e4A2lSDR68pkgVmeH3x/s1600/IMG_1111%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
Funny story, actually, he was able to field that much armor because he raped a friend out of the game quite a while ago. First time playing IG against Wraith Knights, Dawson decided that the game was bullshit and he wanted out. So Hagen bought him out for cents on the dollar, he turned that money into some orks that were lying around the garage, and two tables held the legacy of unfair codex creep today, with the rapists gleefully playing with their unfairly begotten gains. Friendly games built upon a legacy of pain. You just can't escape the grimdark.<br />
So Tyranids beat Minotaurs, Astra Militarum beat Blood Angels, Sons of Medusa beat Tyranids, Blood Angels beat Tau. Hopefully next week we'll upgrade to triple table, this season is generating a lot more interest since everyone has more of a fighting chance and we can bring all our cool stuff.<br />
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***</div>
It seemed as though Kraxxus itself was in pain. From all directions the wail of alarm klaxons and air raid sirens sounded. Every mechanical mouth upon the innumerable bastions across the surface screaming. The residents of the moon are woken by the sound from unquiet dreams into a true nightmare. <br />
PDF soldiers run everywhere, identifying key personnel and hustling them towards waiting ships. Those who can be easily replaced are formed into hurried conscript squads, given antique lasguns, and told to hold for reinforcements. The Emperor does not lie, but his servants may.<br />
The planet is lost, the traitor is landed, the xenos is come. It is possible to escape this terror, but the galaxy is rent by war. There is always another terror, for they lurk between the stars.<br />
Eyes craned towards the sky, the bronze-armored Minotaurs man their AA guns and wait. But the terror comes from beneath, the scythe-mawed worms erupting from beneath them, innumerable ravenous bodies spilling from the wound in the soil of Kraxxus. The wrath of bolter-shell can hold them back, but eventually the clips run dry, and the stream of flesh from the burrow-holes is ceaseless. All who fought that day are lost, their precious gene-seed turned into food for the xenos.<br />
Upon the same battlefield not hours later, the husk-armor of the minotaurs is found by a Blood Angels strike force. Driven into rage, they hurl themselves against the nearest foes, the last armored column of the PDF upon the moon. Their wrath is ill spent, for as they fly towards those metal walls, they are cut down to a man.<br />
The Sons of Medusa come then, hungry for vengeance, two of their ancient dead walking with them, a column of Astartes armor backing them. They meet the xenos with a wrath worthy of a Primarch, denying their advance again and again. The great machine-affinity they hold modulates the force field so it hums with the twisted life-force of the xenos, making their tiny brains burst as they trample forward.<br />
This world was already lost, let the records show. For the blue-skinned xenos had established themselves and their insidious creed upon Kraxxus. The people's minds were poisoned already. Let none remain. The Blood Angels, limping from their defeat at the hands of the PDF, fall upon the Tau with a fury that leaves none alive.<br />
The world burns, but there are none present to exact exterminates. The Astartes ships destroy what they can from orbit, some of the pulsing hive-mounds shattered in pulpy showers of chitin and blood. But they will rebuild. The last flashes of resistance are soon extinguished; Kraxxus is lost.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-28444607980112006192015-03-06T20:15:00.001-08:002015-03-06T20:15:46.608-08:00Season of the Carnifex - The Secrets of Tetragon 38<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Between the warp and the divine is the Imperium of Man, that stretches across the breadth of the galaxy. Between two sides of the war that tear at the Imperium is the Segmentum Obscura, which contains much that is uncharted. Between two swathes of primal nebulae that gyre within that unknown, the Kailon Peninsula crouches silent. Between the systems Ossirius and Clotho within that cluster of stars, the void flares.<br />
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<br /> The jagged tip of the echelon that emerges as reality gives way is the Carnifex Daemon, warp-twisted flagship of Sisyphus Cretidae, long ago of the Raven Guard, now a scion of the ruinous powers. It is flanked by the putrescent Slanniton, the sleek Devourer Compleat, the rusted Voracrux Indon. Smaller cruisers and escort craft blink into being around them, displaying the banners and sigils of those sons of the Emperor that have fallen, each of the hundred ships a note in a discordant symphony of betrayal.<br /> Slowly across the void, the fleet pulses towards the system numbered in the vaults of Terra as Gruul. There a hundred billion souls strive across the twin Eden-class worlds Gruul Prime and Gruul Zeta. Two dozen craft shaped like swift fish spill from the Voracrux Indon, blue plasma drives tearing across the black of space, towards a yellow star at the very tip of the Kailon Peninsula. There a massive gas giant, a failed star, twists an elliptical in the procession of eons, it's only companions the bleak stone moons that circle it.<br />* * *<br /> "Praise the light of the Astronamican, we come here as our fallen brothers are still but silhouettes againsts the light of distant stars," Admiral-Captain Phan exclaims. The finest of the Adeptus Astartes stand before him, armored in bronze and crimson, green and azure. Mere humans bearing the winged deaths-head upon their epaulets scurry like insects beneath the gaze of the ceramite-clad demigods. Hundreds crowd the bridge before them as the command display that circles the room updates in a scream of holo-runes.<br /> "Is that -" the captain of the Minotaurs begins as the first true-light images blink before them, his voice hard.<br /> "- the Planet Killer?" the vox-casters of the Blood Angel captain finish, the mechanical voice somehow breathless.<br /> "I saw it scarred in the defence of Bellox, scars that could never be healed in the Eye of Terror," Admiral-Captain Phan offers. "Though it's aspect gives equal threat."<br /> "Main forces forecast intercept Gruul fourteen days three hours standard terran," a human lieutenant reports. "Multiple expeditionary craft forecast intercept Tetragon 38 seventeen hours five minutes. Total fleet strength fourteen battle cruisers, four grand cruisers, 88 cruisers, eleven light cruisers. Apocalypse, Oberon, Nemesis battleships. One ship, unknown class. " She snapped a salute and scurried away from the eyes of the god-men that regarded her.<br /> "Our priority is the main fleet. The hive-worlds of Gruul are vital assets," the Dark Angel intoned from a cowl-shadowed face. "They look to us for protection."<br /> "Agreed. But we must foil all of what they desire here. Each of you will commit an intercept and control force for whatever assets they seek within Tetragon 38," Admiral Captian Phan ordered. </div>
***<br />
It's been a long hard road to the LVO, and honestly, we're a little sick of the whole thing. It's been cut-throat and FLG missions for months and months, and if I see one more Wave Serpent, I might just quit the hobby. So we're moving into casual mode until BAO training starts, three months of fun games, easy dice, and not a daemon summoned from these hot hands. Each week a new warmaster of wackiness will take the reins. Their duties are to make a custom mission, write some terrible fan-fic about the ongoing battle, and make the game really fun. Your friendly neighborhood blogger pulled first week.<br />
My mission was inspired from "The Glorious Tomb," the f'ing amazing audio drama we've all been listening to from the POV of a dreadnaught. We all have these iconic badasses sitting on our shelves gathering dust. Because they suck brutally in the game, I've never felt they were worth it, or when I brought them, they proved me right. My main special rule was "Glorious Tombs," giving all DNs +1 front AV and IWND. Each player had to bring a minimum of three DNs, no IKs, maximum one non-walker vehicle. All vehicles have objective secured.<br />
If you'd like to try a round, Regiment Commander Neymanus made a FLG-style mission sheet -<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2FffKNu2uAEbWhiTmszY2plR0k/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2FffKNu2uAEbWhiTmszY2plR0k/view?usp=sharing</a><br />
And they were awesome. A harder to kill regular DN suddenly became survivable, and the AV14 Furiosos wrecked house. Blood Angels were the big winners, beating my CSM and a raven guard player. The Minotaurs brought 12! 12! So cool. They tabled me and I've never had such a good time getting my ass kicked.<br />
<br />
My List:<br />
2x Helcult Formation - HB w/ TL LC, PF + HF, 2x 30 Cultists<br />
HB w/ TL LC<br />
4x Termis w/ Combi-Plas, 3x Chainfist, 1x powerfist<br />
4x Termis w/ Combi-Plas, 3x Chainfist, 1x powerfist<br />
Biker Lord w/ Mark of Nurgle, PF, LC, 4++ iron halo whatever chaos thing.<br />
<br />
Boy this was the wrong list to bring. The termis killed one DN and then died. The cultists couldn't reach the dreadnaughts to tarpit them. But it was fun, and fluffy, because they came to Tetragon 38 to die.<br />
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Cultists descend up the death company and the chaplain that leads them. Their god-machine struck down, I got to roll 132 attacks with hatred! </div>
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The ranks of cultists stretch into the background. Soon they will be crushed against the iron wall of minotaur dreadnaughts.<br />
***<br />
In the thousands they came to Tetragon 38. Spilling forth from crude ships that would never break the meagre gravity of the tiny moon, they came to die. Blood-mad, ravening, endless voices raised to the praise of the machine-men that towered above them, those blasphemous monsters that were a twisted reflection of the hallowed tombs of the Imperium's living dead.<br /> The stalwart Minotaurs met them with flame and bolt; the sons of Sanguinius found them wanting <span class="text_exposed_show">in the crush of close combat. Their leaders and god-idols were soon dead. They pushed mindlessly forward then, breaking against the ceramite bulwarks of machine and man.<br /> Helpless without their objects of worship against the dreadnoughts, it was many rotations of the moon before they were purged; but they were purged to nothing. The laboratories upon the moon were plundered by the forces of the Emperor.<br /> The great shadowed threat had been studied here, the nightmares in chitin that were spoken of in breathless whispers. The makers of husk-worlds had been captured and flayed, stripped by geneticist-servitors to find the secrets of their flesh. So little progress had been made, and less remained amidst the pyres of the dead, but enough remained.<br /> The labs were bombed from orbit, the bare rock of the moon the final enemy the Imperium would fight here. Explosives that could sunder a fortress tore the land apart, a thousand years of geologic calamity rendered in the span of heartbeats. Confident the great enemy had been foiled, the bronze and crimson ships departed.<br /> The great fields of dead laid silent. Flesh carved in the symbols of the deceiver-gods laid impotent. A grave-world now.<br /> Amidst the shattered rocks, black ichor ran. Where it pooled, it thrashed and bubbled. Small creatures soon emerged, running on many legs towards the dead. They feasted upon the flesh of chaos, their mouths ceaseless, segmented tails shitting a steady stream of black ichor as they twisted through the cursed flesh.<br /> The pools widened, the moon alive with a low din of tiny snapping jaws. When all the dead had been consumed, the pools hardened, becoming twisted spires of stark bone and sickly purple flesh. These organic towers spat with spasms that shook the ground, lofting spores past the atmosphere, out into the dark space beyond. There were many moons around the gas giant phalanx; the spores drifted hungrily towards them.</span>ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-17361901968302460952015-02-24T14:15:00.001-08:002015-02-24T14:15:58.235-08:00Battle Reports - LVO 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just back from Vegas where the Daemons large and small failed to rampage properly. I came in 78th, far from the top tables, but was happy to see both Daemons and CSM reach the top tables. You can always get validation through association if you can't get it personally. I lost my first and last games, and got honestly middling scores throughout the tournament. Everyone was playing MUCH harder than they were at the BAO, with a litany of great opponents, beautiful armies and good sportsmanship humming in my ear. Battle-by-battle after the jump.<br />
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First off, my list - <br />
3x ML3 Disc Tzeralds - One with greater locus, one with greater reward, one with lesser reward<br />
1x ML3 Tzerald - Foot slogging warlord<br />
3x 8 Screamers<br />
1x 18 Flesh Hounds<br />
1x The Masque<br />
3x 11 Pink Horrors, one with Irridescent horror<br />
Aegis Line, comms relay.<br />
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Pretty standard if you're following competitive daemons. I decided to ditch Kairos for the hounds, which served me both well and poorly. The hounds are an amazing tarpit unit and did some real work, but I also suffered two rounds of warp ebb, which is crippling. I don't think you can be competitive without that guaranteed Lord of Unreality and Grimoire re-roll, making him a rather annoying 300 point tax.<br />
Commonalities across all my games - I made sure to get at least two prescience powers, a bolt of change on my gunboat tzerald, and as much malefic as was left. Every game I summoned at least three tzeralds through sacrifice to boost my WC, and brought out some seeker chariots. I used the masque for shit, being too cautious with her.<br />
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Round 1 - The green tide!<br />
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If you're going to start out with a loss, start out losing to someone you got tactics advice from when you first started playing. I wish that I'd known I was playing against Nick of Blood of Kittens, because I would have given him a hug for all the community work he does for the sport. Definitely felt better this morning when I learned that!<br />
Nick was playing the Green Tide, 100 boys with a ten PKs, a painboy, a stompa, and two objective grabbing gretchins.<br />
I was under the mistaken impression that victory through attrition (1 VP for 3HP of damage to a super-heavy LoW) was applied to the primary, so I chose to ignore the tide and damage the stompa, hoping for both holding an objective and winning that by a point. This was stupid AND wrong, because I would have ended up with a 5 -5 tie at best after inevitably giving up first blood. I was intimidated by the tide...I should have just gone toe-to-toe with it. Instead, I wandered around, scoring maelstroms, letting my units die, and giving both of us a mediocre game.<br />
I also misunderstood disordered charge - when a unit can't reach the primary, it can move in any direction - which is the strength of the tide, it seems. I suffered a devastating fourth turn charge that wracked my line. This game is full of hard lessons you learn by losing.<br />
Mathhammering it out later, I should have summoned a wall of flamers on the second turn and then charged everything in after using the dance of caging with the masque. The tide would have probably melted. However, the bitchiness of my play did inspire me to some epic later games.<br />
5-1 loss. If I'd remembered to use my tzeralds made through sacrifice, I could have tied maelstrom and made it a 2-1 loss. A close game and a great learning opportunity.<br />
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Round 2 - CSM<br />
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When Chaos fights Chaos, Chaos wins! This one came out 5 - 4; I took Maelstrom, FB, LB, StW; my opponent took primary and LB. A close match that still had a tinge of inevitability. My opponent was a really fun guy who was on the table next to his son - very cool! He brought a soul grinder, screamer star with grimoire, Sorcerer, some small CSM squads, a fire raptor, heldrake, 2 oblits, and the classic Spawn + Khorne Boss.<br />
We both deployed aggressively, with myself going first. In fact, I lost the roll in all my games, and went first in all of them. I scouted and moved up to flank his khornless half.I assaulted the soul grinder and pinks, pushing a unit of screamers to tarpit his lord. In this instance, I screwed up as I often do and didn't remove a herald, pointlessly locking him in close combat. I finally got over this bad habit, I just don't face a lot of assault in my local meta. FB for the soul grinder to prescienced screamers, and I ate his squad of horrors with the hounds. The screamers + the book held his lord for several turns, but I did end up feeding another unit to it. His units were a bit too tough to chew through, and I got lucky when an 11 squished his warlord - though his death was guaranteed, it just happened early. The resulting tzerald betrayed me and destroyed some screamers with a scattering infernal gateway. Bad reserve rolls kept his Fire Raptor and heldrake off for too long, which was bad for him, but probably wouldn't have changed the game.<br />
Through my idiotic sacrifice of tzeralds to CC and some stunning nurgling murder of plaguebearers, I got too far behind on KP to make it up, but with all three secondaries I couldn't lose - we called it a bit early, which is always nice. I don't like pushing foregone conclusions.<br />
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Round 3 - Drop Pod Assault<br />
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I probably have more experience vs. DPA than any other army - it's pretty weak against deamons, and with scouting flesh hounds, I owned the relic. My opponent was great and played hard, but between daemonettes and screamers, static marines don't really stand a chance. We had a great battle between a unit of screamers and a tac squad that lasted for four turns - some real champions in there! He took maelstrom, LB. I took FB, StW, LB, Primary.<br />
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Round 4 - Adlance + Astra Militarum<br />
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My only "bad" game due to some miscommunication with my opponent, but also a "good" game because I wrecked house. He brought three paladins, three wyvern formation, two valks, two veteran squads.<br />
We both deployed aggressively , with my flesh hounds making a screen for my screamers, who all moved up. This time I joined my tzeralds to my horror squads, because they were certainly suicide units. I was planning on sacrificing three FA units, so I need to really make it up on objectives. But without killing the knights, they would have too much of a rampage to have any chance of winning.<br />
First turn, warp surge + cursed earth gave the entire army a 3++, with the hounds at 2++. My opponent said he hated my army - but then I suffered one wound from the knights charging my hounds, and boxcars banished them - you can't hate it when the randomness is double bad, right?<br />
I persevered and rammed two screamer squads into the middle knight, both with prescience - the knight died hard and put some HP on another one with it's explosion. I ran the third group of screamers up the back edge towards his wyvern battery. Then my opponent made his big mistake - he charged the screamers with his knights, when he should have rampaged my backfield and wiped all my horrors and tzeralds. Psychological warfare is important, and also a big building blocking his view probably helped. The screamers ended up locking both knights for the rest of the game, killing one and bringing the other one down. I weakened his wyvern battery and held the back, his valks being rather inefficient at doing anything.<br />
The game ended with five screamers and a seeker chariot on the back 3 objective, and me holding all the rest but a disputed 2 in the middle. He dropped his troops and tried to run them to hold the 3, which would have given him primary, and I disagreed with him being able to get in range to dispute it. We were short on time, and it was confusing due to terrain and wobbly model syndrome, but it boiled down to me thinking I had made an exclusion zone and him thinking I didn't. He gave it to me because, well, I hade a giant pile of units on it. He was pretty unhappy, but I made the mistake of not obsessively placing my units because all my games at home are friendly. He didn't finish his turn, but he had a chance at it if he'd shot my chariot with his other Valkyrie.<br />
Having a disagreement with you opponent really brings the game down. At a tournament you both want to win, and sometimes fractions of an inch are too difficult to read. I'll remember to say something like, "can we say that this is uncontestable unless you remove units?" next time, or just spend the time shuffling away. 8 - 1.<br />
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Round 5 - Imperial Knights + Space Marines<br />
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My opponent this round had a beautiful army and a great attitude. He gave me his army list in a wooden box with a mechanicus symbol, written on parchment and sealed in blood-red wax. Awesome. He brought an errant, a paladin(seneschal), a lancer knight(warlord), white scar command squad, scouts, tac marines.<br />
He deployed his knights with the paladin guarding the right flank where his marines held objectives, and the other two knights and bikes menacing my backfield. I scouted and flanked towards the paladin, bringing the full weight of the army against it. Misfortune and Prescience allowed the hounds to chew the paladin apart! Achievement unlocked! I loved the image of the hounds scrambling over the knight, tearing out hoses and wires until the hulk lumbered to a stop. My screamers chewed apart his marines on that flank. I then wheeled back and did the same thing to the errant. His warlord knight failed some long charges, but I consistently stayed far back. By the time the bike squad was in position, I tarpitted it with some hounds and then smashed seeker chariots and daemonettes into it. He had never felt the wrath of slaanesh on marines, and he shall not forget it in the future. At this point, I owned the back line, and fed my screamers into the warlord, who fought valiantly and tore two squads apart. The game ended with only his warlord standing with a single hull point.<br />
This was my most tactical game of the tourney, and was a lot of fun. I had super hot dice, but also made good decisions and played my strengths. In practice, I ignored Knights and just tried to flood the board. Both trip knights at the tourney, I smashed into and tore apart. I don't fear the super-heavy anymore. He was a great opponent, very gracious, and a good player who just wasn't prepared for what my seemingly squishy army can bring to the table.<br />
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Round 6 - Space Wolves<br />
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Boy, I paid for my hot dice in this game. They had properly cooled by the time I moved down five tables. Awesomely, this was my opponent in the fifth round of the BAO. Last time, I had a super hard counter to his anti-mech Deldar. This time, he had a super hard counter to me. He brought a TWC star with rune priests, three units of blood claws and StormWolf ships. <br />
I tarpitted his TWC with flesh hounds, 3++ v. 2++ dogs! Yeah! It turned when the grimoire failed in the third turn. He swept over my back line, going on a rampage, while the objectives were largely ignored...I played his game. His obsec planes that I couldn't touch guaranteed his primary victory, and I couldn't pull the maelstroms I could accomplish. I had terrible luck, including a third-turn warp ebb and a 3-dice perils that pulled my warlord into the warp for FB and StW, but it was really all immaterial - I didn't appreciate that I needed to absolutely flood the backfield with units to keep his planes off my objectives. Cool to play against a list idea I haven't run into to, and cool to have a FLG rivalry going. I told him we're playing at the BAO for sure, so we can best out of three it.<br />
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There you go, 4 - 2. A hilarious part of the event was that most of the people I follow on blogs/podcasts about the sport who were there weren't playing or were playing the friendly event - barring an update from AbusePuppy, I might have done better than anybody I look to for advice on the game. Pretty silly, makes you realize the best players aren't giving it away. Congrats to bugs for winning it all!<br />
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<span style="background-color: #dddddd;"></span>ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-48779672008651666472015-02-09T13:16:00.000-08:002015-02-09T13:16:27.610-08:00eXtreme Kitbash - Flesh Hounds of "Khorne"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some projects we undertake for their challenge, some for the beauty, some for the passion. Some, we undertake because it's number N on a list, ticking towards completion. So it was that I decided that my army needed a pack of flesh hounds. The internet seems to love them, so should I? I'm also in on the FTGT hobby budget challenge, which is pushing me in that illogical way like Xbox achievements do. February done, $40.<br />
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The first hurdle was cost. I didn't want to pay $200 for official GW hounds. I looked at <a href="http://bloodofkittens.com/blog/2013/11/08/40k-buying-guide-buying-flesh-hound/" target="_blank">BoK</a>'s guide to alternate flesh hounds and was about to buy dire wolves and chaos hounds and - you guessed it - kitbash them, when the gods of ebay smiled on me.<br />
23 metal Chaos hounds, sub $30, many still in their original 3rd edition fantasy blister packs. Immediate love. Twenty bike bases set me back an additional $10. Can't be square in the far future. I liked these because I wouldn't have to do much to make them unique - nobody is going to know where these models are from. So the two boxes would have been ~$70 + $10 for bases. Half the price, and I have extra hounds to make a chaos lord on juggernaut and a khorne herald on juggernaut. Awesome. <br />
Always try to get uneven numbers on lots, you'll find that your HQs will end up making themselves out of spare parts. I also got a lot of mileage out of a box of 30 models from Dark Sun Miniatures, because now I have torsos and legs to work with as a base. You can never go wrong having extra bodies around. <br />
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One of the difficulties of working with metal is it's nearly impossible to make any real structural changes. Thankfully, these boys got to be the full beneficiaries of two armies worth of bits. Roughly half of the dogs got tyranid nutsacks, and the other half have plague bearer buttholes and hellblade wangs. Every dog has a different head except for two that couldn't have heads removed and two that have chaos spawn khorne heads. I used the other chaos spawn heads, a terminator head, two 'zerker helmets, some skaven left over from the hellpit abomination.</div>
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The moral of the story is, when you're going to be lazy about making models, it doesn't hurt to have a wide variety of bits. Chaos shines in the custom arena because almost everything can be bashed onto them. It's insidious! If your friends aren't big on customizing, be sure to pillage their bits. It can make a project like this fun and different. One of the key design elements of my daemons has been our Tyranid player's total lack of desire to have fun with his models. So claws, bone spurs, whatever, my army has a lot of nuts thanks to those bugs.</div>
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I went even lazier with the painting for these guys, though it still took me about eight hours total. I primed them dark grey, then gave them a light dusting of white primer. This makes a bit of a two-tone effect. Then I painted their bones bone, their eyes yellow, their plague heads green, their metal brass, and their nuts pink. Everything else is wash. The two-tone primer gives a deeper shadow, and because they're mostly fur and skin-and-bones, the effect really worked to shadow them. Fur was black wash, skin and metal was red wash, bone was brown wash. Easy, quick, good.<br />
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I slowed down a bit when it came time to remove the slotta tracks. These sucked. The process is hazardous and time consuming. I cut a groove with the hacksaw, finished with a hobby knife, and then ran the bottom against a file to make sure it would be flat on the base. If you're going to be removing slottas, make sure you have a fine-ish file to do this. Better yet, don't buy slotta models. Last time for this guy.<br />
For bases, I free-handed a chaos star on each base, filled in some of the negative space with red, painted the raised rim bronze, then washed it red. I have an aversion to Khorne, and just couldn't bring myself to paint that sigil. Also, I can run them as seekers if said ever become not crap. The new red is really purple, BTW. Boom! Dipped. A full-strength squad is born!<br />
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Four games in with these bad boys, I can say I really like them. Replacing a squad of screamers like them. They provide a pile of in-their-face wounds that have amazing board presence, and can't really be killed in the first turn. 38 T4 4++ wounds are just too much to shift! This gives my screamers a chance to move up and the factory to turn out some new children. Psychologically, I think my opponents will be more likely to kill the hounds, which I prefer to the screamers. They haven't been shining in CC, despite their Khorne gravitas. They are an excellent tarpit unit, and can pull off a gunline crippling multicharge. Very surprised how much I like them.</div>
ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-66353292243281818702015-02-02T18:14:00.000-08:002015-02-02T18:14:42.399-08:00Sunday Battle ReportsIt was a bad day for those of us bound for the LVO less than a month from now. Ezra's speeder swarm was handily defeated by footdar, and my own CSM/Daemon cocktail lost 9-1 to the winning list from BAO 2014. I've gotten pretty solid on what I'm taking, though my confidence is now rocking. I need a string of victories to feel like this is actually going to compete.<br />
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CAD - CSM<br />
Sorcerer, ML3, Psychic Pet, Defensive Grenades<br />
25 Cultists<br />
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Sorcerer, ML3, Psychic Pet<br />
5x Chaos Space Marines, BP, CCW<br />
Rhino, Death of Kasyr Lutein, Dirge Caster<br />
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Relic Sicaran, Daemonic Possession, Dozer Blades, Dirge Caster<br />
Relic Sicaran, Daemonic Possession, Dozer Blades, Dirge Caster<br />
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Allies - Daemons<br />
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Tzerald, ML3, Disc<br />
9x Screamers<br />
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Tzerald, ML3, Book<br />
18x Pink Horrors<br />
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Tzerald, ML3<br />
Tzerald, ML3<br />
18x Pink Horrors<br />
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Aegis Defence Line<br />
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We were playing Purge the Alien, which I consider my weakest mission. I start with 14 KP. My opponent had 9 KP. Guess what? I was making more. My first turn saw summoning fail twice on seven dice, even with the re-rolls. So my factory backup was broken and I had 1/3 of the daemons I was hoping for. It was all downhill from there. It was close in the mid game, then solidified as Khan and the Chapter Master sped away from me in the fourth round. Couldn't make up kill points, couldn't catch up maelstroms. I'll share my takeaways, the important shifting moments, where Ashton Kutcher would butterfly effect his way towards a victory.<br />
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Being Wishy Washy with my screamers - I had the book go off successfully on my screamers but chose to backup my line instead of putting hurt on the knight. My line would have held without them, and next turn I had a failed book on them, ultimately letting the knight wipe them out. I should have put the hurt on him immediately with a 3++. <br />
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Going Full Malefic - A few bolts of change would have been really effective in the mid game. I got cursed earth, but I chose to keep trying for more sacrifices. This was especially foolish on both my sorcerers, who should have had psychic shrieks/invisibility/something useful rather than possession and dark flame. If I have a clear kill target with the screamers, I'm going to try going divination with the Disc Tzerald, hoping for misfortune and taking prescience. <br />
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Deploying Forward - Should have castled in the corner. With the Aegis, I could have denied KP very easily. Instead, I didn't appreciate that Khan makes everybody scout, which meant bikes directly in my face. Of course, my opponent didn't know that you can assault the first turn now. So this one was 50/50.<br />
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Summoning <strike>the Wrong Things</strike> not Enough Stuff- Daemonettes are not that great against bikes. Wounding on 6's means I'm losing quite a few hits. If I'm going to get assaulted by bike spam again, I'll probably bring plaguebearers out for poisoned hits. (mathammer break - 10 attacks X 1/2 hit X 1/2 wound X 1/3 get through armor = .8 wounds VS 20 attacks X 2/3 hit X 1/6 wound = 2.2 wounds(1.6/3.3 on the charge). Ok, I'll keep bringing daemonettes. Ok, I'm going to put more juice into making my initial wall in a similar situation. Again, I pulled out screamers to combat the knight, when I should have built my kill wall.<br />
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Let the Knight Live - I took off 2 HP with my sicarans then smashed the screamers in. Didn't work out great. I think the screamers can take off 3 HP reliably with a full strength assault. So I either need luck on my Accelerators, or I need to just let the big guy do his thing. In this case, he hung back (wisely) and held an objective all day. The knight killed a unit and got him 3 maelstrom points. Pretty good payoff.<br />
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Roll Better on Maelstroms - While I like these as a compromise on the terrible system GW made, I would still prefer them gone, or not random. They prefer a highly mobile army, mostly screamer spam/serpent spam/bike spam, and leave more static armies out of luck. It's especially galling when you roll "something you have no chance of accomplishing" and your opponent rolls "stuff I am sitting on." <br />
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The game ended on turn 6. It would have been 1-0, still my loss, on turn four (first blood). Either way, it's not good enough. While I feel confident in this list's ability to win most of the missions, I'm going to need a lucky draw and savvy play to win Purge.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-53172883478738821602015-01-27T16:04:00.001-08:002015-01-27T16:04:41.609-08:00Tactica - Running a Daemon Summoning List<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So you wanna summon daemons, huh kid? You want to keep your heresy to a minimum, and work within the fluff? While any army (except the shiniest of the Space Catholics) can work off of Malefic Daemonology, my experience has been in summoning daemons with daemons, or occasionally, with those who aspire to daemonhood. My prime focus since 7th came out has been working the daemon factory. It's a simple machine at it's heart, but like the humble Honda Civic, you can customize to your heart's content. To work properly, you're going to need to summon a minimum of two units of daemons a turn, preferably three; cast cursed earth from a central location, and bring out at least one herald. That's right, I want you to summon 285-400 points of units a turn.<br />
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The core list:<br />
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4 Heralds of Tzeentch, ML 3, Disc of Tzeentch<br />
17x Pink Horrors<br />
17x Pink Horrors<br />
8x Screamers of Tzeentch<br />
8x Screamers of Tzeentch<br />
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1186 Points<br />
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Heralds: <br />
These boys run with the screamers. West Coast says that you can't generate the same power out of a unit twice in a phase, so two to a screamer squad. Tzeralds generate powers off of the Divination, Tzeentch and Malefic tables. They come with Flickering Fires. You're rolling Malefic looking for cursed earth and sacrifice. Cursed earth is your main force multiplier, increasing daemon saves and preventing scatter of summoned daemons. Sacrifice makes Sleralds on seeker chariots or Tzeralds to buff your warp charge. Incursion is awesome if your opponent is playing keep-away - you can brind in more screamers. If you get a shite power on your last roll, take summoning. You'll want at least two heralds with summoning: they can jet to the backfield and dump units.<br />
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Pink Horrors:<br />
Backfield champions and warp batteries. They come stock with Flickering Fires, which will get cast maybe once a game. Roll their powers last on Malefic. If you haven't gotten cursed earth yet, or only gotten it once, take it; otherwise, swap out for summoning. These are your main summoners: they can easily soak perils that will cripple your two wound Tzeralds.<br />
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Screamers:<br />
Your only anti-tank and your primary harassment tool. With cursed earth or jink, you get to ignore 58.3% of wounds with a 4 up save re-rolling 1's. They can mulch light infantry with slash attacks or a charge. HoW and 4 attacks on the charge turn blob squads and small groups of elite infantry into paste. 36" movement a turn with the turbo-boost pushes them wherever you want on the table.<br />
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Daemonettes:<br />
They're not on the list, but they're your absolute best choice for summoning. Fleet and a +3" run puts them in your opponents face. They kill everything except Land Raiders and Imperial Knights. You'll want a minimum of 40 daemonettes. It's rare to get more than that on the table, because your opponent will be killing them.<br />
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Plague Bearers:<br />
They're not on the list, but your best choice for PtA missions because of T4 and shrouded. Touch of rust can kill vehicles, but don't count on it.<br />
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Deployment:<br />
One of the reasons daemon factory lists are so maligned is their incredible ease of play. Between the 12" summoning range and the incredible reach of screamers, your initial deployment is not as vital as with slower armies or those with a small amount of models.<br />
Horrors should go on or near objectives. In ruins, they can go to ground for a 3+ cover save, ignoring 77.7% of incoming wounds. Daemonic instability keeps them from fleeing. These will almost always survive the entire game and give you end-of-game ObSec claim units.<br />
Screamers and Tzeralds should go in front, close to the deployment line. You're going to be aggressive with them, and they can always get away from charge threats.<br />
Against drop pod armies, Grey Knight strike forces or infiltrators, use your high model count to push them into awkward positions. You can easily keep your entire backfield free of invaders, or make a tempting gap for your opponent to foolishly throw a unit into. Place the Tzeralds behind the screamers and bubble-wrap with the horrors.<br />
Against template spam armies like Thunderfire Cannons or IG bombardment, take the time to space your models to the maximum extent and use long lines with the screamers. Don't give your opponent free wounds because you're lazy in deployment! Check to make sure they get one hit with a small blast and three with a large one.<br />
If you have good LoS blocking terrain, try to make your opponent shoot your horrors over your screamers. They are cheap, survivable, and you can easily make more.<br />
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Being the Raid Boss:<br />
If you've fought big bads in video games, you'll know what the boss is like. If you could focus on him for just a minute, he'd go down. Unfortunately, mobs keep coming in that will kill you if ignored. The primary focus of the first half of a summoning game is keeping your threat level high. Every summon should spell immediate doom for your opponent, so they are forced to focus on your 'free' units as opposed to your 'free making' units. If they do fire on your heralds and horrors, your adds will punish them with rending charges. You will win if you make slightly more units than your opponent can kill each turn.<br />
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First turn:<br />
Keep your finger on the "Make more Daemons" button. It's easy to fall victim to trying to spam FFoT or other Witchfire Tzeentch powers and kill units, which won't work. You start with 18 WC, so lets say you have 22 dice. I like to throw a minimum of 7 dice at summoning for a 77% chance of success, usually throwing 8 dice for an 85% chance. If I have 22 dice, I'd summon daemonettes with 8 dice twice out of both my horrors after casting cursed earth with 6 dice. You can use less dice for cursed earth if your opponent doesn't have a psychic heavy army, but a turn without cursed earth is a terrible thing. Any smart opponent will throw all their dice to deny cursed earth. If you have it twice, I'd try with 3 dice twice.<br />
Against a gunline or static army, the screamers will move forward 12" so their cursed earth bubble covers the new no-man's land. That gets filled with the two squads of daemonettes. In the shooting phase, you curse your dice for a shitty warp storm and run your daemonettes forward. You're looking to weather a turn of shooting with 4++. Try to bait your opponent into shooting your screamers by talking about how awesome they are.<br />
Against an assault army, you're making a wall of daemonettes to either soak the charge or limit your opponent's options. If you won't be facing much shooting, I would throw 8-7-7 to summon three squads of daemonettes. Get in their face; against most assault troops, your opponent will feel ballsy and charge the daemonettes, who will weaken their units with I5 and 2 rending attacks hitting on 3's.<br />
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Second Turn:<br />
Keep your finger on the "Make more Daemons" button. Your screamers will get a charge, killing vehicles, or a slash, killing some support infantry. Screamers like living in the backfield, denying your opponent's ability to hold objectives late game and destroying the things that can kill daemonettes. You should be close to initial strength. Don't get disheartened because you lost most of your summoned daemonettes. They were essentially free. Appear disheartened to make your opponent feel like he has momentum. Summon more daemonettes and keep the pressure on. Each turn, you narrow your opponents options as the wall of daemons pushes against them.<br />
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Third Turn, Fourth Turn:<br />
Keep your finger on the "Make more Daemons" button. By now the major threats to the daemonettes should be dead thanks to the screamers. Your opponent will look sad. Don't let that get to you; you came here to win. If one squad of screamers has been significantly weakened, make a super-star with the stronger one and hid the weak squad to contest or snipe late game. Make walls with your daemonettes to prevent your opponent moving towards objectives if you can't kill them.<br />
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Fifth Turn:<br />
You'll usually have a concession by now. If not, summon to hold objectives. Daemonettes can easily disperse with a run to completely wrap an objective. You opponent's backfield should be in shambles and yours should be strong.<br />
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Playing for Objectives:<br />
PtA is the summon factory's hell match. You'll want to push maelstrom missions. This list gives up first blood easily, so you need to StW and deny your opponent linebreaker to win or tie. PtA is the one match-up that you may want to push for Tzeentch powers. Bolt of Change and Infernal Gateway can kill reliably. Every game of PtA I've played has come down to first blood. Play keep-away if possible, or aggressively gun down a weak unit. Remember your screamers can use Witchfire powers and turbo-boost. I pulled a match vs. Grey Knights at the BAO this way by killing a Land Raider for first blood and making a wall of daemonettes that Draigo-and-company couldn't quite get through to deny linebreaker.<br />
The Emperor's Will is another difficult match. Because your opponent can turtle to pull a tie on primary, push for a maelstrom victory and a primary tie.<br />
Your first target on objective-based missions should be your opponent's ObSec units. Summoned daemons, while troops, do not have ObSec because they are not part of a detachment. You'll be looking to contest most objectives and hold one or two. It's very easy to get primary in the scouring, big guns never tire, crusade. It safe to ignore the relic until the fourth turn or so, focusing on destroying the most mobile parts of your opponent's army.<br />
ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-21970382457543931702015-01-17T20:11:00.002-08:002015-01-17T20:12:14.576-08:00Philosifelt - Being Done<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The MiniWax polyurethane satin can yawns wide, inviting. From it waft fumes that promise a change. Each one in turn is pulled up, attached to the mechano-harness, baptized. They emerge different, the fluid streaming down their faces a torrent of tears. One-hundred seven of them disappear into the hungry silver mouth, one-hundred seven emerge. They long for battle. No shake of transport shall dislodge them. No errant hand will shatter their limbs. They are...finished.<br />
There was a feeling of piquant sadness as I looked at the assembled hordes. The waft of varnish fumes was harsh in my nostrils. They gibbered. More than a year. Each one must represent an hour of hobbying, from their exquisite kitbashes to their custom bases. Nearly an hour and a half a week went into them over the last eighteen months. That's a lot of time to spend with anything. There was no way that they could be good enough to justify that. They just don't look good enough. There's no going back. Finished.<br />
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I bought my daemons just after the new codex dropped. They've been in progress since then, like every army. Every army is a progress, tactically, technically - we hope that it's forward. Codex creep ensures that we will update our collections. We'll add units as old ones fall out of favor. We'll buy units that used to be bad because the FAQ says so. Or because they look great. I'd consigned myself to this aspect of the eternal within Eternal War. So it's strange to say that my infantry are done.<br />
"Dipping" your minis is either painting on or submerging them with a sealant. This process adds durability. It pools in the low points and adds extra shadows. I used clear, but you can also use a light colored stain instead of a final wash. It ensures that the paint will never chip. It also makes them done. Every forgotten crevasse. Every un-dotted eyeball. They will never be touched up. They're heavier now.<br />
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So the troops for Codex: Daemons are finished. I never need to make troops again. A whole FOC slot wiped from the hobby slate. I've never been *done* before in this hobby. It is always in progress. Every battle is a minor skirmish in the greater tri-city area. I might end up needing two, or three, or X more of any unit I've made. But troops? Troops are done. <br />
How do we finish anything in the 41st millennium? Sadly, it's when commanders retire. Their armies go off to a stranger, to engage far-off threats, to wage wars that will trickle back as legend at best. Their armies are done because they're abandoned. Their battles are done because they've lost the will to fight. So let's not be done.<br />
Let's not finish anything. Let's keep the army evolving. Let's keep inviting new people in. Let's jeer the ones who leave until they return. Let's spend a bill on some plastic we can't afford. Let's say my troops aren't done because I might always need more. Let's say I don't want to be done, I don't want any of you to be done. I want it to grind on.<br />
100+ hours? My troops look better than my Skyrim save, moldering away on a cold hard drive. They look better than two weeks of overtime. They are of comparable beauty to my total <em>Soul Caliber</em> playtime. And more immediately useful.<br />
I'm bringing the Adlance tomorrow.<br />
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3x Knight Errant<br />
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4x Tzerald, ML3<br />
17x Pink Horrors<br />
17x Pink Horrors<br />
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Aegis Defence Line<br />
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I'm going to start with a third of my troops, my DONE troops, and they're going to summon all their friends. All their DONE friends. So now I need two more Imperial Knights. Damnit!ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-4535780593704348382015-01-11T21:48:00.004-08:002015-01-11T21:48:57.425-08:00eXtreme Kitbash - summoning circle bases<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIkDqBqxAacJ37mshv9qEn6rAO_MFJzMKVeRrT32Os1AFKiokYO4CtE4WqxasHuP-AekyD56PIEf-JmFFXMxMhL4L4TdaCnp9IdsiKVCHUfGOrxVJNIRyi46Bey0_VPA2YqdB_coERa68/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIkDqBqxAacJ37mshv9qEn6rAO_MFJzMKVeRrT32Os1AFKiokYO4CtE4WqxasHuP-AekyD56PIEf-JmFFXMxMhL4L4TdaCnp9IdsiKVCHUfGOrxVJNIRyi46Bey0_VPA2YqdB_coERa68/s1600/image.jpeg" height="320" width="239" /></a><br />
I finished painting all my infantry in time for the BA0 2014 - 40 Daemonettes, 36 Pink Horrors, 10 Plaguebearers and 24 Screamers. I was proud of my accomplishment until I saw the amazing basing jobs that brought the nicest looking armies to the next level. Since then, they've been languishing on primer-white bases, being less than they could be in tabletop pop. I just added 20 Plaguebearers, and in the spirit of incremental gains, I decided it was time to base the whole army.<br />
But we're talking 130 models here, and many of them are on slotta bases, fantasy square bases, popsicle sticks. I wanted to use this opportunity to make my kitbashed, disparate army tie together. It was also an opportunity to do break maintenance - after 50+ games, these models have lost a fair amount of arms and heads. Start to finish, this has been the easiest and most satisfying way to improve the overall look of the army.<br />
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The theme that had been bouncing around my head since the beginning was summoning circles - terrain bases look great in diorama but can look out of place when the snow troopers are in desert apocalypse city(where 85% of 40K battles take place). My daemons are already bright and out-of-place, so why can't they just move around in their personal pockets of unreality?<br />
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I started with this mystery coffee can full of quarter slugs that were made to fool 70's vending machines. They came from a place called "comp-u-mech." I don't know where they came from, but I was very happy they exist. Exactly the size of a 28mm base, heavy, plentiful, free....<br />
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I wanted to do a stencil originally, but the plasticard was too difficult to cut into the heretical shapes I needed. I printed out icons of chaos on cardstock, but I would have to stick them individually to each base. Too much work, for a sloppy looking end product. <br />
I basecoated 20 bases pink, 20 spraypaint blue, 10 Dark Angels Green, 10 Bone White, and 70 primer white. This was to give individual squads a different colored base to make identification easier. I had to paint the symbols free hand. This looked worse than I hoped. So I added a highlight color around the symbol, then followed with a generous coat of Citadel wash (leviathan purple for Slaanesh, asuramen blue for Tzeentch, home-brew green for Tzeentch). They still don't look great. But, they were done, and the whole symbol process took less than two hours. Troops don't have to look that great - people only pick up your HQ - and the three foot rule meant they just need a strong visual note at the standard viewing range.<br />
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It ended up being nickels. At 21.21mm, they left just a small circle around the edge of the base. I hit this with white primer, then with a fluorescent blue, green or pink. I didn't have $6.50 in nickels, I only had $2.45, so this ended up being in three sessions of primering, painting, and swapping the nickel-masks. It would have been worth the extra $4.05 to get it all done in one go, especially since the temperature and humidity were rapidly dropping and rising respectively.<br />
From here, I was able to remove the units squad-by-squad and immediately attach them to their new bases. Then, they looked amazing. The Slaanesh bases that were basecoated pink turned out the sexiest, pairing nicely with the mostly-Daemonette Daemonettes pinks and purples. My oldest squad of Plague Bearers were second, their glistening yellow bodies looking great on the bases basecoated dark angels green. On the table, the Daemon-wall is now a psychedelic assault that really makes the warp look manifest on my side of the table(coming soon to your side)!<br />
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I now need to relocate the army to give them a clear varnish dip. Durability, shininess, we're going to have it all!<br />
ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-32244420797853688362015-01-02T20:22:00.002-08:002015-01-02T20:23:36.822-08:00Tactica - Strengths & Weakneses of DaemonsMany have already written exhaustive Daemon tacticas, and with good reason - they are the best army. The flesh-scribes and internet-servitors serve well as they churn out paragraphs of why bloodcrushers aren't so bad. But they are bad, and I've never used a blood crusher. So I don't feel confident writing about them. <br />
In the 41st millennium, there are commanders who bandy opinion far from the fields of war and there are those who soak those battlefields in their enemy's preferred circulatory fluid. I am of the latter sort, so I'll tell you what I've learned.<br />
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The primary strengths of daemons - <br />
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<strong>5++</strong><br />
More than anything, the extreme resiliency of an army that ignores, by default, 1/3 of whatever your opponent does to it cannot be overstated. We are the horde, and the horde refuses to leave. A savvy commander will be cursing the earth, of course, and then we ignore 1/2 of it. If Tzeentch is being targeted, he ignores 7/12 of it. Other armies have mere +'s. This means that all the points your opponent has invested in AP are wasted.<br />
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++ Cursed Earth - +1 ++ in 12", never don't cast<br />
++ Grimoire - +2 ++ for one unit, sometimes. Screamers are great recipients because they can Jink.<br />
++ Daemons of Tzeentch (re-roll 1's)<br />
+++ All three - re-rollable 2++'s!<br />
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<strong>Wasted Points</strong><br />
Your opponent has wasted some points in his list. Wasn't that stupid of them? Plasma guns, lascannons, demolishers, power weapons - we don't care about them. Because we don't have armor to penetrate. Facing a balanced list, your opponent is already down 100+ points in gear that we don't care about. 100+ points down, you say?<br />
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++ Railguns<br />
++ Meltas<br />
+ Power Weapons<br />
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<strong>Free Points</strong><br />
Summoning, Sacrifice, Incursion, Possession. The summoning factory takes time to learn to use well, but it pays off once your brain can chug the probabilities. Easily summoning 300+ points of units a turn means that often, you can end the game with more points than you started. Ain't that mean? Oh, and you can summon 12" out, which means you have great -<br />
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<strong>Board Control</strong><br />
Drown them in bodies. Your hordes of favorite daemons can usually completely blanket your home deployment zone, which means your opponent will have a hell of time taking your objectives, especially because you're summoning more daemons. They have a choice of hurting what's behind or what's in front. What's in front will hurt them, so they make that choice, and oops, those units were free. All your psykers can run even though they mind-bulleted in the psychic phase.<br />
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++ Summoning - Free WC with Horrors, Free Rending with Daemonettes, Free Shrouded with Plague Bearers, Free to not summon Blood Letters<br />
+ Screamers - 24" turbo-boost gives you an easy flanking threat and the occasional linebreaker<br />
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<strong>Psychic Phase Control</strong><br />
If you're running a factory, you'll have 20+ dice. If you're running a circus, you'll have 12+ dice. Armies that have a lone psyker will never get a power off. Your key units have psykers in them, making them hard to witchfire and maledict. With continued application of these armies, your opponents will stop playing psykers. Just as planned. Against most opponents, I'll go straight Malefic, but if I need shooty, I can go that way too. Because we have -<br />
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++ Tzeralds - Basic WC batteries. Divination can give some nasty shooting with FFoT.<br />
++ Psychic DPs - Though the best ones are in the CSM codex.<br />
+ Other Psychic Heralds - Biomancy Slaaneshi/Tzeentch Heralds can turn monstrous. <br />
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<strong>Flexibility</strong><br />
Because you can make new units, you can react to emergent situations. The impressive toolkit of the fast attack and troops units are at our beck and call with incursion and summoning. Psychic buffs, free portaglyphs, IC killers and chariots are available via summoning. With a strong base of preferred heavy hitters like Flesh Hounds or Screamers, the army can specialize mid-combat. <br />
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++ HoS with Seeker Chariot - An immediate threat. 2d6 S4 rending auto-hits followed by 6 S3 WS7 I7 Rending attacks will usually wipe a 5-man squad.<br />
++ Screamers - Fast, Armorbane Bites, HoW<br />
++ Daemonettes - Fast, Rending, Rending, Rending<br />
++ Tzerald w/ Disc - Joins with Screamers, zooms across the board<br />
+ Plague Bearers - Nearly impossible for many armies to kill. Glance armor on 6's mean that a full summoned squad assaulting a 3 HP vehicle has a 22% of hulling it.<br />
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<strong>The Primary Weaknesses of Daemons</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Armor</strong><br />
Can't live with it, can't, damn, we can't really take much. So we live without it. While daemons could care less about the anti-armor weaponry of our opponents, there is little that can menace opposing armor available. This is compounded with enemy fliers, where the little firepower available will be lost on snap shots.<br />
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++ Melta<br />
- Flyrants<br />
-- Night Scythes<br />
-- Storm Talons<br />
-- Land Raiders<br />
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<strong>Not Winning Hard Enough</strong><br />
Daemonic Instability can wipe out units that fail to win assaults. If your opponent can force multiple assaults, this can spread across much of your front line. Only take fights you are sure to win.<br />
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++ Playing against MSU<br />
-- Multiple Assaults<br />
- Large Squads<br />
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<strong>Warp Storm Table</strong><br />
The dice gods are made literal in this baleful abomination. The good fails to outweigh the bad, with a sure thing turned into a rout with every roll of 4(all daemons -1++). It adds time with the most common rolls, usually failing to turn out any damage and making an already model-and-math heavy army into even more of a time sink.<br />
<br />
++ Kairos Fateweaver<br />
+ CAD giving a re-roll on the warlord table<br />
+ CSM Primary, Factory Secondary<br />
-- Just as Planned<br />
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<strong>Instant Death</strong><br />
Even the mightiest Daemon Prince can get insta-gibbed by a Wraithknight. Grey Knights aren't as bad as you think - except for the force psycannon Dread Knight. Play careful with your multi-wound models. A power fist can ruin the days of flesh hounds and screamers.<br />
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- Force Weapons - usually dead before they swing<br />
-- T5ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-19914163678769084632014-12-27T12:49:00.001-08:002014-12-27T12:49:13.383-08:002014 - Year of the Screamer<br />
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Despite the achings of the internet and every list of tournament armies I read, 2014 was a good year for Chaos. I say this personally, because Chaos is personal. From the champions yearning for Daemonhoood to the lowly cultists, every member of the ragged host has an individual investment in the process. You may have joined because a man with a skull for a face and axes for hands gave you the choice of service or death, you still made a choice, damnit! These space commies, immortal elves and kidnapped child-Astartes can't understand what that means.<br />
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I purchased my daemon army in 2013, the leaked rules and pictures burning a hole in my mind and wallet. Forty daemonettes, a daemon prince, skaven hell pit abomination, ten plaguebearers, two seeker chariots and a tomb kings chariot box formed the basis of my force. These were bolstered by my existing Daemon Princes that had led my CSM into grinding battle. They did ok, and I did a lot to redeem the honor of Slaanesh, but 2014 and the changes 7th edition wrought were what really made Daemons into my primary army.<br />
The Malefic chart was what kicked my hobbying in the ass. I suddenly needed disc Tzeralds and pink horrors to feed the warp charge pool. I needed Screamers to escort my heralds. I needed Bel'akor to shroud them all. That meant I assembled more than 50 models in a dead heat to field at the BAO, where I came in 29th, 4-2. Better than my the rest of my local group, but not good enough. Since then, I've put in a lot of games. Daemons are 11-0-1 in my LGS bracket since the BAO, and somewhere around 30-5-1 for the year. I'm giving the full credit to Screamers for a great year.<br />
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It wasn't just summoning. I love free Daemonettes as much as the next guy. The solid backfield of horrors with the brutal frontline of rending is super effective against nearly every force I've seen. But these are tarpits that occasionally destroy. They mostly delay and mire. Over the year, I've come to admire Incursion much more, because it makes free Screamers!<br />
It wasn't just Cursed Earth, though that was a big part of it. 4++ is great, but infantry will still die, especially those free Daemonettes. 2 wound, 4 toughness screamers re-rolling 1's means that most weapons can take a wound off that big, nasty blob. Did I mention they can jink for NO DOWNSIDE?<br />
It wasn't just Sacrifice. It makes free seeker chariots, that rend your marines in a screaming geyser of gore, and let me use my favorite models. But that's shock tactics and dickery. I just re-learned my rules, and all those chariots that got immobilized just get shaken in 7th! So many deaths missed or delayed!<br />
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It was the screamers. Those fast, three attack, turbo-boosting, armorbaning screamers, zooming across the board, 2++ re-rollable with the grimoire, slashing attacks, stuffed with disc Tzeralds screamers. They're hateful in small groups, and devastating in large ones. They kill armor and light infantry, and they never die. For all the times I've said, "One Screamer dies," after twenty bolter shots, it was the Screamers. For all the Wave Serpents I've hunted down, for all the Dire Avengers that emergency disembarked, for all the hammer of wrath attacks on the ass ends of vehicles, it was the Screamers. Jinking and Shrouded by Bel'akor, their 2+ re-rollable cover save was true hate to the DE, the Marines, the Assmil, the Tau - it was the Screamers.<br />
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Screamers changed my army building methodology. I look at it as "what wins the game" and "what prevents my opponent from winning the game." Screamers don't win the game. They might get an occasional late objective grab, but they sure kill everything that can grab objectives. They prevent my opponent from winning through their rampages. My horrors win the game, sitting on objectives, too spongy and difficult to wipe out, ObSecing in defiance of my opponents best hopes, summoning the late-game units that run or boost onto the objectives that used to be yours. You can shorten the methodology to "teeth" and "ass." You bite and sit. Screamers bite. Biting is fun. Sitting is not. Screamers are fun. Ok, horrors are fun to.<br />
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Screw the Zodiac, and naming conventions. I'm going to make 2015 the year of the Screamer as well.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-83079348423498627492014-12-16T10:23:00.001-08:002014-12-16T10:24:12.837-08:00Sunday Battle ReportsSaturday night used to be a maelstrom of liquor and bad decisions. These days, it a MAELSTROM OF WAR!!!! The war has moved away from my remaining brain cells and on to the tabletop - there are still a number of bad decisions to be made. There was a low turnout for games at the Humboldt F.O.G. headquarters, but we still made do, getting in two games.<br />
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My List - <br />
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Chaos Sorcerer, Psychic Pet ML3 x2<br />
18 Cultists <br />
17 Cultists<br />
Sicaran Battle Tank, Daemonic Possession x2<br />
Sicaran Battle Tank, Death of Kasyr Lutein<br />
<br />
Herald of Tzeentch, ML 3, Disc x2<br />
Herald of Tzeentch, ML 3 x2<br />
20 Daemonettes<br />
20 Daemonettes<br />
8 Screamers<br />
<br />
His List<br />
Rune Priest<br />
Servitor<br />
Servitor<br />
Drop Pod<br />
Drop Pod<br />
5 TWC, Power Fist, 2x Storm Shield<br />
Infiltration FW HQ<br />
Five Scouts, Pistols & CCW, Landspeeder Storm w/ HF x3<br />
Five Scouts, Pistols & CCW, Landspeeder Storm w/ MM x2<br />
3 Centurions, Grav Amps, Omniscope<br />
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Mission: Big Guns Never Tire, FLG style<br />
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I deployed and went first. I spaced out my Sicarans equally along my long table edge. I put cultist/sorcerer blobs on both objectives in my zone, with daemonettes and the Tzeentch blob in the middle. I went first, dropping cursed earth and failing invisibility with both sorcerers, even with their pets! Summoned a pile of horrors, herald of slaanesh on a steed, and incursioned a group of screamers. The entire army minus cultists, as usual, has a 4++. I flat out'd a Sicaran to kill a servitor; this was far outside my control area and will be my sacrifice target. It grabbed me first blood and a maelstrom.<br />
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My opponent dropped a pod with Centurions inside to target my screamer blob, hoping to kill some heralds and drop my warp charges. Put three wounds on them, which we mathhammered out to be the probable outcome. Oops. The rest of his army is outflanking and in the other drop pod.<br />
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Second turn, I continued to push my daemonettes into the backfield. Split my foot heralds into the summoned pink horrors and moved the screamers towards the centurions, ready to catch anyone who outflanked into that area. Summoning phase gave me a seeker chariot, a group of daemonettes, and two invisible Sicarans. I held my point for a maelstrom. Destroyed the centurions, unfortunately, and boosted the screamers towards the corner with no objectives to limit his outflanking landspeeders.<br />
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My opponent brought in his entire army. The melta command squad melta'd my sacrifice Sicaran with a MM LS to help. 5++ and 12 AV is still quite resilient - it took all those shots to down it. Landspeeders and centurions whittled down a daemonette blob, but a 4++ usually leaves them wanting...it left him wanting. The TWC futzed about.<br />
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Third turn, I used dark flame and FFoT to burn some speeders. My daemonettes engaged the TWC and centurions. Sicarans killed two speeders. Landspeeders moved on my back cultist blob, but the curtain has already begun to draw....I stopped taking notes because it was a slaughter from here on out. It came down to can I StW on turn five, yes I can with 31 daemonettes, for a 10-0.<br />
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I usually do well against SM unless I don't play tactically. I can get outmaneuvered with drop pods, landspeeders, etc. Since adding the Sicarans, this tends to happen less, because I can reach out and kill light transports with ease. This list was a light experiment, I dropped pink horrors for daemonettes with the idea of "pre-summoning." The pink horrors, providing 6 WC, can almost reliably summon a unit of daemonettes between them each turn, struggling over the game to provide 40. Of course, having daemonettes instead deprives me of those wounds in the backfield for immediate offensive capability. I also dropped the lascannon sponsons on the Sicarans, it was a little too expensive for not a lot of work. 4+ cover saves and the sponson fields of fire meant I was getting 3-4 ineffective lascannon shots a game with each tank. Not work 40 points apiece, not worth 120 over the entire army. They are also lower priority targets, especially when the have a 4++, and I would prefer they live FOREVER.<br />
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I'll further tweak the list; I'll swap out a horde of daemonettes for a group of 17 pink horrors and add dozer blades to the Sicarans. I really want an extra place to park heralds, having them all blobbed up with the screamers limits my first-turn maneuvers and puts me at risk for an alpha strike from barrage weapons crippling my WC potential. The list is coming to where I want it, a compromise between my BAO list and what I've learned since then.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-62627711278258668642014-12-08T17:48:00.001-08:002014-12-08T17:48:36.585-08:00eXtreme Kitbash - Plague Bruddahs, Meth Witches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have a distinct aversion to buying GW daemon miniatures. Each of them displays a set of terrible design choices and have some of the highest $/point ratios. A box of plague bearers costs ~$30, and fields at ninety points. $0.33/point is pretty expensive, especially for some of the models that will only see action in the off fluff game or occasional summoning. What's a cheap boy to do?<br />
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I started with a set of Plague Zombies from DeadZone. I was lucky enough to have a kickstarter obsessed friend who purchased the full line, and then received an additional four sets of these pustulent folks. I actually ended up with twenty full models, two models with heads and arms, and six disposed torsos, for the homie price of $20. Excellent. My additional investment was green stuff; I think I used about $1 worth. $0.11/point is much more my style.<br />
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My bit box has been getting a little low as my desire to buy new models has waned, so I didn't have the ability to go overboard on bits. Looking through the dregs, I didn't even have enough to give matching accessories to ten of them (these will primarily be summoned squads of ten). So this project is all green stuff.<br />
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As you can see on the bodies, these figures also have weird rounded arm sockets that don't really fit any GW bits. I could have shaved them down, but no big, these are their own deal, I just attached the deadzone arms which fit the theme anyway. Afterwards, I realized I should have split the arms because some have shoulder pads and fit better on the mens, and some don't and fit better on the ladies.<br />
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So the theme is Rastafarians for the men, because there is nothing in the present universe more disgusting than dreadlocks and hippies. This also opens up endless comedy on the board about "gettin' blazed fah millennium on da Space Hulk 'Da Island'" and "big ups!" everytime they succeed at anything. Everybody has a joint, the bits hilariously came with little tool arms that are roach clips for their giant doobers. I have three that will be carrying giant bongs, with blue marbles glued on after painting is done. I made the stems out of straws; there were great arms that were double-grasping guns like clubs that made this very easy. Everyone has one of those ridiculous dread-helmets (dread helmets being the longest running WH joke we have, predating our current club) where the dreadlocks are encased in wool. These will of course be painted in red, yellow, green.<br />
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The theme for the women is dreadlocked meth whores; these are the unfortunate girlfriends of the Plague Bruddahs. You date who you're stuck with. You think five years on meth is bad? How about five millennia? These had great bald heads to attach the dreadlocks to. I just rolled out really long strings of green stuff and attached it, pulling it down with an exacto blade. I think they'll all be blond, you know the stereotype...<br />
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I'm excited about these figures, as always I started with some figures and a loose idea, and let it flow with what was available, how the materials felt, and what I could steal from my mates. Overall time debt so far is ~4 hours including spruing, shaving, pre-assembly. This is also my first try with the popsicle-stick painting trick. </div>
ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-14274408929344128952014-11-30T13:15:00.001-08:002014-11-30T13:16:31.641-08:00Xtreme Kitbash - Ezra Salstrom Memorial Display ShelfWe live and game in a four car garage; with all this space available, everything tends to walk. The ill-used third table is a nexus for all things orphaned, and on any given day it overflows with gundams, lone aegis defense line sections, regret. Our models were everywhere, and a long-ago visit to a friend's smaller gaming area had shown us the light: display cases. While we weren't up to cutting glass and making hinged doors, we roughed out a idea for a place where all our models could live and work.<br />
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We wanted this to match our custom gaming table, so the height was based on that height. It has to fit alongside some permanent fixtures, so it's width was limited. We were shooting for a five foot tall, six foot wide, 18 inch deep shelf structure. I did most of the cuts and screws, but my friend Ezra bankrolled the thing, so he gets all the credit.<br />
I (mostly) won't be giving exact measurements, because I didn't write them down. If this inspires you, you'll have to make it fit for your personal space, and please, try to do it better. We were just ok.<br />
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Total time: ~5 hours. Total cost: ~$60<br />
Needed Materials: <br />
2 sheets of 1/2" plywood<br />
4 ten-foot sections of board<br />
Wood Screws<br />
Table Saw<br />
Drill<br />
2-3 yards of premium felt (get a coupon for 50% off at joanns, sukkah!)<br />
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We started off by cutting the 2x4 boards into two 54" sections, four 18" sections, and two 24" sections. This consumes two ten-foot sections of board with just a little waste. Then screw them together...with screws. This makes our "tertroids."<br />
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Damn, missed a couple steps of camera. So we cut out some plywood to make the top and bottom shelves. Here is where we made a critical error - the space between the diagonal joists should be six feet, the width of a piece of felt. Instead, it's six feet minus the width of two joists. This made a headache later when we covered it. There is a plywood shelf underneath as well, that lays over the bottom of the two boxes we made in step one. To make the joists, we laid the board to be cut underneath the tetroid and marked the angles, then cut with the table saw and an angle attachment. Geometry is hard, kids!</div>
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The next step was to attach a plywood sheet between the joists that sits flush with the middle shelf. This provides the backing for the shelves and some structural integrity.</div>
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To attach the shelves, we cut some small pieces and attached them to the joists, and cut six foot strips that run across the plywood. Then another strip (~1/2"x1") runs across attached on the outside. The top shelf is 8" down from the top, the second shelf 10" down from that. I did a terrible job on the shelves, with additional supports that stick out, but they got covered later. Again we made a mistake here, the top shelf need to be at least 10" deep to accommodate flyers. As it is, it fits the base but not the aircraft itself. The top shelf is 8" down from the top; if you want a narrow shelf I would place it 3-4" inches from the top so the vehicle hull will clear the structure. This would make the two middle shelves easier to use as well. As it is, the fliers only fit on the bottom shelf! However, we're confident they won't fall down and break there. <br />
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Another shot of the attached supports. I added rails on the very bottom on the inside of the tetroids to add stability. I also added a strip where the plywood sheets join, which looks ugly but was easy!<br />
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Ready for transport. The shelves are sheets of plywood. You want to screw them down pretty good because plywood tends to bend over time. At this point, we realized we should have made the whole thing six feet tall, to give the shelves some more room to breathe. Having some models available would have been a really good idea for a sense of scale. At least ten inches between each shelf would be ideal. </div>
I cut some nicer boards out that will be the bumpers. They should run all the way between the joists for the two shelves, and the full width of the display for the middle. These are to cover up the pine boards and make a small lip so minis won't walk out on us.<br />
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To attach the felt, we started under the middle shelf and just went crazy with the staple gun. You need short staples and a powerful gun to pierce the wood. Tack it down at every corner and pull the felt to make it tight.We have some staples sticking out, but we pretend not to notice them. The felt does wonders in covering up mistakes and bad angles. We bought three yards of felt, two would have been fine, but the extra hangs down all the way in the back. It would work to flip over and dust-proof the shelf if we were ever going to stop playing regularly.<br />
After the felt is attached, the bumpers go on. These are about 2", so they further stabilize the shelves and cover up the uglier parts of the felt attaching. This is much easier than sanding/staining/finishing the whole thing. I used two six foot boards of nicer wood to make these bumpers. Now the only pine exposed is the legs, and you won't notice them with all the amazing minis up top!<br />
Couldn't get a picture assembled before everyone gang-rushed the thing and staked out some territory. The bottom section's dimensions were defined by our many identical plano cases. We can fit three and the two odd-size case perfectly. Now every resident army's travel case fits in the display.<br />
This entire project was what I call "emergent carpentry." I came in with a rough idea and just went with it. I didn't plan my cuts for the entire project, I just made things that fit and figured it out as I went along. Much like modeling, it can be better to let your materials communicate and to find your own skill level. This could be much nicer, of course, but that would have tripled the time investment. We got it done, it looks great, and everybody can make fun of me for the little inconsistencies in the creation of the thing. <br />
This is an incredible space saver, because most of these models were spread out everywhere, getting in the way, not looking awesome. Having everything centralized and deployable directly onto the main table two feet away is going to make a big difference in our play.<br />
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<br />ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-39268291811506636742014-11-14T16:35:00.000-08:002014-11-14T16:45:02.872-08:00Philosophize - Playing the Game We WantI have a confession to make - I've been the king of my local mountain for quite a while. After the spate of back-to-back losses that make any beginning player question their investment, I rode the Heldrake's bio-mechanical wings to a long string of victories. A new Codex: Daemons and a new army to go with it kept me winning; Malefic Daemonology kept the streak alive. I haven't stopped, but a new player in our circle made me question what, exactly, I've been playing for.<br />
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It was that dragon, Serpent Spam, rearing it's many-headed rage of S6 and S7 shots, with a power-gamer at it's controls. I responded with anger, that particular expression of fear that seeks to quell with the destruction of what inspires. I've scraped my victories out against it, but the feeling I have when playing against it is markedly unpleasant. It's a combination of the fear of defeat and the burning rage we all have against the dreaded 'netlist.' But wait, I'm focused on defeating my opponents, and I've played this list so many times it's approaching netlist. Damnit!<br />
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This is the feeling that I've obviously been inspiring in my opponents. We're a group of 20 with about 10 core gamers. I consider everyone who plays in our group a friend. While some of us are going for competitive play, all of us are looking for the elusive fairy 'fun.' I've been so focused on winning that I've failed to appreciate that losing is an unpleasant sensation. Specifically, when the game is over before the models hit the table. I've been spending time making sure my friends have an unpleasant experience - this makes me a bad friend.<br />
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There's been a good amount of attention paid to what makes a legal, acceptable, balanced, etc. list. We're a west coast group and we play west coast, which means two detachments, limited LoW selections. We're headed to the LVO and we play like it. But what makes a fun game is much more complex than limiting the inputs in a broad fashion. It calls for limiting the inputs in a specific fashion, game by game. It takes some soul-searching, or at the least, a compassionate analytical analysis. Every game should be fun, informative, or both. Look at the battlefield. Will both of you be getting something from the match?<br />
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If you're an experienced player you can usually tell how much a chance a given list has against yours. If the answer to "what will this game be like?" is "a crushing victory for me, a sad defeat for my opponent," then take the high ground: don't play. Scientists don't waste time re-proving Newton's laws. You don't need to test whether SMS spam can defeat foot-slogging Orks. You can better spend the time discussing tactics and list building with your gaming colleague rather than smashing their dreams.<br />
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This is all because: if you're a *real* competitive gamer, you need to be playing worthy opponents. There are plenty of unfair matchups in the 41st millennium, and it's not fun to be on the losing side. If you know you can beat your opponent, mix it up. Take out some of your list cheese and put in some fluff. You can practice positioning, board denial, psychological warfare. Playing uneven matches actually can make you a worse player. I learned this at the BAO, when I made some serious tactical missteps because I'd convinced myself the DE couldn't beat my list. My hubris was almost my downfall, and only hot dice pulled me back from a crushing defeat.<br />
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Some options we've come up with for making matches more even:<br />
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"Walker Tax": you and your opponent both have to take X points in something that is as ineffective as a dreadnought. If you're tired of playing the same matches with the same lists, because you're pretty even and neither one wants to lose by mixing it up.<br />
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"Challenge Matches": I challenge you to play with/without X. Examples: no 2+ saves, FMCs, Psychic Powers. Your opponents gets a counter challenge.<br />
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"Make My List": You make your opponent's list. Or, if you're familiar with each other's armies, you make a list and then swap armies.<br />
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Remember, this is a hobby, and hobbies should be fun. None of us are playing with 'that guy,' but some of us are in danger of becoming him, myself included. There's a place for WAAC - in WAAC on WAAC violence. The rest of us can get more enjoyment and growth as tacticians by playing matches where both sides have a chance to win.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7732615385824431050.post-13951876681306243752014-11-11T16:21:00.000-08:002014-11-14T16:45:19.873-08:00Philosophize - Why We Fight We're clustered around tables in garages, game shops, 'bonus rooms'. This is where the billiard table would have gone a few decades ago. Some of us are drunk, or on the way there. There's a relatively even distribution of players and non-players in every group, the game itself a springboard for mathammering, armchair generalship, riffs on nerd culture. The dice clatter in the momentary silence before their all-important faces are decided.<br />
At it's base, the game is an agreement between the players to do something together. We've reached the point economists would call 'sunk costs,' where we're too invested to consider leaving. The game is the campfire we gather around, the thing we have in common. We started playing after board games got too old, or we had a bored summer with our brother, or when Necromunda wasn't complicated enough. We keep playing because this crowded room is a place where we all have something in common.<br />
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Some of us are painters, modelers, 'hobbyists.' We don't want to play right now, just use it as a creative outlet. Some of us are gamers, our models sliding across the table primer-white, pristine in their unfinished state. Some of us are suckling of nostalgia, our armies gathering dust, but we still sit, and watch, and argue. Some of us are all three, obsessively painting, modeling, playing, looking for just the right combination of numbers that will make the perfect force that looks perfect fighting. Our out-of-cycle army of Blood Angels is waiting to come back in. In every war there is the frontline, the supply train, the intelligence division. We're an army together. We'll wear matching shirts when we go to war at the LVO. We'll represent the homeland.<br />
It's a lot like poker, when it comes down to it. It's played on felt. We forget whether two pair beats three of a kind, the reference book coming down for the three of a kind and losing Jim his play money for the week, losing Mike an out-of-cover Rhino. We're not betting; there is too much emotional investment to add money to the mix, but there is cash turnover, too many losses leading to late-night Ebay rampages that will fix everything, will fix the army, will fix ourselves.<br />
Why do we fight? Because we chose this hobby, and we're sticking with it. We fight with the rules and battlescribe computations, we fight with utility and shock value, we win or lose before we hit the table. We're too old, or weak, or civilized to punch each other. The game is a proxy for conflict. We don't want to fight, but we want to be better than our friends. The game is a finite thing, but just big enough that we can't understand it all. <br />
We continue fighting for much the same reason that the idiot at the start of a Hellraiser movie keeps twisting the lament configuration. It's a puzzle that can't be solved, apparently. Our arguments stretch back editions, the confusion of the changing rules landscape leading us to attempt to consolidate into close combat, like we did in the good old days. The game is a chance to be an expert at something. It's a process, a journey, without conclusion; there is a new book waiting to upset the balance. It is never finished, like our armies, like ourselves.<br />
We have no wars to fight, no territory to claim. We can rule the felt for a match, or a week, or a month, but ever will we fall. The long game is staying in, keeping your army dust free, staying on top of the rules. It's seeing the opponents who have become your friends. We fight because we can, and because we love it.<br />
An army of neglected Tyranids gathers dust on a bottom shelf. They are waiting, like armies across the world, waiting for their owner to come back. We, the group, are waiting too, the figures pulled out, considered, put back dusty. They represent a friend who, one day, will come back to the fire.ScumLordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04304541046350395589noreply@blogger.com0