I downloaded the Tyrannic War Veterans dataslate last night, as I'm a sucker for anything Ultramarine. This unit used to exist in the 4th Edition codex, and it was one of the main reasons I started playing Ultramarines. Combined with an old article on the GW website about converting TWV models using Tyranid parts, it was the coolest theme I'd ever seen for Marines.
Sadly, the creation of TWVs faded out of my mind when the 4th Edition codex died. I moved on to other things. With the release of this dataslate, I might go back! I have all four of the TWV models in metal, just waiting for paint.
The dataslate consists of three parts: the background material, a new unit entry, and a formation.
The backstory is good stuff. While it contains a pretty standard writeup of the FirstTyrannic War and the Battle for Macragge, it also introduces some small additional details. I won't spoil those for you, as they're a fun read.
The new unit entry is an Elites choice in a Codex: Space Marines army: Tyrannic War Veterans. They are essentially Sternguard with only Hellfire rounds, Preferred Enemy (Tyranids), and a special rule that gives them Zealot (Hatred+Fearless) when facing Tyranids. The unit also starts at 4 models (to coincide with the number of TWV models GW produces), instead of 5, but can still go up to 10 strong. They can select a Drop Pod or a Land Raider (any type) as a dedicated transport, and the only wargear option is to give the sergeant meltabombs.
Nothing earth-shattering, but flavorful and interesting. The ability to run four models as a unit is definitely an incentive to get mine painted up.
The formation is a non-slot detachment, like all other formations. it consists of Chaplain Cassius, 1+ TWV squads, and 0-6 Stormtalons. Yes, you are reading that right, up to SIX Stormtalons. The TWVs are prohibited from taking Drop Pods. However, the formation does have some special rules. I forget the exact name of the first rule, but it states that any enemy unit hit by a Stormtalon in a given Shooting phase to be shot at by TWV squads using the Ignores Cover USR. This isn't limited to Tyranids, either. The second rule gives the Stormtalons Infiltrate and the ability to start on the board in Hover mode.
Overall, I felt the background and TWV unit entry are worth the $7 I spent. I was/am not a fan of formations in any way, shape, or form. I hate the fact that formations don't take any FOC slots or Allied detachment slots. Hate.
One nice thing for those that DO like the formation rules and plan to use them, is that the dataslate contains the complete rules for Cassius, TWVs, and Stormtalon Gunships right in the file. You don't need to run out and buy Codex: Space Marines to add the formation to your army. It even contains all the supporting rules like Chapter Tactics (though only CT: Ultramarines).
On the painting front, I have gotten a tiny bit of work in, and do have pictures to share in my next post. I've been spending all my free time working on building my son's birthday present (a four-unit play kitchen with fridge, stove, sink, and cabinets) so 40Kpainting has taken a backseat until that's done. It's a crazy ambitious project for me, since before this project I wasn't exactly what you'd call a carpenter. I'm doing the bulk of the work on a table saw, alongside my hand tools, power drill, sander, and a jigsaw. The most ambitious part is the lighting. I'm planning to put orange and red LEDs under the stove/over the oven that turn on to make the burners light up and the oven to illuminate. I also have plans to put in a fridge light that turns on when you open the door, and possibly a small fan in the freezer that blows air when you open that door. Things should return to normal in the next week and a half.
Showing posts with label Rules. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rules. Show all posts
10.25.2013
Magic Markers
I've been rereading the new Marine codex over the last couple nights while watching hockey, and noticed that there are a lot of "once per game" effects in the Chapter Tactics and Warlord Traits tables. I'm terrible at remembering to use once per game effects. I'll run a Chapter Master and completely forget he has his orbital bombardment if I don't use it on the first turn.
To fix this, I've decided to brainstorm some ideas for markers for each effect.
Here's the list so far:
Warlord Traits
Angel of Death - one of the large DA angel icons, attached to a 25mm base. This one isn't a once-per-game, but it's easy to forget. If your HQ has a 25mm token following him around, you're less likely to forget to force those Fear checks.
Sword of the Imperium - One or two of the scabbarded Templar power swords attached to a 25mm base. Same deal as the Angel, but you can remove the marker once you've burned the single-use Furious Charge rule.
Storm of Fire - Two, three, or four spare bolters on a 25mm base. These easily represent a "storm of fire".
Rites of War - A back banner on a 25mm base, to represent what is essentially a built-in banner effect. A full on company banner would be too large and too distracting.
Iron Resolve - This one won't use bits. Just a "+1" cut from plasticard, with a few rivets added on to make it look like "iron". Simple.
Champion of Humanity - Not sure on this one, but my gut is to go with some heads on a pike, though that is a little Chaos-y. Maybe a single Epic Space Marine on a tiny plinth to represent a trophy?
Ultramarines Chapter Tactics
These are crazy simple, being just plasticard unit symbols for each type on 25mm or 40mm bases. I also thought about making some sort of flip-up/flip-down thing to represent used/unused doctrines. Maybe even three 25mm bases with each symbol in white, glued back-to-back with another base with the same symbol in red or black. Put them on a 60mm scenic base, with white side up for "available" and red or black for "used."
For the orbital bombardment, I'll probably just attach one of the large missiles from the Whirlwind kit to a 25mm base.
I don't think I'll go to any great lengths on painting these. Primer and some gold paint for the markers, black/white for the symbols.
To fix this, I've decided to brainstorm some ideas for markers for each effect.
Here's the list so far:
Warlord Traits
Angel of Death - one of the large DA angel icons, attached to a 25mm base. This one isn't a once-per-game, but it's easy to forget. If your HQ has a 25mm token following him around, you're less likely to forget to force those Fear checks.
Sword of the Imperium - One or two of the scabbarded Templar power swords attached to a 25mm base. Same deal as the Angel, but you can remove the marker once you've burned the single-use Furious Charge rule.
Storm of Fire - Two, three, or four spare bolters on a 25mm base. These easily represent a "storm of fire".
Rites of War - A back banner on a 25mm base, to represent what is essentially a built-in banner effect. A full on company banner would be too large and too distracting.
Iron Resolve - This one won't use bits. Just a "+1" cut from plasticard, with a few rivets added on to make it look like "iron". Simple.
Champion of Humanity - Not sure on this one, but my gut is to go with some heads on a pike, though that is a little Chaos-y. Maybe a single Epic Space Marine on a tiny plinth to represent a trophy?
Ultramarines Chapter Tactics
These are crazy simple, being just plasticard unit symbols for each type on 25mm or 40mm bases. I also thought about making some sort of flip-up/flip-down thing to represent used/unused doctrines. Maybe even three 25mm bases with each symbol in white, glued back-to-back with another base with the same symbol in red or black. Put them on a 60mm scenic base, with white side up for "available" and red or black for "used."
For the orbital bombardment, I'll probably just attach one of the large missiles from the Whirlwind kit to a 25mm base.
I don't think I'll go to any great lengths on painting these. Primer and some gold paint for the markers, black/white for the symbols.
10.23.2013
New Forgeworld Space Marine rule sheets
Just got this bit of news over the wire. Forgeworld has just released their updated rules for 6th Edition Marines. You've got a comprehensive Chapter tactics sheet for all of the chapters FW has focused on in their books, and a retooling of just about every Marine character they've had.
Links here:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/C/Charcterupdate.pdf
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/F/FWchaptertactics.pdf
I've only skimmed them so far, but my initial gut response is "Wow."
The characters are neat, but Bray'arth Ashmantle stands out as really good. You better bring some lascannons to down that bad boy. Of course, he's a Salamander, which means his weapons are short ranged and he's slow as molasses. He'll be slogging across the table. You're probably thinking "drop pod!" but to play spoiler: he can't take one.
The best part are the Chapter Tactics though. There are some really interesting ones, like the Fire Hawks who get +1S on flame weapons when they arrive from Deepstrike, and +1S to HoW hits. Raptors, who get the option to change their bolters and bolt pistols to Heavy 1, Rending if they don't move. All of the Tactics have a reason, and fit the chapter's background.
Of course, every one of the new Characters and Tactics can be run using the standard Marine codex, which enters into that "is it Ok to run X as Y?" conundrum. Knight-Captain Elam Courbray is a jump pack Captain of the Fire Hawks, and provides some seriously cool rules (and the Fire Hawks' Chapter tactics). But should you run him under those rules while the model is painted as an Ultramarine? It's the same problem I ran into regarding White Scars, but adds the extra element of Forgeworld rules. Is it different to run counts-as using Forgeworld rules than to run counts-as within your core codex?
It's something to think about, and also an opportunity to paint something other than blue...
Links here:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/C/Charcterupdate.pdf
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/F/FWchaptertactics.pdf
I've only skimmed them so far, but my initial gut response is "Wow."
The characters are neat, but Bray'arth Ashmantle stands out as really good. You better bring some lascannons to down that bad boy. Of course, he's a Salamander, which means his weapons are short ranged and he's slow as molasses. He'll be slogging across the table. You're probably thinking "drop pod!" but to play spoiler: he can't take one.
The best part are the Chapter Tactics though. There are some really interesting ones, like the Fire Hawks who get +1S on flame weapons when they arrive from Deepstrike, and +1S to HoW hits. Raptors, who get the option to change their bolters and bolt pistols to Heavy 1, Rending if they don't move. All of the Tactics have a reason, and fit the chapter's background.
Of course, every one of the new Characters and Tactics can be run using the standard Marine codex, which enters into that "is it Ok to run X as Y?" conundrum. Knight-Captain Elam Courbray is a jump pack Captain of the Fire Hawks, and provides some seriously cool rules (and the Fire Hawks' Chapter tactics). But should you run him under those rules while the model is painted as an Ultramarine? It's the same problem I ran into regarding White Scars, but adds the extra element of Forgeworld rules. Is it different to run counts-as using Forgeworld rules than to run counts-as within your core codex?
It's something to think about, and also an opportunity to paint something other than blue...
10.21.2013
Event Summary
A group of gaming buddies from my FLGS and I all drove down to Watertown, MA this weekend for a tournament hosted by the boys of the Dorkamorka gaming club. Shell Shocktober 2.
They're a group that values the "spirit" of 40K very highly. Painting, conversions, awesome terrain, and non-WAAC army lists that have a story to them. It's like my dream environment, where people know how to play the game well, but also how to play for fun and look good doing so.
I loaded up my case with the army list I posted last time, and printed off three copies of my stupidly long intro story. I didn't sleep much on Friday night, between staying up too late working on army stuff and playing State of Decay and my son waking up a couple times during the night. By the time I reached our rendezvous point at the commuter lot, I was wiped out. I slept the whole 2 hour drive down.
On arrival, we got settled, chatted a bit, and then got into the games. My first game was against a very cool-looking Sons of Medusa army, heavy on Tactical Marines. Vindicator, Rifledread, Master of the Forge with a lone servitor, Hammernators, TDA Librarian, and a small Scout squad.
We had Night Fight the first turn, meaning the whole first turn was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. Marine-on-Marine is already a slapfight, but when you add Night Fight it becomes a pillow fight complete with footy pajamas.
We basically traded bolter wounds and armor saves for the whole game, and the end result was a draw on primary objectives and a slight advantage on secondary objectives to my opponent. This was actually the first game I'd ever played in 6th using actual 6th Edition secondary objectives. We don't use them at the FLGS.
It was also the first game I'd played using the Ultramarine Chapter Tactics. I knew I had them available, but kept forgetting that they had to be declared at the very beginning of my turn. I'd find a spot in which I wanted or planned to use them, but had forgotten to declare them! ARGH! My opponent also kept forgetting that his Marines get a 6+ Feel No Pain roll, but I started reminding him once he realized it from about turn four onward.
My second game was against a jaw-dropping Valhalan army. You can see the player's army construction progress in this thread. He ran it in a Valhalan theme as well, with a couple huge blob squads, a PCS, commissars, heavy weapon teams, a couple of Russ tanks, and a couple of squadroned Basilisks, all firing from behind a defense line with quad gun. We played on a snow board, which was a perfect backdrop for the fight.
I ended up winning big points this one, but only because my opponent's scatter dice began to betray him and my Terminators were triple-blessed by the Emperor or something. The board was studded with little stands of trees that were area terrain, so I was marching from stand to stand with my Marines in order to get some sort of protection from the Basilisks and Russes. If the big guns hadn't started deviating like mad, I'd have been splattered early. In the end, I held up and managed to march enough small groups of marines to the center to win it. As mentioned, my Terminators le the advance, and made a half-billion successful armor saves. Only one Terminator died the whole game.
One lowlight of the game was in my final turn. I needed to kill both the leading edge of a blob squad to remove them from the objective, and then the last surviving Russ for a bonus secondary point for killing all of your opponent's tanks. I cleared the infantry using shots from my tacticals and LRC, freeing up my Terminators to turn and fire into the last Russ. I was in side arc, so the Assault Cannon had a chance. I hit twice, and needed a 6 to rend. I have a big bag of custom Ultramarines dice from Chessex that I'd bought secondhand ages ago. One of those dice was part of the two hits. It managed a 6 on the Rend, and then again on the bonus dice for a penetrating hit. The roll for effect? Another 6. All with the same die. Normally that would be a reason to cheer, but because I was rolling the same die over and over, and it came up 6 every time, I felt like a cheater. I grabbed the other Ultramarine dice I'd brought, and began rolling them as well. They kept coming up 5s and 6s pretty consistently. I know that those dice are hit-or-miss from past usage at the FLGS, but when your trio of special-icon dice roll 5-6 about 75% of rolls in front of an opponent you just beat, you feel like an ass.
My third and final game was against a classic CronAir list, complete with three flyers. I believe this list got the lowest composition score of the entire field. The game was...difficult. I was 100% exhausted by the turn two, and was slogging through this game, knowing there was no way I was going to approach a win. I did my best with what I had, but when you're facing a Destroyer Lord with Scarabs and Scythe, a full unit of Wraiths, two 5-man Warrior squads behind an ADL, two-10man Immortals squads in Night Scythes, two Annihilation barges, and a Doom Scythe, you sort of throw your hands up. I'm not one to talk badly about other players online, especially when I don't know them, so I'll refrain from my list of interaction-based complaints. I'll just say that the final move of the game was by a Doom Scythe returning from Ongoing reserves. It made a full move onto the board of "24 inches," right next to the center objective which was marked by a 40mm base marker. When the game was done, the base of the Doom Scythe was 2-3 inches beyond the edge of said marker. You do the math, and that's how the whole game went. I got 0 points, and was dead tired.
At the end of the day, I took home the "Dorkas' Choice" award, which is basically the award for bringing an army that most matches the values of the club. I received a very cool print of the old Second Edition Starter Box cover art:
I was very happy. I don't go to these events looking to kick ass, I go with a list that has a story to it. I tend to aim for that specific award every time. Mission accomplished!
The next event I'll make it to will be Standish Standoff 3, our FLGS' annual big tournament. I'm not sure what I'll bring for an army list, but I have been toying with bringing a refined version of the list I just ran. Maybe add some Devastators and a couple upgrades to fill the gap. I'm not sure. The other option is to just run bikes. I'll decide in the next couple weeks. I'm mostly going in order to enter my Hive Tyrant in the painting competition and throw the dice around.
They're a group that values the "spirit" of 40K very highly. Painting, conversions, awesome terrain, and non-WAAC army lists that have a story to them. It's like my dream environment, where people know how to play the game well, but also how to play for fun and look good doing so.
I loaded up my case with the army list I posted last time, and printed off three copies of my stupidly long intro story. I didn't sleep much on Friday night, between staying up too late working on army stuff and playing State of Decay and my son waking up a couple times during the night. By the time I reached our rendezvous point at the commuter lot, I was wiped out. I slept the whole 2 hour drive down.
On arrival, we got settled, chatted a bit, and then got into the games. My first game was against a very cool-looking Sons of Medusa army, heavy on Tactical Marines. Vindicator, Rifledread, Master of the Forge with a lone servitor, Hammernators, TDA Librarian, and a small Scout squad.
We had Night Fight the first turn, meaning the whole first turn was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. Marine-on-Marine is already a slapfight, but when you add Night Fight it becomes a pillow fight complete with footy pajamas.
We basically traded bolter wounds and armor saves for the whole game, and the end result was a draw on primary objectives and a slight advantage on secondary objectives to my opponent. This was actually the first game I'd ever played in 6th using actual 6th Edition secondary objectives. We don't use them at the FLGS.
It was also the first game I'd played using the Ultramarine Chapter Tactics. I knew I had them available, but kept forgetting that they had to be declared at the very beginning of my turn. I'd find a spot in which I wanted or planned to use them, but had forgotten to declare them! ARGH! My opponent also kept forgetting that his Marines get a 6+ Feel No Pain roll, but I started reminding him once he realized it from about turn four onward.
My second game was against a jaw-dropping Valhalan army. You can see the player's army construction progress in this thread. He ran it in a Valhalan theme as well, with a couple huge blob squads, a PCS, commissars, heavy weapon teams, a couple of Russ tanks, and a couple of squadroned Basilisks, all firing from behind a defense line with quad gun. We played on a snow board, which was a perfect backdrop for the fight.
I ended up winning big points this one, but only because my opponent's scatter dice began to betray him and my Terminators were triple-blessed by the Emperor or something. The board was studded with little stands of trees that were area terrain, so I was marching from stand to stand with my Marines in order to get some sort of protection from the Basilisks and Russes. If the big guns hadn't started deviating like mad, I'd have been splattered early. In the end, I held up and managed to march enough small groups of marines to the center to win it. As mentioned, my Terminators le the advance, and made a half-billion successful armor saves. Only one Terminator died the whole game.
One lowlight of the game was in my final turn. I needed to kill both the leading edge of a blob squad to remove them from the objective, and then the last surviving Russ for a bonus secondary point for killing all of your opponent's tanks. I cleared the infantry using shots from my tacticals and LRC, freeing up my Terminators to turn and fire into the last Russ. I was in side arc, so the Assault Cannon had a chance. I hit twice, and needed a 6 to rend. I have a big bag of custom Ultramarines dice from Chessex that I'd bought secondhand ages ago. One of those dice was part of the two hits. It managed a 6 on the Rend, and then again on the bonus dice for a penetrating hit. The roll for effect? Another 6. All with the same die. Normally that would be a reason to cheer, but because I was rolling the same die over and over, and it came up 6 every time, I felt like a cheater. I grabbed the other Ultramarine dice I'd brought, and began rolling them as well. They kept coming up 5s and 6s pretty consistently. I know that those dice are hit-or-miss from past usage at the FLGS, but when your trio of special-icon dice roll 5-6 about 75% of rolls in front of an opponent you just beat, you feel like an ass.
My third and final game was against a classic CronAir list, complete with three flyers. I believe this list got the lowest composition score of the entire field. The game was...difficult. I was 100% exhausted by the turn two, and was slogging through this game, knowing there was no way I was going to approach a win. I did my best with what I had, but when you're facing a Destroyer Lord with Scarabs and Scythe, a full unit of Wraiths, two 5-man Warrior squads behind an ADL, two-10man Immortals squads in Night Scythes, two Annihilation barges, and a Doom Scythe, you sort of throw your hands up. I'm not one to talk badly about other players online, especially when I don't know them, so I'll refrain from my list of interaction-based complaints. I'll just say that the final move of the game was by a Doom Scythe returning from Ongoing reserves. It made a full move onto the board of "24 inches," right next to the center objective which was marked by a 40mm base marker. When the game was done, the base of the Doom Scythe was 2-3 inches beyond the edge of said marker. You do the math, and that's how the whole game went. I got 0 points, and was dead tired.
At the end of the day, I took home the "Dorkas' Choice" award, which is basically the award for bringing an army that most matches the values of the club. I received a very cool print of the old Second Edition Starter Box cover art:
I was very happy. I don't go to these events looking to kick ass, I go with a list that has a story to it. I tend to aim for that specific award every time. Mission accomplished!
The next event I'll make it to will be Standish Standoff 3, our FLGS' annual big tournament. I'm not sure what I'll bring for an army list, but I have been toying with bringing a refined version of the list I just ran. Maybe add some Devastators and a couple upgrades to fill the gap. I'm not sure. The other option is to just run bikes. I'll decide in the next couple weeks. I'm mostly going in order to enter my Hive Tyrant in the painting competition and throw the dice around.
8.27.2013
Review: 40K BRB for Kindle
I bought myself a Kindle Fire HD a couple weeks ago. I'd gotten one for my wife for Mother's Day this year, and liked the look of it. I mostly got mine for Netflix and web surfing, as I have a ton of paperbacks to read before I could even begin to think about buying eBooks.
However, I wanted to check out the 40K BRB for Kindle, and had just made a tidy profit selling some Battlefleet Gothic Tyranid Cruisers. So, I loosened the purse strings and splurged on the eBook. It was actually cheaper than trying to buy the Dark Vengeance mini rulebook from a bit seller!
Here's a quick, fast, and dirty review of the product.
The navigation is pretty simple. Flick through the pages. You can tap and hold to view the book toolbar. The toolbar allows you to quickly navigate to certain sections of the book. I didn't try to match the sections up to the hardcover, but they seem to be pretty intuitive and help navigation by putting you as close as can be to what you need.
The bookmark feature is great. I've added a bookmark on the Psychic Powers page and the Game Summary page so far. I'll also put one at the beginning of the Universal Special Rules page. From the toolbar, you can quickly hop to a bookmarked section. Great for games where you need to look up the wording of a specific rule or power.
You can also zoom in to the example diagrams and photos in the eBook, though I found that there's not much point in doing so, as they don't tend to get all that much bigger. You cannot zoom in to the data tables, though. For example, the summary tables in the back that outline movement speeds and effects of difficult terrain on units can't be zoomed in, but the to-hit chart can. This is because the to-hit chart is an image, not a table. It's not a big deal, as everything is readable on the Kindle screen.
One thing that took some adjustment was the inability to pinch to zoom in and out. On web pages, you can pinch the screen to zoom on a particular area. The eBook format doesn't allow that. If you need bigger text, you have to change the font size.
You can change the background of the book from black on white to black on sepia or white on black. The sepia background helps tables and example text stand out, as those remain highlighted in white.
There's also a highlighter function, where you can drag over passages and assign a highlight color to them. Those are marked in your Bookmarks list for quick navigation.
It's important to note that the eBook is the rules only. No fluff or painting sections. There are also no interactive popouts or glossary features like the iBook version for iPad. It's a straightforward text conversion only with a few helpful features for marking passages and pages. If you already have the mini rulebook and don't mind carrying that around, I'd skip the Kindle version unless you're also downloading and keeping codexes and supplements with you. If you don't have the mini rulebook, hate lugging the full rulebook, and already have or wanted a Kindle, the eBook BRB is worth the $30+ price. You won't find the mini rulebook online for cheaper than that after shipping, at least not reliably.
5.01.2013
More Paint and a Quick Army List
More progress on the Hive Tyrant from last evening.
Here is one of his talons worked up to Green Ochre:
And the talon worked up to two coats of Faded Khaki:
You can see a couple tide lines on this talon's armor plates from the shading wash I applied. With something like Space Marine armor, I'd have had to spend time retouching that area entirely. With organic things like Nids, I can just leave them there and they end up sinking under the lighter coats, leaving a sort of sublimated pattern that looks like it's part of the natural growth of the plates.
I'm trying to figure out what tone is best to lighten the Faded Khaki, since it's got that green-brown tint to it. I'm leaning toward an ivory color. Folks over on the Reaper Message Board suggested that as well. Alternatively, I have a very light green I can use, but my concern is going to further colors would leave me stuck with that green as my highlight, and I don't want a pale green highlight on these parts.
I also spun up a very rough army list to paint toward, aiming for 1000 points. By the time I'd picked out all the units I wanted to use, I was at 1700 points! So, I started snipping out units and came up with this, which is 1161 points. I obviously need to drop something, but have no idea what to drop:
HQHive Tyrant (double scything talons, armored shell, paroxysm, psychic scream) - 210
Tyrant Guard - 60
TROOPS10 Genestealers, Broodlord, scything talons - 206
5 Warriors (no upgrades) - 150
ELITES5 Ymgarl Genestealers - 115
FAST3 Shrikes (adrenal glands, double scything talons) - 120
4 Raveners (spinefists) - 140
HEAVYCarnifex (frag spines) - 165
It's a pretty crappy list, but it focuses on models I like. I really wanted to put a basic T-Fex in there, but he was just far too expensive. Maybe in the 1500 point bump.
The Carnifex is the easiest thing to drop, since it is almost exactly the points I'm over, leaving me 4 spare to play with (which can't really be used for anything here).
I did have one rules question while working on the Warrior unit last night though, so any of you Nid experts, care to help me out?
Can a unit of Warriors that has exchanged all of its Devourers for another set of scything talons still have one Warrior with a Venom Cannon or Barbed Strangler?
It's one of those order of operations issues, like with a Space Marine Company Champion or an Ork Nob. The option for venom cannon/strangler is listed before the option to swap devourers for other biomorphs. If I swap that one Warrior's devourer for a strangler, and then elect to swap all devourers for talons, he's got no talons to swap, so does he keep the strangler and remain a valid choice?
Going by the Ork Nob FAQ, I'd say yes. Does that seem right?
Here is one of his talons worked up to Green Ochre:
And the talon worked up to two coats of Faded Khaki:
I'm trying to figure out what tone is best to lighten the Faded Khaki, since it's got that green-brown tint to it. I'm leaning toward an ivory color. Folks over on the Reaper Message Board suggested that as well. Alternatively, I have a very light green I can use, but my concern is going to further colors would leave me stuck with that green as my highlight, and I don't want a pale green highlight on these parts.
I also spun up a very rough army list to paint toward, aiming for 1000 points. By the time I'd picked out all the units I wanted to use, I was at 1700 points! So, I started snipping out units and came up with this, which is 1161 points. I obviously need to drop something, but have no idea what to drop:
HQHive Tyrant (double scything talons, armored shell, paroxysm, psychic scream) - 210
Tyrant Guard - 60
TROOPS10 Genestealers, Broodlord, scything talons - 206
5 Warriors (no upgrades) - 150
ELITES5 Ymgarl Genestealers - 115
FAST3 Shrikes (adrenal glands, double scything talons) - 120
4 Raveners (spinefists) - 140
HEAVYCarnifex (frag spines) - 165
It's a pretty crappy list, but it focuses on models I like. I really wanted to put a basic T-Fex in there, but he was just far too expensive. Maybe in the 1500 point bump.
The Carnifex is the easiest thing to drop, since it is almost exactly the points I'm over, leaving me 4 spare to play with (which can't really be used for anything here).
I did have one rules question while working on the Warrior unit last night though, so any of you Nid experts, care to help me out?
Can a unit of Warriors that has exchanged all of its Devourers for another set of scything talons still have one Warrior with a Venom Cannon or Barbed Strangler?
It's one of those order of operations issues, like with a Space Marine Company Champion or an Ork Nob. The option for venom cannon/strangler is listed before the option to swap devourers for other biomorphs. If I swap that one Warrior's devourer for a strangler, and then elect to swap all devourers for talons, he's got no talons to swap, so does he keep the strangler and remain a valid choice?
Going by the Ork Nob FAQ, I'd say yes. Does that seem right?
1.17.2013
How Long Does It Take?
GW released updated FAQs for most of the armies and the BRB yesterday. I'll leave it to others to do a rundown, but the one change that caught my eye in a big way was the ruling regarding weapon range as it relates to wound allocation. Essentially, you can only allocate wounds to models in range of your guns. The rule is poorly written and allows a single longer range weapon to circumvent the wound allocation for all lesser ranged weapons that fired alongside it. Intent is clear, implementation is not.
I'm not going to spend any time talking about the value of the rule, how it can be interpreted, or what in-game balance issues it causes. I am going to talk about bookkeeping in 6th Edition 40K.
I'm curious as to how long your typical 6th Edition game is lasting now. Due to real life, I'm relegated to mainly playing 3 games a month at the FLGS monthly tournament. We vary our formats and points levels, but folks seem most comfortable in the 1750-1850 range around these parts.
I've played a good amount of 6th Ed games so far (though not "a lot," by any stretch of the imagination). I've rarely had a game go a full 5 turns. Maybe two in all the games I've played so far. Our tourney rounds average about two hours. Most games are landing at about the 3 full turns, with possibly a rushed 4th turn if you're lucky or there have been a lot of casualties to reduce the total unit count. That's not much! The few non-tourney games I've played have gone the full 5 turns, but required two and a half to three hours to complete.
I feel some of the blame for the extension of play time lies with the increase in book keeping required by the 6th Edition game, as well as the increased player freedoms like premeasuring at will.
6th Edition rules contain a good amount of counters and status tokens. Soul Blaze, for example, applies a status marker to an afflicted unit, and that status requires dice rolls for effect, then hits, wounds, and saves. Morale checks as well, if the effect kills models. Biomancy powers like Iron Arm create a status token (unless you're one of those people who refuses to use a token to indicate status, which is confusing and I hate you for it, ;)). You then have dice rolls to determine effect.
Even before a game starts you have additional rolls for psychic powers, warlord traits, Chaos Boons, etc.
Premeasuring allows players to extend the game time by premeasuring every range and option. A player can conceivably check range for his movement, move the models and make dice rolls, measure for shooting an/or movement in the shooting phase, make dice rolls, measure for assault ranges or movement in the assault phase, make dice rolls, etc. Yes, I love being able to measure bolter range before I commit, but I can't deny that doing so repeatedly in a game causes the game to go longer than I'd like.
This new wounds-from-range-only rule just tacks on more time. You not only have to check range for target acquisition, but again for eligible casualties. More time spent, less turns played.
Does anyone else feel that 6th Edition is an edition of book keeping? Don't get me wrong, I love the edition, but man-oh-man does it take forever to play.
I'm not going to spend any time talking about the value of the rule, how it can be interpreted, or what in-game balance issues it causes. I am going to talk about bookkeeping in 6th Edition 40K.
I'm curious as to how long your typical 6th Edition game is lasting now. Due to real life, I'm relegated to mainly playing 3 games a month at the FLGS monthly tournament. We vary our formats and points levels, but folks seem most comfortable in the 1750-1850 range around these parts.
I've played a good amount of 6th Ed games so far (though not "a lot," by any stretch of the imagination). I've rarely had a game go a full 5 turns. Maybe two in all the games I've played so far. Our tourney rounds average about two hours. Most games are landing at about the 3 full turns, with possibly a rushed 4th turn if you're lucky or there have been a lot of casualties to reduce the total unit count. That's not much! The few non-tourney games I've played have gone the full 5 turns, but required two and a half to three hours to complete.
I feel some of the blame for the extension of play time lies with the increase in book keeping required by the 6th Edition game, as well as the increased player freedoms like premeasuring at will.
6th Edition rules contain a good amount of counters and status tokens. Soul Blaze, for example, applies a status marker to an afflicted unit, and that status requires dice rolls for effect, then hits, wounds, and saves. Morale checks as well, if the effect kills models. Biomancy powers like Iron Arm create a status token (unless you're one of those people who refuses to use a token to indicate status, which is confusing and I hate you for it, ;)). You then have dice rolls to determine effect.
Even before a game starts you have additional rolls for psychic powers, warlord traits, Chaos Boons, etc.
Premeasuring allows players to extend the game time by premeasuring every range and option. A player can conceivably check range for his movement, move the models and make dice rolls, measure for shooting an/or movement in the shooting phase, make dice rolls, measure for assault ranges or movement in the assault phase, make dice rolls, etc. Yes, I love being able to measure bolter range before I commit, but I can't deny that doing so repeatedly in a game causes the game to go longer than I'd like.
This new wounds-from-range-only rule just tacks on more time. You not only have to check range for target acquisition, but again for eligible casualties. More time spent, less turns played.
Does anyone else feel that 6th Edition is an edition of book keeping? Don't get me wrong, I love the edition, but man-oh-man does it take forever to play.
12.28.2012
Stubborn in Sixth
Warning: this is a "theoretical tactics" article. In other words, it's an article in which I spout off an a subject having never used the tactics described.
I have been thinking about the utility of Stubborn in Sixth Edition.
In Fifth, it was largely panned as useless when compared to Combat Tactics. It was better to attempt to break off the fight and auto-rally in Fifth than it was to stay in melee and get pummeled repeatedly. The only real risk was being chased off the board due to the 6" proximity rule for rallying.
Marines rally automatically in EVERY situation in 6th, which really calls the utility of Stubborn into question now. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of some ways to make Stubborn into an advantage, instead of a disadvantage.
Marines can only acquire Stubborn in two ways: Pedro Kantor or Darnath Lysander.
Kantor allows Sternguard squads to be scoring units, but does NOT allow them to be taken as Troops. Your army will still contain Tactical or Scout squads. He also provides a nice +1 Attack bubble (but it won't stack with an Honour Guard banner). Kantor is "ok, not great" in melee. he is a safer bet in 6th than he was in 5th, as he cannot be singled out in melee like he used to. One Dreadnought punch in Fifth would routinely hose him before he did much on return. With challenges in Sixth, his life expectancy is a bit longer, especially if he's got a squad Sergeant alongside him to soak up powerfist-armed challengers. Pedro can rampage through non-character models with his three powerfist attacks while Sergeant Nobody dies for the cause.
Lysander only boosts the unit to which he is attached by granting them Bolster Drill, a reroll to hit on all bolter-style weapons. He's also an absolute house in melee with his Eternal Warrior rule, S10 hammer, and 2+/3++ saves.
So, once you've taken one of these characters, how do you use Stubborn? Here are a couple of possible ideas:
Extend the life of combat squads.
Combat Squads is a great rule for instantly doubling your unit count, be it for objective holding or increasing the number of potential enemy targets that can be engaged. The problem is that 5 Marines can only do so much, and one of those resulting combat squads is Ld8. Taking even two casualties from a small squad drops your chances of staying in the fight dramatically. You're suddenly rolling against Ld6 instead of Ld8. The ability to keep a couple Marines holding ground leads nicely to the next point.
Reliable 'tarpits'
'Tarpit' is a dirty word to many, but it's actually a viable tactic in the days of 6th. Objectives are everything now (and they were in 5th as well), and securing them against attackers is vital. A tarpit unit seeks to lock up an incoming enemy in melee, and keep them there until the game expires. A Marine unit that holds til the last man is easier to achieve when you're not taking cumulative Ld penalties for losing an assault. Of course, is this any more desirable than using Combat Tactics to fall back after your opponent's turn, auto-rally, and then open fire into the unit and charging it again?
That's really the best I can come up with in regards to uses for Stubborn. Can you think of anything else, or is Stubborn more of an impediment than a bonus?
I have been thinking about the utility of Stubborn in Sixth Edition.
In Fifth, it was largely panned as useless when compared to Combat Tactics. It was better to attempt to break off the fight and auto-rally in Fifth than it was to stay in melee and get pummeled repeatedly. The only real risk was being chased off the board due to the 6" proximity rule for rallying.
Marines rally automatically in EVERY situation in 6th, which really calls the utility of Stubborn into question now. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of some ways to make Stubborn into an advantage, instead of a disadvantage.
Marines can only acquire Stubborn in two ways: Pedro Kantor or Darnath Lysander.
Kantor allows Sternguard squads to be scoring units, but does NOT allow them to be taken as Troops. Your army will still contain Tactical or Scout squads. He also provides a nice +1 Attack bubble (but it won't stack with an Honour Guard banner). Kantor is "ok, not great" in melee. he is a safer bet in 6th than he was in 5th, as he cannot be singled out in melee like he used to. One Dreadnought punch in Fifth would routinely hose him before he did much on return. With challenges in Sixth, his life expectancy is a bit longer, especially if he's got a squad Sergeant alongside him to soak up powerfist-armed challengers. Pedro can rampage through non-character models with his three powerfist attacks while Sergeant Nobody dies for the cause.
Lysander only boosts the unit to which he is attached by granting them Bolster Drill, a reroll to hit on all bolter-style weapons. He's also an absolute house in melee with his Eternal Warrior rule, S10 hammer, and 2+/3++ saves.
So, once you've taken one of these characters, how do you use Stubborn? Here are a couple of possible ideas:
Extend the life of combat squads.
Combat Squads is a great rule for instantly doubling your unit count, be it for objective holding or increasing the number of potential enemy targets that can be engaged. The problem is that 5 Marines can only do so much, and one of those resulting combat squads is Ld8. Taking even two casualties from a small squad drops your chances of staying in the fight dramatically. You're suddenly rolling against Ld6 instead of Ld8. The ability to keep a couple Marines holding ground leads nicely to the next point.
Reliable 'tarpits'
'Tarpit' is a dirty word to many, but it's actually a viable tactic in the days of 6th. Objectives are everything now (and they were in 5th as well), and securing them against attackers is vital. A tarpit unit seeks to lock up an incoming enemy in melee, and keep them there until the game expires. A Marine unit that holds til the last man is easier to achieve when you're not taking cumulative Ld penalties for losing an assault. Of course, is this any more desirable than using Combat Tactics to fall back after your opponent's turn, auto-rally, and then open fire into the unit and charging it again?
That's really the best I can come up with in regards to uses for Stubborn. Can you think of anything else, or is Stubborn more of an impediment than a bonus?
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